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The World Series is underway, and while that means an exciting week of baseball to come, it also means we’re just one week away from the start of the MLB offseason.

The end of another season is always met with some level of sadness as winter starts to close in and we once again kick off the countdown to spring training.

However, there’s always a wealth of offseason action to come, and that’s what we previewed here.

Ahead, you’ll find a breakdown of this year’s free-agent class, with players lumped into three categories: under-the-radar free agents, second-tier free agents and top-tier free agents.

We’ve also included a rundown of some notable potential trade candidates as well as made a prediction for the surprise move of the offseason.

Think of this as your primer for another long offseason to come.

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The Cleveland Indians took their first step toward winning a World Series title Tuesday with a 6-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 and can seize a commanding 2-0 lead with another home win Wednesday.

The tandem of Corey Kluber, Roberto Perez and Andrew Miller was far too much for Chicago in Game 1.

Kluber outdueled Jon Lester with six-plus shutout innings. He allowed just four hits and struck out nine Cubs hitters, and he became the first pitcher in MLB history to notch eight punchouts through three innings in a World Series game, per Sports Illustrated.

Miller pitched scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth and danced out of trouble in each, while Perez connected with two home runs for four RBI even though he hit only three long balls all season.

Attention now moves to Game 2 on Wednesday, which will air on Fox. According to Tom Withers of the Associated Press, it will start at 7:08 p.m. ET instead of 8:08 p.m. because of the possibility of late rain in the forecast.

Game 2 Preview and Prediction

The Cubs will turn toward Jake Arrieta on Wednesday with the hopes of tying the series.

It is a testament to the strength of their starting rotation that Arrieta is the No. 3 starter at this point even though he won the National League Cy Young Award last year. He will pitch Wednesday because Kyle Hendricks just threw a gem in Saturday’s Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Arrieta was a machine last year with a 1.77 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and 236 strikeouts but saw a decline in his production in 2016. He still posted a solid 3.10 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and 190 strikeouts and even had a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in April.

Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times underscored how much pressure will be on the right-hander when he takes the hill:

That same pressure will be there for Cleveland’s Trevor Bauer.

According to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, Indians manager Terry Francona said Bauer will start Game 2 even though he pitched a mere 0.2 innings in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. He had to leave the game against the Toronto Blue Jays because a laceration on the pinkie finger of his pitching hand was bleeding all over his uniform and the ball.

He is not exactly a lights-out pitcher even when fully healthy and finished the 2016 campaign with a 4.26 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. What’s more, his 168 strikeouts were a drop-off from last year’s 170 even though he pitched 14 more innings this season.

Cleveland will need to rely on its bullpen if Bauer struggles, and Miller’s workload from Tuesday’s game could make that a problem. He faced a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the seventh and runners on the corners in the eighth, and he managed to escape each situation without allowing a single run, but he threw 46 high-stress pitches.

That number could limit his availability for Game 2, at least in terms of pitching multiple innings.

Buster Olney of ESPN The Magazine captured why a limited Miller would be a boost for the Cubs:

Chicago’s offense was invisible against Kluber, but this is still a group that scored 10, eight and five runs, respectively, in the last three games of the NLCS. The five runs came off three-time NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw.

Sometimes, one of the best pitchers in the league simply has his stuff, and that was the case Tuesday with Kluber. Don’t read too much into Chicago’s offensive struggles in the small, one-game sample size.

Kyle Schwarber wasn’t even there for those offensive outbursts against the Dodgers but proved his mettle Tuesday with a double off the wall and an impressive walk against Miller. He tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee in April but managed to make his way back for the World Series and will provide another lift in Game 2.

That offense will get to Bauer early and then add on in the middle innings against bullpen pitchers who aren’t named Miller.

Arrieta may not be the unhittable force he was in 2015, but he is still one of the most formidable pitchers in the National League when pitching at his best. He will settle in with the early run support and eventually hand the ball to Pedro Strop, Hector Rondon and Aroldis Chapman in the Chicago bullpen.

Lester summarized Chicago’s mindset after the Game 1 loss and harkened back to the 2-1 deficit it faced in the NLCS, per Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago: “Just like L.A.—everybody counted us out after Game 3. They said we were the worst best team in baseball. We’re not giving up.”

The Cubs already overcame one deficit this postseason and will start their journey toward a second comeback Wednesday.

Prediction: Cubs 6, Indians 3

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CLEVELAND — You had LeBron James with a triple-double in the building next door. And you had Corey Kluber raising him at Progressive Field.

King them. The out-of-town guys never had a chance. Not even if the Chicago Cubs had waited 71 years for this night. Imagine, waiting seven decades for something and then playing tree to a wood chipper. That’s how good Kluber—the Klubot—was as the World Series returned to Cleveland on Tuesday for the first time since 1997.

The guy threw a dizzying array of sliders and sinkers that had Cubs from Kris Bryant to Anthony Rizzo jumping, twitching, leaning and flinching. And there was nothing they could do about it. What they got was an up-close view of the same thing American League clubs have tasted since Kluber’s breakout Cy Young Award season in 2014.

So Cleveland draws first blood, 6-0, and that’s before Trevor Bauer—Drone Boy—even takes the mound for Game 2. Look out. If Bauer spills as much blood as he did last time out against Toronto, this World Series could turn R-rated real quick.

Longtime Clevelanders were calling Tuesday as great of a sports night as there’s ever been in this town.

“Without a doubt,” longtime Plain Dealer columnist Terry Pluto said. “There’s not even a close second.”

The Cavaliers opened defense of their NBA crown and received their championship rings. The Indians opened the World Series and accomplished one enormous key: win when Kluber is on the mound, and figure out the rest.

How good was Kluber? The Cubs this postseason have faced Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Matt Moore and Clayton Kershaw.

“He’s probably the best of all the ones you just mentioned,” Bryant told me when I asked how the Cleveland right-hander compares. “You don’t hear much about him. But he was really good tonight.

“We’ve faced some pretty good ones this postseason. It’s tough being a hitter.”

Particularly right now, in this autumn, against this team.

The Indians have not allowed more than one run in an inning in 79 of their 80 postseason frames this month. In the seventh inning of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, Toronto squeezed two runs across. Otherwise, Cleveland’s staff has thrown up a whole bunch of zeroes and allowed one run here and there.

Kluber became the first pitcher since 1966 and just the sixth overall to work at least six scoreless innings and whiff at least nine in his first World Series start, according to MLB Communications. There was Moe Drabowsky of Baltimore in ’66. And Cincinnati’s Hod Eller in 1919. And, well, the other three came in 1903, 1905 and 1906. In other words, before the Cubs’ last World Series title in 1908.

Kluber also became only the third pitcher in World Series history to strike out at least nine batters and allow zero runs in a Game 1 start, joining St. Louis Hall of Famer Bob Gibson in 1968 and the Yankees’ Allie Reynolds in 1949.

“It’s not anything new,” Andrew Miller, Cleveland’s relief ace, said. “He’s won a Cy Young. He’s going to get a lot of votes this year and might even win another Cy Young.

“He didn’t magically discover a new pitch down the stretch. To those of us lucky enough to see him all the time, it’s nothing new.”

Kluber struck out eight of the first 11 Cubs he faced. He whiffed nine of the first 16 hitters he saw, six of those looking at called third strikes. Bryant looked at a four-seam fastball for strike three in the first inning, swung and missed at an 83 mph curve in the third and fouled meekly behind the plate to catcher Roberto Perez in the sixth.

Anthony Rizzo? Weak pop to third base, then he fouled out to the catcher and popped out to the catcher. Dexter Fowler? Looked at a wicked sinker for strike three in the first inning. Swung through a disappearing sinker for strike three in the third.

“It was my first time facing him,” said Cubs shortstop Addison Russell, who was frozen by a curveball for a called strike three in the third. “I was looking for something away.”

For all this, the Cubs can thank their own general manager, Jed Hoyer. Before rejoining Theo Epstein, the president of baseball operations in Chicago, Hoyer was the GM of the San Diego Padres for two brief seasons, 2010 and 2011. In that time, during a rare winning year for the Padres in 2010, he dealt a young prospect named Corey Kluber to the Indians for a veteran outfield bat, Ryan Ludwick.

Whoops. Epstein and the Cubs front office still regularly give Hoyer grief over that one.

Except Tuesday night, it wasn’t so funny.

Bryant was chasing pitches out of the zone, looking like a guy trying to put a net over a butterfly. It was all Cleveland, all the time.

“He did an unbelievable job,” Kluber said of Perez, who became the first player ever to smash two home runs while batting in the No. 9 spot in the lineup, all in the midst of calling a whale of a game. “It’s almost like he knew what they were looking for. He had them off-balance for the majority of the night.”

Kluber’s stuff was so silly that Perez actually said: “I think his ball was moving too much today.”

He exited to a standing ovation in the seventh inning, having thrown just 88 pitches. The importance of that: Manager Terry Francona has named his starting pitchers only through Game 3. There is every reason to believe he’s going to bring Kluber back on short rest for Game 4 on Saturday. Which would make Kluber available, if needed, for Game 7 if this World Series stretches that far.

With Miller and closer Cody Allen coming out of the bullpen, along with assorted other weapons, that’s the path to victory for Cleveland.

“We’ve still got to win four games,” Indians center fielder Rajai Davis said. “I guess he was on a relatively short leash, only 88 pitches. He’s got more pitches in him, I suppose, for the other games.”

Not that the Cubs view that as an impossible task. Hey, it was their first look at both Kluber and Miller this season. And though they could not follow through with a couple of threats against him, they did squeeze 46 pitches out of the big lefty in two innings.

Manager Joe Maddon was extremely pleased with the at-bats even though they produced no runs. He liked that they made Miller work. He liked that they battled Kluber.

“He stands on the first base side of the rubber,” Russell said. “He looks like his ball is coming at you, and then it goes back to the middle of the zone. He slows it up, he speeds it up, he changes the shape of it.

“It was good to see.”

Remember the way the Cubs roughed up Kershaw in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series on Saturday in Chicago after seeing him earlier in the series? This isn’t to say Kluber will be an easy draw the next time around, but the Cubs will have some stored information from which to draw.

“We just need to split the games here,” Bryant said. “It was pretty dang loud tonight, and seeing the Cavs playing and so many people out [downtown], it was pretty exciting.”

Short-term, because of a significant threat of rain Wednesday night, MLB moved the start time of Game 2 up an hour, to 7:08 p.m. ET.

As for now, this series is starting just the way the Indians would have drawn it up.

“We’re going to ride him as hard as we can,” Miller said of Kluber.

Yeah, somebody mentioned, but he can’t pitch every day.

“He can’t?” Miller quipped.

Well, no, but expect to see the 30-year-old ace soon.

“I’ll pitch whenever [Francona] asks me to,” Kluber said. “I think at this point in time, it’s all about doing whatever we can to get four wins before they do.

“If that means pitching on short rest, then I’m more than willing to do that.”

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

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At the risk of going out on a limb for a team that hasn’t won a World Series in 108 years or even scored in a World Series in 71 years…

Don’t worry. The Chicago Cubs still have this.

Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday did not go as the Cubs planned. They presumably planned on preventing the Cleveland Indians from scoring runs while netting a few of their own against Corey Kluber and friends. Instead, Cleveland won going away, 6-0.

And so, the Cubs are still looking for their first World Series win since beating the Detroit Tigers in Game 6 of the 1945 Fall Classic. They’re also still looking for their first World Series run since the eighth inning of Game 7.

More troubling than that history, though, is the recent history of teams that have lost the first game of the World Series. Take it away, Jayson Stark of ESPN.com:

The latest odds don’t paint as ugly a picture, but they’re still not good. According to FanGraphs, Cleveland now has a 54.1 percent chance of winning its first World Series in 68 years.

But enough of these scary numbers.

Just because the Indians landed the first blow doesn’t mean everything has changed. The Cubs were heavy favorites with a 64.5 percent chance of victory coming into the series. And even if they’re not officially favorites after dropping Game 1, that should change quickly.

There are good reasons the Cubs lost Game 1, including two homers by Roberto Perez and stellar relief pitching by—who else?—Andrew Miller and Cody Allen. But the Cubs also played better than the 6-0 final indicates. Without Perez’s homers, the Indians would have needed a swinging bunt by Jose Ramirez and a Brandon Guyer hit-by-pitch to score runs. Cubs hitters had some good at-bats, especially against Miller in his two innings of work.

“We didn’t play as bad as that looked,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said afterward, via Richard Justice of MLB.com.

The deciding factor in Game 1 was Kluber‘s pitching. The 2014 Cy Young winner pitched like his best self, giving up only four hits and striking out nine in six scoreless frames.

You could have seen this coming. The Cubs are a patient team that specializes in working pitchers. Kluber is a strike-thrower with great stuff. He beat the Cubs the same way Clayton Kershaw and Rich Hill temporarily silenced them in the National League Championship Series: by going right at them.

Assuming Mother Nature doesn’t wash the game away, the Cubs will get a nice change of pace against Trevor Bauer in Game 2.

Bauer’s 4.26 ERA this season kept his career ERA safely above 4.00. Recently, his issues with walks (3.5 BB/9) and home runs (1.2 HR/9) came back to haunt him in the second half. He’s just the kind of pitcher the Cubs, No. 1 in the National League in walks and top five in homers, can handle.

And if an offensive barrage doesn’t result in an early shower for Bauer, the finger injury that has already taken him off the mound once this October could do the trick.

Either way, an early exit from Bauer would spell trouble for Cleveland. It would require Francona to get the best out of his bullpen. That basically means the best out of Miller, and he likely won’t be up to it after throwing 46 pitches in Game 1.

As such, the Cubs evening this series could be a matter of them getting quality innings out of Jake Arrieta. That’s an iffier proposal than it was this time a year ago. But he’s still a far safer bet than Bauer and Johnny Wholestaff.

The dominoes will line up nicely if the Cubs do win Game 2. They’ll be heading back to Wrigley Field needing just three more wins, and with the matchups in their favor.

Game 3 will feature Kyle Hendricks against Josh Tomlin. That’s a pitcher with the lowest ERA in baseball (2.13) and an even lower ERA at home (1.32) up against a pitcher who’s good, but who has only one of Kluber‘s qualities. Tomlin is a strike-thrower, but not with overwhelming swing-and-miss stuff.

Game 4 will be John Lackey up against either Kluber on three days’ rest, Ryan Merritt or Danny Salazar, or some combination of Merritt and Salazar. Either way, that game will also favor Chicago.

Kluber was not sharp when he started on short rest in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, surrendering two runs in five innings. Merritt is sort of a left-handed Tomlin. Salazar is like Bauer, except wilder and minus any stamina after being on the disabled list since early September.

If the Cubs force a Game 5, their rotation would be flipped back over again for Jon Lester. He still has a 2.61 ERA even after allowing three earned runs in five and two-thirds innings in Game 1, and even that line overstates how much he struggled.

If the series shifts back to Cleveland for Games 6 and 7, the Cubs could rest easy knowing Kyle Schwarber is back.

Just six months after he suffered a major knee injury, the Cubs appeared to be indulging in wishful thinking when they threw Schwarber into their Game 1 lineup. After taking only a couple of at-bats in the Arizona Fall League, making him face Kluber seemed cruel and/or unusual.

Instead, Schwarber darn near took him deep.

That wasn’t Schwarber‘s only bright moment. He also worked Miller for a walk in the seventh inning, becoming just the second left-handed hitter to draw a walk off the lefty relief ace this season.

“You could see on the finish sometimes maybe the brace grabs him just a little bit. I kind of noticed that,” Maddon said of Schwarber in his postgame presser, via MLB.com. “Otherwise there was no kind of negative atmosphere surrounding his at-bats. I thought they were outstanding, actually.”

Although Schwarber can only DH in games at Progressive Field, that still makes him another weapon in Maddon‘s arsenal for this series. The rest of it, meanwhile, is a reminder of why the Cubs were such heavy favorites coming into the series.

The Cubs didn’t win 103 games this season by accident. They had the best starting rotation. They gained one of the best bullpens in the second half. They had one of the best offenses. They had the best defense.

The Indians are awfully good, but not as deep. That didn’t matter in Game 1 because they mostly beat the Cubs with their best guys. They can’t do that in every game. As this series involves more players, the more it will favor the Cubs.

So, there. Now that I’ve gone and stood up for the Cubs, what could possibly go wrong?

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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The Cleveland Indians struck first in a World Series 176 combined years in the making with a 6-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs in Tuesday’s Game 1 at Progressive Field.

It was a showdown of aces with Corey Kluber and Jon Lester on the mound, and the Indians’ No. 1 prevailed. He baffled Cubs hitters through six-plus scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and striking out nine.

Lester couldn’t match him and was pulled after 5.2 innings. He surrendered three earned runs on six hits and three walks while striking out seven.

Kluber had two things Lester didn’t: Roberto Perez on offense and Andrew Miller in the bullpen. Perez hit .183 with three home runs in the regular season but drilled two long balls for four RBI on Tuesday. Jesse Spector of Sporting News put the performance in context:

Miller worked out of a bases-loaded jam with nobody out in the seventh and another sticky situation in the eighth with runners on the corners and two outs. Cody Allen finished the game in the ninth.

Chicago hasn’t won the Fall Classic since 1908, while Cleveland last captured the title in 1948. ESPN Stats & Info underscored the Indians’ victory:

Perez didn’t provide the only offense for Cleveland. Jose Ramirez tallied three hits and an RBI, Francisco Lindor had three hits and a run scored and Brandon Guyer notched an RBI, which was plenty of support for Kluber.

Retired pitcher Dan Haren weighed in on the 2014 American League Cy Young Award winner’s performance:

The Indians wasted little time getting to Lester with a two-out rally in the first. Lindor singled and stole second, Mike Napoli and Carlos Santana walked and Ramirez dribbled an infield hit down the third base line to open the scoring. Lester then hit Guyer to put the Indians ahead 2-0.

JJ Cooper of Baseball America wrote, “When Jose Ramirez tells his grandkids about that RBI, it will be a rope to the wall,” while Jordan Bastian of MLB.com pointed out Guyer is accustomed to getting hit:

One of the primary storylines for the series took center stage in the second when Kyle Schwarber hit with Ben Zobrist on second. Schwarber tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee in April and appeared to be done for the season until he was added to the Cubs roster for the World Series.

But Schwarber struck out, and Kluber worked out of the inning with punchouts of Javier Baez and Chris Coghlan as well. The ace had five strikeouts through two frames, and Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports noted it was business as usual for the formidable righty:

Kluber continued his dominance with three more strikeouts in the third. According to Sports Illustrated, he became the first pitcher in World Series history to tally eight strikeouts through three innings.

CBS Sports MLB highlighted the movement on Kluber’s pitches:

In Schwarber’s next at-bat, he doubled off the top of the right-center field wall in the fourth. While it was to no avail on the scoreboard, it was a testament to his overwhelming talent and hard work in rehab that he did so against one of the league’s best pitchers after missing more than six months.

Perez cleared the left field wall with a blast in the bottom of the frame. His homer gave Cleveland a commanding 3-0 lead, and Jon Tayler of Sports Illustrated noted the unlikely source:

Cubs manager Joe Maddon removed Lester from the game in the sixth with Ramirez on second base and two outs, and Pedro Strop struck out Perez to escape the jam. While they missed a chance to add to their lead, the Indians were still in full control thanks to Kluber.

Tony Andracki of CSN Chicago said the performance was so incredible that Cubs fans may have been instead hoping to take a shot at Miller and his lockdown stuff:

Cleveland manager Terry Francona elected to keep Kluber in to start the seventh but removed him after Zobrist led off with a single.

In came Miller, the American League Championship Series MVP. He walked Schwarber and allowed a single to Baez to load the bases but bounced back, inducing a pop out by Willson Contreras and striking out Addison Russell and David Ross to end the threat.

Troy Renck of Denver 7 speculated Ross would have been better off not swinging at the 3-2 slider he struck out on:

Chicago made Miller work again in the eighth when Kris Bryant walked with one out and Zobrist singled with two outs, but Schwarber struck out as the potential tying run. The only positive from the Cubs’ perspective was the fact Miller threw 46 pitches, which could limit his availability for Wednesday’s Game 2.

Buster Olney of ESPN The Magazine captured just how unhittable Miller has been in October:

Perez all but sealed the game with his three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth, and Allen closed the door.

What’s Next?

Game 2 is set for 7 p.m. ET Wednesday in Cleveland.

The Indians held serve in Game 1, but the Cubs can still earn a split on the road before heading to Wrigley Field for Games 3, 4 and 5. If Cleveland wins, its worst possible scenario would be a 3-2 deficit when it returns home for Game 6 and a potential Game 7.

Jake Arrieta will take the ball for Chicago. The 2015 National League Cy Young Award winner wasn’t as dominant this year as last but finished with an impressive 3.10 ERA and 1.08 WHIP.

Bastian noted that Francona said Trevor Bauer is slated to counter Arrieta. Bauer pitched just 0.2 innings in Game 3 of the ALCS before leaving because a laceration on the pinkie finger of his pitching hand began to bleed profusely.

If he pitches anything like Kluber did in Game 1, the Indians will be in good shape.

Postgame Reaction

The Cleveland Police were in the World Series spirit after the game:

Kluber talked about his outing with Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, via Fox Sports MLB:

Perez discussed his impressive performance with Fox Sports’ Tom Verducci, via Fox Sports MLB:

“We didn’t play as bad as that looked,” Maddon said, per Richard Justice of MLB.com.

Schwarber also looked at things with a glass-half-full approach, per 670 The Score in Chicago: “We’re not going to go press. … We’re here for a reason. We’re a good baseball team.”

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Cleveland Indians starter Corey Kluber was as good as ever in his Game 1 start in the World Series.

The ace shut down the Chicago Cubs the first time through the order, accumulating eight strikeouts in the first three innings. According to Buster Olney of ESPN.com, he became the first to accomplish this feat in the World Series.

Per Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports, this is also the Indians’ record for strikeouts in a World Series game.

Kluber finished the game with nine strikeouts in six shutout innings, allowing just four hits and no walks. He exited with Cleveland holding a 3-0 lead and the team eventually won 6-0.

C.J. Nitkowski of Fox Sports 1 discussed the pitch that has helped him out in the early going:

This type of effort is nothing new for Kluber, who has been outstanding all postseason long. In three playoff starts over the first two rounds, the right-hander had a 2-1 record and a 0.98 ERA. He also had 20 strikeouts in 18.1 innings.

It is a continuation of his success during the regular season, which saw his first All-Star appearance thanks to 18 wins and a 3.14 ERA. He won the Cy Young Award in 2014 during a year where he posted his career-best 2.44 ERA.

Cleveland’s postseason strikeout record is 12 by Charles Nagy in 1996, per ESPN Stats & Info. The most Kluber has had in 2016 is 11, which came on Aug. 31 against the Minnesota Twins.

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It has been a long time coming for the Chicago Cubs, but the oddsmakers believe that Chicago’s North Side baseball team will be celebrating at the conclusion of this year’s World Series.

The Cubs are -190 favorites over the Cleveland Indians, according to Odds Shark, while the Indians are +170 underdogs. The Cubs are attempting to win their first World Series since 1908, while the Tribe are trying to bring home their first title since 1948.

The Cubs are slight favorites to win Game 1 of the World Series Tuesday night at Progressive Field in Cleveland with odds of -113, while the Indians are -103 to take the opener.

Recent historical trends indicate that winning the World Series opener is vital, as nine of the last 10 Game 1 winners have gone on to win the World Series. The lone exception came in 2009, when the New York Yankees lost the opener at home to the Philadelphia Phillies but went on to win the championship in six games.

The first game comes with a full menu of drama, as both teams will start their aces. Corey Kluber gets the ball for the Indians, and in addition to having a wonderful regular season, he has been on point during the postseason.

Kluber was 18-9 during the regular season with a 3.14 ERA and a 1.056 WHIP. He also struck out 227 batters in 215.0 innings.

Kluber has a 2-1 postseason record along with a 0.98 ERA and a 0.857 WHIP. He has 20 strikeouts in 18.1 innings.

Jon Lester, a World Series hero during his run with the Boston Red Sox, will take the mound at Progressive Field for the Cubs. Lester was brilliant during the season with a 19-5 record, a 2.44 ERA and a 1.016 WHIP.

Lester has given up two earned runs in 21.0 innings during the current postseason, and he has also been remarkable throughout his career in the World Series. He has a 3-0 record with a 0.43 ERA and 0.762 WHIP.

The key for the home team is to have a lead in the middle part of the game, because that’s when manager Terry Francona likes to turn the game over to his outstanding bullpen.

Since Kluber is on the mound in Game 1, it is realistic to think that he should be able to get through the sixth inning and pitch into the seventh if there are no signs of trouble. At that point, the manager can give the ball to ace left-hander Andrew Miller, who can pitch through the eighth inning before letting closer Cody Allen pitch the ninth inning.

If Francona wants to go to his bullpen sooner, such as the fifth inning, he can get Bryan Shaw and Dan Otero involved.

The bullpen may be the one area where the Cubs are at a disadvantage in this series. This is not a weak spot for manager Joe Maddon, but Miller is probably the best reliever in all of baseball, and he is coming off an MVP performance in the American League Championship Series.

If the Cubs have the lead in the ninth, flamethrower Aroldis Chapman will get the ball. He can reach 103 mph on the radar gun (or even higher), but he has been hit hard on occasion and is not a guarantee to secure a save with a one- or two-run lead.

The Cubs have a powerful lineup with Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell and Javier Baez, and they will get a lift with the return of slugger Kyle Schwarber. The powerful left-handed hitter has been out since early April with an ACL tear, but the Cubs activated him on Tuesday.

The Indians have a couple of power hitters of their own in Mike Napoli and Carlos Santana, as both men hit 34 home runs this season. Shortstop Francisco Lindor, second baseman Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall are all solid offensive contributors.

Prop Bet

Based on the odds listed for the potential World Series Most Valuable Player, it seems the Cubs are likely to come away with the championship.

Four Cubs are listed among the top five candidates to come away with the World Series MVP Award. Kris Bryant is the favorite at +600, according to Odds Shark. Lester is the second choice at +750.

Miller is the only Indian to make the top five, and he has odds of +900, and that’s slightly better than Rizzo at +950. 

Jake Arrieta, the 2015 Cy Young Award winner, is +1200 to win the honor as the World Series MVP.

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The Cleveland Indians used dominant pitching and a few big hits to score a 6-0 win over the Chicago Cubs to take Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

A pair of first-inning runs—thanks to an infield single and a hit by pitch, both with the bases loaded—were all Cleveland needed with ace Corey Kluber and stud relievers Andrew Miller and Cody Allen combining on a seven-hit shutout, the team’s second straight shutout in postseason play.

Catcher Roberto Perez had two home runs to pad the Indians’ margin of victory, a solo shot in the fourth and a three-run bomb in the eighth. He had three homers in 61 games during the regular season, when he batted .183.

Kluber went six-plus innings and allowed four hits with nine strikeouts. Eight of those were in the first three innings, the most in the first three frames of any World Series game, and six were on called strikes. He left after allowing a leadoff single in the seventh and then Miller gave up a walk and a single to load the bases with no out before getting out of the jam.

Chicago got two more on in the eighth against Miller, who threw 46 pitches in two innings of work for his most pitches since he was a starter in 2011. Allen allowed a double but then retired the other three batters to close it in the ninth.

The Cubs will look to even the series on Wednesday when Jake Arrieta goes against Cleveland’s Trevor Bauer. First pitch is set for just after 7 p.m. ET, moved up an hour because of a threat of rain in the area.

Scroll down for all of our updates, analysis, statistics, tweets, pictures and anything else worth noting from Cleveland.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.

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Cleveland Indians reliever Andrew Miller tossed 2.2 scoreless frames against the Toronto Blue Jays in Wednesday’s series-clinching Game 5, striking out one to give him a record-tying 14 in a League Championship Series, per MLB Stat of the Day.

His effort during the series played a major role in Cleveland’s victories and earned him MVP honors. Although Miller has been one of the more dominant pitchers in baseball over the last couple seasons, it took a long time for him to get there.

Miller began his major league career in 2006 with the Detroit Tigers and was on four different teams from 2007 to 2014. He began his career as a starting pitcher with the Tigers, the Florida Marlins and for one season with the Boston Red Sox.

The southpaw didn’t fare well in that role and made the permanent transition to the bullpen 2012. The move turned out to be a good one, as he managed to post a respectable 3.35 ERA in his first season out of the ‘pen. He’s only improved since then, posting four straight seasons with a sub-3.00 ERA and his best campaign in 2016.

Miller started the season with the New York Yankees, owning a 1.39 ERA over 70 appearances with the team before they dealt him to Cleveland prior to the trade deadline. His mark with the Indians during the regular season was 1.55, but that remains in elite status.

He’s been even more impressive in the postseason, having pitched 11.2 scoreless frames while striking out 21 and allowing just seven baserunners. While Cody Allen remains the team’s closer, Miller will be a key member of the team’s bullpen in getting it to the ninth inning as the Indians search for their first World Series victory since 1948.

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The Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians are hours away from Game 1 of the World Series. The world, to my knowledge, has not yet ended. Hell has not frozen over; a deadly plague has not befallen the human race; Andre 3000 has not released a solo album.

Which means one of these teams will actually win a championship.

The Indians haven’t hoisted a World Series trophy since 1948. The Cubs haven’t even played for one since 1945. Tack on another four decades if you want to know how long it’s been since the franchise has actually won the whole thing.

A Cubs-Indians World Series feels about as likely as a Taylor Swift-Kanye West collaboration album. And, if the last few weeks are any indication, it might be about halfway as dope. Cleveland has gotten to the Fall Classic on the guile of a makeshift pitching staff, surviving drone accidents, spot starts and a heavy lean on the bullpen.

The Cubs were a regular-season freight train that looked to be going off the rails in back-to-back shutout losses against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Then they put up 23 runs across three straight wins and flexed their muscles to reach the World Series.

Here is a look at what each manager and starting pitcher is saying ahead of the historic Game 1.

What They’re Saying

Cubs Manager Joe Maddon

Maddon discussed his relationship with Terry Francona. Unfortunately, it appears, they have never played cribbage together:

Well, Tito and I got to be friends just through managing against. When he was with Boston, I was with Tampa Bay, we did a lot of talking. There were different times when they were attracted to some of our free agents and we talked about that. But, I mean, I’ve gotten the same impression that everybody else has, he’s gregarious, easy to get to know, a good friend, and a very good manager.

So we got to know each other on that level. It’s not a social kind of a thing. We’ve never gone out. I’ve never had a chance to play cribbage with him. I guess he likes to play cribbage. But he’s a wonderful man, and he’s done a great job in a couple different places, so I’m very happy for his success.

Much of the city of Chicago—and the nation—has focused on what winning a championship would mean for the Cubs. Maddon said his team is fully focused and not looking ahead:

I promise you, our guys are going to be in the present tense. I think we all have a tremendous amount of respect for history and what’s happened before us or not happened before us. But, you know, you go in that room right now, they’re very young. Really not impacted by a lot of the lure, I don’t think, other than the fact that we are impacted by our city and our fans and the people that attend our games and the conversations that we have, absolutely, an impactful moment.

Maddon nonetheless said he’s embracing the pressure:

I’ve said it probably a hundred times this year, I think it’s great. I really addressed that point in Spring Training. In Spring Training, there was an inordinate amount of expectations and pressure that was heaped upon us, and I tried to convince our guys that’s a good thing. Why would you ever want to do anything or be part of a situation or moment that did not have great expectations? And I think they’re synonymous terms. Expectations and pressure probably become synonymous. And why would you ever want to run away from that? The alternative right now I could be in Tampa cooking steaks in my backyard, making sure DirecTV is working properly. And I’d much prefer this reality.

So I plan to enjoy it. I want our guys to enjoy the moment. I want them to take mental snapshots of everything that we’re doing out here.

Cubs Pitcher Jon Lester

Lester discussed what’s gone into his recent improvement with runners on base:

I don’t know. I mean, I guess it could be testament to our defense. I feel like our whole staff has done a really good job with runners on base, not just myself. So really our bullpen as well. So I think it’s a testament to our guys making quality pitches and then at the same time, our defense has played really well behind us.

So we’re not afraid of contact and letting these guys do their job as well. So it’s been, I think, a culmination of all of us just kind of bearing down.

Lester and Anthony Rizzo are unique in that they’re teammates who have battled cancer and returned to elite form. He discussed their bond:

Yeah, I mean, I think we have a unique bond just with everything in our past and what we’ve been through. I think that makes coming to a team like this as a new guy, last year, it made our relationship a little bit easier. You already had something that joined you. So that was good.

First time I met Anthony, five minutes after I met him, he fainted. So there were some interesting moments early on. But just talking to him through the years here and there and seeing what kind of inspiration this guy is to other people, not only on the field but off the field, and what he’s been able to do in the Chicago community and the community back home in Florida, I think, for me that’s the cool thing. I look up to him on that. I know how hard it is to do the things that he does outside of baseball, and he does them all over the place, and he puts his whole heart into it.

It’s fun to be his teammate, and it’s awesome to be a part of kind of the stuff he does off the field, the charitable stuff as well.

One of the most successful World Series pitchers in history, Lester talked about how he handles the moment:

I don’t know. I try to harness my emotions, but these stages sometimes — you know, I pitch with emotion and all that stuff. So sometimes it comes out. But as far as is pitching, I believe as I got done saying, it’s a cookie-cutter answer, but you execute your fastball, you execute your pitches. It works the same here as it does during the season. So I just try to take that mindset. […]

You have a routine, you have the stuff that you’re supposed to do day-in and day-out to prepare your body and prepare your mind for these moments. I feel like when I’m in that routine and I show up, now it’s the fun part. Now you get to pitch. You spend the other four days kind of busting your butt and sitting around to get to this point.

 

Indians Manager Terry Francona

Francona also discussed his relationship with Maddon:

I think Joe’s career speaks for itself. He started in Tampa and had the ability down there to kind of almost do what he wanted. He always pushed the envelope trying to do some things, whether it was playing four outfielders against Ortiz. The one thing he’s always had the ability to do is keep a clubhouse together, which is saying a lot, during the course of 162 games, keeping guys going in one direction. I mean, certainly there’s a lot more to him than that. He’s very intelligent. But just for the fact that he gets teams going and believing is a pretty big compliment in itself.

After managing the Red Sox to their first World Series in nearly nine decades in 2004, Francona knows a bit about ending droughts. It just doesn’t seem to factor into his thinking:

I know that’s a really cool thing for fans to talk about and stuff. It really doesn’t enter into what we’re doing. It’s so hard to win anyway. We’ll put all our energy into tomorrow, see if we can beat Lester, and whoever follows him, hopefully. Then if we win, we’ll move on. If we lose, we’ll move on and try to win the next day.

I just think if you look too far back, you look too far forward, you miss what’s right in front of you. So these players have earned the right to try to see if we can beat the Cubs, and that’s going to be a tall enough task. But I don’t think we need to go back and concern ourselves with 40, 50, 60 years ago.

Francona previously managed Lester in Boston and discussed their relationship:

He’s one of my favorites. He’s one of everybody’s favorites though, so that’s an easy one. I won’t be pulling for him tomorrow, but he’s very special. I’ve known his mom and dad for a long time, and he’s pretty special.

 

Indians Pitcher Corey Kluber

Kluber discussed the Indians’ resilience despite injuries in the rotation:

Injuries are a part of the game. It’s going to happen throughout the year. Obviously, we’ve had our fair share of them pitching-wise. But I think it’s just really guys embracing the challenges of stepping in and filling those shoes. Not really trying to do too much, but just really going out there and being the pitchers that they are, do what makes them good. I think it’s had good results for us.

Like everyone, Kluber seemed to want to focus on the moment at hand than the big picture:

Oh, I think you’re aware of it. Obviously, you’re in the World Series, and there’s two teams left and all that kind of stuff. But also at the same time, I think you’re so wrapped up in the moment of trying to prepare and do everything you can to be ready that. For me at least, it’s been all about getting prepared and being ready when it is time to throw that first pitch tomorrow. It will probably be something that will take more time to reflect on after the fact.

Kluber also highlighted what a special moment this is for Cleveland as a sports city:

It’s entertaining. I know at the last game they came to, it looked like they were having a good time up there. But, yeah, it was an unbelievable run they went on in the spring. It definitely sent a vibe through the city. You could just feel the energy through that run after they won and stuff like that. I think it’s been great. It’s been great for Cleveland the fact they won a championship, and hopefully we can bring them another one.

All transcriptions are from ASAP Sports.

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