Recap: The Fall Classic
Game 1: "King Kluber" The first game of the fall classic was over before it started. When Corey Kluber took the mound, it was like the Chicago Cubs didn't even have bats in their hands. After Kluber worked an easy scoreless top of the 1st inning, the Indians got on the board in the bottom half of the 1st with a bases loaded two out bloop single by Jose Ramirez followed by a hit by pitch of Brandon Guyer. Once the Indians put up a 2-0 lead, Kluber cruised through the next few innings striking out 8 of his first 9 batters faced. The offense was paced the rest of the way by Roberto Perez. Perez struck first in the bottom of the fourth with a line drive solo home run, and then stuck the dagger in the Cubs with a mammoth 3-run home run in the eighth. The Indians closed the game in the later innings with a combined effort from relief pitchers Andrew Miller and Cody Allen. Cle: 6 Chi: 0
Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Game 2: "No Sleeves, No Problem" Corey Kluber was the story for game 1... and Jake Arrieta was the story for game 2. Pitching with no sleeves on a cold Chicago night, Arrieta flirted with a no hitter until the 6th inning when manager Joe Madden called upon relief pitcher Mike Montgomery to finish the inning. After getting the Cubs into the eighth, Madden took Montgomery out and turned to closer Aroldis Chapman to finish the game. The Cubs bats woke up in game 2, scoring one run in the first, one in the third, and three in the fifth spraying 9 hits throughout the course of the game. Chi: 5 Cle: 1
Game 3: "In Love With The Coco... Crisp" One run was all that was needed for Cleveland to win game 3 of the series against the Chicago Cubs. In a game deadlocked at 0 in the seventh, veteran Coco Crisp pinch hit for Andrew Miller and singled to right scoring Michael Martinez from third. Crisp has been clutch all postseason with his home runs in the American League Divisional Series and Championship Series, so pinch hitting Crisp in this situation was an easy choice for Cleveland's manager Terry Francona. On the mound, Cleveland got stellar performances from Josh Tomlin who went a scoreless 4 2/3 innings, while Andrew Miller, Bryan Shaw, and Cody Allen dominated the rest of the game in relief. Cle: 1 Chi: 0
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Game 4: "King Kluber Again!" On three short days rest, Terry Franco looked to Corey Kluber for game 4. "king Kluber" went six innings, allowed five hits, struck out six, and walked one batter on his way to another win in the world series. With another strong ace like performance, Kluber improved to 4-1 with a 0.89 ERA in five playoff starts this year. The Cleveland offense fed off of their starters dominance and pushed 7 runs across the plate. After Chicago's Dexter Flower doubled and scored in the first, Cleveland answered in the second with a Santana solo home run to tie the game. Cleveland took the lead in that same inning after Kris Bryant's throwing error to first allowing an unearned run to cross the plate. The Indians maintained the lead the rest of the way with the help of Jason Kipnis's 3-run home run in the seventh. Cle: 7 Chi 2
Game 5: "Rocky" Down three games to one in the best of 7, The Cubs had all the odds stacked against them. In an attempt to inspire the team, Anthony Rizzo danced around in his boxers in the locker room doing Rocky Balboa moves while all of the Rocky movies were playing on every clubhouse TV. The team rallied behind Anthony Rizzo and took the field with the new Rocky Balboa "fight to the last punch mentality"... It worked. Now to the actual game, the Cubs looked to starting pitcher Jon Lester to keep their world series hopes alive against Cleveland's Trevor Bauer. Lester and Bauer matched each other with scoreless first inning performances, but Lester ran into trouble in the second. Jose Ramirez hit a two out no doubt solo home run into the bleachers to give Cleveland an early lead, however that would be the only run they would score that game until the 6th inning. Bauer flipped the bottom half of the next inning with ease and put up another zero. It wasn't until superstar Kris Bryant's at bat in the fourth did things turn around for the Cubs. In the bottom half of the fourth, Kris Bryant hit a line drive home run to left center field and Wrigley erupted. On the next pitch, Rizzo followed that with a line drive double to right. Ben Zobrist singled up the middle to set up runners on the 1st and 3rd, and Addison Russell followed with an infield RBI single. Following a Jason Heyward strike out, Javier Baez placed an unexpected bunt single down the third base line which set up a sacrifice fly by the next hitter David Ross. Lester struck out to end the inning, however you can feel the momentum start to shift as Chicago was now up by two. This was the turning point of the game and possibly the series, as Lester only allowed one more run in the sixth which lead to Chicago turning to Carl Edwards Jr. and Aroldis Chapman to close out the game. Chi: 3 Cle: 2
Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Game 6: "Grand Slam To Game 7" Thriving from momentum of game 5, the Chicago Cubs came out swinging in game 6. Josh Tomlin allowed three runs in the first, thanks to a home run by Kris Bryant that paced the offense for the rest of the game. Jake Arrieta worked into the 6th inning, and handed the ball off to four relievers including Chapman to finish off the game. The story of the game was 22 year old Addison Russell's grand slam and six RBI game. The blow came in the third inning, after a walk and a pair of Cub singles. On a 2- 0 count, Dan Otero, who came in relief for Tomlin, threw a center-cut mistake that ended up in the left center field bleachers. The Cubs had a 7-0 lead early in the game, and managed to hold on for the win with a final score of 9-3 to force a game 7. Chi: 9 Cle: 3
Game 7: "Go Cubs Go" The final game of fall was arguably the greatest game 7 in world series history. Both teams left everything on the field Wednesday night and left the sports world in awe. Before we take a look at the details of the game, there are a few important things to note. Kluber: 3rd start in world series/ short rest. Miller: 19 1/3 innings pitched in playoffs/ most by reliever in post season history. Chapman: 62 pitches in previous 2 games/ must use in game 7.
The first inning started off with a bang. Dexter Fowler deposited a Kluber fastball to dead center field for a solo home run. The home run gave the Cubs an early 1-0 lead and more importantly settled down Cubs Starter Kyle Hendricks, who pitched a scoreless first and second inning. The Indians answered back in the third when Carlos Santana singled to right to bring in the clutch hitting Coco Crisp from third. With the score even at 1, the Cubs pushed two runs across the plate the very next inning. With Kris Bryant on third, Addison Russell hit a fly ball to Davis who nearly threw Bryant out at the plate. Wilson Contreras followed with a double to right center to cap the inning. After a scoreless bottom of the fourth, both teams were able to score two runs of their own in the fifth. A Baez solo home run in the fifth forced manager Terry Francona to put in his star reliever Andrew Miller, who allowed the second run of the inning to come across via a walk and a Rizzo RBI single. Down 5-1 with 2 outs, the Indians scored two runs after manager Joe Madden gave the ball to Jon Lester to bridge the middle innings. Feeling solely responsible for the two runs scored from a throwing error and pass ball, catcher David Ross elevates an Andrew Miller fastball to give the Cubs a 6-3 lead heading into the 7th. Lester pushed the Cubs into 8th, however after a single from Jose Ramirez, Madden elected to finish the game with Aroldis Chapman. Like Miller, Chapman was surely overused, and it showed. Brandon Guyer got to him first with a big RBI double to right, and Rajai Davis came to plate. On a low and inside two strike pitch, Rajai Davis chokes up on the bat and hit a two run home run to left field to tie the game at 6 and bring Cleveland back to life.
After a scoreless ninth inning and a short rain delay, the Cubs were able to mentally recover from the late inning home run with RBI hits from Ben Zobrist and Miguel Montero. The Cubs turned to Carl Edwards Jr, who recorded two outs but with just one more to go gave up an RBI hit to guess who... Rajai Davis. Montgomery then finished the job by retiring Michael Martinez on a slow ground ball to Kris Bryant. The 2016 Chicago Cubs snapped the 108 year curse and won the world series... history was made... "Go Cubs Go'".
