Astros stay in step

Boston may be home to baseball’s best record, but it’s the Astros who are the toast of the town

BOSTON — If your definition of special is something that is better, greater or otherwise different from what is usual, you would have a difficult time in a debate with manager A.J. Hinch about his Astros’ visit to Fenway Park.

So what if the Red Sox came in with MLB’s best record? So what if the Astros were tied for baseball’s second-best mark? So what if these two teams are the favorites to win the World Series?

So what if the Astros won the first two games of the series to extend their win streak to seven games and hand Boston its first home series defeat since June, a 10-series stretch that is the longest they have had without a loss in 40 years?

All of that is special for the many Astros fans, who joined the sellout crowd of 36,684 at Fenway, but not for a team that is on pace to have the secondbest road mark in baseball history.

“We have a really good team,” Hinch said after Saturday’s 5-3 victory. “We want to win series. We want to win homestands. We want to win road trips.

“We play excellently on the road. I’m proud of our guys for coming into this environment and continuing to play good.”

The Astros haven’t stepped up, they have stayed in step. The defending World Series champions are now on pace to match their franchise record of 102 wins. They are 7-0 in September, having outscored opponents 40-15, while not scoring fewer than four runs in a game or allowing more than three.

For the second day in row, the Astros looked right at home at Fenway Park. Right down to a notable contingent of orangeclad fans who would have you think Kenmore Square was deep in the heart of Texas.

Surely, some are doubledipping this weekend, with the Texans down the road in Foxborough to open the NFL season at the New England Patriots on Sunday. But this trip would be worth it just for the Astros and chowder.

For some reason, someone with the Texans sent team caps to the Astros this weekend. Bless their hearts.

Once again, the Texans are hustling backward. They should have passed out Astros’ gear in hopes some of that championship shine would rub off.

Here is a slogan for the Texans: “Be like the Astros.”

Look, I’ve gone out on a limb and predicted a Texans victory over the mighty Patriots, but let’s not pretend they are in the same league.

On the other hand, Astros fever is wondrous.

Before an United Airlines jet took off from Houston to Boston on Friday night, a flight attendant announced that it was the Red Sox Express. Oh, was he wrong.

Passengers who wanted to nap on the late-evening flight were out of luck, as Astros fans watching the game throughout the flight cheered as if they were at a sports bar. A similar takeover was happening at Fenway Park, and it occurred again Saturday afternoon.

“Let’s Go Astros” chants matched “Let’s Go Red Sox” ones in decibels, and during the seventh-inning stretch, the “root, root, root for the Astros” insert in “Take me out to the ballgame” overshadowed its counterpart. It was incredible.

Red Sox faithful have overrun Minute Maid Park on a number of occasions. As have Yankees, Cardinals and Rangers.

It’s startling to see so much orange — loud and proud — in such a venue. Was a time not too long ago that the Astros were baseball’s worst and the Red Sox were World Series contenders.

These Astros don’t look up to the Red Sox as a measuring stick. The Astros consider themselves the stick.

“That’s a good ballclub, but we’re pretty good, too,” said Jake Marisnick, the lone Astro in the lineup not to have a hit Saturday.

Marisnick may have been hitless, but he had a sacrifice fly to produce the go-ahead run in the second inning, and he delivered the play of the day with a running grab at the wall with the bases loaded to end the fourth.

And, no, it wasn’t special. It was what Marisnick does.

The same goes for Alex Bregman, who lifted his 30th home run of the season in the third inning, celebrated down the third-base line and highfived his way into the dugout where teammates joined him in a mock bobsled run.

Bregman, who leads MLB with 79 extra-base hits, is unsurprised at his MVP-level of play. Nothing special, he says, of his .480 average and five home runs in seven games this month.

“September is just the next step before you get to some really exciting baseball if you finish what you started,” Hinch said. “I think everybody’s adrenaline kind of kicks in a little bit and it starts to feel a little bit more like playoff baseball.”

The Astros, who have won 14 of 17, can see the finish line. The playoffs, still a month away, are in the air.

It’s a special time all right. Even if they won’t admit it.

Like sands through the hourglass, these are the championship days of our lives.