Boo Who? Astros already paying price , Red Sox await fate

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — By recent standards, the heckling the Houston Astros heard at JetBlue Park was rather tame. Some boos during pregame introductions, a chant of "cheaters!" in the ninth inning.

Maybe that's because Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and rest of their All-Stars were missing from the lineup against the Boston Red Sox.

Perhaps there was another more pointed reason.

"It could be here, too," Astros manager Dusty Baker cautioned Thursday. "And then (the Red Sox) got to be careful of the reception."

Major League Baseball continues to look into allegations the Red Sox illicitly swiped signals during their run to the 2018 World Series title. Manager Alex Cora and the team already have split — that was in the wake of his role as bench coach of the 2017 champion Astros and a sign-stealing scandal that rocked the sport and resulted in MLB punishment.

"We're still waiting for our investigation to be over. So it's still there," said Ron Roenicke, who took over for Cora.

"But I think we're pretty focused on what we're doing and what we need to do. And then we'll see what happens with ours. I know (the Astros are) going to have a tough time this year going through what they're going through. But I hear everything that's going on," he said.

Jeered earlier this spring on exhibition stops in Lakeland against the Tigers and Port St. Lucie against the Mets, the Astros weren't harshly targeted by the Boston crowd.

The jeers and taunts, such as they were, were not nearly as loud and robust as the Astros have become accustomed to at other road games this spring. Indeed, they were rather lackluster and mild.

Carlos Correa and Josh Reddick were among the other recognizable names absent from the lineup. None of Houston's starters from the postseason last year made the 2...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Boo-Who-Astros-already-paying-price-Red-Sox-15109285.php