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 spots at Cleveland’s Progressive Field are sure to evoke Game 7 of the World Series for veteran pitcher Kyle Hendricks:
He walked up the bullpen stairs and down just before the game.
The weight room where he sat between innings and where the team accumulated 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, has played in that mythical game. But Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottvy, the team’s run-prevention coordinator at the time, and first baseman first baseman coach Mike Napoli Cleveland.
“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, the nerves and feelings were down to it, but in a curious way, in hindsight, the confidence of the band just comes to light. “
Hendricks, in his starting moment in the series, looked comfortable on the mound. Baseball’s intuition took over once the game started.
“You knew he had smart stuff,” Napoli said. You knew I could put the ball where I wanted. So, for me, it’s about looking to narrow the strike zone and look for something in between, try not to fall. “In his trap you were missing a barrel.
Hendricks remembers going out to throw his warm-up pitches between innings and out of the corner of his eye he saw fellow starters Jake Arrieta, John Lackey and Jon Lester heading into 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 eventually passed the ball to Lester, winning 5-1 with two outs and a runner in the back of the fifth. The lead was comfortable enough that even after two runs scored on a wild pitch through Lester, the Cubs were still in control.
That happened again in the bottom of the eighth inning, when Cleveland tied the game against the Cubs’ Aroldis Chapman.
“I looked at our hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo,” Napoli said, “just that look we gave each other when [Rajai Davis] hit the home run, of ‘maybe they’re cursed. ‘”
Then the rain came.
The game was stopped in the top of the 10th 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, 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 cool moment to hear an organization of guys come together in that final moment.
They followed. When third baseman Kris Bryant’s pitch 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 stuck in the moment of the offer and the day-to-day,” Hendricks said, “but you tend to, a little bit more, smell the roses, look around, remember. “a little. “
Hendricks is not expected to start in Cleveland. The Cubs are taking advantage of their series of off days this month to skip their turn in the rotation. But he can be kept out of the bullpen. And the Cubs will face their most difficult moments. check back this month in your quest to get back to the verbal exchange over the NL wild card.
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