On Sept. 3, 2014, Cubs rookie Kyle Hendricks took the mound at Wrigley Field and beat the Brewers. It was only career start No. 10 for the 24-year-old righthander, but already he was 6-1 with a 2.02 ERA that was taking him from organizational question mark to a firm part of the team’s plans. The Cubs were a last-place team that year, but they would win nine times in Hendricks’ final 10 starts and maybe, just maybe, had begun to head in a very promising direction.
“It’s almost as if we’re expecting to win more,” Hendricks said that night.