With a nod to Mark Twain, reports of the Houston Astros’ demise in the ALCS were greatly exaggerated. The defending World Series champs beat the Texas Rangers, 8-5, Wednesday night on the road, of course, in Arlington. The ALCS stands at 2-1 in favor of the Rangers, with the next two games in Arlington.

Rangers’ fans and media were quick to shovel dirt on the Astros grave after the Rangers swept the first two games of the series in Houston.

Consider this headline in Tuesday’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which is a real newspaper in a major market. In fact, it’s the 45^th largest newspaper in the U.S.

“Houston Astros dynasty looks to be fading fast versus Texas”

The story contained the following bon mots:

“These Astros look demoralized.”

“The Lone Star Showdown is thus far playing more like the Whataburger Beatdown.”

“The Houston Astros won’t do it but when the history of their dynastic run is written, or turned into a Netflix documentary, there will be a “the end started here” moment.”

And to show how razor sharp the Star-Telegram’s analysis of the ALCS is, how’s this from the Game 2 wrapup?

“The fans at Enron Field were starving for any reason to get into this series.”

The Astros ballpark hasn’t been called Enron Field for more than two decades. Two days later, the online version of Star-Telegram still says Enron Field. Hello? The Astros play at Minute Maid Park. You coulda/shoulda looked it up. Dumbass newspaper.

Of course history still favors the Rangers. The team leading 2-1 in an LCS goes on the win the series 70 percent of the time. No team that lost the first two games of an LCS at home has ever rebounded to win the series. That’s true, but three times it’s happened in the World Series. And the Astros have a World Series mentality. Speaking of the World Series, the Texas Rangers have never won one. Fun fact.

My 5-cents is on the Astros. Resurrected pitcher Jose Urquidy throws Thursday night against the Rangers’ Andrew Heaney. If the Astros win and tie the series, the Rangers’ backsides will be puckered tighter than a balloon knot at a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party.

After Wednesday night’s win, the Astros are 7-1 at Globe Life Field this year. And yes, that’s the correct name of the Rangers’ stadium. See? It’s not hard to know where these games are being played.

Now a confession. In 2005, my newspaper, the Houston Chronicle, buried the Astros more embarrassingly than the Fort Worth Star-Telegraph this week.

On May 30^th, the Astros were trounced 9-0 and their record fell to 18-32, good for last place in the National League Central. Remember the National League?

Two days later, the front page of the Chronicle sports page ran a huge drawing of a gravestone pronouncing the Astros dead for the 2005 season. The stone was engraved: “RIP ASTROS SEASON.” The headline read, “The cold hard truth … the Astros might as well start thinking about next year.”

Much to the Chronicle’s red faces, the Astros turned their season around, finishing 89-73 and qualifying for the playoffs. They won the Wild Card game over the Phillies, won the NLDS over the Braves, won the NLCS over the Cardinals and advanced to their first World Series in franchise history.

If ever there was proof of life after death, it’s the Houston Chronicle sports page from June 1, 2005.

Lesson learned: do not write off the Astros. Then or now.