CLEVELAND >> It’s going to take some time. The wounds from this one are deep and will take a while to scab over and heal.

But eventually the sting will subside and the magnitude of what this young Tigers team accomplished this season will sink in and heads will lift and chests will swell with pride.

Just not today.

“I have a heartbroken team for all the right reasons,” manager AJ Hinch said after the Tigers’ season ended with a 7-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians in Game 5 of the American League Division Series. “We left everything we could on the field against a really good team. We didn’t want the season to end as abruptly as it did.

“So I thanked them. I thanked them for everything that they’re about in that room. I’m really proud to be the manager and represent them and get to run the team on the field because of who they are and what they’re about.”

This gloriously improbable two-month spree ended, for all intents and purposes, with a sucker punch. Lane Thomas, who stranded the bases loaded in the third inning, delivered what in Cleveland will forever be an iconic grand slam home run off ace Tarik Skubal in a five-run fifth inning.

“Just one pitch,” said Skubal, who took a streak of 17 straight scoreless playoff innings into that inning. “What a swing. The moment was the moment and I’d love to have it back…Obviously not the outcome you want, but I am so proud of this team. It’s incredible what we did. We should be proud.”

That was the prevailing mood of the clubhouse. No champagne, but no tears, either. Disappointment, for sure, but also a sense that something magical was experienced for the first time and it created a thirst for more of it.

“I think we are here to stay,” said Kerry Carpenter, who, despite an injured left hamstring, delivered a clutch pinch-hit RBI single to put the Tigers ahead 1-0 in the top of the fifth inning. “There’s a bunch of young players who want to get better and are going to use this offseason to get better. I think everybody in this organization is really excited.

“We put the world on notice that we can do big things in this clubhouse with these guys.”

That was Hinch’s message to his team in the clubhouse afterward.

“I let them know there’s only one team that doesn’t have this pit in your stomach at the end of the year, and we were the next one to go through it,” he said. “I know it’s going to sting, but we’re also going to use it as fuel to get to next spring.

“I told the guys this earlier, once you play in one October, you never want to miss one the rest of your career, ever. And so we’re going to need to do a lot of work to get better and continue to play the brand of baseball that is winning baseball.”

But what a run it’s been for the Tigers. They were eight games under .500 and given up for dead on Aug. 10. They traded four veteran players at the trade deadline and designated Gio Urshela and Shelby Miller for assignment.

Then, as Carpenter, Riley Greene and Parker Meadows returned to the lineup healthy, as Hinch and pitching coach Chris Fetter creatively restructured the pitching staff deploying openers and bulk relievers, as young players like Trey Sweeney, Wenceel Perez and Colt Keith started to find their footing, they started to win.

They rolled into their first postseason in 10 years on a 31-13 run and then went into Houston and beat the playoff-seasoned Astros two straight in the Wild Card Series to advance to the ALDS.

Then on Thursday in Game 4, they were seven outs away from eliminating the Guardians at Comerica Park before David Fry turned the game and series around with a late two-run homer.

It was a two-month joy ride that sports fans in Detroit will be talking about long after the disappointment of Game 5 dissipates.

“It was incredible,” Hinch said. “Our guys, what we had to do to galvanize ourselves and put together stretches of good baseball as the notoriety enhanced, as the expectations rose, as the attention grew, we did an incredible job as a group of just staying grounded and trying to do our best every day, and it led us to where we are.

“And our players, our coaches, our organization never flinched. Like we never thought that we shouldn’t be here, and that is going to fuel us moving forward, and we’re going to be a problem for people if we can continue that mindset and continue that hunger to feel this.”

It looked for a brief minute like the ride would continue Saturday when they dramatically took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth.

The talk before the game centered on Carpenter’s injured left hamstring. Could he play? Could he at least give the Tigers one clutch swing? Hinch kept his cards hidden before the game, saying only that he hoped Carpenter would be available off the bench.

But this entire series has played out like a Hollywood script, so of course, Carpenter got his Kirk Gibson moment.

“If I could go, I wanted to go for these guys,” Carpenter said. “That was my driving reason. I wanted to be here for this team if I could contribute.”

He could and did.

Against right-handed reliever Andrew Walters, Hinch sent Carpenter up to hit for Justyn-Henry Malloy. Sweeney, who had walked, was on first. Walters threw three straight balls but Carpenter was hacking on 3-0, fouling off a middle-middle fastball.

He got another fastball on 3-1 and obliterated it, lining it to the base of the wall in right-center. Carpenter limped to first base and stopped as Sweeney motored all the way home, sliding just head of the relay throw.

“Super gratifying,” said Carpenter, who struck out in his next two at-bats, including with the bases loaded in the sixth. “Such a blessing. These guys deserve my best. That’s what I had to give them. It was pretty painful, but I could swing the bat.”

Skubal had been in complete control of the game through four innings allowing two hits with five strikeouts.

“Skubal is the best starting pitcher in the game right now,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “We saw him five days ago and our guys showed up confident today. We didn’t know when it was going to happen, but every single person that walked in our clubhouse today believed we were going to get to him.

“And we were fortunate to do that because he has had an unbelievable year. He’s an unbelievable pitcher. I have a ton of respect for him and what he’s done in this game. He’s going to be really good for a very long time, and we were very fortunate to get to him today.”

Singles by No. 8 hitter Andres Gimenez and pesky leadoff hitter Steven Kwan (three, three-hit games in the series) put Skubal under duress in the bottom of the fifth. An infield single by Fry loaded the bases with one out for Guardians superstar Jose Ramirez.

Skubal drilled Ramirez in the left arm with a 99-mph fastball, forcing in the tying run. Ramirez, after being tended to by the trainer, stayed in the game.

Thomas ambushed the next pitch, a center-cut 97-mph sinker. The ball left his bat at 107.7 mph and flew 396 feet over the high wall in left.

It was a dagger to the heart.

“I don’t think I’m going to sleep tonight,” Skubal said. “It’ll suck, and it should suck, but this is only going to make me strive to become a better version of myself. In thpse days in the offseason that get a little grueling … I’ll just make sure to remind myself of this feeling I have right now.”

The Tigers had Skubal’s back afterward.

“He could’ve given up 100 runs today and I’d still take him over anybody,” catcher Jake Rogers said. “Lane was a pain in my butt in this series. It was supposed to be a sinker in and it leaked over the plate. Lane did what he was supposed to do.”

The Tigers continued to scrap. They forced Vogt to empty his bullpen again. But the last six outs belonged to closer Emmanuel Clase and he slammed the door rudely on the Tigers’ dream run.

“It’s going to hurt for a little bit,” Greene said. “We busted our butts from Game One on and we came up short. It’s the way baseball goes. But super proud of this group. Nobody thought we’d be here except us. It is going to hurt but when it stops hurting — maybe in a week or a month — we’re going to remember all the fun we had.

“You can get caught up in the game, the intensity and nerves, but we just had fun. So much fun. Just seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces every day. It was just that no-quit factor. We never quit. We always felt like we had a shot.”

Game over. Season over. Memories forever.

“We’re back being a winning organization,” Hinch said. “And we earned it. We’re going to have to back it up now with a good off-season, a good spring with growing expectations and a group of players that is now battle-tested at the highest level to date.

“I’m proud that we had a winning record. I’m proud we played winning baseball. I’m proud that we got a chance to test ourselves in a heartfelt series against a team we respect and a team we expect to see a lot of next year.”