KANSAS CITY – Kevin Gausman almost won a World Series ring last year.
Clay Holmes almost won a World Series ring the year before.
Almost.
For pro ballplayers, almost is usually not good enough, and the Cubs’ new pair of righty pitchers – the team’s two biggest acquisitions at the trade deadline – is itching to get back to October’s ultimate stage.
“It’s an addicting drug once you get there,” Gausman said last week.
Both Gausman and Holmes, who made their Cubs debuts this weekend in Kansas City, had their World Series dreams stomped on by the Dodgers, who made their own massive trade-deadline splash, adding back-to-back Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal in a quest for a third consecutive ring.
Team president Jed Hoyer said it’s up to the Cubs – and the rest of the sport – to stop the Dodgers from accomplishing that goal. He brought in these two pitchers in an effort to do just that, and even before they donned Cubs uniforms, this team showed them it might be capable of stopping a seemingly unstoppable juggernaut by sweeping the Dodgers at Wrigley Field.
“Watching the team play [earlier this week],” Gausman said, “why wouldn’t you be excited?”
But August is different from October, and though an electric atmosphere on the North Side was certainly playoff-esque, as Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell put it, ain’t nothing like the real thing.
“I’ve been home in the offseason the last couple years, and just watching playoff baseball, you want to get in there,” righty reliever Ryan Zeferjahn, another deadline addition, said. “Hopefully, I get a taste of that this year.”
Just ask Gausman, who made two starts in last year’s World Series, only for the Dodgers to edge his Blue Jays for a championship in a seven-game classic of a Fall Classic.
“Losing was heartbreaking,” he said. “I wish every big leaguer could experience playing in the World Series, because that’s what we all dreamt of as kids. To be able to do it was so much fun, but also very heartbreaking.
“Once you’re there, all you want to do is get back. I’m really excited to, hopefully, get back there with this team.”
The Cubs woke up Saturday with the fifth best record in baseball, among the sport’s true contenders and arguably its best since June 11.
In that span, they had the second best record in the game (34-15), they led the league in runs scored (293) and OPS (.799), and their starting pitchers had a 3.22 ERA (third in MLB). Overall, they had baseball’s best defense, statistically, first in Defensive Runs Saved (79), Outs Above Average (58) and Fielding Run Value (60).
In other words, yes, the Cubs are capable of getting Gausman and Holmes back to the World Series, probably more capable now that they’re here.
The Cubs’ expectations have been at championship-or-bust level since the jump this season, and Hoyer’s work – both with big, narrative-busting offseason moves and an aggressive approach at the deadline – has gone hand in hand with those big dreams.
Time to get the job done.
“That’s what you play the game for. You want to win your last game,” said Holmes, who as a Yankee reliever pitched in all five games of the 2024 World Series. “You put in all the work, you put in all the preparation, you forge relationships to be a team that wins it at the end. And to know you have a real chance to do that, especially at this point in the season, is energizing.
“I’ve felt it before in my career. I’ve lost a World Series, and there’s that hunger of wanting to be the last team standing. For me, personally, to know that I have a real chance to do it here these last few months is all you can ask for.
“I feel like I’m in a great spot and just want to give everything I have, do whatever I can for this group, because it’s a special group.”