Rozner: Cubs' silence deafening at Wrigley Field

It was quiet out there. Too quiet.

Wrigley Field was so quiet, you could hear a pint of beer drop.

The Tavern on the Green had gone silent, the fans as nervous as the players who have forgotten at the worst possible moment that they're part of a very good baseball team.

Staring them in the face is a 3-1 World Series deficit, the possibility of a dream season ending at home Sunday in Game 5, where they thought a few days ago they might clinch their first championship since 1908.

It's what happens when you don't hit, when you leave dozens of runners in scoring position and continually leave runners on base.

You look flat and the crowd goes flat. But that's just another way of saying the opposition is pitching well. That's what flat is. Good pitching stopping good hitting.

It happens all the time in the postseason.

That's what starter Corey Kluber did to the Cubs for the second time in the World Series Saturday night, as the Indians captured Game 4 7-2 and have to take a commanding 3-1 Series lead.

The Cubs started well enough, getting a run in the first when Anthony Rizzo's one-out single brought home Dexter Fowler, who had doubled to lead off the game.

But that lead lasted only until Carlos Santana ripped a 3-2 pitch from John Lackey through a fierce wind and into the right-field bleachers in the second to tie the game at 1-1.

That's when the wheels came off the Little Blue Machine.

Kris Bryant's error opened the door, and with two on and two out, Kluber fought Lackey to 3-2 and the Cubs' starter couldn't put away his counterpart, an American League pitcher who batted 6 times during the regular season.

After a pair of foul balls, Kluber reached on a swinging bunt and Bryant's throw eluded Rizzo, allowing a second run to score.

"They're obviously doing something right and taking advantage of our mistakes. My mistakes," said Bryant, who was 0-for-3. "We have to turn that around."

When it was 4-1, the Cubs were in deep trouble knowing Andrew Miller was lurking in the Cleveland pen, and the Cubs' offense remained powerless.

Kluber went 6 strong innings and when the Indians got 3 more on a Jason Kipnis bomb in the seventh, that was all she wrote.

"You have to get a lead with that bullpen down there," Bryant said. "Kluber was tough."

The Indians have done everything better than the Cubs through 4 games, but the story of this series is the Cubs' inability to get a hit with runners in scoring position, another function of good advance scouting and great execution on the mound.

So no one had to tell the Cubs this was a must-win, any more than they had to be told in the NLCS that going down 3-1 to a team that's made it this far in the postseason is sort of a bad idea.

But the Cubs won three straight to win the NLCS and they still believe it could happen again, though their plan is to try to win one game at a time, which is probably a wise approach.

Teams generally can't win three at a time, so this is logical.

They have their ace, Jon Lester, going Sunday, and then Jake Arrieta - who already beat the Indians in Game 2 - and it would be Kyle Hendricks against Kluber on short rest again in Game 7 - though that didn't bother Kluber (81 pitches) at all Saturday night as the Cubs flailed away at sliders in the dirt.

"Jon is our ace for a reason," Bryant said. "We'll keep our heads up and forget about it and play a good baseball game tomorrow.

"Our sense of urgency is tomorrow. We have to win out. Hopefully, we do that and can forget about these last four games."

It's not impossible, no, but the Cubs have get back to playing good defense and they'll need Lester to be brilliant Sunday as they await an awakening of the bats.

There was little optimism among the faithful, however, as they filed out into the night, wondering if their fate was already sealed by an opposition pitching staff that is 10-2 this postseason.

Many of us thought we wouldn't be going back to Cleveland this week and now it's a possibility.

Just not the for the reason we thought.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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