Yankees: Ji-Man Choi trolling Astros after ALDS win was the only silver lining for NYY fans

Rays first baseman Ji-Man Choi trolling the Astros after their ALDS victory was the only silver lining for Yankees fans.

If you told us entering Game 5 of the ALDS that Gerrit Cole would become the first pitcher in MLB history to record nine or more strikeouts and allow one hit or fewer in a playoff winner-take-all game, we probably would have assumed the Yankees came out on top and advanced to the ALCS for a revenge matchup against Houston.

That, as we know, wasn’t the case as Tampa Bay rode a pair of solo home runs, the game-winner coming in the bottom of the eighth inning from Mike Brosseau after a sensational at-bat against closer Aroldis Chapman, to a thrilling and deserved victory.

Whether you blame manager Aaron Boone for asking too much of Chapman or the offense for succumbing to the Rays’ remarkably deep bullpen, which pitched lights out aside from the Aaron Judge home run, doesn’t really matter right now. Doing so won’t help alleviate your pain.

However, if there’s a silver lining to be had for Yankees fans, it ironically came during the Rays’ postgame celebration when Ji-Man Choi trolled the Astros and their infamous cheating scandal by banging on a dugout trash can. Keep in mind that these two teams square off in the ALCS in just two days, so the Rays first baseman is a real one for this.

We needed that, and the fact that it came from the only hitter in the Rays lineup who had Cole figured out in 2020 makes it tolerable. Choi comes off as someone who doesn’t have a bad bone in his entire body, so to see him go out of his way with a cigar in his mouth after a huge win to troll the Astros further proves that everybody outside of Houston should be pulling for Tampa in the ALCS.

Yes, that includes you, Yankees fans.

The Astros, of course, have beef with seemingly every team in MLB after their sign-stealing operation resulted in them winning a World Series (2017), advancing to another (2019), and making it as far as the ALCS (2018) over the last three seasons. Our loathing for them has only been amplified in recent weeks as they haven’t showed a sniff of remorse and have maddeningly played the victim card thus far in the postseason.

Tampa Bay enters the revenge equation having lost to them in the ALDS last year, so we seriously hope skipper Kevin Cash’s club pummels them into oblivion. That’s really all fans in the Bronx have going for them after the Yankees’ earlier-than-expected elimination.

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