A World Series between the two teams with the longest championship droughts comes with enough intrigue before the games start, but add a split set of games in the first two at Progressive Field, and that drama only grows. Last night, the bandage was pulled off quickly when Jon Lester gave up two first inning runs and it became immediately apparent that Corey Kluber had his best stuff. Tonight, Jake Arrieta supplied five no-hit innings, and Trevor Bauer made it clear early that he was struggling to get outs.
For Chicago, tonight’s mission was leaving Ohio with at least one win, and they accomplished that rather easily. For Cleveland, they could be understood for looking ahead to Game Three against Kyle Hendricks in Chicago with a bit of unease.
The Cubs proved successful at the plate even without Dexter Fowler, their usual catalyst, getting on base until his third time to the plate. Instead, the productivity came from the continued handiwork of Ben Zobrist and the return of Kyle Schwarber. The World Series designated hitter who, again, looks like he has not missed more than a handful of games all season. Schwarber’s multi-RBI effort today provided not only runs but productive at bats in the middle of the order, and though it can’t necessarily be measured, an adrenaline jolt to the rest of his clubhouse.
In the first inning, Chicago’s second and third hitters, who were both blanked yesterday, strung a pair of hits together to bring in the first run of the night. After Fowler’s soft groundout, Kris Bryant singled on a 2-2 changeup, and then Anthony Rizzo drove Bauer’s 2-2 fastball to right field, and it’s an early 1-0 lead for the North Side. Cleveland missed an opportunity here by hitting the wrong cutoff man and perhaps allowing Bryant to score. This would ultimately be the first of a couple of untimely mistakes that would prove costly.
Two innings later, a Fowler groundout started the inning again, but again, the Cubs would score a single run anyway. This time though, the Cubs would impersonate Cleveland’s two out scoring and put together their second run of the night after Bryant lined out to Francisco Lindor. Following Bryant’s lineout, Rizzo fell behind on a pair of curveballs, and then watched as Bauer threw two more, but these missed the zone. When Bauer went to his fastball to try and salvage the at bat, he missed twice with that pitch as well, and Rizzo moved to first with the free pass. Zobrist singled up the middle to Tyler Naquin, and then Schwarber sent a 3-0 fastball to virtually the same spot to score Rizzo from second.
It was the fifth inning that would create the needed separation in the score, and it could possibly be blamed for throwing Arrieta off of his rhythm. Aside from a trio of walks, he had been masterful at using his wildness to his advantage and keep the Cleveland batters out of sync. The half hour frame yielded three runs, and again started with an out. This time, on a Kris Bryant strikeout. But Rizzo’s ten pitch walk put him on base for Zobrist’s triple to right—somewhat aided by Lonnie Chisenhall taking a tumble when trying to field the carom off of the wall. Schwarber then singled again, and again up the middle to Naquin, scoring Zobrist from third.
From there, the Cubs loaded the bases following Javier Baez’s strikeout. First, on a fielding error from Jason Kipnis, who couldn’t handle Lindor’s throw after he’d fielded the ball brilliantly that allowed Willson Contreras to reach first and moved Schwarber to third. Jorge Soler followed with a walk on five straight cutters from Bryan Shaw that loaded the bases, and then Shaw walked in a run on a four pitch walk to Addison Russell. A four pitch walk consisting of, you guessed it, four straight cutters. That’s nine straight cutters from Shaw, and only one of them made it to the strike zone.
Terry Francona’s crew broke up Arrieta’s no-hitter in the sixth, the longest no-hit bid in the World Series since 1969. Carlos Santana opened the frame on a deep flyout to Zobrist in left, and then Jason Kipnis redeemed his fielding error in the previous inning by catching a cutter that Arrieta left just a bit too high and too centered in the zone and driving it into the gap to right field. Arrieta got Lindor to make the second out on a grounder, but the shutout ended during Mike Napoli’s at bat. Kipnis had advanced to third on Lindor’s groundout, and then Arrieta threw consecutive wild pitches, the first Contreras was able to stop, but the second got by him and Kipnis was able to score from third.
The scoring ended there, and both teams head to Chicago for three straight with the series evened up. Jake Arrieta, though he might never pitch close to what he did during his Cy Young level artistry in the second half of 2015, did the job of securing his team a win. He pitched in the same way he has for much of the season, but tonight his wildness was the effective kind and the Cleveland batters were off balance until the sixth inning. The work of the offense tonight—spurred by the unprecedented work of Kyle Schwarber—that has become almost mundane in its regularity may be what registers for many in the box score, but Arrieta’s contributions should not be overlooked.
The Cubs, then have won their first World Series game since Game Six of the 1945 World Series on October 8 of that year, and they return to Clark and Addison looking to take command of this Fall Classic.
Lead photo courtesy Ken Blaze—USA Today Sports.