CHICAGO HOPE ALIVE & WELL
Cubs win 1st Series game since 1945, head to Wrigley all tied up after big victory over Indians
CLEVELAND – It took 71 years, but the Cubs finally won another World Series game.
Chicago figured out the formula for beating the Indians Wednesday night: score early and keep Andrew Miller safely tucked away in the bullpen.
Kyle Schwarber drove in two runs in support of Jake Arrieta, who carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning to lead the Cubs to a 5-1 win over the Indians, evening the best-of-seven World Series at one game apiece.
“Baseball’s a crazy game,” said Schwarber, who is now 3-for-7 in the series after missing the previous six-plus months with a torn ACL. “It will do crazy things to you, but this is the moment that we all look for when we were little kids, to play in the World Series and win it. We just took a small step today, but we’ve still got a long way to go.”
The Cubs hadn’t won a game in the World Series since October 8, 1945, when Chicago won Game 6 against the Tigers before falling in Game 7.
Arrieta didn’t allow a hit until Jason Kipnis’ one-out double in the sixth, leaving Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 Fall Classic as the only no-hitter in World Series history.
Arrieta allowed one run on two hits and three walks, striking out six in the victory.
“That’s really not the focus in a game like this,” Arrieta said of his no-hit bid. “You really want to try to continue to pile up outs as often as you possibly can. Whether they get a hit or not really doesn’t affect the way you continue to approach that lineup.”
Anthony Rizzo, Ben Zobrist and Addison Russell each drove in a run as the Cubs bounced back from their Game 1 shutout loss.
“It seems like every time our team has had our backs against the wall a little bit we’ve risen to the occasion,” Zobrist said. “Hopefully we can continue doing that.”
The game, which had its start time moved up an hour due to rain in the forecast, managed to be played in its entirety despite showers hitting the area for the final two innings.
The loss was a first for Indians skipper Terry Francona in a World Series game, as he had gone 9-0 with the Red Sox (2004 and ’07) and Indians (2016) in his managerial career.
The Cubs made everybody’s favorite drone enthusiast, Trevor Bauer, work hard during his 3.2 innings. The righthander’s pinkie finger didn’t give him any problems the way it did in the ALCS, though the Indians might have been better off if it had as he allowed two runs on six hits and two walks, throwing 87 pitches.
“They beat us tonight,” Francona said. “It wasn’t because somebody had a bad finger. They just played better than us tonight.”
Rizzo doubled in a run in the first then Schwarber drove in another in the third, handing Arrieta a lead to protect.
Arrieta ran into his own trouble in the first, issuing a pair of two-out walks before Jose Ramirez’s blast to deep center died at the warning track to end the rally.
That was the only threat against Arrieta for a while as he retired 13 of the next 14 batters, the lone exception a fourth-inning walk.
“I kind of had my foot on the gas a little too much at the start, trying to do more than I needed to,” Arrieta said. “Then I really got back to just executing good pitches towards the bottom of the strike zone.”
With Bauer out of the game by the fourth, the Cubs went to work on the soft underbelly of Cleveland’s bullpen. Zobrist made it 3-0 with an RBI triple to right field, then Schwarber drove in his second run of the night with a single against Bryan Shaw, who walked in a run with the bases loaded later in the frame to make it a five-run spread.
“He should just skip spring training next year,” Kris Bryant said of Schwarber. “He’ll be fine. Just jump right into the World Series and have success. No big deal.”
Arrieta carried his no-hitter into the sixth, but Kipnis lined a double to center, ending the bid on Arrieta’s 88th pitch of the night. Cleveland scored its lone run in the inning, but Mike Montgomery and Aroldis Chapman combined to get the final 11 outs to seal the win.
“It kind of felt like a must-win for us; you don’t want to go home down two games,” Bryant said. “We know we play pretty good at home, our fans are going to be pretty excited for the first World Series in 71 years. I’m sure it will be a nice atmosphere to play in.”