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Article snippet: 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. Instead, it will be the Astros who play the Dodgers in the Series, which begins Tuesday night in Los Angeles. “It hurts,” said Brett Gardner, one of three players who remain from the Yankees’ last championship team, in 2009. “Only one team is going to be happy at the end of the year, and it’s not going to be us.” That was assured Saturday night when solo home runs by Evan Gattis and Jose Altuve and a two-run double by the former Yankee catcher Brian McCann provided plenty of support for two of the less heralded members of the Astros’ starting rotation, Charlie Morton and Lance McCullers. Combined, they shut out the Yankees on three hits. The Yankees ended up losing six of the seven games they played on the road in this postseason. And the final loss cam... Link to the full article to read more