CLEVELAND — The unmistakable end-of-season sound of large men exchanging daps and bro hugs filled the visitors’ clubhouse late Saturday at Progressive Field.
‘‘This is my favorite team I’ve ever played on,’’ starting pitcher Sean Burke said after the Sox were eliminated from the postseason with a 2-0 loss to the Guardians in Game 5 of the American League Division Series.
By the time the media were allowed to enter the locker room of a Sox team with the youngest position-player group in the AL, there was a heaping supply of perspective about a magical season that defied the odds and portended more entertaining summers to come on the South Side.
‘‘We came into the year with a 0% chance of making the playoffs, and we shocked the world,’’ shortstop Colson Montgomery said. ‘‘Coming up short like this, it hurts. It hurts a lot. But there’s a lot to be proud of.’’
Elsewhere, eyelids were rimmed with red. The few veterans sprinkled among the youngsters know that life in professional baseball rarely feels as warm as it did this season, that next season isn’t guaranteed to be better and that getting within a victory of playing for the AL pennant is a missed
opportunity.
‘‘It’s tough,’’ third baseman Miguel Vargas said. ‘‘We expected to win. They were better than us.’’
That the Sox split their regular-season and playoff matchups against the Guardians at nine victories apiece is cold comfort, if any at all. Both in the teams’ final regular-season series that swung the AL Central race and in overcoming a 2-0 deficit in the ALDS, the Guardians bested the Sox when it mattered.
‘‘We didn’t want to end it here,’’ dismayed second baseman Chase Meidroth said. ‘‘We had a good year, but we wanted better.’’
As much as the efforts to stretch Burke and a few high-leverage relievers dominated the attention through the Sox’ postseason run, it’s the way their offense — the most productive in the AL during the regular season — was shut down by the Guardians’ pitching staff in three consecutive losses to end the season that will linger.
After the Sox set an MLB postseason record for a nine-inning game with 19 strikeouts in Game 3, they broke it with 21 in Game 5. The Sox, who had the fifth-highest strikeout rate in the majors during the regular season, fanned 75 times in the series and homered only twice.
‘‘They did a lot of a lot of things well and exposed us in a lot of ways,’’ catcher Kyle Teel said. ‘‘We’ve just got to take a step back and look at how can we adjust for next year.’’
In their seventh encounter of the season against Guardians right-hander Gavin Williams, two days after he pitched the final inning of Game 4, he was the best many Sox players had seen him, striking out 12 batters in 5⅔ innings.
But as they did in each of his starts against them this season, the Sox chased Williams before he could complete six full innings. He departed with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth.
With the Sox trailing 2-0 at the time, thanks to a simply miraculous home run by Jose Ramirez on a curveball from Burke no higher than his ankles in the fourth inning, the game was in the hands of slugger Munetaka Murakami in a matchup against Guardians left-hander Erik Sabrowski.
Randal Grichuk, who led the majors in slugging percentage against left-handed pitching, was available to pinch-hit. But for the Sox, who made much of their clubhouse believe postseason baseball was possible when they signed Murakami, the idea of taking the fate of the season out of his hands was a non-starter.
‘‘No, zero,’’ manager Will Venable said when asked if he considered pinch-hitting.
Murakami swung through a 2-2 fastball near the heart of the plate.
The Sox’ offense was mighty this season, with Vargas, Murakami and Montgomery all hitting 30 or more homers, but the latter two had the two lowest contact rates among qualified hitters. Future Sox offenses that want to avoid those sorts of lulls will need more balance and a lot more contact.
‘‘I’m still swinging at the high-velocity pitches and the breaking balls down, and the chase is there,’’ Murakami said through an interpreter. ‘‘I’ve got to be better at mechanics and all aspects of baseball.’’
It’s a cruel ending for a Sox team that largely should be remembered for bringing joy back to Rate Field and that played together in a way that allowed them to transcend all projections. But the reward for a good season is usually a cruel ending. The bitter taste of defeat is meant to linger until champagne can replace it.
‘‘Easily the most special season I’ve ever been a part of; it’s not even remotely close,’’ said injured reliever Mike Vasil, who proclaimed his wizarding days to be over, given that he’s due to return to the mound next season. ‘‘We made a lot of people believe, and that’s really the only thing that matters. White Sox baseball is back, and we’re here to stay.’’