Astros, Royals are similar

Houston hopes to ride its wild-card win like K.C. in 2014.

KANSAS CITY, MO. When — the Houston Astros had recorded the final out in Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, they flooded onto the field in a wild celebration, all their years of losing finally a memory.

It looked a whole lot like the scene in Kansas City a year ago.

Now, the long-suffering Astros will try to accomplish what the once-beleaguered Royals did by building on their wildcard victory over the Yankees. They visit Kansas City to begin a best-of-five AL Division Series against the Royals tonight.

“It kind of reminds us of us last year,” Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas said, “young and hungry and out there trying to prove to everybody that we deserve to be here.”

The Royals accomplished that 12 months ago. After ending a 29-year postseason drought, the youngsters swept all the way to the World Series, where they fell in seven games to the Giants. But it was the Royals’ dramatic, extra-inning victory over Oakland in their AL wildcard game that instilled in them a belief that they could play with anybody.

Much like Tuesday night in the Bronx seemed to galvanize the Astros.

They clowned around before the first pitch, then took care of New York when it was time to get serious, before resuming their playful antics with a rousing 30-minute postgame party.

“You know, we did it in a little more dramatic fashion than they did,” Royals manager Ned Yost said of the wild-card win, “but they played a very solid game, took advantage of mistakes, excellent pitching and defense.”

The similarities are hardly lost on Astros manager A.J. Hinch, who played for the Royals in the early 2000s, when the organization was in the depths of despair.

“I think both teams sense the opportunity might be there to make a run in October,” Hinch said.