So let’s get this right out of the way: We’re all going to miss David Ortiz.

Fans, teammates, opponents, ownership, coaches, media types . . . the list goes on and on. Here’s a guy who delivered 14 seasons of clutch hits, funny quotes, bombastic temperament and a gift for relating to little kids that’s right out of the Babe Ruth playbook.

What a shame it had to end.

What a shame it had to end like this: The Red Sox suffering a 4-3 loss to Terry Francona’s Cleveland Indians last night at Fenway Park, giving the Tribe a three-game sweep of this best-of-five AL Division Series.

It is true that nary a person left Fenway when it was over. They all wanted to see Ortiz, to applaud him, to have him wave back one last time as a player. And all of that happened, and it was memorable, and he cried, and you cried, and it had the power to blind you to the reality that it wasn’t supposed to end this way.

Let the record show that the last plate appearance of Ortiz’ brilliant career was an eighth-inning walk — a garden-variety base on balls, a free pass. You can take solace in knowing that this free pass, against Indians closer Cody Allen, absolutely electrified Fenway, if a walk can do that, because it put runners on first and second, two down, with Hanley Ramirez up.

Yes, Hanley dutifully singled to left, bringing home Mookie Betts to make it a one-run game.

And then this happened, had to happen: Marco Hernandez came out to run for Ortiz at second. Fenway roared as he exited the field and Ortiz roared right back, extending his arms to keep the joint fired up.

But the Sox couldn’t get Hernandez home then went down in the ninth. And all anybody will remember of this game is that Ortiz returned to the field and was showered with love from Red Sox Nation.

“Tonight, when I walked out to the mound, I realized that it was over,” he said. “It was pretty much the last time as player I’ll walk in front of a crowd. And the emotion came back out again.”

What’s crazy about this is that the Red Sox being in the postseason this year was supposed to make a better sendoff for Ortiz than Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski got. Teddy Ballgame and Captain Carl both took their last cuts for drowsy, sub.-500 teams that were playing out the string, whereas Ortiz, everyone hoped, would go out in a blaze of championship glory.

Instead, he was a member of a team that went out in the first round.

In a way, Williams and Yaz had it better. With nothing left to play for, they were able to enjoy themselves and have a little fun. In an odd twist to all this, Yaz was facing the Cleveland Indians and in his last plate appearance faced a young pitcher, Dan Spillner, who couldn’t get the ball over the plate. Yaz, refusing to end his career on a walk, swung at a 3-0 pitch up by his eyeballs and popped out to second.

So here’s Ortiz, facing the Indians, and facing Allen, who had trouble getting the ball over the plate. When it went to 3-0, and when the fourth pitch was bad, Ortiz dutifully took it. The Sox needed baserunners, not bad swings.

Ortiz looked upset.

“No, no, no,” he said later. “That’s the game.”

Yeah, that’s the game and dems the breaks. Instead of a Last Hurrah we get a four-pitch walk. He made it to second base and then Hernandez pinch-ran for him. Just as Chico Walker took over for Yaz in left field. Just as Carroll Hardy went in for Williams.

But again: Those guys weren’t playing for anything.

Hernandez was the potential tying run. And Ortiz was reduced to a guy on the bench, cheering for something to happen. It didn’t. And that’s how this ends — a sadder ending than when Williams left, a sadder ending than when Yaz left.

There was no last great postseason for Ortiz to deliver to Red Sox fans. Never mind a rolling rally. This time, nobody even bothered to tune up the duck boats.

Ortiz was just 1-for-9 in this Division Series. Strangely, his brilliant postseason career more or less ending as it began: Way back in 2002, as a 26-year-old with the Minnesota Twins, he went 3-for-13 with five strikeouts inn his team’s five-game Division Series loss to the Oakland A’s.

Ortiz said that when he arrived at Fenway yesterday, he drove his around the old ballpark “to view things from a different perspective.”

Now he rides off into the sunset, and Red Sox fans are left to view this entire season in a different perspective — how it once held such promise, and how it ended so abruptly.