Cubs on brink of season ending after 7-2 loss
The Cleveland Indians may have been the most overlooked team in all of the playoffs this October.
Now they're one victory away from being World Series champions.
And they're doing it at the expense of the Chicago Cubs.
After playing a National League game Friday night and beating the Cubs 1-0, the American League champs played some AL ball Saturday night, beating the Cubs 7-2 at Wrigley Field to take a 3-1 lead in the Series.
If the Cubs want to send the Series back to Cleveland, they'll need staff ace Jon Lester to rescue them Sunday night in Game 5.
"Especially with Jonny going, this is going to sound cliché, but we feel good about it," said first baseman Anthony Rizzo. "We're down 3-1 in the World Series. We get tomorrow and we really put pressure on them. It's about focusing right away."
The Indians ace, Corey Kluber, demonstrated both guts and guile in Game 4. Pitching on three days rest, Kluber worked 6 innings, giving up 5 hits and 1 run while throwing 81 pitches.
Kluber's counterpart, Cubs starter John Lackey, threw 84 pitches in 5 innings as he gave up 4 hits and 3 runs.
The Cubs even scored first in this one. Dexter Fowler led off the bottom of the first with a double. After Kris Bryant popped out, Rizzo singled Fowler home.
But that was about it for the Cubs, who again could get little going. Kluber's breaking pitches were especially effective against right-handed hitters as he struck out six.
"They were definitely more aggressive this time around," said Kluber, who is 2-0 in the World Series and has an 0.89 ERA in the entire postseason. "But that's how most lineups approach me, so it wasn't anything we had to figure out on the fly."
The Cubs and manager Joe Maddon had hoped to bring a better approach at the plate. But Kluber was too much for what still is a young and sometimes anxious lineup. Cubs batters walked once and struck out eight times for the game.
"They don't walk a lot of people because they get a lot of chases," Bryant said. "If we're able to do that lay off those sliders down and in, we'd walk a little more."
Maddon said he didn't see any anxiety in his team, but Bryant said the key to staying in this series is to relax and play as the had all season.
"Just go out there and play," he said. "Go out there and play with our heads on fire. What do we got to lose? We have to win three of them. When we're playing the best, it's when we're smiling and having fun, goofing around. Hopefully we'll see some more smiles out there, just enjoy ourselves.
"It's a little bit hard to relax, the early part of the game. It's the World Series. We're all young. Everybody feels the nerves, but I think as these games keep going on, we're feeling a little more comfortable with it. Hopefully tomorrow we can continue to do that."
The Indians struck back against Lackey and the Cubs in the second. Carlos Santana led off with a home run. Third baseman Bryant made 2 throwing errors in the inning, the second led to a run as he threw the ball away on Kluber's infield bouncer.
"A couple of things didn't go my way, and they had the homer," said Lackey, who wanted the first pitch to Santana called a strike instead of a ball. "That changed the at-bat quite a bit."
A double by Jason Kipnis and a single by Francisco Lindor in the third made it 3-1 Cleveland.
The Indians got another run in the sixth and put it away in the seventh on a 3-run homer to right field by Kipnis against reliever Travis Wood. Ace reliever Andrew Miller worked 2 innings for Cleveland.
"We're just going to have to play better," Lackey said. "There's plenty of talent in this room to win a ballgame tomorrow. We've just got to execute and play a good baseball game."
For Indians manager Terry Francona, nothing changes.
"The only thing that changes is we'll pack our bags because we're going to go home or way or the other, and we'll show up and try to beat a really good pitcher tomorrow, and that's what we always do. Nothing needs to change."
At least not for one team.