The Toronto Blue Jays were still in shock as John Schneider and his players sought to reflect on a remarkable defeat to the Seattle Mariners that ended their season.
Toronto, the fourth seed in the American League, had lost their Wild Card opener at home to the Mariners on Friday but appeared on course to level the series the following day.
The Blue Jays led 8-1 at the end of the fifth inning, with Seattle needing to become just the third team to overturn a seven-run deficit in a postseason game.
But that was exactly what they did, with four runs in each of the sixth and eighth innings to win 10-9 and advance to the ALDS.
"Baseball sucks sometimes, and this group will be back in the exact same spot very, very soon," Schneider said.
"Sometimes when you think you have an advantage, you don't win."
The interim Blue Jays manager gathered his thoughts more effectively than Teoscar Hernandez, whose two home runs proved in vain.
Hernandez is only the third Blue Jay to hit two homers in a single postseason game, although all three examples have now come in defeats that saw Toronto eliminated (also Jose Bautista vs the Kansas City Royals in the 2015 ALCS, Danny Jansen vs the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2020 Wild Card).
"Nothing goes through my mind," Hernandez said. "Every little thing that happened in the game, it's just incredible the way it happened.
"I mean, we were winning by seven runs. It sucks, but at the end, it's baseball, and we have to eat it, go home, think about it and get ready for next year."
While heartbreaking for the Blue Jays, the win continued the Mariners' Cinderella story, bringing playoff baseball back home to Seattle for the first time since 2001.
A 21-year postseason drought had been the longest such active run in any of the four major American sports.
"It's a credit to our players not quitting," said manager Scott Servais. "Just keep grinding through it.
"We've talked about doing the little things, just get on base, and that's what you saw. Nobody tried to hit a homer. It was just 'keep the line moving'. And all of a sudden, big things happen."