The Quick Hook In Game 7
I already know what you’re thinking.
“Joe got lucky on that one.”
Maddon made one of his ballsiest decisions in his managerial career when he decided to have a VERY quick hook on his pitcher, Kyle Hendricks, in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. The 2016 ERA leader was DEALING through 4 2/3 innings with the Cubs leading 5-1 when Maddon unexpectedly made a trip to the mound and pulled Hendricks from the game.
Unbeknownst to 99.9% of Cubs fans everywhere was the fact that Maddon already had a Game 7 pitching plan in place.
“Hendricks to Jonny (Lester) to Aroldis. That was it. I didn’t want to use anybody but those three guys. I was looking for Kyle to get out of the fifth. He had Santana up (with two outs, none out). He gets him to two strikes and all of a sudden it’s ball four.”
The walk was enough for Maddon to bring in Lester to bridge to Chapman which as we all know is exactly what happened. I’ll admit when I was at Game 7 I was pretty puzzled by this decision but Maddon kept reiterating after the fact, “There was no Game 8.” It’s also pretty cool that the highlight of Maddon’s coaching career could have easily went down as the biggest mistake of his career.
That’s the beauty of baseball.
Congrats on 1,000 wins, Joe.
