Big bats ready to rumble in Game 6
WORLD SERIES: Cubs’ Schwarber and Cleveland’s Santana ready to have a swingin’ time in DH positions
The comfort of being back home with one more win needed to clinch a World Series title is important for Terry Francona’s group.
But the ability to use American League rules is even more important in the eyes of the Cleveland manager.
Oddly, that rings true for Joe Maddon’s Chicago Cubs, too.
“Now, they’ll also have the DH, too, which I’m sure they’re thrilled about,” Francona said Monday.
While Francona will get to field his best lineup in Game 6 Tuesday night — Carlos Santana can finally put away his outfielder’s mitt and Mike Napoli can handle his normal first base duties — the Cubs are giddy about being able to slot Kyle Schwarber back into the batting order in the designated hitter spot for the first time since winning Game 2.
Maddon has made his preference for the National League style of game clear since taking over the Cubs in 2015, but that opinion has changed for the moment.
“I’ll take it right now,” said Maddon, whose club decided not to do any on-field work Monday and didn’t land in Cleveland until late evening. “So we get to have Schwarber back in the lineup, and that definitely strengthens what we potentially can do.
“Going into an American League venue now, and being able to utilize Schwarber, all of a sudden, those games get a little bit longer and a little bit thicker.”
Making a miraculous return from two torn knee ligaments suffered in April in time for the World Series, Schwarber provided three hits and reached base five times in nine plate appearances during Games 1 and 2 in Cleveland, but the 23-year-old wasn’t cleared by the team’s medical staff to play the outfield in Chicago, leaving him with just one at-bat over the past three games at Wrigley Field.
The left-handed slugger does a lot for the depth of the lineup the Cubs will pencil in against Cleveland right-hander Josh Tomlin in Game 6 and, potentially, righty Corey Kluber Wednesday in Game 7.
“Well, it gives them a little more balance,” Francona said. “It gives them some thunder that they’ll situate right in the middle, which you have to respect. But, I mean, they’ve got a lot of other good bats, too. I think people can get carried away with some things. Again, we respect him, but we also respect the other guys, too.”
Prior to starting in left field for the Cleveland in Game 3, then again in Game 5, Santana had a grand total of four innings of Major League experience in the outfield — and that came back in 2012.
Santana, who hit a career-high 34 home runs this season, wasn’t tested much in left, but made the routine plays and didn’t botch anything.
“I thought Carlos did an amazing job,” Francona said. “There were no crazy chances out there or anything, but everything that was hit to him, he looked like a left fielder. Actually got behind the one ball and made a nice throw, hit the cutoff man. I was really proud of him.
“He volunteered to do that, and like I said, I was really proud of him. He’s come a long way. Took a lot of work in that four- or five-day span for him to be out there, and I thought it was pretty cool. I’ll be glad that we can DH somebody, though.”
Aside from the benefit of the DH spot, which looks like a wash, and the home crowd, Francona pointed out the obvious advantage of having the final two games at Progressive Field.
“You hit last, so you get to use your bullpen differently, and that’s a huge advantage. That’s why so many good teams have better records at home.”
We’ve all seen what the bullpens have meant to both sides already.
Kluber does it all
As if Kluber hasn’t done enough for Cleveland this post-season, the club has its ace to thank for homefield advantage,too.
Even though the Cubs won nine more games than Cleveland during the regular season — 103 to 94 — MLB’s controversial decision to award the extra home game of the World Series to the winner of the allstar game back in 2003 will surely be a topic of conversation in Chicago if they can’t complete the comeback. It probably already is. Back on July 12 at Petco Park in San Diego, Kluber tossed a perfect second inning to earn the win for the American League in the Midsummer Classic. More than three months later, that’s benefiting the team that pays him.
Six of the last seven World Series winners have used home field to their, um, advantage, and nine of 13, overall, since the rule was implemented.
Wild pitches
Game 5 winner Jon Lester has never gone fewer than five innings in any of his 19-career post-season starts, which began when he sealed up a sweep of the Colorado Rockies for his Boston Red Sox in 2007. … When he homered and stole a base in the same World Series game Sunday, Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant joined some elite company as the just the third player 24 years old or younger to do so. The other two are Hall-of-Famer Mickey Mantle (Game 4, 1956) with the Yankees and Jose Canseco (Game 1, 1988) with the Oakland A’s. … The total of seven stolen bases by the Cubs (four) and Cleveland (three, all by OF Rajai Davis) in Game 5 tied a single-game World Series record set in 1907 between the Cubs and Detroit Tigers. … After picking up some sort of stomach bug before Game 5 and arriving late, Francona said RF Lonnie Chisenhall had recovered enough to be a pinch-hitting option late in the game and is good to go for Game 6. “I mean, he got a sandwich down,” Francona said.