It was the great prophet Ric Flair who said, "To be the man, you gotta beat the man." If we may flip the script on that: To be the Cinderella, you gotta beat the Cinderella.
That's what the Houston Astros are trying to do in their ALDS against the Kansas City Royals. The Astros are young and talented, a turned-around 100-loss team from just a few years ago that's making a surprising postseason run. In other words, they're exactly who the Kansas City Royals were last year.
[Also: Previewing the ALDS series between the Blue Jays and Rangers]
The two play very different styles of baseball and we'll get to that in a second, but if we're talking about the stories, they're very similar.