PITTSBURGH — Ian Happ narrowly missed one of the biggest baseball stories ever by a single year.

Happ was playing in the minor leagues when the Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians in the 2016 World Series for the franchise’s first championship in 108 years. The Mount Lebanon High School graduate made his major-league debut the following season on May 13.

The Cubs haven’t been to the World Series since then. However, they clinched a postseason berth on Wednesday by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 8-4 at PNC Park, their first since the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Happ, who also appeared in the postseason in 2017 and 2018, knows the Cubs will need to win three playoff rounds to reach the World Series. So, the left fielder isn’t thinking too far ahead to a potential appearance in the Fall Classic.

“I’m going to take it one step at a time, but the organization, the fan base, they deserve for this team to be playing meaningful baseball in October,” Happ said.

But …

“I’ve seen what (winning a World Series) from the guys who did it,” Happ said. “I’ve seen the way that the city responds and how proud the people of Chicago and the fans were about what those guys (in 2016) were able to do. So, to be able to get back to a position like that and have a chance to do something that special would mean a lot to me, for my career. It’s the goal.”

The Cubs’ chances of winning the National League Central are slim as they trail the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers by five games with 10 games to play. Chicago, though, holds a five-game lead over the San Diego Padres for the first NL wild card and homefield advantage in the first round of the postseason.

The Cubs are surging toward the finish line, though, with six wins in their last seven games, including a three-game sweep of the Pirates. Happ is helping lead the Cubs’ late-season charge.

In his last 28 games since Aug. 17, Happ is hitting .320 with seven home runs and 18 RBIs. Happ has raised his season slash line to .243/.347/.426 through 140 games with 23 homers, two short of his career high.

“I’d been really feeling good with my bats and just not getting a lot of stuff to fall for kind of a couple of months there in the middle of the season,” Happ said. “Just the luck as really tough and so it was kind of just staying with the process and knowing if I kept doing that, at some point the results would come and they have and that’s been rewarding.”

Happ has become one of the pillars of the franchise. He is a three-time Gold Glove winner, was an All-Star in 2022, and is finishing the second year of a three-year, $61-million contract.

So, Cubs manager Craig Counsell never worried when Happ had a .228 batting average at the All-Star break.

“We had some other guys who had great first halves, and I think Ian would tell you he did not have a great first half,” Counsell said. “I think when you looked at it, you knew Ian’s going to have a good second half. And Ian’s had a good second half.

“Some of our other guys have struggled a little bit in the second half. So that’s how a good team kind of functions together. We got guys to take turns driving the bus, so to speak. And Ian’s certainly been at the center of our offensive production here in a huge way the whole second half.”