Kluber silences Cubs, crowd
A World Series might be decided at Wrigley Field, after all. But if it happens, they wouldn’t be celebrating throughout Wrigleyville. Only in the visitors’ clubhouse, where the Champagne will be on ice Sunday night.
The wait-till-next-year cries would be heard for a 109th straight year if the Indians, who were supposed be the Cubs’ final victims of 2016, complete this unlikely pursuit of a World Series championship.
We already know who’d be the Series MVP if Game 5 goes to the Indians: Corey Kluber, the pride of Northeast Ohio. LeBron who? Well, that might be a slight stretch. But in the 112th World
Series, nobody is better. Kluber pitched on short rest in Saturday night’s Game 4 and lasted six impressive innings as the Indians continued to stun the Cubs with a 7-2 victory, giving them a 3-1 edge in the series.
When Cleveland manager Terry Francona lined up Kluber to pitch Games 1, 4 and 7, he figured all seven might be necessary to take down the mighty Cubs, whose offense and rotation clearly are deeper than the Indians’. Francona relished the thought of Kluber in a Game 7.
We might not get that far. This thing could be done sooner, and it could shake down at the epicenter of Cubdom, where the wait for a first championship since 1908 was supposed to end.
Instead, we could see the end of the other drought belonging to the other team, the Indians’ first title since 1948. Kluber would be just fine not throwing another pitch.
Let’s go to the numbers. In two World Series starts, the Tribe’s ace is 2-0 with a 0.75 ERA, one run and nine hits in 12 innings — and 15 strikeouts against one walk.
In the postseason, his ERA is 0.89. He’s 4-1. He has pitched 301⁄3 innings, struck out 35 and walked eight.
And he has been two different pitchers in the Series, relying on twoseam fastballs in Game 1 and breaking pitches in Game 4. Anticipating the Cubs would adjust to his game plan from the opener, Kluber said he knew he’d “adjust to their adjustments.” Apparently, the Cubs didn’t re-adjust.
Just in case there is a Game 7, Kluber should be OK. He threw 81 pitches Saturday, seven fewer than his Tuesday total.
Kluber handed a 4-1 lead to the bullpen and watched Jason Kipnis put it away in the seventh with the first threerun homer in a World Series game at Wrigley since … Babe Ruth in 1932.
That was the Babe’s supposed called shot. He made pointing gestures at the plate, which were caught on black and white film, but the reason for the gestures has been disputed. Did he point to the center-field bleachers, at pitcher Charlie Root or toward the Cubs in the dugout who were razzing him? Either way, he followed with a three-run homer to center, and the Yankees swept.
The Curse of the Bambino
was lifted in Boston 12 years ago, and perhaps it resurrected in Chicago with Kipnis’ homer, the finishing touch on Cleveland’s statement win. It also helped that Carlos Santana homered, Kris Bryant made two throwing errors and the Cubs’ 4-5-6 hitters were 1-for-12 with five strikeouts.
The game provided fodder for the great designated hitter debate, which might never end. The next time the Cubs play in a World Series,
108 years from now, the debate could still be at the forefront. To DH in the National League or not to DH in the National League? That is the question that can stir any baseball chat, and it played out in Game 4.
Kyle Schwarber, who was all over the headlines in Cleveland for his comeback for the ages, might be the Cubs’ most dangerous hitter — exhibited by his three hits in the first two games he played since April. Yet he was omitted from the
lineup Friday and Saturday not because of his defense, but because of his surgically repaired knee and because the NL forbids DH-ing.
Schwarber doesn’t get to hit but Kluber does? Oh, the shame, says the pro-DH crowd. Oh, the intrigue, claims the anti-DH mob.
Turns out, Kluber got a key hit, ending a long at-bat by hitting a roller down the line at third, a rare moment for a guy who’s 2-for-17 in 141 regular-season games. Bryant ran to the ball and made a bad throw to first, and Lonnie Chisenhall scored from second to make it 2-1, Indians.
The Indians were supposed to be an afterthought. A sidebar. And now, thanks largely to Kluber, they’re one win from turning Chicago into the second city.