How the Cubs won World Series Game 5
Ten pitches.
That's all it took for a deader-than-a-doorknob Cubs offense to finally come to life and erase a 1-0 Indians lead in the fourth inning of Game 5 of the World Series on Sunday.
Kris Bryant's 387-foot homer (ROAR!), Anthony Rizzo's towering double to right (ROOOAR!!), Ben Zobrist's line-drive single to right (ROOOOOAR!!!) and Addison Russell's infield RBI-single (ROOOOOOOAR!!!!) gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead as Wrigley Field went funeral-home quiet to rock-concert insanity in the blink of an eye.
Javier Baez's bunt single and David Ross' sacrifice fly made it 3-1 before the fourth was over and the Cubs hung on for dear life to pull out a 3-2 victory to force a Game 6 in Cleveland on Tuesday.
Bryant's homer and Rizzo's double came on back-to-back fastballs by Indians starter Trevor Bauer.
“I loved it, man,” said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. “You could see what happened after that. They kind of put their pitcher on the ropes a little bit. … It's incredible when you do that what it does to your team and what it does to the opposition pitcher. …
“So you have to be able to punch and counterpunch all the time, and we were able to do that tonight. The three runs held up beautifully.”
Said Bryant, who is still just 2-for-17 in the World Series: “It was nice to kind of have a big inning there, kind of get us going a little bit. I feel like our at-bats after that inning were just as good. So that's a good sign for us.”
Bryant wasn't trying to hit one out leading off the fourth, but the MVP candidate knew his team couldn't wait too long to get something going.
“(The mentality) was have a good at-bat and it's nice that it went over the fence,” Bryant said. “Obviously I haven't been swinging the bat too great, but it was nice to get one to kind of help us all out.”
Before Bryant's HR, the Cubs had scored just 2 runs in the previous 25 innings while seeing 355 pitches from Cleveland pitchers. Included in that stretch were the first three innings Sunday as Bauer struck out five and allowed a just-get-the-bat-on-the-ball single to Addisson Russell.
Then came 10 pitches that proved critical in a tense, edge-of-your-seat victory for Maddon's squad.
“He came out really good,” said Indians manager Terry Francona said of Bauer. “I mean, really good. And (then) Bryant and Rizzo jumped on fastballs that caught too much of the plate.”
Bauer, who threw 45 pitches in the first 3 innings and 29 in the fourth, became the first pitcher in history to make 4 starts in a single postseason without going 5 innings. He's given up 8 runs in 13 innings for a 5.54 ERA.