It's been four straight years where the Yankees lost the final game of the season, and the 11th-straight season without a World Series championship.

The Yankees' season ended Friday night at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays, losing the deciding Game 5, 2-1.

The Yankees just barely missed out on their third ALCS appearances in four years. Instead, they're packing their bags and heading home.

"It's awful. The ending is cruel, it really is," said manager Aaron Boone.

Despite saying the goal is a championship, Boone added that he "hate[s]" being asked if the season is a failure.

"I hate that question every year, because there's failures and success, no one in that room is a failure. Our goal is to win a world championship. That's what we feel like we're capable of. That's the goal that we set out way back in Tampa in spring, and then Summer Camp, nothing changed. Entering the playoff[s], nothing changed," he said.

Not only did the 2020 baseball season end in disappointment, but it's obviously been a rough year for everyone. Boone said there is "no one else" he'd rather go through to trials and tribulations of this year with.

"So many people I'm grateful for that pour so much into this from all the players, staff, clubhouse personnel, training staff, so many people that poured so much into this, especially in such a crazy year, I'm proud of so many people. I'm proud to work alongside so many people that sacrificed so much this year...

"I just think you add on top of it, all 2020 has been. For you guys, for us, the sacrifices that players, media, staff, clubhouse personnel, being away from family, all that's going on in our world right now, all adds into it. I am proud of the sacrifice and the commitment that guys have made in heartbreaking conditions, but no one I'd rather go through it with then those guys," Boone said.

Boone added it was not necessarily a fun locker room to be in.

"A lot of us said some things. I don't want to go too much into what was said, but there's a lot of pain in that room, there's a lot of closeness and love for one another in that room," Boone said. "A lot of people in that room have been through the battles together where we've had a lot of success and had some heartbreaking playoff losses. And it stinks. It stinks. I do believe it makes us closer and hopefully continues to make us hungrier, but it's a hurting room."

Boone added that despite the loss, he feels the Yankees were playing their best baseball down the stretch.

"I feel like in what's been a real year of peaks and valleys on the field, too, I feel like in a lot of ways we're playing our best baseball right now. We lost to a really good team that I thought played a really good game against us, obviously being able to hold us down tonight."

Despite another heartbreaking end, Boone feels the Yankees are on the cusp of getting a ring.

"We have a team capable, I feel, of being a champion," he said. "We haven't gotten there yet. I believe in my heart we will, we just gotta keep grinding away at it...

"We're gonna get there, I know it, and it's gonna make it all the sweeter, but a lot of hurting people in that room right now."

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