Gone with the wind: Yankees manager says Minute Maid Park's roof open 'kind of killed us'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Houston Astros have proved, as recently as this week, that whether the roof at Minute Maid Park is open or closed, they can go the distance with powerful hits.

But in this latest edition of "What will opponents cry about next?", New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone appeared to blame the roof in his team's Game 2 loss to the Astros on Thursday night.

The Yankees were certainly threatening the Astros' lead late in the game.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge just missed a two-run homer in the eighth when his drive was caught just in front of the short wall by right fielder Kyle Tucker.

The ball would've landed in the short right-field porch at Yankee Stadium, Statcast showed - with the roof open at Minute Maid Park, the wind might've knocked down Judge's bid.

"I think the roof open kind of killed us," Boone said, later adding, "I didn't think, like, he smoked it, like, no-doubter, but it felt like his homers to right."

Judge never expected his drive to cut through the wind, not with the Minute Maid Park roof open.

"I hit it to the wrong part of the park, that's for sure," he said. "I was out there for seven, eight innings on defense and so, I kind of felt that wind kind of howling, so the minute I hit it, I knew kind of what the result would be."

So was the roof really the problem?

ABC13's Adam Winkler said that he was told that if the Astros had their way, the roof would have been closed, as it was for Game 1.

The roof being open was a Major League Baseball call.

Typically, the Astros organization would get to make that call if the temperature and humidity goes down to a certain point. MLB takes over that decision in the postseason, though.

Game 2 marks just the sixth time in franchise postseason history that the roof was open. The Astros improved to 2-4 when playing outdoors at home in the playoffs.

The next two games in the series head to the Bronx, where Yankee Stadium has no roof, so there's that.

• Game 3: at New York Yankees, Saturday, 4:07 p.m.

• Game 4: at New York Yankees, Sunday, Oct. 23, 6:07 p.m.

• Game 5*: at New York Yankees, Monday, Oct. 24, 3:07 p.m. or 4:07 p.m.

• Game 6*: at Houston, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 5:07 p.m. or 6:37 p.m.

• Game 7*: at Houston, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 6:37 p.m.

All times listed are CDT. Games 5-7 are if necessary.*

The Associated Press contributed to this report.