Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series



2016 World Series

Game 1
October 25
Indians 6 Cubs 0

The Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908 and the Indians haven't won a World Series since 1948. Game 1 of the World Series had Jon Lester facing Corey Kluber, both are great pitcher's that may have a chance at the Cy Young Award this year.

Lester struggled in the first inning. After retiring the first 2 batters, he gave up a single to Francisco Lindor, who stole second base. Lester walked the next 2 batters before Jose Ramirez hit a slow ground ball to third base that became an infield single, scoring the first run of the game and series. When Lester hit Brandon Guyer (a former Cubs minor leaguer), the Indians had a 2-0 lead.

The Indians added on later with a home run by Roberto Perez off Lester while Kluber was shutting down the Cubs offense and creating his own history striking out 8 Cubs batters in the first 3 innings, a feat no one had ever done in the World Series.

Perez added another home run, this one a 3-run shot off Hector Rondon and the Indians coasted to a 6-0 lead to take a 1-0 lead in the World Series.

An exciting addition to the Cubs lineup was Kyle Schwarber, who was in the lineup as DH. Schwarber was hurt very early in the year and this was the first game that he returned the Cubs lineup. Schwarber would not get medical clearance to play the outfield so he will only be available as a pinch hitter in the games at Wrigley Field and can return to DH when the Series moves back to Cleveland for games 6 and 7 (as needed). It looked like Schwarber may hit a home run, but his drive off Kluber banged against the right field wall for a double instead.

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Perez 2 home run



Lester struggles in 1st inning

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Game 2
October 26
Cubs 5 Indians 1

Game 2 in Cleveland was the Jake Arrieta and Kyle Schwarber show. Arrieta took a no-hitter into the 6th inning and the Cubs bullpen helped hold the Indians to just one run on the night. Schwarber drove in 2 runs with a double. Most analysts being amazed at how his timing could be this good after being out for so long.

Arrieta takes no-hitter into 6th



Kyle Schwarber drives in 2



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Game 3
October 28
Indians 1 Cubs 0

Wrigley Field hosts a World Series game for the first time since 1945, but the game doesn't go very well. Josh Tomlin pitched a great game against the Cubs although, he did not go very far into the game. The Indians bullpen has had an incredible run this postseason and the Cubs saw that first hand as for the third series in a row this postseason, the Cubs have a 1-0 game. This win going to the Indians as Coco Crisp drives in the only run of the game with a pinch hit single in the 7th inning.

Coco Crisp's RBI single



Bill Murray



Game 4
October 29

Indians 7 Cubs 2

Corey Kluber comes back on just 3 days rest and the Cubs do seem to have figured him out in the first inning as Anthony Rizzo drives in the first run of the game. But Kluber settled down and the Indians offense played well in this game. Carlos Santana began the scoring with a home run into the teeth of the wind that was blowing in this night at Wrigley. The Cubs defense left them down as Kris Bryant made a nice play to pick up a ground ball, but a wild throw pulled Rizzo off the bag for one error. The Cubs walked the 8th place hitter to load the bases for Kluber, but Kluber had a nice, long at bat that ended when he hit a soft grounder to third and Bryant made another poor throw that Rizzo couldn't handle. The third run of the game scored and the Cubs never could get any closer on this night.

Jason Kipnis grew up in the Chicago land area and had a night to remember when he put the game away with a 3-run home run off Travis Wood. And the Indians stunned the Cubs fans as they take a commanding 3 games to 1 lead in the World Series. The Cubs will face elimination on Sunday at Wrigley Field.

Santana home run



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October 30
Game 5
Cubs 3 Indians 2

Ryne Sandberg threw out the first pitch for game 5 and Jon Lester took the mound for the Cubs. Lester gave up an early lead on a home run to Jose Ramirez but this night he pitched very well.

Trevor Bauer was matching Lester early until the 4th inning. Kris Bryant led off the inning with a line drive home run to left center field. Anthony Rizzo nearly went back to back, but his drive bounced off the right field wall for a double. Addison Russell drove in the 2nd run with an infield single and when David Ross hit a bases loaded sacrifice fly, the Cubs had all the runs they would need for the night taking a 3-1 lead.

The Indians added one more run in the 6th inning when Rajai Davis, singled, stole second base and scored on a Francisco Lindor single.

Many Cubs fans, Including myself, were shocked to see Miguel Montero pinch hit for David Ross in the bottom of the 6th inning. There wasn't anyone on base so the move seemed to indicate that Cubs manager, Joe Maddon was determined to go to the bullpen in the 7th inning even though Lester had not thrown a lot of pitches and still seemed to be pitching very well.

Maddon brought in Carl Edwards in the top of the 7th. Edwards gave up a single to Mike Napoli and retired one batter before Maddon brought in his closer, Aroldis Chapman. This is the earliest appearance for the Cubs closer all year. But Maddon's move paid off as Chapman struck out 4 batters, allowing just one hit the rest of the way on to the Cubs victory.

The Cubs take the World Series back to Cleveland for Game 6 and hopefully a Game 7 as well.

Ross & Rizzo catch



Cubs fans sing Go Cubs Go after first World Series victory at Wrigley since 10/8/45



Cubs traded a lot of young talent to get Aroldis Chapman for this night



********************************************************************** Game 6

2016 World Series


November 1
Game 6
Cubs 9 Indians 3

The Cubs won 103 regular season games during the regular, the best in the MLB in 2016. How did they do that? A great lineup, filled with patient hitters who will take walks, that can also hit home runs. A great starting pitching staff, that went deep into games to take the pressure off a good bullpen. The best defense in all of baseball. The Cubs put it all on display facing elimination in game 6 of the World Series.

The Cubs started early when Kris Bryant homered on a hanging curve ball of Josh Tomlin in the first inning with 2 outs. Anthony Rizzo singled, Ben Zobrist singled and Cleveland did the cubs a favor as 2 outfielders let a ball drop that should've been caught giving the Cubs 2 runs and a 3-0 early lead.

Jake Arrieta looked strong early and the Cubs lineup continued to put the pressure on Tomlin and the Indians as they loaded the bases in the 3rd inning before Addison Russell gave the Cubs a 7-0 lead with the first Grand Slam in World Series Cubs history. At 22 years old, only Mickey Mantle was younger when he hit a Grand Slam in the World Series.

The Indians mounted a little comeback making it a 7-2 game, but the Cubs defense wouldn't allow much more. Jason Heyard made a great play on a sinking line drive that ended one Indians rally, Javy Baez turned a great double play. Aroldis Chapman hustled to 1st base to prevent an infield single from Francisco Lindor and in the ninth inning, I'm not sure why Roberto Perez tried to get to second base down by 7 runs, but when he tried, Jason Heyward made a throw from deep right field on the fly to Addison Russell to get the 2nd out of the inning. One more out and the Cubs take it to a final game 7 to win it all.

Cubs do incredibly well when you can name off multiple guys that made an impact. Game 6 surely exhibitied that. Another one like this in game 7 and the 108 year World Series drought will be history!!!!!!!

Hitting

Addison Russell



Bryant's home run in 1st inning




Rizzo adds to the lead



Defense

Chapman covering first base



Full Recap

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Facing Corey Kluber, who had already beaten the Cubs twice in this series, Dexter Fowler got the Cubs off to a great start with the first World Series game 7 leadoff the game home run ever to give the Cubs an early 1-0 lead.

Kyle Hendricks was struggling a little early. Javier Baez made an error in the first inning and in the 2nd inning, after Jose Ramirez singled off Hendricks, Kyle caught Ramirez leaning at first base and picked him off to help get him out of the 2nd without a run scoring. The Indians did get to Hendricks in the 3rd inning when Carlos Santana singled home Coco Crisp who led off the inning with a double. The score was tied 1-1 after 3 innings.

The Cubs started to get to Kluber in the 4th inning when Kris Bryant singled and Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch. Ben Zobrist grounded into a force play, but it got Bryant to third base and Bryant was able to score on a very shallow fly ball to center field. While it looked like Indians outfielder Rajai Davis wasn't fully prepared to make a strong throw, Bryant's aggressiveness and great slide, he slids his legs between the Indians catcher who was blocking the plate to score the Cubs 2nd run. Willson Contreras got a big, two out double that nearly went over the fence in deep right center field.

The Cubs successfully knocked Kluber out of the game in the 4th inning when Javier Baez made up for 2 early errors in this game by hitting a home run to deep right center field. Andrew Miller came into the game and with 2 outs, Rizzo & Bryant struck again as Bryant walked and when he was running on a pitch, Rizzo drove the ball into the right field corner for a single, but Bryant just kept running scoring all the way from first. The 2nd run of the game that can be attributed to very advanced base running skills by Bryant. Cubs take what appeared to be a very good lead of 5-1 going into the bottom of the 5th inning.

Cubs got some bad luck in the bottom of the 5th inning when Kyle Hendricks walked Carlos Santana (one pitched called a ball certainly looked like it was in the strike zone). The walk lead to Joe Maddon replacing Hendricks with Jon Lester. Jason Kipnis hit a very slow ground ball that didn't get past the mound on the third base side. With Bryant playing back, Ross raced out to pick up the ball, but couldn't get Kipnis at first base and threw the ball away letting both runners advance to 2nd and 3rd base, a big mistake that cost the Cubs 2 runs when Jon Lester threw a wild pitch that Ross couldn't handle and allowed both runners to score. the defenese let the Cubs down a little in this inning and the Indians cut the Cubs lead to 5-3.

David Ross, made up for his error by hitting a home run in what appears to be his final game as a major leaguer as he's announced his retirement at the end of the season. The Cubs lead moves to 6-3.

Jon Lester started pitching well and took the Cubs into the 8th inning with 2 outs before giving up a single to Jose Ramirez. Joe Maddon decided it was time to turn it over to Aroldis Chapman, who pitched 2 innings the previous night in a game that the Cubs had a bigger lead (5 and 7 runs). Chapman struggled, giving up an RBI double to Brandon Guyer and a game tying home run to Rajai Davis. The decision by Maddon to both take Hendricks and Lester out when he did was questioned quite a bit, but in the end the result was a Cubs victory was a Cubs victory for the team's first World Series championship since 1908.

More drama came into this game as Jason Heyward got to third base on a stolen base and throwing error from the catcher. But Javier Baez & Dexter Fowler couldn't drive him in. After a rough 8th inning, Cubs fans were a little concerned, myself included, when Maddon let Chapman continue into the ninth inning. But Chapman had a relatively simple 9th inning and the game went to the 10th inning, but not until the rains came.

At this point in the game, Cubs fans were wondering what could go wrong next, but as it turns out the "timeout" the rain delay gave to the Cubs, was an opportunity for Jason Heyward to get the team together for a discussion that seemed to motivate the team in the top of the 10th. After a short rain delay, the Indians brought back relief pitcher, Brian Shaw who gave up a single to Kyle Schwarber. Schwarber's 3rd hit of the game. Maddon made a key move pinch running Albert Almora for Schwarber. The Cubs young outfield prospect was able to tag and go to second base on Kris Bryant's long drive to center field. Shaw walked Rizzo intentionally which set the stage for World Series MVP, Ben Zobrist who drove a double to left field, giving the Cubs a 7-6 lead. After another intention walk, Miguel Montero got a pinch hit single driving in the 8th run of the game. And this meant that each of the Cubs catcher all drove in a run in this game. And an incredible feat of teamwork, all 8 runs in this game by a different Cubs player. All year, the Cubs have been succesful through the efforts of having talent throughout the lineup and the bench. This depth was in full display in game 7 and is one of the big reasons why they are now 2016 World champions!!

In the bottom of the 10th, Maddon chose rookie, Carl Edwards Jr to get the final 3 outs for a Cubs World Series championship. Edward started out well, retiring the first 2 batters, but can the Cubs ever make anyhing easy? not usually. Edwards walked former Cubs minor league prospect, BRandon Guyer and Guyer took second base on a play ruled defensive indifference as the Cubs were not holding the runner on first base. Rajai Davis sngle home Guyer to reduce the lead to 8-7. Maddon had seen enough and decided to pull Edwards and bring in Mike Montgomery. Montgomery came to the Cubs in a midseason trade that sent Dan Vogelbach to the Mariners. Montgomery only faced one batter, but when Michael Martinez hit a soft ground ball to Kris Bryant at third base and Bryant threw him out at first base, the celebration after years of waiting for championship can began. The Cubs win the World Series for the first time since 1908. Thank you, Theo Epstein, Jed HOyer, Jason Mcleod and the rest of the managmeent team that built such a strong, young team that should compete for many more years at Wrigley Field into the future. President, Theo Epstein, the man who took down the Curse of the Bambino in Boston as General Manager has topped that by taking down the curse of the Billy Goat, Bartman and 108 years without a World Series on the northside of Chicago.

Fowler first ever leadoff HR in a WS game



Baez HR makes it 4-1



In his final MLB game, David Ross hits a home run off Andrew Miller



Rizzo "I'm an emotional wreck"



Kris Bryant gets the final out



Heyward team meeting

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