Indians season comes to an end with ALDS loss to Yankees; three takeaways

CLEVELAND-- That's all she wrote. The Cleveland Indians lost in Game 5 of the ALDS to the New York Yankees, 5-2, ending their 2017 season. Wednesday night's

CLEVELAND-- That's all she wrote.

The Cleveland Indians lost in Game 5 of the ALDS to the New York Yankees, 5-2, ending their 2017 season.

Wednesday night's contest was their sixth straight series-clinching loss, going back to last year's World Series against the Chicago Cubs.

It's basically impossible to digest this season tonight, but perhaps manager Terry Francona said it best in his postgame presser.

“Nobody wanted the season to be over,” he said. “It doesn’t wind down, it comes to a crashing halt. It’s disappointing. We felt good about ourselves. We made it harder to win, especially in the last two games.”

Here are our three takeaways from Game 5.

1. Kluber day

Coming into Game 5, most people expected Corey Kluber to be much better than he was in his Game 2 outing, when he went just two and two-thirds innings, struck out four and gave up seven hits, six earned runs, two homers and one walk.

Wednesday night, however, was not much better, as Kluber picked up his second career Postseason loss.

He struck out six in just three and two-thirds innings, while giving up three hits and three earned runs off of two home runs.

If you haven't been doing the math, that means that through two starts in the 2017 Postseason, Kluber struck out 10 in six and one-third innings of work, while giving up 10 hits, nine runs, and four homers. He recorded a 12.79 ERA.

His two Postseason performances have led many to speculate whether or not he is hurt, but either way, it was hardly what fans wanted to see in the biggest game of the season.

While there are few answers yet for his struggles in this series, he still remains a Cy Young favorite.

"I would take Corey any day over everybody," catcher Roberto Perez said. "We just gotta turn the page and get ready in the offseason and come back stronger."

2. Out of offensive magic

The Indians' bats never arrived in New York for Games 3 and 4, and they also never made it out on the field in the decisive Game 5.

The biggest change to the Tribe lineup came in the form of Edwin Encarnacion, who up until this point had still been recovering from his ankle sprain in Game 2. Encarnacion went 0-for-4 from the plate, striking out three times.

As a team, Cleveland recorded just five hits, and had four runners left on base, as well as three that were stranded in scoring position. Their only two runs came in the bottom of the fifth inning on back-to-back RBI singles from Perez and Giovanny Urshela to pull the Indians to within one run of the Yankees at 3-2.

While the Indians no doubt made things much harder for themselves in the top of the ninth inning when they allowed a Brett Gardner single and an error to deliver two huge insurance runs for the Yankees, ultimately the two homers that Didi Gregorius hit in the first and third innings (for one and two runs, respectively) would be more than enough for the Bronx Bombers.

3. What a wild ride

With the loss, the 2017 season comes to an end.

While there will be countless think pieces in the coming days that will analyze how and why this loss in the ALDS happened, there will also be many wondering just how this season fits into the context of historical years past.

Yes, the Indians will once again enter the spring with the longest World Series drought at 70 years.

But, the 2017 Indians will remain the team that holds the American League record for longest winning streak at 22 games. They were a team that stormed ahead of the Houston Astros in the final weeks of the regular season to earn the best AL record. They surpassed the 100-win threshold for just the third time in franchise history.

After losing the 2016 World Series in devastating fashion, this team came back and went on to become the favorites to win it all. And through it all, it felt as if they gave the whole city Indians fever.

This year, Cleveland will not witness a ticker-tape parade down East Ninth Street. There will be no champagne bottles uncorked. But in the spring of 2018, the same core will get to return with more motivation.

And despite all of their accomplishments, the lack of the Commissioner's Trophy will cause many to question what exactly this season means.

"Whatever you say isn't going to make anybody feel better tonight, but we win together and we lost together," Francona said. "It was an honor to go through this year with these guys, and there's times it hurt, like tonight. But it's quite a group, and I feel like a better person for going through the year with these guys."