The ending is always so abrupt when the buzzer sounds to end the season of the team you follow, or the clock reads 0:00, or the final out is recorded. The end came for the Guardians at 11:45 p.m. on Oct. 18 at Progressive Field when Lane Thomas hit a lazy fly ball caught by right fielder Juan Soto in the bottom of the 10th inning. A few minutes earlier, in the top of the 10th, Soto hit a three-run home run off Hunter Gaddis to break a 2-2 tie. Yankee fans on the first base side of the ballpark broke out “Let’s go Yankees!” chants. Guardians fans booed, though not loud enough to drown out the Yankee loyalists. Kyle Manzardo singled with one out in the bottom of the 10th to give the fans one last flicker of hope, but Jose Ramirez lined out to center and Thomas’ fly ball snuffed out the dream. "It hurts pretty bad right now," Steven Kwan said. "We're a family. These guys are my brothers." #Yankees 5, #Guardians 2. Yankees win ALCS, four games to one. pic.twitter.com/sG5V477T04 — Jeff Schudel (@jsproinsider) October 20, 2024 And as abrupt as the ending was to fans, it ended even more abruptly to the players, because players never believe they will fail until it really is over. They lost the ALCS to the Yankees, four games to one, but they clawed back from a 6-2 deficit in Game 4 to tie  the score 6-6, only to lose when Emanuel Clase gave up two runs in the ninth. They led Game 5, 2-0, but the lead vanished on a sixth-inning two-out, two-strike, two-run home run by Giancarlo Stanton. “We were three wins from the World Series,” Thomas said in the Guardians’ clubhouse. “That’s the biggest thing I thought about when I walked in here.” “Because we were so close in all those games makes it hurt a little more,” Steven Kwan said. It was a subdued clubhouse, of course. Players hugged each other or quietly broke off into little groups. Starting pitcher Tanner Bibee, who pitched brilliantly until Stanton crushed a slider 446 feet, 117.5 mph exit velocity, deep into the left-center field bleachers, teared up. “There’s a lot of stuff going on right now,” Bibee said. “That’s why I’m emotional.” PHOTOS: Guardians vs. Yankees, Oct. 19, 2024 First base was open with a runner on third when Stanton stepped to the plate. Jazz Chisholm, owner of a sparkling .119 career batting average in  the postseason, was on deck. Stanton had already homered three times against Guardians pitching in the first four games of the series. Writers in the press box were saying Guardians rookie manager Stephen Vogt should walk Stanton to get to Chisholm. The telepathy did not reach the third base dugout. “Tanner was dialed in,” Vogt said in his postgame interview. “Tanner had struck him out twice. He had him on the ropes. One mistake, that right there. I trust Tanner. The way he was throwing the ball, you give me 100 more times, I'm not putting him on right there.” Thomas’ comment of being just three wins away from being in the World Series was the prevailing mood in the clubhouse. The Guardians won 76 games last season. They won 92 in the regular season in 2024, eliminated the Tigers in the ALDS and kept scores close against the Yankees in the ALCS. “Obviously we're hurting,” Vogt said. “What a game to finish it on. This group of guys worked extremely hard from Day One. We believed, and we still believe we can be better. We can be more.” The Yankees are going to the World Series because they really are the Bronx Bombers. Stanton drove in eight runs and homered four home runs. Soto homered three times and playtd six runs. Aaron Judge hit two home runs and six RBI for the series. The Guardians can’t compete with that power.