Started from the bottom!

Now Houston’s here, in WS

HOUSTON — Just four years ago, the Houston Astros weren’t just bad, they were embarrassing — so embarrassing that many dubbed them the “Lastros.”

Now Houston is heading to its second World Series in franchise history after beating the Yankees in the AL Championship Series, and its time as the league’s laughingstock seems like a distant memory.

“You always picture yourself in the World Series, but to be here after my debut in 2012 with the team that we had, with the players that we had, I never thought we would be here,” lefthander Dallas Keuchel said.

Keuchel is one of just four Astros who remain from a 2013 team that hit rock bottom by losing a franchise-record 111 games in its first year in the AL. Houston became the first team since Kansas City from 2004-06 to lose 100 games in three straight seasons. Those bumbling Astros, who had the league’s lowest payroll as the franchise shed its veterans to rebuild, often played in front of fewer than 10,000 fans and routinely faced boos from the few people who did show up.

All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve, super-utility man Marwin Gonzalez and righthander Brad Peacock are the other holdovers from the lean times.

“When I got here, no one talked about winning,” said manager A.J. Hinch, who took over in 2015. “And that was one of the first things that Altuve told me in my office, that he wanted to win. And that represented what the next step was for this organization.

“And obviously in 2015 we got to taste it a little bit, 2016 we had some disappointment, 2017 we’re going to the World Series.”

Altuve is now an MVP front-runner after hitting a career-high .346 with 24 homers and 81 RBI. He followed that up by hitting .400 this postseason with a major-league-leading 16 hits and five homers to lead the Astros to the World Series for the first time since they were swept by the White Sox in 2005.

His performance came as no surprise to anyone who has kept up with the Astros over the past few years. “There’s no doubt that when he has good games, it’s hard to beat the Astros,” Hinch said.

And now he and the Astros will get a chance to prove that when they meet the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series starting on Tuesday night.