THIS YEAR’S WORLD Series between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians will come down to one final game.
With the long ball and dominant pitching, the Cubs beat the Indians 9-3 at Progressive Field last night, staving off elimination and force a winner-takes-all game seven in Cleveland tonight.
The last MLB team to overcome a 3-1 World Series deficit and win game six and seven on road was the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. The Cubs are one win away from pulling off an astounding comeback and ending their 108-year World Series drought.
After a low-scoring World Series weekend, the Cubs hit their stride early on and took a lead with a Kris Bryant home run.
The post Halloween fireworks really started popping after that though, when an outfield error gave Ben Zobrist the chance to impose himself on the Cleveland catcher.
In game six, it was a chance he wasn’t ready to pass up. His physical arrival at the mound made it 3 – 0 a Cubs team who looked down and out on Sunday morning.
Addison Russell, who was one for 24 to begin the postseason hit an RBI double and a historic grand slam en route to six RBIs.
The Indians pitcher and the rookie outfielder had been playing decent ball since September 1 with Josh Tomlin owning a 1.71 ERA and Tyler Naquin playing error-free ball in the outfield.
Things were a lot worse for the two before that however and their mishaps came back. Tomlin, who allowed the second-most homers in the regular season (36), gave up a solo homer to Bryant on a 0-2 pitch in the first inning but was tagged for two more hits and two runs after miscommunication between Naquin and Lonnie Chisenhall in the outfield allowed a Russell fly ball to drop.
Tomlin, who was pitching on short rest, gave up six hits before getting pulled after a little more than two innings and was scored with allowing six runs after reliever Dan Otero served up the grand slam to Russell. Naquin, meanwhile had a chance to avenge his mistake with the bases loaded in the fourth but struck out swinging.
In game two, Jake Arrieta took a no-hitter into the sixth inning for the Cubs, but left the game in the sixth after allowing a run. Last night it was more of the same as the right-hander struck out nine Indians batters, allowing two runs on three hits. The last two starts were vintage Arrieta and drastically different than the pitcher we saw the 10 games prior. The reigning Cy Young Award winner owned a 4.77 ERA over his last 10 starts before the World Series with 25 walks and nine homers allowed.
Russell’s six RBIs last night tied a World Series record with Bobby Richardson, Hideki Matsui, and Albert Pujols.
Corey Kluber (18-9, 3.14) will take the mound for the third time this World Series in tonight’s decider, becoming the first pitcher since Curt Schilling in 2001 to make three starts in the Fall Classic. Kluber owns a 0.89 ERA this postseason and will face MLB’s ERA leader during the regular season, Kyle Hendricks (16-8, 2.13 ERA). It will be all hands on deck in the final game of the year, meaning Cubs ace Jon Lester could come out of the bullpen like Madison Bumgarner did in game seven of the 2014 World Series.
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