More than footnote: Cubs’ Mike Montgomery has bigger plans than trivial pursuit

CLEVELAND – Cubs left-hander Mike Montgomery could become an All-Star or Cy Young winner. He could win another World Series, with this team or another team.

But no matter what he achieves, he knows he will forever be known as the answer to a baseball history trivia question.

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“I think that’s really cool,” said Montgomery, who threw the final pitch (and earned a save) in the Cubs’ Game 7 victory in Cleveland that secured the Cubs’ first World Series championship in 108 years.

“But I don’t want to be known just for that,” said Montgomery, the linchpin for the Cubs’ pitching staff as a reliever and first-option spot starter. “I want to be known as a great baseball player for a long time, a great pitcher.”

In fact, that moment in 2016 could be part of that long-term process, Montgomery mused as the Cubs returned this week to the site of that Game 7 victory.

“If I’m struggling sometimes, I can go back to that maybe,” he said. “It’s still about that confidence I remember that I had during that time period. I was locked in. You can kind of draw confidence from that.

“But you also realize that it’s two years ago; It’s 2018 now,” he said. “I can’t just not put in the work and expect that just to happen again. It’s really hard to get to that point. I think we realized that last year as a team.”

Notes: The Cubs on Tuesday night, in their 20^th game, finally became the last team in the majors to have a starter pitch into the seventh inning, when Tyler Chatwood faced one batter beyond the sixth (infield single). … Chatwood, by the way, also walked five more batters in that game to tie for the National League lead (19) but wound up with his first victory as a Cub. Only three of his walks have scored. “I don’t think it’s a good recipe for success,” he said. “Obviously, I need to clean that up, and there’s no doubt in my mind I will” … Tuesday’s victory was the Cubs’ fourth in their last five games in Cleveland – seventh in the last 11 – including the World Series.