Aching Astros miss chance to repeat

The Astros enH O USTO N tered the AL Championship Series aching.

Jose Altuve was playing on just one good knee, Carlos Correa’s back was never right and Lance McCullers was pitching through an injury that will likely require surgery.

Now the Astros are hurting even worse, done after losing four straight to the Red Sox to end their bid to repeat as champions.

“The heart of this team really (is) unparalleled,” said ace Justin Verlander, whose big season helped the Astros go deep in the playoffs. “We had guys playing through so much. I’m not going to name any one specifically, but I think you could see some of it on the field and how hard guys were grinding trying to help us win.”

It was a disappointing end for the Astros to a stellar year in which they won a franchiserecord 103 games to capture the AL West for a second straight season.

“We’ll learn from it and everyone in here will have a little bit of an edge to play with it (will) be a chip on their shoulder knowing that we believe we should have been backtoback champions,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “And I know every day when I wake up and the rest of these guys wake up during the offseason, there will be one thing on their mind, and that’ll be working toward winning it next year.”