For most of Houston’s time as a Major League Baseball franchise, the idea of the team from Texas being a major roadblock for the Yankees in the postseason was laughable.
For starters, the Houston team — called the Colt 45’s from 1962 to 1964, then Astros after that — played in the National League and the Yankees were, of course, American League royalty. And it’s not like the Astros were exactly on New York’s mind as a potential World Series foe; from Houston’s start in 1962 until the club was shifted to the American League in 2013 as part of a minor realignment within the sport, the Yankees reached the World Series 14 times, winning eight championships. They made the postseason 11 other times, too.
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Houston made the postseason a total of nine times. The Astros lost in the division series six times, in the NLCS twice and in the World Series once. They almost faced off in 2005, but the Yankees lost in the ALCS to the White Sox in seven games, and Chicago went on to sweep the Astros in the World Series.
My, how things have changed.
The Yankees and Astros have faced off three times in the postseason since Houston moved to the American League. It has not gone well for the Yankees.
2015 Wild Card Game: Houston won (3-0)
2017 ALCS: Houston won 4-3
2019 ALCS: Houston won 4-2
“If you want to get to the World Series, you gotta go through Houston,” Aaron Judge said after the Yankees beat Cleveland in Game 5 of the ALDS, as reported in this Fox Sports story. “They’ve always been in the way.”
And it’s not just that the Yankees lost to the Astros, but it’s how they’ve lost and the controversy surrounding those games. Well, at least in the ALCS. In the 2015 Wild Card game, Yankees hitters simply couldn’t do anything against Houston starter Dallas Keuchel — the AL Cy Young winner that year — or three relievers and lost 3-0.
But the ALCS? Yep, bad blood and feelings of anger still linger, especially with the fan base. Much of the rosters have turned over for both teams, and players will certainly downplay the relevance because, well, they’ve got pretty important baseball games to play. But it’s a storyline that isn’t going away, and makes a unique subplot as the Yankees try to climb a Texas-sized mountain that’s foiled them on all three attempts.
Let’s take a look back.
Astros cheating scandal breaks
The news of Houston’s intricate and illegal sign-stealing scandal first broke in November 2019, not long after the Astros lost to the Nationals in the World Series. Basically, the Astros used a camera in center field and relayed pitcher signs to batters using, among other things, the sound of hitting a trash can near the clubhouse with a baseball bat. Former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers, who was with the club from 2015 to 2017, was the player with first-hand knowledge of the scheme to be brave enough to reveal the cheating.
That was especially relevant to the Yankees and their fans, considering the 2017 and 2019 clubs — both eliminated by Houston — were probably the franchise’s best shots at winning its first World Series title since 2009.
MORE: Astros cheating scandal timeline
2017 ALCS
It’s not editorializing to say the Astros were cheating during this series. They were, factually. And the Yankees still pushed the series to seven games. This New York team only won 91 games during the regular season, rolling into the postseason as a wild-card team. But it was a Yankees team that was playing just about as well as any team in the majors when October arrived; rookie Aaron Judge had hit 15 home runs in September, and the Yankees went 21-9 down the stretch, outscoring opponents by 73 runs in those 30 games.
Yankees fans will point out that the Astros won all four games in Houston and none in New York. In Houston, the Astros scored a total of 15 runs in four games; they scored five in three games in New York. Astros fans will point out that the Yankees hitters scored a total of one run in Games 6-7 in Houston against Astros pitching, and there was no whiff of cheating by Astros hurlers, just the hitters.
Aaron Judge’s reaction to Astros’ cheating
Judge isn’t the type to be outspoken for the sake of being outspoken. And his words carried weight. Listen to his news conference from soon after the MLB investigation was revealed. The whole thing is worth watching.
2019 ALCS
According to the official baseball investigation into the cheating scandal, the Astros had stopped using their scheme at some point in 2018, and did not use it at all in 2019. You’d be hard-pressed to find even a single Yankees fan — or Dodgers fan, or Red Sox fan, etc — who believes that to be true.
“It’s tough to think that it didn’t continue,” Judge said in the news conference above. “I don’t know all the facts. Nobody knows all the facts, to be honest. To think they cheated and won it all in ’17, to think that they just clear-cut stopped in ’19 or ’18, it’s tough for me to say that. But we’ll never really know, to be honest. I don’t think so.”
The 2019 Yankees were an elite team, winning 103 games on the strength of an offense that had 14 different hitters bash at least 11 home runs (including seven with at least 21), a solid rotation and often dominant back of the bullpen. The defining moment of that 2019 ALCS, of course, was Jose Altuve’s walk-off two-run home run against Aroldis Chapman in the ninth inning of Game 6, a homer that put the Astros back in the World Series.
Nobody thought much of it at the time, but Altuve famously clutched his jersey so his teammates couldn’t rip it off, and after the scandal was revealed, that made plenty of folks wonder whether he was wearing some type of wire or signaling device.
2022 ALCS
The history between the teams might not have an impact on the field this year — on paper, the Astros are a significantly better team — but it can’t be ignored. It’s not like these were events of 30 years ago.
If the Yankees want to get to their first World Series since 2009, they’ll have to climb the Houston mountain, and we’re not talking about Tal’s Hill.
