Baseball-Young Astros down, but future seems bright

Oct 15 (Reuters) - The Astros were downcast after crashing out of the playoffs with a loss to reigning American League champions Kansas City on Wednesday but the future seems bright for the young Houston team, who punched above their weight this season. The Wild Card Astros, whose core of emerging players includes shortstop Carlos Correa (21), second baseman Jose Altuve (25) and outfielder George Springer (26), reached the postseason for the first time in 10 years. The defeated the New York Yankees on the way to reaching the Division Series and while Wednesday's loss stings, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said they could be proud of their season. "We accomplished a lot, getting into this series and we accomplished a lot in this series but it doesn't feel very good tonight," Hinch said after a 7-2 loss in Game Five. "As I told our team, I'm really proud of everything they did. I'm proud of their effort. I'm proud of their character. I'm proud of how we handled adversity. Everything about this team, I'm proud of. I'm proud to be their manager. "We'll be able to reflect back on a lot of things that we learned about ourselves and about our team," he added. "And a lot of good is going to come out of it. It doesn't look like that now. We have a lot of heartbroken guys in the clubhouse that really believed we could continue on." Royals manager Ned Yost told Hinch the Astros were a team "that's going to be good for years to come". "What they accomplished this year was special," said Yost. "My hats are off to them. They're going to be a tough foe in the American League for years and years to come." (Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Peter Rutherford)