For some reason, White Sox pitcher Ryan Tepera chose to accuse the Astros of cheating again immediately after his team, beat them 12-6 in ALDS game 3 to keep their season alive. The Astros led game 3 5-1, then watched the White Sox take advantage of a bad night by the home plate umpire and a controversial call and their bats finally waking up to outscore the Astros 11-1 the rest of the way.
Tepera helped shut the Astros out for the final five innings and contributed three of the White Sox 16 strikeouts of the Astros batters - a season worst for Houston. His reasoning behind the White Sox success tonight - because the Astros "have a reputation for doing some sketchy stuff." and that "Obviously it's a different game here at our field. They play at Minute Maid (Park) and you know they're doing something over there that's a little different. Shows you how many swings & misses they had tonight, compared to at Minute Maid."
By the way the Astros had 17 & 15 swings and misses in the two games (of 8 innings each) at Minute Maid Park in games 1 & 2, respectively.
They had 22 swings and misses in game 3 at Guaranteed Rate Field in game 3 in 9 innings, including 4 swings & misses in the 9th inning alone - an inning they did not bat in games 1 & 2. They averaged 2 swings & misses per inning in games 1 & 2. They averaged 2.4 swings and misses per inning in game 3.
Regardless, my opinion is this was said for one reason - because the White Sox want to get in the Astros heads', change the focus for Houston to this storyline, rather than focus on getting the final win they need to advance.
This will clearly be a topic before, during and after Monday's game 4 and surely far behind that, too.
Photo: Getty Images