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

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.”

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