Astros Turn Yankee Stadium Into Funeral Home, Expose New York Fans as Paper Bullies Who Ghost Their Team

NEW YORK —Yankee Stadium is dead, a ghost town with all the spark of a little hamlet in North Dakota after midnight. This sure isn’t the stadium that never sleeps with the Houston Astros  having drained all the energy from the place with one of the most cold-bloodedly dominant displays of baseball you’re likely to ever see.

By the ninth inning, George Springer, Carlos Correa and Co. have turned the most intimidating stadium in American sports into a deserted wasteland of crushed New York dreams. In all the wondrous sights these Astros have created over the last three seasons, this one ranks right up there.

“If I was a Yankees player I’d kind of feel disappointed in the ninth inning when the stadium is kinda empty,” Astros catcher Robinson Chirinos says when I ask him about the scene. “That team won over a 100 games. It just say a lot about the fans.”

Yankee fans aren’t actually having the best week. Their boorish behavior has captured headlines from coast to coast — and on this night, they’d scream “Xanax!” at Zack Greinke as the Astros pitcher who’s dealt with anxiety issues warmed up in the bullpen. But bullies hate to get knocked down. And the Astros have certainly taken everything surrounding these 103 win Yankees down several pegs with their bizarrely wonderful last three days in the Bronx.

“I noticed,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman deadpans when someone wonders if he took stock of the very prematurely emptied out Bronx house of horrors.

The Astros haven’t just stormed the Bronx. They’ve cleared it out like Kurt Russell in a 1980s action movie.

Game 4 ends with a 8-3 Astros win that all but plays taps on the Yankees’ season. A.J. Hinch’s team has come into New York — into the stadium they were run out of in that epic 2017 American League Championship Series — and clobbered the Yankees by a combined 12-4 margin in two games.

Doubt the Astros greatness, question how they’re winning, and this is what you get. One of the most intimidating sports palaces in the world is made as eerie quiet as an SAT test venue.

“We took care of business,” Astros outfielder Josh Reddick says.

Warren Buffett does not take care of business this effectively. Or ruthlessly.

It turns out that it’s not a good idea to piss off the Houston Astros.

Cheat Rage

Accused of cheating, embroiled in a silly signs stealing controversy that centers partially around whistling of all things, Jose Altuve and Co. come out with fire in their swings. A cold, windy evening in the Bronx is about to get even chillier for anyone with a pinstriped heart. Forget those 33 MPH winds. George Springer and Carlos Correa will drop dueling three run homers on the Yankees in a four inning span.

The Astros will create their own weather pattern for the Yankees — gloomy with a high chance of extinction with Justin Verlander taking the ball in Game 5 Friday night as the Astros go for a clean sweep of the three Bronx games.

“It’s awesome,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman says of the stage and showcase of dominating in New York. “It’s like you’re in the middle, like I guess, of a boxing match. They keep calling it a heavyweight fight and it’s like you’re in the middle of a boxing match and there’s madness going on all around.”

If this was a boxing match, the referee would be stepping in right about now. For the Yankees have been completely overmatched in their home ballpark.

Doubt the Astros greatness, question how they’re winning, and this is what you get. One of the most intimidating sports palaces in the world is made as eerie quiet as an SAT test venue. When Correa hits that three run bomb into left center, the only thing you can hear in Yankee Stadium is the shouts of the few Astros fans in the place.

The entire night is a stunning display of the Houston Astros’ power. This Astros team is not playing to eliminate the Yankees now as much as they’re playing for history. Suddenly, a second championship in three years is very much in view. Baseball’s newest dynasty  is rising.

Whether the rest of MLB is ready for it or not.

“I think it’s disrespectful that every time we score a lot of runs people talk about (pitch) tipping,” Correa says, his sunglasses on at night in Yankee Stadium after Astros 8, Yankees 3. “Nobody was tipping today. We’re great hitters.”

How great? Springer now has 13 career postseason home runs. Altuve has 12. And Correa has 10. The Yankees’ three biggest stars — Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres and DJ LeMahieu — have a combined 11 career playoff home runs. All together. These young Astros stars are threatening to put up playoff numbers that will never be touched.

Character assassination cannot stop this juggernaut. Astros manager A.J. Hinch seems particularly incensed by an unnamed American League West rival’s anonymous quote accusing the Astros of using nefarious sign stealing tactics to pump up their home record in a New York Post story. “I suggest they put their name by it if they’re so passionate about it to comment about my team or players,” Hinch barks on the interview dais hours before first pitch.

By the time the eighth inning rolls around, the Yankees appear to be completely buckling under the weight of the pressure the Astros are putting on them. LeMahieu and Torres — arguably the Yankees’ two best players — both botch routine plays to gift wrap the Astros a seventh run.

Two errors, no Yankee heartbeat.

The Astros add another insurance run in the top of the ninth after another Torres error. The mighty Yankees are completely unraveling right in front of their booing fans’ eyes.

At least, the few eyes left in the ballpark. By the time the ninth inning rolls around, Yankee Stadium is less than 20 percent full. These Astros can even sap the fight out of the meanest stadium on earth.

“It emptied out pretty quick,” Astros reliever Ryan Pressly says.

Pressly helps it empty by striking out Torres, the hottest hitter on the planet for most of this October, and Edwin Encarnacion with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth. The Yankees will never have a real chance to take the lead again.

Instead, their stadium will grow quieter and quieter. Until almost all that’s left of Yankee life are any ghosts that came over from the original pinstriped palace that was torn down.

“It kind of is what it is,” Astros reliever Will Harris says of all the Yankee Stadium venom. “Whatever they say is not going to affect what I throw. They don’t bother me too much. I’ve been to a lot of sporting events over my time and have seen a lot of stuff.”

Few Yankee Stadium regulars have ever seen a scene quite like this. It’s the ninth inning of a crucial playoff game in the Bronx and it looks like it’s a Tuesday evening at Marlins Park.

This sight just may be the ultimate display of these championship level Astros’ true power. The Astros have not just moved one win from their second World Series in three years. They killed Yankee Stadium, took the fight right out of the Bronx on this statement sending October night.

Now, the only thing left to do is douse the place with champagne.