There is no escaping the brutality of this Yankees failure

This one will sting. This will leave traces. In the coming weeks and months, there will be days and nights when this game will visit you – in your sleep, daydreaming in your office, complaining with friends around a water cooler.

Some games stay in your memory.

This one will stay with you.

The Yankees lost Game 5 of the 120th World Series 7-6 last night, and it's almost impossible to understand how that happened. It's almost impossible to believe that they won't be practicing at Dodger Stadium on Thursday afternoon, asking more and more questions about redeeming a 20-year-old and solving the 0-3 puzzle.

They led 5-0. Gerrit Cole pitched four no-hit innings, extending the Yankees streak of two games to 27 consecutive Dodgers retired. He kept everything he always promised and kept regularly. The 49,263 spectators at Yankee Stadium planned a three-hour party and then an evening on Thursday to breathe and calm their vocal folds before Game 6 on Friday.

Before continuing his quest to heal this two-decade-long wound.

Then in no time it was 5:5.

And that wasn't understandable either. Aaron Judge – who nearly turned the stadium's foundation into dust with a home run in the first inning, who had earlier deprived Freddie Freeman of extra bases with a brilliant catch right next to the 399-foot sign – dropped a fly ball.

Wait. He did what?

Yes. He dropped a fly ball off Tommy Edman's bat. It was also a Little League fly. If he sees the exact same ball a thousand times – no, that's 100,000 times – he'll catch it 99,999 times. It was inexplicable. And then Anthony Volpe – a Gold Glove last year, maybe a Gold Glove this year – tied it with a poor throw to third with a ball in the hole.

You can't give the White Sox five outs in an inning and expect to get away with it; You certainly can't give a 108-win team like the Dodgers five outs. And yet Cole was so good that he almost got away scot-free. He knocked down Gavin Lux and the crowd roared. He hit Shohei Ohtani and they tried to emulate the noise of Judge's home run.

And then he meekly got Mookie Betts to sit down first.

He would get out of there.

However, he suffered a brain cramp at the worst moment. He failed to cover first base. It's notable: On the last day of September, the city's other baseball team's season almost ended because Edwin Diaz failed to cover first. Now, on the second to last day of October, Cole was doing the same. One run was counted. And it was impossible to know at the moment, but the Yankees season was also starting to die a little there.

(Consequence: You REALLY can't give the Dodgers SIX outs and expect to get away with it.)

They didn't get away with it. They later took the lead 6-5, but the moment was too big for Tommy Kahnle. Luke Weaver, who was so good for two solid months, was good here too – but two of his outs were sac flies. It was 7-6. And it would stay at 7-6. Forever.

“The guys are pouring their hearts out in the clubhouse right now,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “That's what I've been talking about all year, they love each other in there and it's terribly hard in there at the moment.”

Now begins the long, endless offseason, one of the longest that Yankees fans have endured in decades. Now the Soto clock begins. The whole city suddenly feels like it's on the clock. In some ways, it might be therapeutic to focus your attention on how tiring this World Series has been instead of endlessly updating your social media with Soto updates.

“The ending is cruel,” Boone said. “I am heartbroken. It doesn’t take away my pride in what this space means to me, what this group has created and gone through to get here.”

Boone is right. The ending is cruel. The whole sport is cruel. The Yankees won 94 games and finished in first place. They won eight more in the playoffs. They had two players in Judge and Soto who enjoyed a more explosive 1-2 hitting ride than ever before. There should be plenty of snapshots to enjoy. And they will, in time. Until then …

“This,” said Gerrit Cole, “is as bad as it gets.”

But these are the Yankees. It's right there in the mission statement: title or bust. This year they were three wins short. And for most of what turned out to be the final evening, it felt like they were getting at least two bonus days of the baseball season. It's almost impossible to believe that this won't happen. Almost.