Depleted Indians fall short against Cubs in World Series heartbreaker

CLEVELAND — Mood swings, especially in a series as tightly contested as this World Series, are expected. But there was something particularly gut-wrenching and painful about how the Cleveland Indians lost this World Series to the Chicago Cubs.

The Indians know postseason pain. It was felt in 1997 after a blown save cost them the title, and it was felt in 2007, when despite a 3-1 lead on the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series, the Indians couldn’t return to the Fall Classic.

No, this was different.

This was a championship within their grasp — the franchise’s first since 1948. Up 3-1 on the favored Cubs, the Indians had suddenly become the heavy favorites.

There was even a chance this series might not make it back to Cleveland.

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But Jon Lester pounded the strike zone and Aroldis Chapman went long in Game 5, earning the team’s first World Series win at Wrigley Field since 1945.

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The Indians, by virtue of Corey Kluber’s All-Star Game victory, still had homefield advantage, and if you had polled any player, the Indians still would’ve felt they held the edge.  

But Game 6 deteriorated quickly after the now-infamous outfield gaffe, setting up Wednesday’s all-time Game 7. The possibility of a 3-1 collapse, not unlike what the Golden State Warriors experienced at the expense of the Cleveland Cavaliers, was real.

You wouldn’t have known there was any dread or doubt emanating from the Indians’ dugout before the series finale. Players wore “Party at Napoli’s” shirts during pregame warmups. Jose Ramirez and Napoli sat in the dugout joking on the top step. Manager Terry Francona offered more color commentary on his late-night eating habits. The Tribe was loose.

This despite the fact that they had Kluber starting on three days’ rest for the third time this postseason. And that the Cubs’ bats, boosted by Addison Russell’s historic Game 6, had recently woken up.

The reality was that the longer the series dragged on, the better chance the Cubs had at exposing the Indians' lack of starting caliber arms. 

Wednesday couldn’t have started any worse for Kluber after yielding a leadoff homer to Dexter Fowler. The Indians would eventually tie it 1-1 on a crisp Carlos Santana single to right, but that positivity was fleeting.

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The Indians hadn’t played with a lead since the second inning of Game 5, and that would be the last time all season it happened.

The Cubs scored two more in the top of the fourth to seize momentum once again. A 408-foot Javier Baez homer followed by an RBI single from Anthony Rizzo only stoked the pro-Cub crowd.

Each strikeout during Lester’s three innings of relief drew a chorus of cheers as Cubs fans overtook Progressive Field.

“It was intense the whole way through,” second baseman Jason Kipnis said. “The fans are standing the whole time. It was probably one of the better games in World Series history.”

And the Cubs were hitting Kluber extremely hard, which forced Francona to turn to his bullpen beast earlier than he’d wanted. Even Andrew Miller, who entered Wednesday’s game with a microscopic 0.36 ERA in 15 career postseason outings, got hit hard.

The Indians closed the deficit in the fifth on a wild sequence built off a swinging bunt, hustle and an ill-advised throw. With Santana already on first, Kipnis reached against Lester on a 25-foot wormburner. Both got in scoring position after David Ross spun and misfired to first. It was a wild pitch from Lester that plated Santana and a hustling Kipnis.

The Indians were scraping away at the Cubs’ 5-1 lead and not hacking into it with extra base hits. It was 5-3 heading into the sixth, and the Indians’ odds of coming back didn’t seem as dire.

“We scored two runs on that passed ball, and it was like new life for us, new energy,” said center fielder Rajai Davis.

Until Ross crushed the Cubs’ third homer of the game. With that the Indians' season seemed extinguished, especially with Chapman eventually entering the game with a three-run cushion and just four outs left.

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It didn’t seem possible that a team so depleted had yet another kick. But when Davis’ two-run homer to left tied the game 6-6, Indians fans were offered yet another reprieve.

“There were definitely a lot of shifts of emotion,” said Davis. “ 'Oh, we’re up.’ and then go down. We tie it, then we go down a few runs. … After we went down (6-4), I’m thinking ‘As soon as somebody gets on, we’re a home run away from tying it.’ ”

Franciso Lindor’s sensational play on a deep grounder in the top of the ninth inning to keep the Cubs off the board made it seem like a storybook ending was in order. The left field porch was buzzing with each pitch, and Indians fans had finally made their presence felt in a stadium that often felt like a neutral site.

“We get so caught up in the game, you don’t think about what your emotions are going to be or things like that,” Francona said. “You don’t think about storybooks and stuff like that.”

The anticipation and excitement died after a rain delay, and the Cubs made history in their own right with two runs in the 10th. They held on 8-7 despite yet another late threat. In the end the Indians’ 3-1 lead was just a tease, an excruciating way for a season to end.

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