Eovaldi: Astros 'not high up on my list' of favorite teams

Boston Red Sox right-hander Nathan Eovaldi doesn't think too highly of the Houston Astros, a team the 31-year-old will pitch against at some point in the upcoming American League Championship Series.

"Yeah, they have a tendency of rubbing guys the wrong way," the Houston native said of his hometown club on WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show."

"I don't necessarily hate any team, but they're not high up on my list."

Eovaldi's opinion of the Astros might have something to do with an incident involving Alex Bregman in 2018.

Houston's third baseman trolled Eovaldi before the two clubs met in the ALCS that year, posting a video of the pitcher allowing back-to-back-to-back homers to the Astros earlier in the season when he pitched for the Tampa Bay Rays.

"It happened. I gave up three homers back-to-back-to-back," he said of Bregman's 2018 post on Wednesday. "But we were able to come out on top in that series, and hopefully we'll do it again this time."

Along with Eovaldi, Houston is not very popular around baseball - the club has been booed in most visiting parks throughout the 2021 campaign after it was proven the franchise illegally stole signs during the 2017 season, the same year the Astros won a World Series.

Eovaldi's manager Alex Cora was Houston's bench coach in 2017. The 45-year-old returned to manage the Red Sox this campaign after serving a one-year suspension in 2020 for his involvement.

Cora won a World Series in his first year as Boston's manager in 2018.