Tony DeMarco

DETROIT - They were too stunned, too shocked, too defiant, too embarrassed to consider it. Not yet. Not when the sting of another first-round exit from the playoffs — their third in the last five years — was diametrically opposed to the elation of a surprising and convincing division series victory being celebrated in the other clubhouse.

But the New York Yankees are about to change before our eyes. This Bronx bummer will have ramifications. It has to. In the twilight and shadows of Comerica Park, where the Yankees were dominated by the Detroit Tigers for the second consecutive game — this time 8-3 — that realization had to take hold. Soon to come is what will they do about it.

“I didn’t expect to be thinking about those kinds of questions this early,’’ general manager Brian Cashman said. “I’m not mentally prepared for that. I was expecting to see us get a big win here and take it back to New York (for a Game 5). I’m stunned. It’s incredibly disappointing. It’s going to be a long winter.’’

And an eventful one, no doubt. That’s what happens when you have 200 million reasons why you should win, but are left with nothing to show for them. When after an 8-4 victory in Game 1, you score only six more runs in the final three games, go 20 consecutive innings over three games without a run, and hitless in 18 at-bats with men on base in Game 3.

The Curtis Granderson triple in Game 2 is when Cashman said he felt the series momentum turn, and his Yankees just couldn’t stop it after that. When they were punched, they never got up.

“They pretty much kicked our ass in every facet of the game,’’ is how Alex Rodriguez described it.

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And that makes it back-to-back first-round exits following the historic collapse to the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS.

“I hope we look around and see what great players we have in this clubhouse, because it’s going to be different next year,’’ center fielder Johnny Damon said.

They won’t just be throwing money at the problems. As Cashman said, “history shows that (having the highest payroll) doesn’t necessarily translate into winning championships, ‘or we’d have a hundred of them.’ Payrolls don’t win championships. Players do. A payroll doesn’t get you a big hit in the seventh inning of a tie game, or make that big pitch. People do.’’

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But clearly, the Yankees need more pitching — shutdown pitching at the front end of the rotation. What better examples than the one Kenny Rogers provided in Game 3, followed by Jeremy Bonderman in Game 4, who took a perfect game into the sixth inning, and needed only 40 pitches to get through the first five.

“Their pitching just smothered us,’’ Cashman said.

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The Yankees could only counter with 43-year-old Randy Johnson, and with the series on the line on Saturday, they sent out Jaret Wright, whose 5.09 ERA was slightly higher than Johnson’s 5.00 mark.

“If you pitch well, you have a chance to win. I tell you guys that all the time,’’ Derek Jeter said. “Just because you have a great lineup, that doesn’t mean you’re going to win. You have to play. You don’t win games on paper. We haven’t played well when it counted.’’

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