A Tip of the Recap – World Series Game 2 (Cubs 5, Indians 1)
W: Jake Arrieta (1-0, 5.1 IP, 2H, 1ER, 3BB, 6K, 1.59 ERA)
L: Trevor Bauer (0-1, 3.2 IP, 6H, 2ER, 2BB, 2K, 4.91 ERA)
MVP: Kyle Schwarber (2-4, 2 RBI, BB)
Paging the Cleveland Police Department: The Chicago Cubs have been located safe and sound, just in time to beat the random emojis out of the Cleveland Indians last night in game two of the World Series! The Cubs earned a 5-1 victory to notch their first World Series win since 1945.
It was a feel-good game all around as the Cubs offense backed a dominant Jake Arrieta, who settled in nicely after a troublesome 1st inning. Arrieta gave up back-to-back two-out walks to Francisco Lindor and Mike Napoli in that early but cruised the rest of the way, leaving the Indians hitless through 5 1/3 innings.
Arrieta was pulled in the 6th after giving up two hits and a run on a wild pitch, leaving with a 5-1 lead.
Now on to the Cubs’ scoring, which started in the 1st inning after Kris Bryant singled with one out. He came home when Anthony Rizzo absolutely smoked a double to right. At the end of an inning, Cubs were up 1-0.
In the 3rd, Kyle Schwarber drove in his first of two runs. He came up with two men on and two outs and delivered a single to put the Cubs up 2-0.
The Northsiders came up big in the top of the 5th inning, when Anthony Rizzo walked to get on base for the third time. Ben Zobrist was next and he tripled to bring Rizzo home. Then Schwarber got his second RBI with a single that pushed the lead to 4-0. Their third and final run in that inning came on a bases-loaded walk to Addison Russell.
The Cubs tied the series at one game a piece and head back to Chicago, where they’ll try to win it in front their hometown crowd with three straight at Wrigley.
The Good
Ben Zobrist is on fire! He had a two-hit game yesterday, which added on to his three hits from game one. If that isn’t impressive enough, hear this: He became only the second player in MLB history to have three hits in the first game of the World Series two years in a row. I’d say his Fall Classic resume is pretty darn good.
Kyle Schwarber is BACK! In his postgame interview, Schwarber still hadn’t soaked in what had happened. He had two RBI Wednesday night and justified the choice to activated him as a DH. Just like we all planned, right?
Jake Arrieta was his dominant self again. He tried to overpitch at the start, but got it together after that. He was making great pitches that kept the Indians hitless through five. Even Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis talked about how dominant Arrieta was and that he mowed them down.
The Bad
The Indians defense, which hadn’t committed any errors this postseason, had two miscues last night, both by Kipnis. One of those errors was in the top of the 5th and eventually led to an unearned run. The other came in the 7th when Francisco Lindor tried to turn a beautiful double play, only to see Kipnis drop the ball at second, allowing both men to reach safely. Luckily for the Indians, that wasn’t costly.
The Ugly
There wasn’t really anything ugly on either side. Both teams played clean baseball and Cubs simply outpitched and outhit the Indians.
Upcoming Attractions
The Cubs head home for three and they love playing in front of their blue-blooded faithful. Kyle Hendricks will take the mound for the Cubs for an encore after pitching the NLCS clinching game. He’s a force to be reckoned with as his postseason ERA is 1.65 over 16 1/3 innings. The Indians send right hander Josh Tomlin to the mound. He’s started twice this postseason and has allowed three runs in 10 2/3 innings. Game three is at 7 p.m. CT.