It didn’t seem possible for CC Sabathia to be angrier than he already is about the Astros’ cheating scandal. But Justin Verlander poured gasoline on the fire.

In his speech Saturday during the New York Baseball Writers’ dinner at the Sheraton New York Times Square hotel after being presented with his AL Cy Young Award, Verlander said of the Astros, “as everybody knows, they’re very technologically and analytically advanced,” drawing boos with a smattering of laughter and applause. It came across as more of a tone-deaf comment rather than a joke, though his intentions are unclear.

It just so happened that Sabathia was two seats away from the podium as Verlander spoke, and Dodgers star Cody Bellinger was between the podium and Sabathia, who did not seem pleased.

The Astros, who according to an MLB investigative report illegally stole signs in 2017 and ’18, defeated the Yankees in the 2017 ALCS before beating the Dodgers in the World Series, winning both series in seven games.

Sabathia recently said on his R2C2 podcast with Ryan Ruocco that, “f–king ’17, we should have won the World Series. I don’t care what nobody says. And now that this happened, nobody can ever f–king tell me that we wasn’t gonna win it. We should have won! There’s no way you can tell me we weren’t better than them. I don’t give a f–k what nobody says.”

The 39-year-old Sabathia, who just retired and became a special adviser to Brian Cashman, also previously said he feels the Yankees “got cheated.”

Not long after Verlander’s speech, Sabathia spoke after receiving the Long and Meritorious Service Award from the New York chapter of the BBWAA, but made no reference to Verlander’s comment.

Dallas Keuchel, who introduced Verlander on Saturday and was a member of the ’17 and ’18 Astros, is the only player thus far who has apologized for the sign-stealing scheme. Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman deflected when asked about the cheating last weekend.