HOUSTON — As players embraced, thanking one another for a season full of memories, clubhouse attendants neatly packed bags of gear at lockers around the visitors’ clubhouse. Around the corner, a cadre of scouts and front-office staff congregated, their eyes now set on next season.
Resignation, quiet and discomforting, hung in the air.
The end of the Yankees’ season, as captivating as it had been, came swiftly and decisively on Saturday night with a 4-0 loss to the Houston Astros in the seventh and deciding game of the American League Championship Series.
The long view, that the Yankees had arrived ahead of schedule, would have to wait until the disappointment of falling just short of a World Series had dissipated.