SOME BLANK STARES
Impressive Indians shut out Cubs, stun delirious crowd to take 2- 1 lead in Series
The silence weighed a ton. Kris Bryant had just struck out to end the eighth inning, and Wrigley Field sounded like a forest with no one around and no tree falling.
This is what shock sounds like. This is what it sounds like when one of the best- hitting teams in the majors can’t remember how to get a runner across home plate. And this is what trouble sounds like.
The Cubs went on to lose Game 3 of the World Series 1- 0, and it’s fair to say that when Friday night started, few of the people packed into the old ballpark envisioned anything other than a party.
Instead, the Cubs find themselves down 2- 1 in the series with Indians ace Corey Kluber pitching Saturday night. It’s not panic time yet, but it is time to understand that this isn’t a coronation for the Cubs. The Indians play hard, are fundamentally sound and seem to be under the impression that the country is obsessed with the idea of the Cubs winning a World Series for the first time since 1908. They might be right about that.
The Cubs’ first World Series game at Wrigley since 1945 fell flat due to a lack of hitting and too much good pitching by Cleveland. They managed only five hits. They had similar cold snaps in the National League Championship Series and found their offense in time. But they’re playing with fire again. Or ice.
Anthony Rizzo led off the ninth with a single. Pinch runner Chris Coghlan got to second on a groundout, and first baseman Mike Napoli’s error on Jason Heyward’s chopper moved Coghlan to third base. First and third, two outs, Javy Baez up and fans chanting, “Ja- vy, Ja- vy.’’ Wrigley was in danger of sliding into Lake Michigan.
But closer Cody Allen struck Baez out, organ music quickly drowned out the onslaught of more silence and the Cubs headed to their clubhouse. So much finality with one pitch.
“We were just out of the zone way too often,’’ manager Joe Maddon said. “We’ve got to get our strike zones organized offensively, and if we do, we’ll be fine. . . . A lot of our strikeouts obviously were us chasing pitches. We’ve got to do better than that.’’
The Cubs came into the game with reason to believe it was their night. They had Kyle Hendricks on the mound. He had the majors’ lowest ERA this season, and his
teammates had every right to expect greatness from him. They got good enough from Hendricks. They gave back almost nothing, even with the wind blowing out.
What we’ve learned this season is that whenever there’s a whiff of pitching trouble, Maddon is on the scene like a guy with a police scanner screwed on to his bicycle handle.
Everybody is on a short leash, even the man with a shot at the NL Cy Young Award. Hendricks got into a bases- loaded jam in the fifth inning, and the next batter was Francisco Lindor, who already had two hits against him. Here came Maddon, strolling out of the Cubs’ dugout. And there went Hendricks.
So get mad at Maddon for his quick hook in the loss, but know that he did that sort of thing often during their 103- victory regular season. I would have placed more confidence in Hendricks, but I’m not the guy in the dugout with the thick glasses.
Maddon is shrewd, and he’s also lucky. It’s very, very good to be both. Justin Grimm came in and got Lindor to hit into an inningending double play.
Talk about inciting a crowd looking for the smallest reason to be incited. There was bedlam at Wrigley.
Maddon then opted for Carl Edwards Jr. It worked in the sixth but not in the seventh, when the right- hander gave up a single, threw a wild pitch and walked a batter. Pinch hitter Coco Crisp’s single gave the Indians the 1- 0 lead. Not a good feeling for the Cubs or their fans, who came to see history.
Maddon can’t make his hitters hit. He inserted miracle man Kyle Schwarber as a pinch hitter in the eighth, but he flied out to short. Maddon might have been better off waiting until the ninth to bring in Schwarber.
John Lackey will start Game 4 for the Cubs, but the odds are that Maddon will be visiting him earlier than Lackey would like. Kluber, who beat the Cubs in Game 1, will be pitching on three days’ rest. The Cubs will hope that he’ll react the way Clayton Kershaw did in Game 6 of the NLCS, which is to say not well.
“Time to make some history,’’ Lackey said before Game 3.
The good kind, right?