HOUSTON - It ends cruelly.
It ends painfully.
It ends oddly.
Watching some other team run and scream and jump together, wildly celebrating on the Astros’ field after a 7-0 victory in Game 6 of the World Series.
Seeing a strange baseball club from another city hoisting a silver trophy on an international stage, inside a numb ballpark that we normally feel so comfortable in.
The World Series-winning Atlanta Braves took over Minute Maid Park on Tuesday night. Just like the World Series-winning Washington Nationals did in 2019.
And now it’s suddenly all over again.
The 2021 Astros. The Astros versus Everyone tour. Another Fall Classic in our big city’s backyard.
Uggggggh. Sigh.
“You get over it,” manager Dusty Baker said. “Other people don’t let you get over it. And other people don’t get over it.”
This was supposed to be a golden era. A dynasty.
I’m sorry, Houston. Especially after you cheered so loudly and so intensely at the start of Game 6, trying to propel your Astros to an early November win that would force a season-defining Game 7 for both teams.
But this is becoming the era of wins and wins and wins … and then the Astros falling short when another era-defining trophy is so frustratingly near.
The 2018 American League Championship Series. The 2019 World Series. The 2020 ALCS. The Fall Classic that just ended in six games, allowing the Braves to claim their first world championship in 26 years.
Starting with 2015 and the debut of a young and thrilling club, this has been the best the Astros have ever been. It’s also been the best run in the history of Houston sports.
But one world title isn’t enough – especially with the 2017 trophy tarnished – and now we’re already wondering where the Astros go from here.
Carlos Correa, who sounded late Tuesday night like he’d played his final home game in Houston.
Baker, who’s not under contract next season.
The baseball team that has fallen painfully short in its last two World Series.
With the latest defeat – which followed an inspiring come-back win in Game 5 in Atlanta -- the Astros fell to 1-3 all-time on baseball’s grandest stage.
“I’ve still got some unfinished business,” said Baker, who stated that he wanted to manage the Astros in 2022. “I love these guys over here. I love the town of Houston. The fans are behind us.”
The 107-win Astros were the favorites to win it all in 2019. They lost all four World Series games inside Minute Maid Park to the supremely confident Nats and watched a second trophy disappear during the final innings of Game 7 in downtown Houston.
Baker’s 95-win Astros overpowered the Chicago White Sox, then overcame the Boston Red Sox this season. But Game 1 in Houston went to the better Braves, the Astros were almost no-hit in Game 3, and Game 4 was suddenly altered by back-to-back seventh-inning home runs at a rocking Truist Park.
“I really believe in miracles because I’ve had a few of them happen to me,” Baker said before Game 5.
The Astros fought through a first-inning grand slam in that one to stay alive and return home.
Then Jorge Soler destroyed a baseball with two on in the third inning of Game 6. Then Dansby Swanson cranked a no-doubt two-run shot in the fifth. Then the Braves celebrated a championship on the Astros’ field, just like the Nationals in 2019.
The rebuilt, then remade Astros are an annual playoff club. They are not the best baseball team in the world.
“Second place is not good enough for us. I know it’s not good enough for you guys,” Correa said. “But it speaks volumes of how good our organization, our talent in the clubhouse is. ... Three World Series in five years. I don’t know what else you want to ask from a great ball club.”
The numbing 100-plus loss seasons from 2011 to 2013 were obviously worth it. The Astros’ massive reconstruction, which prized draft picks over victories and turned major league games into a meaningless exercise, has resulted in five straight ALCS appearances.
But the shining golden era ended when owner Jim Crane fired A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luhnow after a sign-stealing scandal. And this has become the era of falling short.
Last season, the Astros turned a 29-31 record into Game 7 of the ALCS. But they started that series down 3-0, then fell a victory short of the World Series.
This season, the Astros fell two wins short against an opponent that won only 88 regular-season games and wasn’t supposed to make the World Series.
That last part is modern baseball. Wild-card teams win it all nowadays. Starting pitching that lasts has become a lost art as bullpens, relievers and openers randomly rotate on the mound in October. Atlanta’s Max Fried, who owned the Astros’ bats for six superb innings on Tuesday, was an anomaly.
But national redemption – or, at least, national validation in the face of endless “Cheater!” chants and constant nasty reminders about 2017 -- was two wins away for these Astros. The proof that they could be better than everyone else, without illegal electronic sign stealing, disappeared as Atlanta won, won, won and won again.
Four innings from Zack Greinke in a stunning Game 4 defeat was the best the Astros could get from their former ace this October. Lance McCullers Jr., signed to an $85 million contract extension in March, was unavailable the last two series with another frustrating injury.
But in the end, the Braves were the better team when it mattered. Just like Tampa Bay, the Nationals and the Boston Red Sox.
Where do your Astros go from here?
What will the Astros — who already have lost George Springer and Gerrit Cole, among other big names — be like without Correa in 2022 if No. 1 leaves?
Greinke might have pitched his last game in the majors. Justin Verlander wasn’t around the Astros this October, has barely taken the mound since 2019, and could be done starting for the local orange and blue.
Baker was often perfect for the 2021 Astros. But he still hasn’t won a World Series as a manager, and Brian Snitker got a ton out of an Atlanta team playing without Charlie Morton and Ronald Acuna Jr.
We can say 100 things and break down it down 100 ways. But the Braves were just better, and they humbled the Astros in Game 6.
February is only three months away. Spring always brings the return of hope, and the Astros are still loaded with talent.
It would have been a perfect story if Baker, Correa and Co. had finished off the Braves and finished this comeback in seven games.
The pain of falling short in the 2019 and 2021 World Series will last in Houston until the Astros win their next world championship the right way.
