This is the one thing CC Sabathia remembers from his famous 2008 finale start

CC Sabathia said the starts run together in his head from the summer of 2008. He'll think back to the infamous near-no-hitter game on the last day of August, and the memory will bleed into a start at Wrigley Field one day after the Brewers fired manager Ned Yost.

He doesn't even remember much from Sept. 28, 2008, when his complete-game performance led the Brewers to their first postseason in 26 years. But there is one thing...

"What I do remember from the last game is getting a ground ball," Sabathia said during a Zoom session Monday. "I remember getting the ground ball, throwing my arms up, turning around and seeing (catcher Jason) Kendall coming toward me."

He's talking about the double-play grounder off the bat of Derrek Lee that gave the Brewers a 3-1 win over the Cubs that day and put the Brewers into at least a tie for the wild-card spot; the Mets losing later that day against the Marlins gave the Brewers that playoff berth outright.

That frenzied moment, immortalized on the front of the sports section in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has been fashioned into a poster giveaway Aug. 25 when Sabathia returns to Milwaukee. His presence will commemorate the 15th anniversary of the 2008 team snapping a generation-long playoff draught, and it'll coincide with ex-teammate Ben Sheets entering the Brewers Walk of Fame one day later.

There is one other thing he remembers about that day in general.

"You never go to the mound knowing you're going to win a ballgame, (but) I went to the mound every single time knowing that I was going to win those games," Sabathia said. "Driving to the ballpark on that last game of the season, I remember telling my cousin, 'Get ready to celebrate. We're going to win.' I never felt that before in my career. That's why I always say I wanted the ball so much, because I knew I was going to win those games."

More: It's been 15 years since CC Sabathia electrified Milwaukee with his first Brewers start

The story of Sabathia's incredible second-half run has been well-documented. Acquired from Cleveland in early July, Sabathia recorded an 11-2 record and 1.65 ERA over 17 starts. The Brewers won 14 of the 17 games in which he took the ball and needed every one of them on their way to 90 wins. He threw his final three starts of the year on just three days rest.

With a massive free-agency pay day looming, the idea to work on short rest wasn't something that sat well with Sabathia's agent.

"When Ben (Sheets) got hurt, we were just running short on pitchers," Sabathia said. "Dale (Sveum)'s first day as the manager, I went into his office like right away, they were in there having a meeting and everything was all jumbled. They were trying to figure stuff out. 'One thing you don't have to worry about is who's pitching tomorrow because I'm pitching tomorrow.' That was the first time I went on three days rest. ... The next day, he tried to talk me out of it. I was like, 'I'm taking the ball. It is what it is.' And after that, he never questioned me. I just told him I'm pitching the next three days and I'll pitch three days after that."

OK, the details might be a little fuzzy. Yost was stunningly fired Sept. 15 after an infamous four-game sweep in Philadelphia, and Sabathia indeed pitched the next day, though it wouldn't be until his next start that he threw on short rest. Sheets was still locked into a rotation spot until Sept. 17 in Chicago, when he'd leave that game early (though Sheets struggled in his start Sept. 12).

But can you blame anyone if the finer points have melted into legend, even for Sabathia?

"That whole kind of three-month stretch was all kind of one big game to me, if that makes sense," he said. "I'll have flashbacks of different memories of different games, but I can't differentiate the run. It's weird."

What he does remember is the way certain players stood out, including current manager Craig Counsell, in the aftermath of Yost's firing.

"It didn't feel like a sinking ship at all," Sabathia said. "It felt like the last three weeks of the season, every game we played was a playoff game. Every series we went into, everything was magnified. ... We couldn't even have time to process anything that was going on, because all it was about was winning the game that night. That was every single night for the last three weeks of the season. It was Couns', it was Mike Cameron, it was Ray Durham being the voices in the clubhouse that kind of calmed us and allowed us to go out and concentrate and win some ballgames and get us in the playoffs."

Counsell, who walked with the bases loaded to tie the 2008 finale in the seventh inning, served as "kind of our player-manager at the time," Sabathia said.

"He'd won two World Series already, had been through everything," Sabathia said. "When we had the playoff shares meeting, he kind of ran that. It doesn't surprise me at all, the success he's having as a manager. I thought for sure he'd be more like Aaron Boone, getting after the umpires a lot more, because he runs hot a little bit. But he's been doing a good job as far as not going out there with the umpires."

It's been 15 years since, the Brewers haven't been to a World Series but do have five more appearances in the playoffs, including two runs to the National League Championship Series. That Sabathia helped usher in a new era for the franchise isn't lost on the locals who still remember 2008 so fondly.

"The feeling is mutual," Sabathia said. "I always say that was my favorite summer I've ever had playing in the big leagues."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The one thing CC Sabathia remembers from his 2008 finale for Brewers