The Astros had Gerrit Cole on the mound, and perhaps the opponent’s signs while batting, yet did not win the World Series the last two years.

In case you need to know how tough it is to win it all.

But, you know what?

Tough.

This is the Yankees’ world now — as championship-or-bust as at any time with Ruth or Gehrig or under the bombastic demands of George Steinbrenner. This is life when you enlist what Aaron Boone called “maybe the best pitcher in the game in his prime” on the largest contract ever awarded a hurler.

Hal Steinbrenner, normally the measured son of The Boss, defined what he wanted for an investment of nine years at $324 million: “We need to win some championships. And I believe we’re going to do that — sooner rather than later.” When championships with an “s” was repeated back to him, the Yankees’ principal owner said, “Plural.”

The Yankees have one title in nearly 20 years. They did not appear in a World Series in the now-concluding decade — the first time that has occurred since the 1910s. Hal has shown patience and positivity as the seasons have passed. But he authorized going to nine years when he felt that would be a separator — and it was — to get “a special talent and human being.” To get as close to a missing link to a title as exists for the Yankees.

Put Cole on the Yankees instead of the Astros last year and how does the ALCS go? This is a move that boosts the Yankees, kneecaps their tormentors from Houston and plays keep-away from their equally desperate-for-a-title, West Coast doppelganger Dodgers, who were the runners-up for Cole.

The Yanks won 103 games last year with three regular-season starts from Luis Severino. Now, they are in line to get 60 combined from Cole and Severino. Most teams would take Severino as an ace followed by James Paxton and Masahiro Tanaka. Now, that trio is the Yankees’ Nos. 2-4 starters. Boone would not commit to Cole as his Opening Day starter. But come on, they just gave the righty more per year on average than any baseball player ever. He is starting the opener and — schedule permitting — opening every postseason series.

It is the right marriage of player to team. Cole grew up in Southern California as a Yankees fan. He opened his press conference with a nice touch, breaking out the sign he waved at the 2001 Yankees-Diamondbacks World Series: “Yankee Fan Today Tomorrow Forever.” And he pretty much aced everything thereafter, too, offering expansive, cliche-free, passion-heavy thoughts on his pitching style, wine, Curt Flood and Marvin Miller and his love of the Yankees.

No one can be sure about who will acclimate to the Yankees. Players as great as Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez faltered in their first Yankees seasons, Randy Johnson never was comfortable. But the last three starters the Yanks lured in free agency to be their ace — Mike Mussina, CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka — instantly excelled in this environment.

On Day 1 of the rest of his pinstripe life, Cole gave optimism he is more of that latter lineage. He dealt flawlessly well with Sign-gate (was that poster he brought really the original from 2001?), having to shave (admitting “razor burn” for the first time) and the Astros’ alleged sign stealing (saying he saw nothing untoward in his two years with Houston). Most of the allegations against the Astros reach to 2017, a year before Cole arrived and a year that the Astros won it all. They came tantalizingly close last season, Cole poised in the pen to perhaps finish out a title.

“I came eight outs away from getting a ring,” Cole said. “I felt I could see the light underneath the door and then it was slammed shut in our face. It never opened actually. I am as hungry as ever to finish that journey, and in my opinion there would be no better place to do it than in New York.”

This makes the marriage right, too — desperate team to hungry player. Cole mentioned how unpleasant the losing years were in Pittsburgh. He said “pressure is a privilege” earned by being good enough to play the most stressful games.

That is the right attitude. Because the pressure is coming — more than with questions about posters and shaving. As Cole knows, titles are exceedingly tough to win. But when he signed that largest pitching contract, he also agreed to the rules by which him and this team will be judged:

Championship(s) or bust.