Three pitches at Progressive Field in Cleveland will surely bring back memories of Game 7 of the World Series for veteran pitcher Kyle Hendricks:
The stairs to the bullpen that he climbed to warm up and then climbed back down before the game.
The weight room where he sat between innings and where the team gathered during the infamous rain delay.
The clubhouse where the trophy was passed around.
“Go in there and I’ll feel it,” he told the Sun-Times.
On Monday, the Cubs return to the field where they won their 2016 World Series title. Eight years later, that history-making game featured just one player on each side – Hendricks and Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez. But Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy was the team’s run prevention coordinator at the time, and first base coach Mike Napoli was Cleveland’s first baseman.
“If I hadn’t won the World Series in Boston (in 2013), I don’t know how I would feel and I wouldn’t be able to talk about it,” Napoli said. “It’s heartbreaking to be so close.”
Cleveland even led the series 3-1, but the Cubs forced a 7th game.
“It felt like it was the longest day ever,” Hottovy said. “Because it was a night game … and everyone was on the field early because you were just nervous.”
Hendricks said: “Of course there were nerves and emotions involved, but strangely enough, looking back, the confidence of the group just stands out.”
Hendricks looked confident on the mound in his second start of the series. Once the game started, his baseball instincts took over.
“You knew he had good stuff,” Napoli said. “You knew he could put the ball where he wanted. So for me it was about narrowing the strike zone and getting something in the middle, not falling into his trap and missing a ball.”
Hendricks remembers going out between innings to make his warm-up throws and seeing out of the corner of his eye his fellow starters Jake Arrieta, John Lackey and Jon Lester walking to the bullpen together.
“You knew what was at stake,” Hendricks said. “And that made it more reassuring and easier in a lot of ways. It’s just one shot at a time. If anything happens, literally everyone has your back.”
Hendricks eventually handed the ball off to Lester, who was leading 5-1 with two outs and one runner on base in the bottom of the fifth inning. The lead was so comfortable that the Cubs were still in control even after two runs were scored on a wild pitch by Lester.
That changed in the second half of the eighth inning when Cleveland tied the game against Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman.
“I remember looking at our hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo,” Napoli said, “just that look we gave each other when (Rajai Davis) hit the home run, and we thought, ‘Maybe they’re cursed.'”
Then the rain came.
Play was suspended before the 10th inning, and the Cubs retreated to the weight room, where Hottovy had camped out throughout the game. Both he and Hendricks recalled Chapman’s emotions and Jason Heyward’s pep talk.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, just focus on what you need to do,'” Hottovy said of the conversation in the room. “It was more like, ‘No, this is ours. We’re going to go get it.’ It was such a cool moment to hear a group of guys come together in that final moment.”
They pulled it off. 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 feelings in the world.”
“It really connected us with the fan base,” Hendricks said of ending the 108-year championship drought, “and how much it meant to everyone in the city and around the world – there are Cubs fans everywhere. So we really felt all of that.”
The Cubs have since returned to Cleveland, but not without the core of that championship team.
“At this point in your career, you’re obviously still caught up in the here and now and living in the day-to-day, in the present,” Hendricks said, “but you tend to smell the roses a little bit more, look around and reminisce a little bit.”
Hendricks is not scheduled to start in Cleveland. The Cubs are using their many off days this month to leave him out of the rotation. But he is available out of the bullpen. And the Cubs will face their toughest test this month on their way back to National League wild card contention.
The Cubs beat the White Sox 3-1 on Saturday.
Cubs starter Justin Steele held the Sox to one run and Miguel Amaya scored the decisive runs.
His wife, Mallory Swanson, scored the only goal in the U.S. women’s soccer team’s gold medal game against Brazil.
