Cleveland takes Game 1
CLEVELAND — They entered the post-season against the Boston Red Sox as underdogs, and won. Handily.
They came into the ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays as underdogs, and won. Handily.
The story was the same heading into Game 1 of a drought-themed World Series matchup with the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night at Progressive Field, so the Cleveland Indians stuck to the same underdog script they had penned so expertly to get to this point.
It was recurring roles by three of the Indians’ main characters helping them to an ice-breaking 6-0 win over the still-Lovable Losers, too.
Starter Corey Kluber continued his stellar post-season by spinning six shutout innings, allowing just four hits and punching out nine, before giving way to October monster Andrew Miller, who tossed two shutdown innings to hand over yet another lead to Cody Allen to finish it off in the ninth.
Offensively, a lineup full of B-list entertainers and extras chipped at Cubs starter Jon Lester in various ways, none of them expected.
Kluber would get all of the run support he needed in the first inning on an infield single and a beanball that both came with the bases loaded, before defensive-minded catcher and No. 9 hitter Roberto Perez provided the thunder with a pair of home runs, a solo shot in the fourth inning and a three-run blast in the eighth, that put the World Series opener out of reach.
It’s been the same recipe leading the Indians to a post-season record that now stands at 8-1 this October: Dominant pitching and timely offence from unexpected places in a lineup built on speed, but one that has shown a whole lot of power recently.
With the post-season history of these two franchises such a dominant storyline coming in, the historical trend of how teams fare when losing Game 1 can’t have the Cubs feeling great coming out of the opener.
The winner of Game 1 has won the last six World Series and 24 of the last 28.
As the Cavaliers were giving out rings and raising an NBA championship banner right next door, the Indians wasted little time in giving the 38,091 on hand something baseball-related to cheer about.
The top of the first inning was uneventful — Kluber set the Cubs down in order — but it wasn’t without meaning.
When Dexter Fowler stepped into the box to lead off the game — and, eventually, struck out — he became the first African American to appear in the World Series for the Cubs.
The last time the Cubs made the World Series in 1945, Jackie Robinson was still two years away from breaking the colour barrier.
In the bottom half, Lester looked to be well on his way to duplicating Kluber’s feat, before Francisco Lindor singled with two outs.
A major storyline coming into the series was Lester’s inability to hold runners on — he allowed 28 stolen bases, which was down from a league-high 44 in 2015, but was still the third-most allowed by a pitcher this season — and Lindor wasted no time in taking advantage, swiping second on a Lester offering that Cubs catcher David Ross fumbled, not that it mattered as the Indians shortstop already had it stolen.
Lester proceeded to walk the next two hitters to load the bases, allowing Cleveland to draw first blood on a swinging bunt by Jose Ramirez that Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant had no play on.
It got worse when Lester plunked left fielder Brandon Guyer, who has been hit by 66 pitches in just 1,074 plate appearances since arriving in the majors in 2011, to give the Indians an early 2-0 lead.
As Lester was dealing with an upand-down start, Kluber was simply dealing, as it took the 6-foot4 right-hander just three innings to set a new Indians post-season record for strikeouts in a game with eight.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Indians tacked on another run, and it came from an unlikely source.
A .183 hitter during the regular season and a .174 hitting in 23 postseason at-bats coming into Game 1, Perez turned on a Lester fastball and hit a line drive home run that clanged off the railing above the 19foot wall in left field at The Jake for a 3-0 lead.
Both starters cruised through the next two innings and Lester was, eventually, lifted in the bottom of the sixth, going 5 2/3, giving up six hits, three earned runs, while walking three and striking out six.
It was far from the dominant Lester we’ve come to expect in the Fall Classic, as the lefty came in with a 3-0 record and a sparkling 0.43 ERA in three post-season starts spanning 21 innings.
Kluber’s exit quickly followed when he gave up a leadoff single to Cubs left fielder Ben Zobrist in the seventh inning, watching as Miller pitched his way into a bases loaded jam by walking Kyle Schwarber and allowing a single to second baseman Javier Baez.
But Miller continued to trust his filthy stuff, and it didn’t let him down.
Chris Coghlan flew out to centre field, and then Miller quickly punched out Addison Russell and David Ross to end the threat.
Once again, Miller worked his way into a jam in the eighth inning — first and third with two outs — but stared down the tying run at the plate in the form of Schwarber, striking him out with a slider to escape and keep his post-season ERA at a pristine 0.00 through 13 2/3 innings.
That allowed Perez to provide the insurance.
Not only did Perez’s second round-tripper of the night seal the victory, he also became the first Indians player to hit two in the same World Series game, as well as the first Puerto Rican-born product to bash a pair.
Thanks to the threat of rain in the Cleveland area on Wednesday night, MLB decided to move the start time of Game 2 up by an hour to 7:08 p.m. ET.