New York Tabloids Mock the Astros and Vanilla Ace Charlie Morton Makes Them Pay: Yankees Arrogance Takes a Beating as Disrespected Astros Make a Stand

They’re mocked on the backpages of the New York tabloids — and no one’s making them the favorite. A defending champ hasn’t been this disrespected since Buster Douglas. No matter. The Houston Astros just take it all in — and prepare to make another stand.

“I mean, there’s no respect coming our way,” Astros reliever Chris Devenski tells PaperCity after Houston turns back the New York Yankees, the national darlings, in another razor-tight near playoff intense game. “But we just keep playing our butts off, playing for each other and controlling what we can.

“No matter if we’re playing the Red Sox, the Rangers, the Angels or the Yankees, we’re going to bring it — and play for each other.”

The calendar may just be flipping to May, but you’re as delusional as a married Kardashian if you don’t think these Astros want to make a statement in the first New York Yankees series of the season.

It’s not just that the backpage of Monday’s New York Daily News mocks the Astros with “WHO-STON?” — implying that the champs aren’t all that imposing, or even memorable. It’s the fact that the team that won the World Series has been hearing about the team it roared back to beat in the American League Championship Series for months. And months.

All the preview magazines loved the Yankees — and putting Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge on their covers — too.

“We want to prove a point,” Astros closer Ken Giles says after Astros 2, Yankees 1. “We want to make a statement out there that we’re the team to you have to beat. You have to come past us.”

Anyone who tells you Yankees-Astros isn’t a big deal because it’s too early does not get what’s going on with the best team in baseball. A.J. Hinch’s team is still playing with a chip, still hunting pinstripes. You think it’s coincidence that Carlos Correa is hitting above .400 against the Yankees in his career?

Think again. You think Giles just happens to almost bend himself in two with unbridled excitement after he strikes out the side in the ninth inning? Think again.

These Astros feed off every big moment, whether it’s May or October. They remember every slight.

With the Yankees coming into Houston on a nine-game winning streak, the New York press apparently thinks the pinstriped empire has little to fear from the defending world champions.

Big. Mistake.

The Stanton bolstered, new age Murderer’s Row Yankees lineup strikes out 14 times against Charlie Morton, Devenski and Giles. With Reggie Jackson, Mr. October himself, watching it all from the Minute Maid Park press box. Afterwards, with a Yankees cap pulled low and a sports jacket on, Reggie heads to the elevator with former Atlanta Braves great John Smoltz, who will call Tuesday night’s game for the MLB Network.

“I feel better, thank you,” Jackson says when someone asks about a recent bout of sickness.

The same return to health does not apply to the Yankees lineup. Not with Charlie Morton, the Astros’ fifth starter, throwing like a modern day Nolan Ryan. Morton strikes out 10 and gives up two hits in seven and a 2/3 innings.

It’s a pitching performance every bit as dominant and overpowering as anything Gerrit Cole or Justin Verlander has done this season. The top three hitters in the Yankees lineup — Brett Gardner, Didi Gregorious and the offseason’s most hyped prize Giancarlo Stanton — go 0 for 9 against Morton with six strikeouts.

Ouch.

Charlie Morton, No Snarl Superhero

Even Morton, whose poker face is built to clean up in Las Vegas, admits there’s something to this Yankees rivalry. Even if he does it in the most low-key, complimentary to the opponent way possible.

“It’s the New York Yankees,” Morton says. “They’re a great team. I don’t know what time they got in (to Houston) last night.”

Yes, Morton turns the Yankees big bats into Silly Putty and makes excuses for them. In reality, it wouldn’t have mattered if the Yankees went to bed at 6 pm Sunday night. They still weren’t hitting Morton the way he was throwing Monday.

There is something about those Yankee uniforms, pinstriped or all-gray roads, that sends Charlie Morton’s often barely detectable pulse soaring. Morton starts with an easy 1-2-3, two-strikeout top of the first. He strikes out Gregorious, one of the most dangerous hitters in all of baseball at the moment, on three pitches in the fourth.

He breezes through five innings, without giving up a hit, striking out eight of the 17 batters he faces.

Afterwards, Morton speaks in subdued tones and wears a simple gray “We Play to Win” T-shirt. But he’s not fooling his fellow pitchers. As Morton defers all credit in his interview session, Cole and Co. give mock answers that are light years more bold than anything Morton’s likely ever dared uttered in his life.

“Sometimes I don’t know what pitch to throw because they’re all great, they all work,” Cole cracks from across the room, pretending to be a more boastful Morton.

When Morton walks into the clubhouse four hours before the game in his brown pants and gray tennis shoes, he could pass for a nondescript office worker from across downtown. Morton even engages in small talk with a few reporters on the day he’s starting.

Try to initiate small talk with Justin Verlander on a day he’s starting and you’re liable to need death stare insurance.

It turns out dominance can come with a happy face too. Or at least, a nonplussed one.

Morton won Game 7 against the Yankees in Minute Maid last October. And Monday must have looked like one horrible flashback to backers of the Evil Empire.

First statement delivered. Three more to go before the calendar hits May 4. With MLB Network and ESPN broadcasting the next two nationally — and likely having great Yankee feature packages at the ready.

While the Yankees and Astros understand the weight of this series, Houston fans may still need to catch on. Minute Maid Park is not as filled as it should be. The announced attendance of 30,061 is a good crowd for a Monday, but it’s not American League Championship Series rematch worthy.

No matter. These Astros bring their own hype.

“I went out there with a mission,” Giles says.

All the Astros did. Last year, the Astros fought through Yankees fans dumping beer on Houston manager A.J. Hinch’s family and unimaginable insults being hurled from the stands in the Bronx. Now, they’re supposed to play second fiddle to New York’s extra might?

Respect the champs. Just respect the champs. There — is that so hard?

What is WHO-USTON? The best team in baseball. That is all.