The Astros are surging—and the Yankees are ‘concerned’ 

There's pretty much nothing to like about the New York Yankees, but they do seem to be good at baseball these days. The Short Porch Bombers boast the league's best record and best run differential, and are led by AL MVP favorite Aaron Judge and his 30 home runs. Still, there's one thing that keeps Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner up each night. 

"We all need to be concerned about Houston," Steinbrenner said Wednesday during a press conference with NY media. "They’re a very good team. The games we've played so far have been close, for the most part. It's gonna be a challenge, but it's gonna be a challenge for them, too, make no mistake." 

The Astros went 3-2 against the Yankees in their most recent stretch of games—four of which were played in the Bronx and one at Minute Maid. Houston was leading or tied in the 9th inning of both its losses before walk-off hits from Judge helped reverse the Astros' good fortunes. 

The rivalry between the two teams has steadily grown in recent years, particularly after the Astros knocked the Yankees out of the playoffs during their 2017 World Series run and again in 2019. Looking for a scapegoat, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said in March it was Houston's "illegal and horrific" actions surrounding sign-stealing that kept his team from ultimately winning the ALCS and World Series title in 2017. 

However, more recently it was revealed that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred sent a note to the Yankees in 2017 detailing how the team had been caught in previous seasons using the replay room and phone to decode and relay opponents' signals to teammates in real time. This prompted Astros owner Jim Crane to call out Cashman’s hypocrisy.

"If I was one of the teams, and I knew our team was doing it, I'd keep my mouth shut and just go about our business," Crane told USA Today baseball columnist Bob Nightengale.

Steinbrenner has done just that, avoiding any real response to Crane’s criticism, both when the news broke and now as he continued to duck questions on the topic Wednesday. 

"I did not respond. This is history, as far as I’m concerned. I’m not gonna relive history," Steinbrenner said. "I'm looking forward, not backward. And I'm gonna be looking at the Astros. As has been pointed out, we're probably gonna be playing them in some pretty big games."

The two rivals will play a double-header on July 21 following the All-Star break, and won’t see each other again until a likely pairing come October, at which point rising Astros superstar Yordan Alvarez may have surged past Judge as AL MVP favorite. 

Correction: Hal Steinbrenner made these comments during a media availability with New York press, answering a question asked by ESPN's Marly Rivera. A previous version of this article stated that Steinbrenner made these comments to the New York Post.