CLEVELAND

CLEVELAND – The sight of the Cavaliers raising their 2016 championship banner on the big video board Tuesday night drew an enormous ovation from the sellout crowd at Progressive Field.

They were hardly the loudest cheers of the night.

The biggest applause went to Corey Kluber and Andrew Miller, who combined for eight scoreless innings to lead the Indians to a 6-0 win over the Cubs in Game 1 of the World Series.

Kluber struck out nine over six-plus scoreless innings, while Miller added two more, though he had to walk a tightrope during a pair of jams in the seventh and eighth to keep the high-powered Cubs offense off the board. “That’s what Cy Young Award winners do,” Cubs catcher David Ross said of Kluber. “That’s what aces do. That’s the kind of performance you need to win the World Series. They got Game 1 and that’s why they got it. We’ll try to get Game 2.”

Closer Cody Allen struck out three in the ninth, capping a 15-K night for Cleveland’s pitchers.

“We struck out a lot, but I’ll defend the fact that we had some good at-bats,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “We had some opportunities, we were just unable to obviously get the big hit and knock the run in.”

Cleveland scored three runs in 5.2 innings against Jon Lester, who had his worst start of the postseason. Roberto Perez hit two home runs and drove in four runs as the catcher provided some pop out of the No. 9 hole for the Indians. “What he did at the plate tonight,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “My goodness, that was exciting to watch.”

The Indians hold a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series as they try to snap their 68-year streak without a championship. The Cubs, of course, are attempting to win their first World Series since 1908. The Game 1 winner has won 12 of the last 13 World Series and 17 of the last 19. “Sevengame series, they’re pretty long,” Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant said. “We’d feel a little different if it was a five-game series, but we know what we have to do tomorrow.”

Lester had been pitching as well as anybody this postseason, posting a 0.86 ERA (two runs over 21 innings) in three starts. He was also 3-0 with a 0.43 ERA in three career World Series starts, though his first inning made it clear this would be a tougher night than he was accustomed to. With two out in the first, Francisco Lindor singled and stole second base, then Lester walked Mike Napoli and Carlos Santana, loading the bases. Jose Ramirez followed with a swinging bunt that rolled about 40 feet up the third-base line, good for an infield hit and the game’s first run. Lester then hit Brandon Guyer with an 0-2 pitch, forcing in a second Indians run. “There is an importance on small ball, but you can’t try to hit a swinging bunt,” Francona said. “That’s a little bit of good fortune.”

Lester finally stopped the rally by getting Lonnie Chisenhall to foul out to Ross, but the early damage had been done. “I can live with hits, I can live with a homer. It’s the walks; the walks can’t happen,” Lester said. “I have to make those guys earn the two runs.”

Kluber, meanwhile, ripped through the Cubs’ fertile lineup, allowing two hits while striking out eight in the first three innings, setting a new World Series record.

Kluber worked around a leadoff double by Ben Zobrist in the second and a two-out double in the fourth by Kyle Schwarber, who was playing his first game since he tore his ACL on April 7, tossing a scoreless fourth.

Perez’s solo shot off Lester pushed the Indians’ lead to 3-0. That was plenty of run support for Kluber, who retired seven in a row heading into the seventh.

A leadoff single by Zobrist brought Miller into the game, but the Cubs managed to load the bases with nobody out before the ex-Yankee escaped with a fly ball and two strikeouts.

The Cubs threatened against Miller again in the eighth with a one-out walk and a two-out single, bringing Schwarber to the plate as the tying run. Miller struck him out with his trademark slider to end the threat, then watched Perez double the lead with a three-run homer off Hector Rondon in the bottom of the eighth. “I’m not upset whatsoever,” Maddon said. “They pitched really well tonight. Those three runs in the last inning make it look really awful. Otherwise it’s tightly contested, and who knows what happens in the last inning. It’s the first game. I’m fine. We’re fine.”