Astros can’t complain about getting hit by pitches

Thankfully, opposing teams aren’t taking it into their own hands to punish the Houston Astros

After the Astros got caught with their hand in the cookie jar en route to a World Series title in 2017, Rob Manfred punished both the front office and the manager at the time, AJ Hinch. However, this left the players relatively unharmed, and unspoken for. A press conference held before the scheduled start of the regular season also didn’t provide much retribution or closure from the perspective of opposing fans and rival players.

Despite all of this, the Astros are not among the teams hit by the most pitches this season. Rather, they’re middle of the pack at best.

Every on-field conflict with the Astros is heightened and exaggerated

The Astros have been involved in two major on-field conflicts this season. The first was with Joe Kelly and the Los Angeles Dodgers, which was far from surprising. The Dodgers angst and frustration with the Astros goes years back, and they were some of the more outspoken members of the baseball fraternity when Houston’s apology wasn’t deemed sincere. Kelly beaned Alex Bregman, and was eventually suspended eight games (initially) for his actions.

This was followed weeks later by a benches-clearing incident involving Ramon Laureno and Astros bench coach Alex Cintron, after Cintron directed an insult towards Laureno down the first base line. That wasn’t related to Houston’s sign-stealing whatsoever.

The Astros didn’t incite this violence, but in the grand scheme of the shortened season, Houston hasn’t been victimized nearly as much as their fanbase might think. Sure, Manfred should’ve had the gall to suspend Houston’s players as much as he felt necessary. But other teams actually aren’t taking matters into their own hands as much as we initially expected, and that’s a good thing.