CLEVELAND — They ran away with their division again and streaked to history, 102 wins and home-field advantage throughout the American League playoffs.

The Cleveland Indians have had a special season.

A new one, the only one, is about to begin.

Heartbroken after coming up a little short last year against the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland figured to make it to October for another swing at ending a World Series drought stretching back to 1948.

The Indians are back, but there’s now a 6-foot-7, 280-pound baseball-bashing behemoth standing in their way.

Behold Aaron Judge.

On the same field where their magical 2016 postseason ended on Nov. 2 in a light rain and extra innings, the Indians will open the division series Thursday night against Judge and the New York Yankees, who rallied to beat the Minnesota Twins in the wild-card game.

Unaffected by a larger stage, Judge hit a two-run homer in his playoff debut as the Yankees overcame a 3-0 deficit to win a postseason game for the first time in five years and earn a best-of-five matchup against the defending AL champions.

“We’re not done yet,” Judge said after the 8-4 victory at Yankee Stadium. “We’ve just got to keep it rolling in Cleveland.”

While fans across the country are excited to watch Judge, who blasted 52 homers as a rookie, face Indians ace Corey Kluber and baseball’s deepest pitching staff, Cleveland Manager Terry Francona isn’t as thrilled.

“He’s good for Major League Baseball,” Francona said of Judge. “He’s bad for the teams you’re playing against. He’s really good.”

Francona, normally a by-the-book manager, is taking a gamble in the opener and starting Trevor Bauer, a 17-game winner during the regular season, in Game 1 instead of Kluber, who will start Game 2.

Francona reasoned that in doing so he will have Kluber on regular rest again for Game 5 – if the series goes that far and Mother Nature doesn’t bring rain.

Cleveland went 5-2 against New York during the season but that doesn’t mean anything now.

“Everybody’s even,” Francona said. “What’s going to matter is who plays the best. It doesn’t matter who thinks somebody should win unless it’s the umpires. It’s going to be who plays the best.”