Cubs get new life, draw even
CLEVELAND — World Series rings are rarely claimed without a clean box score created here and there by a sublime pitching performance.
Corey Kluber did exactly that for the Cleveland Indians in Game 1, helping his team jump out to a onegame lead.
It was a short-lived World Series advantage, though, as Jake Arrieta returned the favour Wednesday night for the Chicago Cubs and, suddenly, we have a deadlocked affair heading back to a city that hasn’t hosted a Fall Classic on the north side in 71 years.
The stage is now yours for three games, Chicago.
Thanks to Arrieta, the 2015 National League Cy Young winner, rain threatened more than the Indians did, while the Cubs powerful offence did what they’ve done all season long, but couldn’t do one night earlier — work counts, pile up baserunners, cross home plate.
Twenty-four hours or so after Kluber was dealing and Jon Lester was scuffling, the pitching script flipped completely during the Cubs’ 5-1 win in Game 2.
Arrieta didn’t give up a hit until the sixth inning, the same frame his night ended at 98 pitches, while Indians starter Trevor Bauer was at his inefficient best and couldn’t get through four innings.
As Arrieta was cruising, his offence was providing the support, building up an early five-run lead that would be more than enough to help even the series 1-1, with Game 3 set for Friday at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs lineup is as deep as it gets, but it was the meat of the order doing most of the series-tying damage, as 3-4-5 hitters Anthony Rizzo, Ben Zobrist and Kyle Schwarber all reached base three times on a cold, dreary October night.
With the first pitch Wednesday already moved up by an hour due to ominous looking weather reports, rain was on the mind of many as it poured most of the day leading into Game 2, washing out batting practice and keeping the tarp on the Progressive Field diamond up until the last possible minute.
There was already a contingency plan in place to finish off what looked like an inevitable rain out in Cleveland, which would have scrapped the scheduled travel day back to the Windy City on Thursday.
It the end, everything went as planned. For the visitors, at least. The Cubs hadn’t held a World Series lead or scored a run in the Fall Classic since 1945, but after getting shut out by Kluber & Co. in Game 1, they wasted no time getting on the board in part deux.
Kris Bryant singled off Bauer, who, this time around, wasn’t leaking blood from his bandaged pinkie finger like he was during an abbreviated ALCS outing in Toronto, and was cashed when Rizzo drove a 90-mph fastball down the right field line for a double.
It looked like the Indians would have a shot at nailing Bryant at home, but right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall elected to throw to second base, instead.
Thanks to Schwarber, playing in just his second game since tearing up his knee on April 7, the Cubs doubled their lead when the 23-year-old designated hitter swung away on a 3-0 count and laced an RBI single to centre that scored Rizzo with two outs in the third inning.
Schwarber, showing zero rust, finished the night 2-for-4 with two RBI.
While Bauer’s first start of the post-season was cut short after just two outs and 21 pitches when his drone-induced finger injury started bleeding, this start was cut short simply due to bad pitching.
Bauer laboured from start to finish, which came in the fourth inning when he was lifted after 87 pitches — one less than Kluber needed to get through six shutout innings on Tuesday — and six Cubs hits.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Arrieta, wearing short sleeves on a night that the first pitch temperature sat at 6 degrees Celsius, hadn’t given up a hit through four innings.
Shortly after Indians manager Terry Francona turned to his bullpen, the Cubs broke the game open in the top of the fifth inning.
After Rizzo worked a 10-pitch walk with one out, Zach McAllister’s night ended on a Zobrist triple down the right field line, thanks, in part, to Chisenhall slipping as the ball careened off the wall.
Francona quickly dipped into his ’pen again, but right-hander Bryan Shaw promptly gave up an RBI single to Schwarber, an Ohio native, making it a 4-0 lead for the visitors. The Cubs weren’t done there. Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis booted a Willson Contreras grounder, setting up first and third for the Cubs, before Shaw issued a free pass to Jorge Soler to load the bases.
With nine-hole hitter Addison Russell up, Shaw still couldn’t find the plate, walking in the Cubs’ fifth run of the night on four straight pitches.
Meanwhile, Arrieta was still dealing, keeping the Indians hitless through five innings, before Kipnis broke up the no-hitter in the sixth with a double that, eventually, led to the Indians’ only run of the ballgame on a wild pitch.
Arrieta’s unblemished 5 1/3 innings was the longest World Series no-no bid since Jerry Koosman went six hitless innings for the New York Mets in 1969.
With a pivotal Game 3 set for Friday in a frenzied atmosphere amidst the ivy, the Cubs will turn to right-hander Kyle Hendricks, while the Indians will counter with Josh Tomlin.