HOUSTON — Sometimes, the very best rivalries are the ones you don’t see coming.

Look, it’s understood that nothing will ever surpass the relationship the Yankees have with the Red Sox. There’s a hundred years of history there, for one, starting with the coming centenary of the Sox dealing Babe Ruth. There’s geography. And across the last 15 years, it’s been an even-handed feud, not the hammer-and-nail conflict it was before 2004.

And sure: The Yankees and Dodgers have a lot of that, too, since for 57 years they shared the same city; since six times they shared the World Series while sharing that city; since while becoming bi-coastal foes they met four more times in the Fall Classic. So, yes, a Dodgers-Yankees World Series — like last year’s Yankees-Red Sox ALDS — would’ve stirred up a little something extra.

Still, what we’re getting in this American League Championship Series between the Yankees and Astros is something almost as intriguing, for this has a very real chance to be a New Age Yankees rivalry both for now and for the foreseeable future. This will be the third time in five years the teams have met in postseason; so far the Astros have been a game better both times, in the 2015 wild-card game and the ’17 ALCS.

All the elements are in play here: They both occupy rarefied air in the sport’s stratosphere; there are fascinating characters on either side (Jose Altuve and Aaron Judge; Carlos Correa and Gleyber Torres; Alex Bregman and D.J. LeMahieu, on and on), and both teams are young enough that this should last a while. If there doesn’t yet seem to be a whole lot of built-in resentment yet … well, give it time. You spend enough time in someone’s face in October, someone is going to get annoyed eventually.

Geography?

That used to matter a lot more than it does now. The Yankees know all about how intense inter-sectional rivalries can be. Minute Maid Stadium may well be 1,639 miles from Yankee Stadium but Kaufman Stadium — known back in the day as Royals Stadium — doesn’t exactly abut neighborhoods with the South Bronx. And for all the bile and bellicosity contained within Yankees-Red Sox and Yankees-Dodgers, nothing — nothing — has ever burned brighter than Yankees-Royals in the ’70s.

“I can tell you that we respected them and they respected us, and that sounds very nice, but the truth is: We HATED them. And they hated us. And it showed,” says George Brett, who was right in the middle of each of the four ALCS meetings between the Yankees and Royals between 1976 and 1980, from his moon-shot off Grant Jackson that tied Game 5 in ’76 (the Chris Chambliss Game) to the haymakers-all-around scuffle with Graig Nettles in Game 5 in ’77 (the Billy benched Reggie Game) to the upper-deck blast off Goose Gossage that finally carried the day for Kansas City in 1980.

“We matched up so well with each other. We had so many great players on either side. And we kept running into each other, getting in each other’s way in the playoffs. It was spectacular.”

And so, with a little time, will this be, if it isn’t there already. The Astros won 107 games this year, the Yankees 103. They have aimed their sights on each other for six months.

“This is a rivalry that’s been created over the last few years, and everybody will think back to [2017] and expect this to top it,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said Friday. “I hope it does. And I hope it’s the same result. I liked celebrating at the end of that one.”

Said Yankees skipper Aaron Boone: “We know they’re a load.”

So is this burgeoning rivalry: Loaded with intrigue. Loaded with great players. Loaded with excellence on both sides, scheduled to collide just past 7 o’clock local time Saturday. If it isn’t yet an honest-to-goodness, stamped-as-official rivalry? Well, it sure feels like one.