NEW YORK - A year ago, the Kansas City Royals were baseball's biggest surprise team, miraculously coming from behind to win the American League wild-card game and advancing all the way to Game 7 of the World Series.
This season, the Houston Astros could very well assume that Cinderella role. They shut out the New York Yankees in the Bronx in Tuesday's wild-card game and open play in the American League division series on Thursday night against the Royals, who clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
"I know baseball people said the Houston Astros were probably not going to make it," a champagne-soaked Carlos Gomez said late Tuesday night before the team departed for Kansas City, "but here we are.