Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks walks to the dugout, Game 7 of the 2016 World Series at Progressive Field on Nov. 2, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Three seats at Cleveland’s Progressive Field will evoke memories of Game 7 of the World Series for veteran pitcher Kyle Hendricks:
The bullpen stairs he climbed and walked down just before the game.
The weight room where he sat between heats and where the team would meet during the notorious rain delay.
The clubhouse, where they are located around the trophy.
“You get in there and I’ll do it,” he told the Sun-Times.
On Monday, the Cubs return to the box where they won their 2016 World Series title. Eight years later, only one player from each team, Hendricks and Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez, participated in this mythical game. But Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy, the team’s run-prevention coordinator at the time, and first base coach Mike Napoli, Cleveland’s first baseman.
“If it wasn’t after winning the World Series in Boston [in 2013], I don’t know how I would feel, or how I would be able to communicate it,” Napoli said. “It’s a heartache to be so close. “
Cleveland even took a 3-1 lead in the series, the Cubs forcing a Game 7.
“It seemed like the longest day ever,” Hottvy said. “Because it was a night game. . . and everyone came out on the field early because they were just anxious.
Hendricks said: “Obviously nerves and feelings were part of this, but in a curious way, the confidence of the organisation just comes through. “
Hendricks, at the start of the series, looked comfortable on the mound. Baseball’s instincts took over once the game started.
“You knew he had smart things,” Napoles said. “You knew he could just put the ball where he wanted it. So for me it’s about decreasing the strike zone and looking for something in between, not falling into the trap of missing a barrel.
Hendricks remembers going out to throw his warm-up pitches between innings and out of the corner of his eye watching fellow starters Jake Arrieta, John Lackey and Jon Lester walk to the bullpen together.
“You knew what was at stake,” Hendricks said. And it almost made things more reassuring and less difficult in many ways. It’s just one chance at a time. Literally, if something happens, we have all of you. “
Hendricks ended up handing the ball to Lester, leading 5-1 with two outs and a runner in the back of the fifth inning. The lead was comfortable enough that even after two runs scored on a wild pitch by Lester, the Cubs were still in control.
That was in the bottom of the eighth, when Cleveland tied the game against the Cubs’ closest, Aroldis Chapman.
“I’m looking for our hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo,” Napoli said, “just that look we gave ourselves when [Rajai Davis] hit the home run, of ‘maybe they’re cursed. ‘
Then the rain came.
The game was stopped early in the inning, and the Cubs retreated to the weight room, where Hottovy had camped out for the entire game. He and Hendricks recalled Chapman’s emotion and Jason Heyward’s speech.
“It’s not like, ‘Hey, just focus on what you want to do,'” Hottovy said of the verbal exchange in the room. “It’s like, ‘No, it’s ours. We will accept it. ‘ It’s a great moment to hear a boys’ organization come together at this last moment.
They followed him. When third baseman Kris Bryant’s throw hit first baseman Anthony Rizzo’s glove for the final out, Hendricks described it as “one of the happiest emotions in the world. “
“It connected us to the fan base,” Hfinishricks said of the end of the 108-year championship drought, “and how much it meant to everyone in the city and around the world — there are Cubs enthusiasts everywhere. “. We feel all that.
The Cubs have returned to Cleveland since then, but without the core of that championship team.
“At this point in your career, you’re obviously still caught up in the moment of the offer and the day-to-day,” Hendricks said, “but you tend, a little bit more, to smell the roses, to look around, to remember . a bit of memories. “
The Cubs are taking advantage of their streak of days off this month to skip their rotation shift. But he must be removed from the bullpen. And the Cubs will face their toughest test this month in their quest to return to the NL wild-card conversation.
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