Joe Kelly Plays His Own National Pastime and Gets Astros Fans Reacting Again

The Houston Astros have officially become one of the most hated teams in MLB after the league discovered they illegally stole signs from opponents during the 2017 season. That was the year Houston won its first-ever World Series title. The Astros were found using cameras to track opposing pitchers’ signs and transmit them to the batter by hitting trash cans.

The Astros thus became the nemesis of many teams in the league, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, who lost to them in the 2017 World Series. Joe Kelly took on the role of thorn in the Astros’ side, where he hit Alex Bregman with a pitch and nearly hit Carlos Correa. Kelly taunted Correa, pouting after he left the mound, causing the benches to empty.

On Sunday, Kelly continued to irritate Astros fans. In the Dodgers’ 6-2 win over the Astros, Kelly pitched a scoreless inning, striking out three and allowing one hit.

After the game, reporters asked Kelly if he heard the Astros fans booing him. Kelly said of the crowd at Minute Maid Park, “Honestly, they weren’t loud enough.” Kelly’s quote comes courtesy of David Vassegh of SportsNet LA.

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In case you were wondering, here’s what Kelly sounded like as he warmed up on the mound in the top of the eighth inning. Video courtesy of Maanav Gupta of Maanav’s Sports Talk on YouTube.

Kelly led off the bottom of the eighth inning by retiring Joey Loperfido on three pitches, but then gave up a double to Jose Altuve. That left Kelly with the task of facing Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez in that order. Kelly forced Bregman to line drive to second baseman Cavan Biggo. While a wild pitch advanced Altuve to third base, Kelly got Alvarez to fly out to get out of the inning unscathed.

The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning after James Outman crushed a solo home run. In the sixth inning, Gavin Lux crushed a two-run home run to right-center field to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 3-0. The Astros cut the deficit to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth on a two-run home run by Yainer Diaz. But the Dodgers took the lead in the top of the eighth on a solo home run by Teoscar Hernandez and a single by Cavan Biggio. Jason Heyward scored the Dodgers’ sixth run in the ninth inning on a sacrifice fly by Jason Heyward.

This is the last time the Dodgers and Astros will play each other in the regular season, so Houston fans decided to go wild on Kelly when they saw him enter the game. But Kelly wasn’t fazed by it and he let the Astros fans know as much after the game.