Heartbreaking Scenes of Astros Lingering in the Clubhouse, Not Wanting to Let the Season Go: Justin Verlander Delivers Some Powerful Words as the Champs Who Helped Houston Out of Harvey’s Darkness Go Out Together

Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa sit side by side at their lockers, each still in full uniform, for several minutes. Few words pass between them. None have to. Instead, the double heartbeat of this special Houston Astros team just take a moment. Together.

It’s almost like they do not want to acknowledge the end of the season just yet. They can’t let go just yet.

Across the clubhouse, several pitchers and catchers gather in one informal semi circle of locker room folding chairs, sharing a drink. Later, George Springer plops down next to Tony Kemp in another circle of chairs and quietly commiserating teammates.

This is how baseball’s defending champs, the team that taught Houston to believe again when Hurricane Harvey made everything seem so dark, will go out. This is how the greatest two-year run in Astros history will end — with one of the closest professional sports teams you’ll ever see lingering in the losing clubhouse.

It turns out these Astros are not close to ready to go separately into the night.

Justin Verlander, the 35-year-old ace who’s found a new baseball life in Houston, addressed a few of his teammates earlier, almost as soon as Red Sox 4, Astros 1 became the series-ending Game 5 reality, before the media is let in after an understandably longer than usual wait.

Verlander wants to make sure his teammates know what they did isn’t defined by Boston taking the last four games of this American League Championship Series for a 4-1 series win, grabbing the World Series berth the Astros thought was theirs. Not even close.

“I personally told some of the guys after the game, the heart on this team is kind of unparalleled,” Verlander says, smiling. “We had guys playing through so much. And some of it you guys could see out there on the field. I’m just really proud of these guys.

“They gave more than 100 percent if that’s possible. We had guys giving until they just couldn’t give anymore.”

There is Altuve playing on a damaged right knee that’s “the size of a grapefruit” as Correa puts it, somehow still beating out infield singles when every step means more pain. There is Correa, hobbled by a bad back, still gathering himself to take another swing, somehow finishing with a .316 batting average in these playoffs.

“I’m sad about it,” Altuve says of the end. “But I’m not disappointed with any guy in here.”

If love won World Series these Astros would be planning another parade. But it doesn’t. Sometimes all the fight and all the want to in the world is not enough.

“Baseball is cruel sometimes,” Correa says.

In the end, these Astros are simply battered and worn out — and they’re chewed up by the brilliance of an 108-win Red Sox team with a first-year manager who learned how to do all this in Houston.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Houston outfielder Josh Reddick says. “It really is…

“This is a team a lot of us will be looking back on the rest of our lives. I never felt like I’d get a chance to ever be on a team like this. This is something special…”

Reddick stops and pauses. There will be talk of getting right back here next season. But that does not change the fact that it is over tonight.

The champs are ushered out of the playoffs as rudely as if they’re being tossed to the curb by some overzealous nightclub bouncer. This is how it goes in professional sports. Even the most special teams seldom get the ending they deserve.

Then again, maybe this is the only way it can finish for these Astros in 2018, with one of the closest teams in sports sitting around an empty clubhouse together, just trying to hold onto a few more moments.

Alex Bregman, the clear MVP of this record-breaking Astros’ regular season, stands against the back wall of the clubhouse, his eye black still on, trying to make sense of it all.

“To be honest with you, this year’s team is better than last year’s team,” he says, plenty of that Bregman defiance still in his eye. “But in baseball, things have got to bounce your way.

“It’s tough because you want to… because you know, some of these guys you’re never going to play with again.”

The Departures

One of those players who is likely gone, Dallas Keuchel — the Cy Young Award-winning heart of that first breakthrough 2015 Astros playoff team, the man who slayed the New York Yankees in the Bronx in this current run’s first real signature moment — stands at his locker, wondering if he’ll be at a new locker, in a new clubhouse, by this spring.

“It’s a weird feeling,” Keuchel says. “It’s a lot to take in. I’ve been on this team for seven years. I’d love to be back here for the long haul, but I know how the business side of it works.”

Astros fans can be excused for wondering how it all ended so quickly. One moment, the Astros are rolling through Cleveland. The next… they’re getting rolled right out of the playoffs. A.J. Hinch’s team played 18 playoff games last October, including two classic seven game series.

They finish this October having played eight — and losing four of those.

As letdowns go, it’s like going from Ben and Jerry’s wildest flavor to plain vanilla, from Whataburger to McDonald’s, from seeing Hamilton on Broadway to watching community theater.

“This is a quick death,” Gerrit Cole, the second ace Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow stole last offseason, says. “We were close in that (Game 2) Fenway game. And they just put some explosive innings together.”

Houston’s Champions

These Astros gave Houston so much when the city and so many of its people were at their lowest, reeling and devastated from the unbelievably horrific destruction of Hurricane Harvey. The Astros lifted up an entire city last fall.

Maybe, it’s almost unfair to expect them to do it again. But Altuve does, even in the ninth inning of Game 5, even with the Astros down to their last out, even with Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel looking stronger than he has all October.

“We came back from so many things,” Altuve says softly. “Two outs, we’ve come through with two outs so many times. Even with two outs, I was expecting us to do something.”

That’s what these Astros do. But not this time.

This October’s version of the defending champions never had the real Altuve. They barely had the real Carlos Correa either. Much of the magic seemed to drift away too. One cowboy umpire and Major League Baseball’s failed replay system robbed them of a critical home run in the most important, series-shifting game of all. One of the greatest catches in baseball history ended Game 4 — and set the stage for an almost unfair 0-for-9 finish for Bregman in Games 4 and 5.

Attrition robbed the Astros of even more.

No Major League Baseball team’s repeated as World Champions in 19 years now for good reason. The march is almost too unforgiving, too draining, too based on moments, to do it again right away. Just ask the Chicago Cubs. Wrigley Field’s team went from a historic, curse-ending title in 2016 to losing in the league championship series last year to falling in the Wild Card Game earlier this month.

This would-be Astros dynasty needs to do something drastic to avoid dropping into a similar pattern. Keuchel is likely to be gone this winter. Charlie Morton — the flame-throwing, 34-year-old, first-time All-Star — is also a free agent. Verlander and Cole are both only under contract for one more season.

Championship windows have a way of slamming shut much sooner than anyone expects. Even with sweet-swining Kyle Tucker and 100-MPH find Josh James waiting in the wings. That is talk for another day, though.

This is a night for paying homage to the most special sports team many people in Houston have ever seen. This is a night when a group of players, teammates in every sense of the word, just want to hold on for as long as they can. For a few more moments.

And maybe one more toast. The bulk of the Astros are still in that clubhouse, still sitting around together, after the media is ushered out.

This is how the World Champs, Houston’s champs, the team that did everything it could to help Houston after Harvey, will finish. You know, it’s not such a bad way to go.