Indians upbeat, confident heading home with 3-2 lead
I ndians’ shortstop Francisco Lindor admitted there was no way he could hit any of the three 100 mph-plus pitches from Aroldis Chapman he looked at in the eighth inning.
Facing elimination, the Cubs scored all their runs in the fourth inning and made some standout plays in the field, especially in foul ground.
But despite the Cubs’ 3-2 victory in Game 5 of the World Series Sunday night at Wrigley Field, the Indians headed home confident and upbeat.
They still lead the series 3-2 and have two chances at Progressive Field to capture their first World Series championship since 1948.
Some of the Indians sounded satisfied to have taken two of the three games on the road from the Cubs, who won 103 games in the regular season.
After an optional workout day Monday, Game 6 will be Tuesday night at 8:08 p.m., with the Tribe’s Josh Tomlin facing the Cubs’ Jake Arrieta.
“I think we’re very confident,” Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway said. “We still have a lead. The pressure is still on them. We get to go home to our great ballpark and great fans and maybe do something special in front of them.”
Of the previous 46 teams that held a 3-1 lead in the Series, 40 of them have won the title.
That in mind or not, first baseman/ designated hitter Mike Napoli had much less angst than the Northeast Ohioan posing the questions.
“We’re in a good position still. We’re up 3-2 going home,” Napoli said. “We did what we had to do here. We put ourselves in position to try to win it in a crazy atmosphere, you know? We’re happy with what we did here, we’re going to get home and play in front of our home fans.
“We’re going to get a good off day tomorrow, get back out there and try to do it in front of our fans.”
Celebrating in front of the home crowd in Cleveland seemed to be on all the Indians’ minds. They’ve had beer and champagne celebrations in Detroit, Boston and Toronto, starting with clinching the American League Central Division.
“It feels good,” Lindor said of going home up 3-2. “Our fans are unreal. The whole entire time they’ve been great. I’m looking forward to going home and hopefully getting the win over there.”
Outfielder Brandon Guyer felt the same way, saying, “Hopefully now we can win at Cleveland and celebrate with our crowd.”
Asked what he expects on Tuesday, Guyer said, “It will be electric. The playoff atmospheres there have been unbelievable. They take it to another level. Now that we have a chance to clinch at home, fans are going to be crazy. We look forward to playing in front of them.”
Lindor said he was not disappointed not to finish it off.
“It’s not. We wanted to finish it here, but that’s part of the game. We know they’ve got a good team. We know we weren’t going to sweep the series,” Lindor said. “No one said it was going to be easy. We have to continue to play the game the right way and take care of business.”
Asked the key for Tuesday, Lindor said, “Just continue to play the game right and try to outplay them. They played a lot better than us today, so they deserved to win.”
The Indians didn’t fare well against Arrieta in Game 2. Arrieta picked up the victory in the Cubs’ 5-1 triumph, giving up one run on two hits and striking out six in 52/3 innings.
Asked what the Indians must do Tuesday, Napoli said, “Hit him better. There’s nothing else to it. We just gotta do what we’ve been doing, get guys on, run the bases, and come through when we have a chance to.”
Guyer did not board manager Terry Francona’s favorite 767 jumbo jet with a sinking feeling that the Indians had given the Cubs just the opening they needed.
“It could easily be we were down two games,” Guyer said. “We’ve got to look at the positives. As much as we wanted to close it out here and not really give them a chance, they’re a good team and they’re playing in front of this crowd. They didn’t want their season to end.
“They won tonight, but we’ve got two chances to end this thing. Hopefully we can Tuesday.”
(Akron Beacon Journal/TNS)