Astros catcher Martin Maldonado responded after White Sox's Ryan Tepera called out their 'sketchy' reputation

The Astros didn't like that comment.

The Chicago White Sox returned home for Sunday’s Game 3 against the Houston Astros and were able to avoid an ALDS sweep thanks to a breakout game offensively. Chicago scored 12 runs on 16 hits, and on the flip side, Houston struggled at the plate away from Minute Maid Park.

Well, White Sox reliever Ryan Tepera didn’t exactly shy away from offering his theory behind the Astros’ road loss. He, of course, brought up the cheating scandal and implied — with no actual evidence — that some sign-stealing antics could be ongoing with this Houston team.

It was the kind of read-between-the-lines answer in a postgame press conference that caught the attention of the Astros clubhouse too.

White Sox’s Ryan Tepera:”U play at Minute Maid,they’re doing something over there that’s a little different. It showed u how many swings&misses they had tonight compared to at Minute Maid” Asked to expand on that) “They’ve obviously had a reputation of doing some sketchy stuff..” pic.twitter.com/lc6q1IYXKS

— Mark Berman (@MarkBermanFox26) October 11, 2021

Tepera said:

“They’ve obviously had a reputation of doing some sketchy stuff over there. It’s just, we can say that it’s a little bit of a difference, you know? I think you saw the swings and misses tonight compared to the first two games at Minute Maid. But that’s not really the story. We come here to play, we’re gonna compete. We’re not even gonna worry about what they’re gonna do. All we have to do is execute pitches, and they can’t hit them anyways.”

Honestly, I’m not sure what Tepera was hoping to do there besides fire up his own clubhouse (and troll the Astros). It would be tough to imagine the Astros continuing a sign-stealing system with a microscope constantly on them. Plus, their home-and-away splits were virtually the same this season.

Still, the comments were enough to grab the attention of Astros catcher Martin Maldonado. He definitely saw that press conference as bulletin-board material.

Always good to get a extra motivation

— Machete Maldonado (@Machete1224) October 11, 2021

The Astros will have an extra day to let those comments simmer too as Game 4 was postponed due to weather.