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Mostly, they’ll be teammates again.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s so good to see so many of these guys\u2019 faces,\u201d said Jason Kipnis, Cleveland’s starting second baseman in 2016. “We could have a group text and all that stuff, but to get back and get that hug and reminisce with them, that makes it a lot of fun.<\/p>\n
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“There\u2019s always people who are like would you rather not go to the playoffs than go to the World Series and lose it? No, because the memories of that run have lasted a lifetime already.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strengthened by the acquisition of elite reliever Andrew Miller at the trade deadline, the 2016 Indians went 94-67 in the regular season to win the AL Central before beating Boston and Toronto in the playoffs to set up a date with the Cubs in a Series pitting two teams with generational championship dry spells.<\/p>\n
After splitting the first two games at home, the Indians won two straight at Wrigley Field and opened a commanding 3-1 lead. However, the Cubs squeaked out a 3-2 win in Game 5 at home and clobbered Cleveland in Game 6 to force a winner-take-all finale.<\/p>\n
Chicago carried an 6-4 lead into the eighth inning, and with the flame-throwing Chapman on the mound, Cubs fans could taste Champagne they had only sampled in dreams. That’s when Davis turned on a fastball and lined it over the left-field fence for a home run that would rank among the greatest in baseball history if it hadn’t come in a loss.<\/p>\n
All these years later, Kipnis’ body still reacts when discussing the moment.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe noise, the looking around, I\u2019m getting chills right now,\u201d Kipnis said, peeking at bumps rising on his forearms before Friday’s game. “For the first time I felt like, oh, that\u2019s what pandemonium is. It\u2019s hard to describe the noise and just everybody going crazy and the momentum shift and just what it meant to us right there.<\/p>\n
“God, you could run through a wall right then and there.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it wasn’t meant to be as the Cubs, perhaps aided by a 17-minute rain delay that allowed them to regroup before extra innings, scored two in the 10th and hung on for an 8-7 win.<\/p>\n
Chicago’s suffering ended on Nov. 2, 2016. Cleveland’s endures.<\/p>\n
For Corey Kluber, who started three games in the series, looking back isn’t fun.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI feel like it\u2019s easy to reflect on October, November, not so much,” said Kluber, a two-time Cy Young Award winner. “I try to avoid thinking about. The further you become removed from it, I don\u2019t want to say that wounds heal, but they become less deep.<\/p>\n
“You\u2019re able to look at the bigger picture and realize what we were able to accomplish. Even though ultimately it didn\u2019t go the way we wanted it to at the end, leading up to that was special and you appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francona’s fondness for the ’16 team has only grown over the past decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think you have to win the final game,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re a special group and they always will be. They played the game right. They played hard. They were selfless. They put the team first. All the things you talk about on Day One of spring training, they lived it out and it made it really fun.”<\/p>\n
While they didn’t win a title, to Francona, they finished on top.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI wish we could have had a parade, but pride won out over disappointment,\u201d he said. \u201cI was so proud of that group.\u201d<\/p>\n
AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez (11) gives former Cleveland Indians player Jason Kipnis, center right, a high-five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[25661,1113,5,535,50,4259,135,10990,88160,7327,4,9501,9496,83365,41711,536,88161],"class_list":["post-700013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cincinnati-reds","tag-andrew-miller","tag-aroldis-chapman","tag-baseball","tag-cincinnati","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-cincinnatireds","tag-cleveland","tag-corey-kluber","tag-guardians-2016-world-series","tag-jason-kipnis","tag-mlb","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40806-ap-ohio-sports-only","tag-rajai-davis","tag-reds","tag-terry-franona"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116581364090002768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}