A NEW REPUTATION
These are not your grandfather’s, your mama’s or your weird uncle’s Astros.
They play with passion, but poise. They deliver under pressure.
And here they go again, back in the American League Championship Series for the third straight year.
These millennials have messed around and killed the Astros losing reputation.
On Thursday, they jumped out early, rode the arm of Gerrit Cole, then tacked on a couple of eighth-inning home runs for good measure, as they rolled past the Tampa Bay Rays 6-1 in Game 5 of the AL Division Series.
“It never gets old,” owner Jim Crane said. “There is a lot of championship chemistry here. And this team is experienced, and you’ll see them play well under pressure, and that’s what it takes to win.
“That’s what they did tonight. Clutch players deliver in pressure situations.”
The Astros showed that from the first batter of the game.
You’ve probably heard that it’s not how you start, it’s … what a crock that is.
If you start on top, you have a much better chance of finishing on top.
On the second pitch for the Astros’ offense, George Springer ripped a 98-mph fastball into center field for a single.
He stood on first base, pointed at the Astros dugout and shouted, “Let’s go!”
“That’s my job,” Springer said. “I’m in the leadoff position for some reason, so I might as well get a hit and try to get the guys fired up a little bit.”
He did that.
Springer had only two hits in the first four games of the playoffs, but it was the second straight time he led off with a hit. In Game 4, he never left first base, as Michael Brantley, José Altuve and Alex Bregman each struck out.
In this decisive Game 5, a pressure-packed situation with the loser facing elimination, Springer wouldn’t be on first for long.
Before the Rays could even settle in, the Astros had come through with five hits and scored four runs, a huge relief for a squad that scored four runs total in two losses at Tampa Bay.
Brantley single. Altuve single RBI. Bregman a double, 2 RBIs.
The Astros hit Tyler Glasnow so cleanly, so hard, that there were rumors that he was tipping his pitches.
They had the train whistle a hummin’.
I hear there have been a few people who complained that the train that rolls atop the left field wall is too loud or doesn’t belong. That whistle is the sweet the sound of victory for the 21st-century Astros.
Those beautiful memories of the tasty popcorn and shoot-emup light shows on the old-fashioned scoreboard in the Astrodome? Those all came in losses.
Houston was 1-3 all-time in decisive Game 5’s before Thursday, a record that included some all-time heartbreakers. Games that made many Astros fans the way that they are. Nervous.
You could feel it walking to and through Minute Maid Park before the game. It was quiet. Like a funeral home.
Which was weird, because these Astros are very much alive.
Houston’s first win-or-gohome Game 5 was in 1980, when they had a three-run lead over the Phillies entering the eighth inning with Nolan Ryan on the mound. And lost.
A year after that disastrous ending kept them out of the World Series, the Astros blew a 2-0 lead in a division series against the Dodgers, including losing Game 5 with Ryan again on the mound.
While Cole is about to become the richest pitcher in baseball history, he’s no Nolan. Not yet. But he also delivered in the postseason, whereas the Astros won only two of Ryan’s six playoff starts.
So, when the Astros took the 4-0 lead, there was a lot of baseball to be played, but the game was over.
The champagne was on ice and headed to the Astros’ clubhouse.
Houston was 43-8 during the regular season when it took the lead in the first inning. More importantly, Cole was on the mound.
A 4-0 lead isn’t supposed to be insurmountable. This one was.
Cole had not allowed a team to score four runs against him just twice in his last 23 starts. Only one team scored even two runs on him the last seven times he had taken the mound.
In Game 2, he allowed just four hits while striking out 15 batters. He struck out 10 Thursday, allowing only two hits in eight sterling innings.
He gave the Rays nightmares that’ll last all offseason.
“He won the game for us,” said closer Roberto Osuna, who pitched a clean ninth inning. “You see the way he dominated on the mound, and that’s what got it done for us.
“When we scored four runs in the first inning, you knew we were in good shape.”
In the best shape the franchise has ever been in, and with games such as Thursday’s, it keeps getting better.
Jerome.Solomon@chron.com twitter.com/JeromeSolomon