Brian T. Smith

With a triumph at rainy Fenway Park, the sting of 2015 is washed away.

BOSTON — They came back out one more time, just to make it real.

Fenway Park emptied out in October. The Red Sox finished and done.

It was just the huge stadium lights shining over a famous field and the hard rain finally falling. Then it was A.J. Hinch’s 2017 Astros screaming in unison before gathering near the mound — where Justin Verlander suddenly became a reliever and Ken Giles held on; where they danced and roared after Alex Bregman went over the Monster and Josh Reddick took back his name — for a team picture that would last forever.

Click: 5-4 Astros in a messy, then tight, then nervewracking Game 4 that officially became 3-1 Astros over Boston in the American League Division Series.

Click: A 101-win club, which spent months as the best team in baseball, soon to be known as one of only four still alive.

Click: 1980, ’86, 2004, ’05 and ’17 always linked, with these Astros in a league Championship Series for just the fifth time since Houston’s pro baseball team arrived in 1962.

Four wins from the World Series. Eight from total perfection.

Already never having to feel the pain of the collapse in 2015 ever again.

That’s what the picture Monday night in the rain at Fenway — a dreary day eventually washed in pure joy — was really about, especially if you know the heart and soul of this team.

Jose Altuve. Dallas Keuchel. Carlos Correa. George Springer, Marwin Gonzalez, Lance McCullers Jr. and everyone else still around who had to live with and hear about Game 4 of the ’15 ALDS for two long years.

Leading 6-2 heading into the top of the eighth at ear-splitting Minute Maid Park, with baseball’s biggest surprise just six outs away from clinching a stunning ALCS berth. Then the never-say-die Royals ripping out the Astros’ heart — seven runs in the final two innings; hits that kept coming and outs that never appeared — and a magical year evaporating into embarrassment and pain.

A different story

Those crushed Astros never forgot. And they always knew that the only way to truly move forward was to not let their next ALDS series slip away.

“These players on this team that were here in ’15 have never stopped talking about it or have forgotten about that moment. We wanted to redeem ourselves,” McCullers said as beer and champagne sprayed around him and the Astros rampaged inside Fenway’s cramped visitors’ clubhouse. “There are a lot of the same guys here that experienced that day. And I tell you, it was the most gut-wrenching, depressing month I’ve ever had happen in my life. I couldn’t watch baseball. I didn’t want to talk about baseball or the World Series or anything. … The fans that were there that have stuck with us and have ridden this wave out with us, they deserve to celebrate like we do.”

Hinch’s 2017 Astros started to blow it again.

They destroyed Boston in Games 1 and 2 at Minute Maid and were staring at 6-0 in the potential ALDS clincher Sunday in Boston when it all started to fall apart.

Hinch missed on Francisco Liriano, and Fenway was soon taunting Reddick as Game 3 became a 10-3 Red Sox blowout. Then Hinch initially missed hard on Verlander — the Astros’ new ace, Game 1 winner and expected Game 5 starter — as the sudden reliever gave up a two-run blast to Andrew Benintendi in the fifth inning of Game 4.

Keuchel could feel it slipping away once more.

“Losing Game 3, we got our butts kicked. It just kind of felt like 2015 all over again,” he said. “As soon as we gave up the lead in the fifth, it seemed like the air was shot out of us.”

Then Keuchel turned to his teammates as Verlander found a foothold against Chris Sale and said enough.

These Astros were too good for this. Six AllStars. Best start in franchise history. As deep and dangerous as any team in MLB and playing for a resilient city still recovering from Hurricane Harvey.

This wasn’t 2015 and just another collapse.

This was where the 2017 Astros would make their stand and shut down Boston’s season.

“I was reminding them, ‘Hey, we are the best team. We are the best team in the American League,’ ” Keuchel said. “When you look at it, we have the best lineup in the American League. There’s no doubt about it.

“It’s amazing that even the best lineup, the best team, can get deflated at some point. And for us to respond with the Bregman solo home run just rejuvenated us, and at that point, we knew we’re going to win.”

The need for Speedo

The best-hitting team in baseball gritted it out. An Evan Gattis single, a Craig Kimbrel wild pitch and a Springer walk kept the eighth alive. Then Reddick took three balls and fouled off four pitches before perfectly placing a 99 mph Kimbrel fastball in left field for a 4-3 lead.

Springer sprinted across the dirt, grasped onto third base and proudly pointed across the diamond at his teammate who silenced Fenway.

“I haven’t been a part of anything like (this) in my career, and I’ve been a part of some pretty special teams,” said Reddick, again wearing his celebratory American flag Speedo. “This is a team that can do a lot of special things.”

The second-most wins in franchise history.

The first playoff series victory since the organization’s lone World Series appearance in 2005.

Erasing the pain of 2015 and pushing these Astros — still electric and thrilling but tougher and wiser — all the way to the ALCS.

We’ve known how special they can be since April. That this year could last forever.

Monday night in the hard rain at Fenway, a lasting picture was taken of a team that’s now just four wins away from the real Series.