The Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-game series at Minute Maid Park this week was just their second since the Houston Astros were determined to have electronically stolen signs during the 2017 season en route to winning the World Series.
The teams faced each other last season as well, with the first meeting in Houston featuring a benches-clearing incident sparked by Joe Kelly. They played three more times — including at Dodger Stadium — without further incident, but it’s clear the Dodgers have not forgotten about being cheated out of a title.
“I think there will always be something weird there,” Austin Barnes said of playing the Astros. “Those games were important to us, obviously. I know it was a while ago, but I don’t know (about ever forgetting it).
“There’s something weird there. It’s different coming back. You just want to beat these guys. That’s what we’ll go out there and try to do.”
While most Dodgers players have publicly moved on from the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, Barnes still occasionally looks back and recalls how tough the games were. “I don’t just forgive them,” he said.
“It’s unfortunate that it happened, that it was during a World Series and affected a World Series like that. But it happened years ago and you move on. I don’t think about it all the time, but those games were high intensity. Those games were tough. I remember those games.
“We went to Game 7 of the World Series and didn’t come out on the right side of it. I don’t know. It’s something that happened and there’s not much you can do about it.”
Game 5 of the 2017 World Series especially was a difficult loss for the Dodgers, as they squandered multiple leads and ended up falling in extra innings. “There was a time when I spent some time to reflect on some at-bats from that game, but that was a while ago,” Barnes admitted.
“There were some at-bats that I had some questions on, that didn’t make sense to me, but like I said, that was a long time ago. I don’t really look back anymore at that too much.”
Barnes unsure if he will ever ‘fully get over’ 2017 World Series
Even after winning the World Series last year, Barnes admitted he may never completely get over losing to the Astros in 2017. “I don’t know if I’ll ever fully get over it,” Barnes said.
“Winning helps, obviously. If we never won a World Series, that would’ve been pretty hard to swallow. Not trying to go too deep into it, but we could’ve won twice. I don’t know. It’s a weird little situation, but we’re looking forward to playing these two games.”
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