Rajai Davis hit an iconic homer. Will Cleveland give him a playoff encore?

TORONTO - Typically, the privilege of shaping history - of dictating what is and isn't remembered - belongs to the victors. Rajai Davis stripped the Chicago Cubs of that privilege in 2016.

Instead of Ben Zobrist's go-ahead double or Kris Bryant's knowing smile or Anthony Rizzo's arms raised in triumph, the most indelible moment from the Cubs' long-awaited World Series championship was authored by Davis, the punchless Cleveland Indians outfielder whose game-tying home run late in Game 7 - off the game's most overpowering closer - sits in our collective consciousness alongside the Joe Carter and Bill Mazeroski homers.

"Well, my name is definitely a little bit more popular around the world (now)," Davis recently told theScore. "And a lot of guys remember that moment as far as where they were, what they were doing, who they were talking to, who they were with. They remember exactly what was going on. That's from top to bottom, like from all spectrums of people, from baseball players to the average person that works a nine-to-five."

Here's a quick refresher: With two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning and Cleveland trailing 6-4 in Game 7, Davis stepped into the box against Aroldis Chapman representing the tying run. Davis was hitless in three at-bats in the game and 3-for-20 (.150) in the series.

With his first pitch, a 100-mph four-seamer, Chapman missed outside. A little up, too, perhaps. His next two offerings, both fastballs, found the zone, but Davis couldn't get his barrel on either, fouling off both. Another outside fastball followed, evening the count at 2-2. Choking up for dear life, Davis just got a piece of the next pitch, clocked at 99 mph. He got more of the next one, spraying Chapman's 101-mph offering into the seats down the right-field line.

Then, on the seventh pitch of the at-bat:

"It was a great moment," Davis continued. "I mean, I'm realizing more and more and more how great of a moment it was. I guess at the time, the magnitude, I did not know it, nor did I expect it to reach this (level). ... It's still big in a lot of people's minds, especially for those that live in Cleveland. It was like a breath of fresh air. It was like new hope. It was a chance to go and win something that we were really, really close to doing."

Two years later, Cleveland once again seems really, really close to the World Series championship that has eluded the club since 1948. Blessed with four unworthy adversaries in the American League Central, Cleveland's division lead hasn't dipped below five games since June 19; the team's been particularly hot of late, going 22-12 since the beginning of August.

Davis, who rejoined the club this past winter after bouncing between the Oakland Athletics and Boston Red Sox, has been a big part of that, though his raw stats - a .595 OPS and 16 stolen bases - belie the value he provides in the clubhouse and as a mentor to his younger teammates. Theoretically, for both Cleveland and its repatriated hero, better, more glorious moments await.

But as a third straight trip to the American League Division Series looms, Davis could be relegated to a spectator role come October. Josh Donaldson's arrival, whenever it may be, will push AL MVP candidate Jose Ramirez to second base. That will bump Jason Kipnis to center field and create even more of a logjam in the outfield, effectively diminishing Davis' already diminished role. Two years removed from the at-bat that etched his place in Cleveland lore, there's a distinct possibility that Davis might not make his club's postseason roster(s).

And he isn't ignorant of that possibility.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see," Davis said. "Management, leadership, they'll have to make that decision going forward. And whatever they say, or whatever roster moves that they make, that will dictate what goes on."

When Davis agreed in February to a minor-league deal with Cleveland, he knew, if he made the team out of spring training, he wouldn't play as regularly as he did in 2016. Back then, Bradley Zimmer was still incubating in the minors and Michael Brantley was incapacitated; as such, Davis appeared in 134 games and received 495 plate appearances - his most since 2010 - while serving, among other roles, as the club's leadoff hitter against left-handers. At this point in his career, though, winning is paramount, so it didn't particularly faze him that Zimmer had ensconced himself in center field in 2017, with Brantley (when healthy) and Lonnie Chisenhall in the corner spots, and the likes of Brandon Guyer, Tyler Naquin, and Greg Allen hungry for at-bats.

"I like it here," Davis said. "They have a winning team. Winning ballclub. Winning organization. From the top down. And they do things right. And I like being with an organization that does things right."

Davis - a 37-year-old with waning speed - has started just 44 times in 2018, only eight of them since the All-Star break. (He recently returned from a two-week stint on the disabled list due to a non-disclosed medical condition.) Across 83 games, nearly half of which he appeared in as a pinch hitter or pinch runner, Davis has hit just .242/.292/.303 with one home run in 195 plate appearances. He's been uncharacteristically ineffective against left-handed pitching, managing an anemic .544 OPS versus southpaws. (Davis, as Chapman can attest, has handled lefties pretty well throughout his career, slashing .281/.336/.422 against them.)

To this point in the year, the qualitative value Davis provides has sufficiently offset his lackluster on-field performance. Whether that calculus still computes for Cleveland when it's time to submit an ALDS roster, however, remains to be seen. By Davis' own admission, winning a championship requires sacrifice.

"To go through last year and have such a good team - maybe the best team - and not get there just creates a little bit more hunger, a little more drive," Davis said. "Guys really want it. And guys are working hard and paying the price, making sacrifices, to get that accomplished."

Having said all that, it isn't October yet. Injuries happen. Opportunities regenerate. And as the team's go-to pinch runner, Davis may have an avenue onto Cleveland's postseason roster regardless.

In 2015, the Kansas City Royals included Terrance Gore, a sprinter masquerading as a baseball player, on their ALDS and ALCS rosters even though he had received all of three at-bats during the regular season. (He went hitless.) That same year, the Toronto Blue Jays also added a pinch-running specialist for the postseason in Dalton Pompey, who swiped four bases that October and even collected a base hit in his lone playoff at-bat.

For now, Davis will continue "embracing" his role, as he put it, as the eminently approachable, highly knowledgeable, perpetually smiling bundle of energy on the periphery of Cleveland's increasingly stacked roster. He can only control what he control, after all.

But if another opportunity to make history does present itself this postseason, like it did in 2016, Davis will be ready.

"Those are the kind of moments I live for," Davis said. "That's what I play the game for. For those moments. And, God willing, I'll have another moment like that."

Jonah Birenbaum is theScore's senior MLB writer. He steams a good ham. You can find him on Twitter @birenball.

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)