The New York Yankees became the butt of the joke on Friday when Jose Altuve broke a scoreboard panel at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. It happened despite the Yankees playing over a thousand miles away.
The Astros trailed the White Sox 3-0 with the bases empty and two outs in the bottom of the third inning.
Altuve came up to the plate against starter Garrett Crochet and clubbed a 90-mph cutter toward the Crawford Boxes in left field. The former AL MVP was just a few feet short of a home run. His ball instead took out one of the out-of-town scoreboard panels for a ground rule double.
Fans couldn’t help but notice which panel Altuve’s ball hit. It struck the Yankees’ fourth-inning panel for their road game against the Detroit Tigers. The jokes instantly started to flow on X about Altuve being the ultimate Yankees tormentor.
Altuve has haunted Yankees fans’ nightmares for nearly a decade now. The Altuve-led Astros have knocked out the Yankees from the playoffs four times since 2015.
In 20 postseason games against the Yankees, Altuve has batted .294 with 4 home runs and 8 RBIs.
Altuve also has 13 regular season home runs against the Yankees — the most against any non-division opponent.
Astros sluggers appear to have a vendetta against stadium scoreboards. One of Altuve’s teammates caused even more damage when he busted up a digital scoreboard earlier this week.
