The Yankees Are World Series Favorites. They Still Want to Talk Astros.

Boone said he still wasn’t sure the Astros did not use hidden buzzers to communicate the signs in 2019 — a much-discussed but unproven theory that emerged after Manfred’s report.

“That’s certainly one of those great unknowns, and I’ve spent time, as I’m sure a lot of people have, wondering all the things that could’ve potentially been going on,” Boone said, “and probably we’ll never know for sure.”

Asked if he thought Jose Altuve knew which pitch was coming when he slammed a game-winning home run off Aroldis Chapman in Game 6 of the 2019 A.L.C.S., Sanchez said he wasn’t sure. But he offered one humorous thought on a scene that has spurred much of the discussion of hidden buzzers: Altuve’s refusal to let his teammates rip off his jersey in celebration after he hit that homer — a clue to Astros doubters that Altuve had something hidden underneath. (Altuve has denied using a buzzer.)

“If I hit a home run at Yankee Stadium to send my team to the World Series, if they want to, they can take off everything, even my pants,” Sanchez said, laughing.

Luis Severino, the Yankees pitcher who allowed six runs in 13 postseason innings against the Astros in 2017 and 2019, said he was angry when he first learned of the cheating, especially because he had spent so much time trying to figure out if he was tipping his pitches. But he struck a far more conciliatory tone on Wednesday.

“They don’t have to apologize to me,” he said. He commended a former Astro, Marwin Gonzalez of the Minnesota Twins, for apologizing on Tuesday for his role in the cheating scheme. “For me, it’s already in the past. I have to focus on 2020. Because we can get mad, we can get anything, but we can’t change the past.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/sports/baseball/yankees-spring-training.html?emc=rss&partner=rss