Cleveland is one win from its first World Series championship since 1948.
Closing in:
CHICAGO — Talk about an October surprise.
A Cleveland Indians team dismissed and all but ignored throughout the postseason is on the brink of a championship that few saw coming.
With Corey Kluber again flummoxing hitters and Jason Kipnis driving a stake through the heart of the team he grew up rooting for, the Indians took Game 4 of the World Series, beating the Chicago Cubs 7-2 in front of a Wrigley Field crowd of 41,706 that by the latter innings was church-quiet.
The Indians, who haven’t won a World Series since 1948 — they own the secondlongest drought in the sport behind the Cubs, who haven’t won since 1908 — lead the best-of-seven series 3-1.
Cleveland, which has won the first two games at Wrigley Field, sends Trevor Bauer to the mound against Jon Lester on Sunday night in Chicago in a potential clincher.
“I think we like the position we’re in, but the task isn’t done yet,” Kluber said. “We still have one more game to win, and we’re going to show up tomorrow and play with the same sense of urgency we’ve played with until this point. We don’t want to let them build up any momentum and let them get back in the series.”
Kluber, the story much of the postseason for an Indians pitching staff that brought a 1.65 ERA into the game, allowed one run and five hits over six innings while pitching on three days’ rest for just the second time in his career. Though not as dominant as he was in Game 1 when he threw six shutout innings, the right-hander nonetheless kept Cubs hitters off-balance. Kluber, who came in 3-1 with a 0.74 ERA in his first four starts of this postseason, walked one and struck out six.
Cubs right-hander John Lackey allowed three runs (two earned) and four hits over five innings, departing with his team trailing 3-1.
After the Indians tacked on a run in the sixth against Mike Montgomery to make it 4-1, Kipnis, from suburban Northbrook, sucked the remaining energy from the crowd in the seventh. That’s when he hammered a 3-and-1 pitch by lefty Travis Wood into the right-field bleachers, the three-run shot making it 7-1.
“There are certain times you know when you take the crowd out of it,” Kipnis said. “You know in the game a late-inning home run, a crooked number can do that. It was a big swing and it meant a lot to me and meant a lot to this team and gave us some cushion to work with.”
The Cubs’ primary accomplishment Saturday was scoring against Andrew Miller.
The left-hander came in unscored upon over 15 innings this postseason, comprising eight appearances, with 27 strikeouts and four
walks.
After Miller pitched a scoreless seventh, Cubs center fielder Dexter Fowler hit a leadoff homer in the eighth to make it 7-2.
The Cubs actually did lead in the game.
After Lackey struck out two in a perfect 16-pitch first, they got to Kluber in the bottom half.
Fowler led off by slapping a 1-and-2 curveball to left for a leadoff double, the ball glancing off the tip of Rajai Davis’ glove as he dived. Kris Bryant popped to short but Anthony Rizzo lined a 0-and-1 fastball to center for an RBI single that made it 1-0.
Cleveland’s Carlos Santana, who got the start at first in place of Mike Napoli, led off the second by hitting a fullcount fastball to right for his third homer of the postseason, tying it at 1.
Jose Ramirez then grounded out before Lonnie Chisenhall reached on a throwing error by Bryant, the third baseman. Roberto Perez grounded back to Lackey, which put Chisenhall on second with two outs. Cubs manager Joe Maddon chose to intentionally walk Tyler Naquin to get to Kluber.
Kluber, in an eight-pitch at-bat, fouled off consecutive full-count pitches before topping one toward third. Bryant charged, bare-handed the ball and threw to first, but the ball deflected off Rizzo’s glove. When the ball trickled away, Chisenhall steamed around third to score to make it 2-1.
“So we made mistakes. Absolutely, we made mistakes tonight,” Maddon said. “That was part of it. But then again, we just have to do more offensively to give ourselves a chance.”
The Indians won for the second straight day at Wrigley — those two wins matched the Cubs’ entire total of World Series victories in more than a century of playing at their famed ballpark.
“They’re obviously doing something right,” Bryant said. “Taking advantage of our mistakes and my mistakes.”