Pitching gives Cubs a fighting chance
DOWN TO THE WIRE: Cleveland may lead this World Series 3-2 over Chicago, but it feels very close
CHICAGO — If Cleveland had beaten the Chicago Cubs on Sunday night here to win the World Series, it would have meant the Indians had won more World Series games at Wrigley Field over this weekend (three) than the Cubs had won in the entire 101-year history of the park (two).
Perhaps, somewhere, there is a true-of-heart baseball fan who feels comfortable with such an outcome. So what if the Cubs’ “lifetime” World Series record in Wrigley had fallen to 2-14 and their season ended with it, too. Let North Side fans have the distinction of waiting 71 years for a World Series in their park only to see three games in which their club participated.
Fortunately for many “neutrals,” who don’t enjoy such 108year knife-twisting, as well as every extant Cub follower, what actually happened here was a tense 3-2 Cubs win. That victory, built on six strong innings by winner Jon Lester and an eight-out save by Aroldis Chapman, takes this series back to Cleveland for a Game 6 on Tuesday. That would pit Chicago’s Jake Arrieta, the 2015 Cy Young Award winner, against Cleveland’s Josh Tomlin, who has a 0.85 ERA in three post-season starts this year but would be pitching on three days’ rest for only the second time in his career.
And if there were to be a Game 7 — yes, you know you’re already thinking about it — the Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks, the NL ERA champion, would face 2014 AL Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber, 18-9 this year, who has already won two games in this series and has a 0.89 ERA in five playoff starts this October. Superb as Kluber has been, he would also be pitching on the same short rest, for the second start in row and third time in this post-season.
Suddenly this World Series is just filthy with pitchers draped in the sport’s most prestigious awards, or on streaks as hot as any they have ever known. In the bullpens are stars whose arms may, or may not, still feel like they are completely attached to their shoulders. But they ain’t talkin’. Just pick up the phone, skip — any number of outs, any number of days in a row — you know my number: Bullpen 007.
In other words, Cleveland may lead this World Series 3-2, but it feels very close — like, as close to tied as it can be without being, you know, actually tied.
“We just need to have that one moment. We have to have a onegame winning streak,” Cubs Manager Joe Maddon said before this elimination game. “And if we do that, I really would be feeling pretty good about going back to Cleveland.
“Going back over there, having those two guys ready to pitch ...” said Maddon, with no need to finish.
So the World Series you probably wanted — as long as you and your ancestors haven’t spent the past 176 years rooting exclusively for the Cubs or Indians — is the World Series you’re probably going to get.
Though many Cubs had a claw in this win, the tone-setter was the elegant southpaw Lester, who would not permit a World Series with such high promise to end in a Cubs humiliation. Backed by a three-run fourth inning against Trevor Bauer, featuring Kris Bryant’s homer, Anthony Rizzo’s double, an Addison Russell RBI hit on an infield dribbler and a sacrifice fly by 39-year-old about-to-retire catcher David Ross, Lester improved his career World Series record to 4-1.
That “explosion,” if a mere three runs can be described so grandly, was exactly what Maddon and the Cubs hoped and pleaded for.
“We just need to have that one moment,” Maddon said before the game. “It’s just a matter of us gaining offensive confidence . ... When you’re not hitting, the whole vibe’s difficult to push in that real positive direction.”
What we have, then, is an almost-perfect setup for Game 6. The Cubs didn’t have an “epiphany.” They just scraped by and had to ask Chapman to enter the game with eight outs to go — for the longest save of his career.
The Cubs may be off the mat, but their eyes are still glazed by superb Cleveland pitchers, seven of whom have ERAs of 0.00 in this Series. And that doesn’t count the best of the pen, Andrew Miller (1.69).
For two nights in Wrigley, the crowds had so often fallen silent and fearful, while the Cubs had played so anxiously that it almost seemed that the World Series hasn’t really returned to this ballpark after 71 years. It’s been some ersatz affair from which the Cubs were almost excluded, 1-0 and 7-2.
Finally, in the first inning of Game 5, Lester, put on a sustained show of dominance — unhittable pitch after unhittable pitch — striking out the Cleveland side, including five swings and misses. The standing crowd caught the mood, roaring for every strike.
The crowd’s spirits were still high when Jose Ramirez crushed a no-doubter into the bleachers in left field for a 1-0 Cleveland lead in the second. No doubt Maddon would have settled for giving up the first run if he’d been told he’d get the next three.
Bryant, who had been in a 1-for-15 slump, crushed a line drive that bore through the wind into the second row in left for a game-tying homer to start the fourth. Rizzo smashed the next pitch, also a fastball, off the ivy in right but became the third Cub in this series to go into a self-admiration trot on a ball that did not actually go out of the park. He still got to second with a double. On the next pitch, Ben Zobrist, the only hot Cubs bat in this series, lashed a single to right that put men at the corners.
For the first time in this series, the Cubs had three straight hits. When would the Cubs also get a break?
Russell hit a dribbler to third that turned into a scratch hit when Ramirez took extra steps while glancing to see if he had a play on Rizzo at the plate. He didn’t. After suffering Jason Heyward fanned, Javier Baez loaded the bases with a bunt hit.
Ross, battling with two strikes, lifted a sacrifice fly to left field for a 3-1 Cub lead. Lester, of course, fanned looking.
The “net expected run value” of a bases-loaded, one-out situation is 1.61 runs. So, either the Cubs did okay, or you can say that, on average, they left about half a run on the table.
The Cubs’ bullpen rendered the debate moot. Though, like everything in a World Series that seems determined to reach a stunning climax, by a narrow margin.