The listed temperature inside Houston’s Minute Maid Park on Saturday was 73 degrees. In other words, the air conditioning was on high.
Yankees slugger Aaron Judge said he felt a chill, as he does whenever he’s in the park. Maybe he wanted the thermostat raised to 78.
Of course he didn’t. The A/C was just a handy way for him to avoid saying he trolled Astros second baseman Jose Altuve.
Judge was rounding third base on his third-inning home run when he pulled the sides of his jersey top toward his chest. Alert viewers saw that and surmised that Judge was mocking Altuve’s attempt to keep his shirt on after winning the 2019 ALCS with a walk-off home run against Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman.
MORE: Altuve’s ‘terrible’ tattoo subject of scrutiny
“They keep the roof closed here, it’s pretty chilly, so I just let my team know to button up a little bit,” Judge deadpanned after the game. “Everyone’s welcome to their own opinion.”
The explanations by Altuve and his allies after the ALCS homer — a bad tattoo, his wife’s objections to Altuve’s shirt being ripped off at other times, or just plain modesty — all sounded ridiculous. They fueled the conspiracy theory that he wanted to hide a buzzer that was attached to his chest and alerted him to what pitch was coming.
Judge finally got to respond during the Yankees’ first visit to Houston since that game.
Judge’s dinger turned out to be the game’s only run in a 1-0 Yankees victory. New York starter Gerrit Cole had ice in his veins as he went the distance for the shutout.