Young Guardians team handed ALCS loss, but knows roadmap for return

CLEVELAND -- Remember this feeling.

It’s a short message, but an impactful one. It’s what Guardians manager Stephen Vogt thought his team needed to hear after a gut-wrenching ending to a magical season. There were tears all throughout the clubhouse after the Guardians lost Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, 5-2, in 10 innings to the Yankees on Saturday at Progressive Field. It meant New York was heading to the World Series. And, once again, Cleveland was not.

“It hurts pretty bad right now,” Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan said.

It hurts for multiple reasons.

The Guardians were on a quest to prove everyone wrong. They knew that they were projected to have an underwhelming season, and they simply used it as fuel to be even better. It led them to a 92-win season. It led them to an AL Central title. It led them to a first-round bye in the playoffs. It led them to defeating the Tigers in the ALDS. It led them all the way to Game 5 of the ALCS, where they came up short of their ultimate goal. But that doesn’t take away from every other accomplishment.

“I felt like we proved a lot of people wrong,” Guardians catcher Austin Hedges said. “All the people that wrote about us were just blatantly wrong, just not even close to right. So hopefully going into the next year, they project us to win more than like 74 games.”

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It hurts because this team had strengths that no one saw coming. The Guardians had a bullpen unlike anything the organization had ever seen. The group owned an ERA that ranked fourth best among all bullpens since 1995 during the regular season. But because this group was leaned on so heavily, it started to run out of steam in October. Cleveland was a team that also depended on sound defense, knowing it couldn’t afford to make errors. Yet the defense wasn’t as consistently lights-out this series as it always had been.

The Guardians created their own style of play: Guards Ball. It’s a scrappy, hustle-focused approach to the game that may not always be the prettiest or the flashiest. But it gets the job done. It’s bunting, stealing bases, stretching singles into doubles, plating runs on sacrifice flies, drawing walks and all the other minor parts of the game that are often overlooked. It was fun and different, and it created an electrifying vibe in the dugout that forced this group into believing it was never out of a game.

It’s the only reason the Guardians were able to push the Yankees to their limit, despite some hiccups in the ALCS. There were still two extra-inning games. There was an epic walk-off victory in Game 3 that highlighted players on this roster that hadn’t received much attention this year.

“I think we have a lot to be proud of,” Guardians center fielder Lane Thomas said. “I thought all these games were close or we made 'em close at the end or so. I think that shows they're a really good team, and I thought we competed with 'em pretty well.”

It hurts because of the culture within this group. Everyone in the clubhouse has mentioned at some point this season that this is the closest team they’d ever been on. Veterans like Hedges and Matthew Boyd constantly told younger players to savor this. Guys aren’t always showing up early and staying late after the last out to play cards, watch TV and just hang out with each other.

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“The intangibles, you can't measure it,” Hedges said. “The things that people just can't understand why we won games. That fires me up, because we know what it is and it's just a feeling. … Our group thrived off of that, and the only way you can really measure it is wins and losses. And we won a hell of a lot of games this year.”

It gets old to constantly hear “there’s always next year” for an organization that’s been waiting since 1948 to get that next title. This is supposed to hurt. But this franchise knows that it’s building toward something. Every loss is a lesson. And for MLB’s third-youngest team to now have the experience of reaching the ALCS, that can only help prepare this group for 2025.

“We know exactly the roadmap,” Hedges said. “We know exactly next year what it takes.”

Sure, it’s going to hurt. But this pain can create a drive for next season. It’s the reason why Vogt told them to remember this feeling, because they don’t want to experience it again.

“There's more left on the table for this group,” Vogt told his team. “Be proud of what we accomplished overall and use this to fuel your offseason.”