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CLEVELAND — Seriously now, how the heck else would you expect a Chicago Cubs-Cleveland Indians World Series to end?

Easily? Quickly? Inauspiciously?

No, no and heck no.

Game 7, Wednesday night, here we come. Standing ovation, anyone?

Game 7 is always a beautiful and lovely concept. This one is an especially thrilling development given the, you know, 176 combined years of drought that will climax in a something’s-gotta-give grand finale hard on the banks of Lake Erie.

“These two teams, why wouldn’t it come down to a seventh game?” asked Cubs pitcher Jon Lester, who you can see pitching in relief Wednesday night. “One hundred and seventy-some years?

“We can’t tie. Somebody’s gotta win.”

From the moment Kris Bryant jacked a solo homer in the first inning to Cleveland’s Tyler Naquin and Lonnie Chisenhall miscommunicating in the outfield to Addison Russell’s grand slam in the third, it was clear the Cubs were going to do their Houdini-best—just like they did against the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers—to wiggle out of a near-death experience.

They laid it on early, rode closer Aroldis Chapman late and drilled the Indians 9-3 to even this World Series at three games each.

They can’t tie.

As the great Cleveland radio man Tom Hamilton said during a subdued seventh-inning stretch at Progressive Field, “The Cubs have taken the fun out of what the Indians hoped would be a celebratory party.”

Now?

These 20 or so hours from the time Game 6 ended near midnight until Wednesday’s 8 p.m. ET Game 7 start will seem to take 108 years for Cubs fans. And they will no doubt seem to last 68 years for those Indians fans who hoped to witness that celebratory party Tuesday and now will be chewing their fingernails throughout the day Wednesday.

Please, don’t let this end. Can MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred invoke his best-interests-of-the-game powers and declare this a best-of-nine series?

Cubs starter John Lackey, who also could become a reliever for Game 7, started Game 7 of the 2002 World Series as a rookie for the former Anaheim Angels against the Giants. Much as people will be telling Chicago starter Kyle Hendricks it is just another game, Lackey offers a more truthful response.

“People try to tell you it’s just another game. They’re lying to you,” Lackey said as the Cubs digested their latest escape.

Not since 1985 has a team trailed 3-1 in the World Series and come back to force Game 7. Then, it was the Kansas City Royals, and they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals that year in part due to umpire Don Denkinger’s miscall heard ’round the world.

Might Joe West, or Sam Holbrook, or any of the others in this umpiring crew, suffer the same fate Wednesday?

Not since 1979 has a team trailed 3-1 in the World Series and stormed back to win it all when Games 6 and 7 were on the road. The Cubs are trying to pull off what the old Willie “Pops” Stargell and Dave Parker Pittsburgh Pirates did to the Baltimore Orioles in 1979.

“‘We Are Family,’ right?” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said, correctly identifying the Pirates’ anthem, Sister Sledge’s smash hit that year. “I remember the song. I loved their hats.”

Funny what we remember. And who knows what we’ll take forward from the Cubs-Indians Game 7? Maybe it will be another dominant performance by Indians ace Corey Kluber, who will take straight aim at the record book: My Bleacher Report colleague Danny Knobler looked it up, and only one pitcher in history has started and won Games 1, 4 and 7 in a World Series. It was St. Louis’ Bob Gibson, against Boston in 1967. Chew on that for a while.

The last pitcher to start and win three World Series games, period, was Detroit’s Mickey Lolich against St. Louis in Games 2, 5 and 7 in 1968.

“I don’t think any team could draw up a better starting pitcher for a Game 7 than Corey Kluber,” Indians relief ace Andrew Miller said. “And fortunately, we’ve got him.”

Miller surely will factor into a key part of Game 7, as will Chapman. They’re the two dominant relievers the New York Yankees effectively traded into this World Series in July.

But, when? Kluber and Hendricks were two of the best starters in the game this summer. Someone joked that maybe Miller and Chapman should start the game, and Cubs slugger Anthony Rizzo stopped his smile long enough to reply, “If two Cy Youngs weren’t pitching tomorrow, then I’d say they should start the game.”

The biggest question will be how long the Cubs can ride Chapman if they need him, because his entrance into a 7-2 blowout in the seventh inning of Game 6 provoked a fierce debate from the living rooms of America all the way to cyberspace, where seemingly half of the people said good for Maddon for using him because the Cubs needed to lock down Game 6, while the other half countered with the argument that using Chapman’s fuel was dumb and will only reduce his effectiveness in Game 7. Especially because he worked a career-high 2.2 innings Sunday night in Game 5.

So we invited Cubs catcher David Ross to wade into the debate. One day, Ross will be a major league manager. He is that sharp, and he follows all of Maddon’s moves closely. But Tuesday was not a day he was interested in managing.

“That’s why Joe gets paid a lot more money than I do,” said Ross, who acknowledged he was surprised Chapman pitched. “He gets paid to make the tough decisions. He’s got to answer to you guys.

“That [move] probably was not what I was thinking, but, hey, I’m just a backup catcher.”

Maddon’s thinking? The middle of the Indians lineup was coming up, and there was no way he was going to risk losing this game. No way.

“The meaty part of their batting order, if you don’t get through that, there is no tomorrow,” explained Maddon, who pulled Chapman in the ninth at 20 pitches.

Plus, Chicago’s bullpen will be deeper for Game 7 than it was for Game 6. Though Pedro Stop pitched Tuesday, he wobbled, and it’s clear Maddon has about as much faith in him and Hector Rondon as an atheist has in the beliefs of the church.

So you bet Lester and Lackey will be on call if Hendricks staggers or Chapman fades Wednesday.

“They’re jacked,” Ross said. “They’re as competitive as it gets. Lack was talking about it today, saying you just let me know when and I’ll run down to warm up. He can’t wait.”

And Lester?

“I hope it’s null and void,” he said. “I hope it’s not an issue. That’s my plan. I’m not planning on anything. I’ll see what Skip wants, and hopefully nothing weird is needed.”

Translation: Lester has full faith in Hendricks.

But if something weird is needed?

“I’ll pitch until he takes me out,” Lester said. “If we’re in that weird situation and he brings me in, we have three months to rest.”

Two years ago in a similar situation, San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner started and won Game 5, and then, after Kansas City pounded the Giants 10-0 in Game 6, he was asked in the clubhouse how many pitches he could give manager Bruce Bochy in relief during Game 7.

“Two hundred,” he said without hesitation.

When I relayed that to Lester, he repeated: “We have three months to rest. There really are no rules tomorrow. There are no guidelines, no boundaries. We’ve played 170-some games, and now it’s down to this one game.”

Miller, one of Cleveland’s biggest weapons, hasn’t pitched since Saturday night, so he should be good for three or four innings if needed. Bryan Shaw and closer Cody Allen both worked Sunday night, so they’ve each had a couple of days’ rest.

“I don’t think we need to tell everybody who is going to pitch tomorrow,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said. “That’s probably a competitive thing.”

Probably is, so bring it on. Game 7, Cubs-Indians, surely the most highly anticipated Game 7 since New York Mets-Boston Red Sox in 1986. It’s only the seventh time in the last 28 World Series, going back to 1988, that it’s been extended to Game 7.

Yes, it is all hands on deck. No, they cannot tie.

May the best drought win.

“I think if you love baseball,” Rizzo said, “this is the best thing that could happen.”

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

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

CLEVELAND — One win away from their first World Series title in 68 years, it’s taken the Cleveland Indians far more than 68 moves to build this dream of a team.

And yet two bold statements stand out above all the rest.

The first was hiring manager Terry Francona back on Oct. 6, 2012.

The second was acquiring relief ace Andrew Miller from the New York Yankees on July 31.

This, of course, is not meant to minimize the importance of Jason Kipnis, the heartbeat of the Indians. Or Mike Napoli, the spiritual guru of the club. Or Francisco Lindor, who embodies Cleveland’s passion and fun. Nor ace Corey Kluber, whose acquisition from the San Diego Padres back in July 2010 is the closest thing baseball offers to a real, live stagecoach robbery.

All, obviously, are crucial pieces.

None, however, were the bold statements Francona and Miller represent.

You don’t hire a manager like Francona unless you’re drop-dead serious about winning. When the Indians hired the man who won two World Series in Boston to replace Manny Acta, they moved to the big boys’ table.

You don’t shop for a game-changer like Miller, sending the Yankees a four-prospect package that included prized outfield prospect Clint Frazier, unless you firmly believe you’re just one piece away. When the Indians acquired the 6’7″ lefty, they put that piece in place.

Chris Antonetti, Cleveland’s president of baseball operations, is reluctant to speak in such dramatic terms, preferring instead to point out that it is an accumulation of a lot of things that has the Indians on the edge of exhilaration. All true.

But Antonetti also allows that Francona’s hire “was a pivotal time for our franchise, and without him, we wouldn’t be in the position we are today.”

Francona has managed his personnel this postseason the way a lion manages the jungle. He hasn’t nibbled. He hasn’t been tentative. From putting Miller on call for the majority of innings to moving Carlos Santana to left field for the first time this year amid the pressure of a World Series game, Francona has made it clear he’s going for the kill.

If the Indians obtain one more victory, Francona will have managed himself right into the Hall of Fame. Any manager who helps end the 86-year drought in Boston and a 68-year dry spell in Cleveland will not have to wait. Heck, he may be headed for Cooperstown even if the Indians somehow lose this World Series.

“Our vision is to win the World Series,” Antonetti says flatly, and let’s interrupt him right here for just a moment. Every executive of every team says that. But how many mean it? In a given year, if you weigh the moves they make against the words they speak, you can ascertain that many executives are speaking hollow words because either their owners won’t spend the money or they lack the creativity.

So, back to Antonetti.

“Every team is trying to hire a manager with that vision in mind,” he continues. “I think Tito’s track record, his demonstrated ability to lead, his reputation throughout the game within front offices, players, coaches, media—he’s universally respected. And so we’re really fortunate to have him, and I’m grateful I get to work alongside him every day.”

That may qualify as the understatement of the year.

Francona had been fired by the Red Sox following the 2011 season after eight summers there. He then sat out the 2012 campaign, spending it as a television analyst for ESPN. He needed time to decompress and survey the landscape following the pressure-cooker years in one of baseball’s toughest jobs.

Seizing the opportunity to hire Francona, the Indians found his impact on the organization extends far beyond his seat in the dugout.

“The way he connects with people,” Antonetti says. “We talk about it all the time, the way he builds relationships with players. But his relationship building extends beyond just that group. He does it with our scouts, with our player-development staff, with our front office.

“He builds those relationships and creates connections so that we have become, over time, a more integrated organization. You’ll see our scouts and our analytics guys all in the clubhouse interacting. He welcomes and fosters that environment.”

From clubhouse cribbage games with players to his complete honesty at all times, Francona has a rare ability to inspire trust among his players.

When those who were Indians back in the winter of 2012-13 learned the club had hired Francona, it was eye-opening news.

“You knew the reputation he had as a players’ manager; you knew he had just won rings in Boston, and the guys loved him and had nothing bad to say about him,” Kipnis says. “When you get someone who brings that over to your side, there is nothing but excitement. You feel very fortunate to play for a guy like that.”

To the point that Kipnis hopes it is permanent.

“You kind of hope you don’t play for anybody else,” Kipnis says. “You’re like, OK, I’m all right if he’s the manager for the rest of my career.”

The hire wasn’t simply impressive externally. Internally, it changed some of the players’ perceptions of their organization.

“You start thinking that you’re going to do things the right way,” Kipnis says. “Not that you were doing things the wrong way before, but you know his way works, and you’re going to do some things that work and that you know work. It gets you a little more excited at the possibility.”

Outfielder Lonnie Chisenhall echoes Kipnis.

“I’m sure he had his pick of where he wanted to go,” Chisenhall says. “Just as much as us hunting him, he picked us. It couldn’t have worked out any better.”

That’s the way it’s been with Miller, too. The big lefty went 4-0 with three saves and a 1.55 ERA in 26 games during the regular season. He’s also struck out 29 of 62 batters faced in the postseason while being deployed by Francona anywhere from the fifth inning on.

Acquiring Miller paid immediate dividends on the field and in the clubhouse. How? It gave the Indians even more swagger. They led the American League Central by 4.5 games on the day they traded for him; the deal was a statement they took to heart.

“I thought so,” Kipnis says. “You hate to say anything bad when the trade deadline’s going around. You get nervous, you knew we were in first place at the time and you wanted to make a move and you got [players] who start talking about, hey, it might send the wrong message if they don’t make a move. Because you’re not going to be in any better position than we were at the trade deadline, and if the front office isn’t going to show they’re behind you then, when are they? That’s what you start thinking.

“Then they go and get Andrew Miller and you’re like, I don’t know why we questioned them. They’re just as all-in as we are. And it makes you proud of them.”

The Indians first contacted the Yankees about Miller in mid-June, shortly after the amateur draft. It was simply a “Hey, we’re interested if you decide to trade him” sort of call. Each team discussed its needs.

The Indians also talked Aroldis Chapman, whom the Yankees wound up trading to the Cubs, and they checked in with Pittsburgh on closer Mark Melancon, who eventually went to Washington.

After three or four weeks of talks and “a lot of iterations” of the trade, according to Antonetti, they finally struck the deal.

Antonetti says the Indians had high expectations when they acquired Miller, viewing him as a pitcher who could throw multiple innings and work in different parts of a game, but “as a competitor, as a performer and as a teammate, if possible, he’s exceeded those expectations.”

The fact that Miller is in the second season of a four-year, $36 million deal gives him enough of a guarantee that he doesn’t have to worry about working in non-save situations, which dilute his saves total and in turn could lessen contract offers on the free-agent market. Although, the Indians are so impressed with him that Francona guesses Miller probably would be willing to pitch whenever, even if he didn’t already have a guaranteed deal.

“There was a pit in the bottom of your stomach, especially for a market like ours where we gave up guys who are going to be very good major league players,” Antonetti says of the deal. “And to give up that many guys of that quality is really difficult.”

Says Chisenhall, with appreciation: “When we needed to make a move this summer, they didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.”

You don’t often get an opportunity like Cleveland had this July. So when winning met the chance to acquire an impact reliever like Miller, the Indians seized it.

“That was a big part of the calculus,” Antonetti says. “The way our team played, we felt we would have a chance to compete for a postseason berth. And if we got there, obviously, we felt the goal was to win the World Series. And we felt Andrew would have an impact on that, not only this year but in the future.”

Together with Francona, that future appears pretty much like nirvana. Short term, especially. Back at home, the Indians have two chances to win just one game, which would produce their first World Series championship since 1948.

And long term, this is a young team that, much like division-rival Kansas City, could be on this October stage a few years in a row.

“Anybody who’s spent 10 minutes around me this year or the last four years knows how comfortable I am in this situation here,” Francona says. “I think Chris, if people were around him more…I don’t think people realize how good he is. Because we haven’t had the biggest payroll here, it’s not like when Jon Lester’s a free agent Chris was like, ‘Oh, I don’t think he’s any good.’ You know?

“You’re given a certain number, and you have to make that work, and he’s managed to put together four years of pretty good teams.”

Four years of pretty good teams, punctuated by two fearless statements. It’s a mix that has worked beautifully, and one the Indians hope pays off with one more victory over the next couple of games.

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

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

CHICAGO — They scratched. They clawed. They flipped. They nearly flopped.

So close to expiration, the 2016 Chicago Cubs were, that sometimes it seemed literal.

“It was hard, man,” David Ross, Grandpa Rossy, the retiring and most beloved figure of all those wearing a Cubs uniform, said. “I kept running in here [the clubhouse] between innings and telling the security guard I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

“[Anthony] Rizzo was telling me, ‘I don’t know how your old you-know-what can take this, because I can barely take it.'”

The Cubs survived, nudging the Indians back to Cleveland for Game 6 on Tuesday with a thrilling, chilling and ultimately fulfilling 3-2 Game 5 win. Times were so desperate that Chicago manager Joe Maddon called on closer Aroldis Chapman in the seventh inning. He responded with a career-high 2.2 innings, danced the high wire and lived to tell about it.

So did the Cubs.

And as Ross talked, there were tears of joy running down his face.

As the words tumbled forth, so did the water. Several times, he reached up, wiped his right eye, and continued. Then he’d wipe his left eye.

What a night. What a scene.

They sweated. They grunted. They swung, finally they swung, stringing together three hits for the first time in this World Series in a three-run, fourth-inning outburst that the Cubs think maybe can turn this thing around for them.

“Four in a row, right?” observed veteran Ben Zobrist, who doesn’t miss a thing.

How could he? The Cubs came into Game 5 hitting .204 as a team. Two Oh Four.

Through Game 5, the Cubs had collected two hits in a row exactly three times, all in their Game 2 win in Cleveland. Three in a row? Pffft. Forget it.

“We’ve got to do that more and more,” Zobrist said after Kris Bryant cracked a leadoff homer in the fourth to tie the game at 1-1, Rizzo doubled and then Zobrist and Addison Russell singled. “That’s such a key to our offense. K.B. had the big hit, but for Riz to back that up with a double, and then the bunt hit was huge.”

That was Javier Baez, whose one-out drag bunt down the third-base line in the fourth sent Zobrist scooting to third, positioning him to score. It was the only time the struggling Baez put the bat on the ball; he whiffed in his other three plate appearances.

“Sometimes our greatest strength is our youth,” Ross said. “And sometimes our greatest weakness is our youth.”

Kid Cubbies, take note, this is how you do it: After Baez’s bunt single loaded the bases with one out, and with the Cubs paddling for runs like a man in the deep end of the pool desperately trying to stay afloat, up stepped Ross. He immediately fell behind 1-2 before battling through a six-pitch at-bat that ended with him launching a sacrifice fly to left field that scored the Cubs’ third run.

“Fantastic at-bat,” Zobrist praised. “You can’t say enough about it.”

“Big, big at-bat,” Rizzo said. “Down 1-2, he chokes up and puts the ball in play.”

“Two-strike approach,” Ross said of his battle with Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer. “He threw me a backup slider and I fouled it back.”

That was the first pitch Ross saw, and it was the one Ross wanted back. He felt like that was his pitch. But persistence and grit carried the moment.

Truthfully, persistence and grit carried the night for the Cubs. Facing elimination, they bird-dogged outs so desperately that, surely, a DVD of Cubs Catching Foul Balls in Game 5 would sell like a Bill Murray film.

Second inning, Ross tracked a Carlos Santana foul ball into the little alcove at the mouth of the Indians dugout, came back as the wind blew the ball back, tipped over a railing, caught it, and as he went rear end over teacup, the ball popped out…only to be caught by Rizzo. Your basic foul-pop 2-3 out.

“Tip drill,” Ross quipped.

Third inning, right fielder Jason Heyward looked like Spiderman racing over to the right field wall, climbing it and then spring-boarding off it back toward the field to catch a Bauer foul pop.

You will not see a more amazing play in foul territory.

“Off the bat I saw the ball going like I would have a chance to catch it,” Heyward said. “But it was going toward the stands, and I was going to have a reach up into the stands to get it.

“I was prepared to do that, but having the ability to get to the wall early enough allowed me to make the adjustment. It was tough to tell if it was the wind or the way the ball was cutting.”

Fourth inning, Mike Napoli skied a high foul pop-up behind the plate, Ross was under it and then caught it…just as Rizzo, also tracking the ball, slammed into him.

It was that kind of night. There was little to no margin for error, and the Cubs climbed all over themselves to make sure their magical season didn’t end.

How badly did each team want this game? Both had their closers in by the seventh inning. Cleveland’s Cody Allen kept the Cubs scoreless, giving the Indians a chance. And after everyone’s gotten a load of what Cleveland’s Andrew Miller can do over multiple innings this fall, Maddon summoned Chapman after six solid Jon Lester innings and an out from Carl Edwards Jr.

Despite the fact that he’s never entered a game that early for the Cubs, they believed.

“Unbelievable,” Rizzo said of Chapman, who recorded the first eight-out save in a World Series elimination game since another dominant left-hander, Madison Bumgarner, did so for San Francisco in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series in Kansas City.

“Gutsy.”

“He came up big, man,” outfielder Dexter Fowler said.

Fowler didn’t see Chapman warming up early, but he knew.

“Anytime you’ve got a power arm like that, you can hear him warming up,” Fowler quipped.

Chapman made everyone sweat even more by failing to cover first base in the eighth when Rajai Davis drilled a one-out smash down the first-base line that Rizzo grabbed with a diving stop. But when he looked toward first, no Chapman.

“Especially with a guy like Davis, that’s the last guy you want on base in the situation,” Zobrist said.

But as he stole second and then third, the tying run threatening and the 41,711 in Wrigley Field agonizing, Chapman induced a harmless fly to left field from Jason Kipnis and then blew 102 mph heat past Francisco Lindor for a called third strike.

Now, Game 6.

And with Jake Arrieta facing Josh Tomlin, though they still need to play from behind, the Cubs like the way things are setting up.

“We feel like the momentum is on our side now,” Zobrist said. “This would have been a really tough one to take home.

“For them to celebrate on our field would be terrible.

“For us to go back to Cleveland and snuff out Game 6 and then get a third chance at [Corey] Kluber, that’s why we’re excited to go back to Cleveland.”

They will change nothing. On the clubhouse information board was the message: “7 p.m. Bus Departure” for Cleveland on Monday night.

Under that was another message: “Halloween Costumes are Encouraged on the Plane.”

For the Cubs, it is not yet the night of the living dead. Having survived Sunday, they believe there are still some treats up ahead.

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

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

CHICAGO — Before Game 4, Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona wanted to make one thing clear: The Indians haven’t exactly played their best baseball this fall.

“We haven’t swung the bats very well the last couple of weeks,” he said. “I think that it shows what kind of team we can be, though.”

Whoa! Already, they’re ducking in Wrigley Field. They don’t know what hit them. Just recently they were spraying champagne after blitzing the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now? It’s so quiet you can hear the ivy grow.

Maybe Saturday night’s 7-2 throttling of the suffocating Chicago Cubs partly qualifies as the offensive outburst Francona was talking about. But even with Illinois native Jason Kipnis smashing a three-run home run in the seventh inning to push the anthem “Go, Cubs! Go!” ever closer to mothballs for the winter, it was hard to notice much else other than the steamroller that is Corey Kluber.

Somewhere, the late Bob Feller is standing and applauding.

“I think you appreciate the little things about him more and more,” Andrew Miller, the star reliever Cleveland acquired from the New York Yankees in July, said of playing alongside our newest Mr. October. “Watching him execute pitches that can move in any direction, his ability to get weak contact and hit his spots—it’s something that everybody can appreciate right now, except maybe Cubs fans.”

Ya think? No question the Cubs went home to bed Saturday night still seeing Kluber’s sliders spinning every which way but loose. Cleveland’s Cy Young winner made monkeys out of them. And the Cubs weren’t long ago considered baseball’s best team, what with that gaudy 103 regular-season win total.

But while Chicago feasts on fastballs, Kluber and Co. have been feeding it a steady diet of breaking balls.

While the Cubs talked at length the other night about how they hadn’t faced Kluber until Game 1 and that now they knew something about him, they’d be more prepared for him in Game 4, the Indians are thriving despite not exactly having intimate knowledge of a bunch of Chicago pitchers they hadn’t seen this summer.

Instead of talking, they’re doing.

Cleveland leads this World Series 3-1 and can close it out Sunday night in Wrigley Field.

You bet the Indians are beginning to think about champagne.

“I try not to, but the thought is creeping into my mind,” Kipnis admitted. “It’s not going to be an easy win to get. They’ve got their stud on the mound in Jon Lester.

“But we’re close. We’re almost there.”

Kluber, working on three days’ rest, sliced up the Cubs with 1,000 paper cuts. He only struck out six in six innings. He isn’t the dominant, in-your-face ace that wows you with velocity and power. Watch him once, and maybe you don’t come away with the same giddy feeling you have after watching a Madison Bumgarner or a Clayton Kershaw.

But watch him a few times—say, every fourth day of October—and man, do you ever get it.

“He’s done things you can’t expect in the postseason,” Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway said. “It’s been so fun to watch.”

Over 30.1 innings pitched this postseason, Kluber has surrendered just three earned runs (0.89 ERA). He’s struck out 35. He’s 4-1 in five starts.

“Oh, man, he’s been our rock,” Indians outfielder Rajai Davis said. “Our foundation. Our middle piece. Man, he’s been our everything.

“If we can, we’re going to carry him in our celebration, put him on our shoulders and march him around the field.”

It was just silly at times.

In the fourth inning, he threw no straight fastballs to the Cubs. He offered them six curveballs, three sliders and three sinkers.

In the fifth, he threw two curves, two sliders and two sinkers.

In the sixth, Cubs catcher Willson Contreras swung and missed, badly off balance, at three straight curveballs. Good morning, good afternoon and goodnight.

By then, trailing 4-1, the Chicago’s frustration was evident on the field.

“Oh yeah, you could see that,” Davis said. “We could see it on the mound with [John] Lackey.”

Lackey was barking at plate umpire Marvin Hudson early.

Kluber never broke focus.

“He doesn’t really show emotion on the field,” Davis said. “He’s really good at concealing that and concentrating on the job at hand.”

How good? Here’s a little secret that maybe Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Co. either didn’t pick up on or, if they did, attempted to bury somewhere in their subconscious: Standard practice is the more a hitter sees a pitcher, the advantage swings to the hitter.

But with Kluber, the numbers show he gets better and better the more he sees rival hitters. In 2016, in his first start against an opponent, he went 7-7 with a 3.82 ERA.

His second time facing opponents, he was 8-2 with a 2.55 ERA. And his third time against rivals, he was 2-0 with a 1.71 ERA.

“That speaks to how smart he is,” Callaway said. “He is a really smart baseball player.”

The way Kluber sequences and mixes up his pitches, Callaway said, a rival team might not even see his changeup until somewhere down the road.

The Cubs? Oh, they’re seeing breaking pitches the way a road sees snowflakes in the middle of a three-day blizzard. Talk about getting dumped on.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that they’re a pretty good-hitting fastball team,” Callaway said. “They’re doing a good job of spoiling some pitches we’re throwing.”

Take note: Spoiling pitches, such as fouling them off, is a lot different from doing damage.

“As much game-planning as I’ve done over the years, breaking balls work against almost everybody,” Callaway continued. “Soft works better than hard against almost everybody.”

The only thing softer than some of Cleveland’s pitches are the results the Cubs are getting when they swing at them. Heavy favorites entering the series, the Cubs are watching the faith of their fans evaporate like a Kluber slider:

No—don’t underestimate what Kluber has done. To find the last pitcher to start and win Games 1 and 4 in a World Series, you have to travel all the way back to 1990, when the Cincinnati Reds’ Jose Rijo did it against the Oakland Athletics. Similar to this World Series, those Reds were heavy underdogs, too. And they swept the A’s.

After throwing 88 pitches in Game 1, Kluber only tossed 81 before departing Saturday. Should Trevor Bauer fail in Game 5 and the Cubs somehow win Game 6, Kluber should have plenty in the tank for Game 7.

Callaway said the 10 days Kluber missed in late September with a strained quadriceps might have been a blessing in disguise. Because with starters Carlos Carrasco (fractured hand) and Danny Salazar (elbow) knocked out of the rotation, the extra rest maybe gave Kluber additional fuel for the heavy load he’s been asked to carry this postseason.

“It wasn’t adjusting on the fly,” Callaway said. “He knew two or three weeks ago. When we lost those two starters, it was, Oh, crap! He’s going to have to carry a heavy load.”

Carry it he has, all the way to the front porch of ending baseball’s second-longest World Series drought. One more win, and they’re in.

All season long, Davis and Mike Napoli and the rest of them have had some fun with a favorite motivational saying. This spring, Davis said, when something stupid happened, “like maybe the Gatorade was in the wrong place,” Napoli quickly responded, “We can overcome this.”

It’s become something of a rallying cry for the Indians ever since. No matter how big or small the obstacle, serious or humorous, they’ll look at each other and say, “We can overcome this.”

You can bet they’ll utter it a few more times Sunday night. The Cubs and their swarm of fans are on notice; the franchise that hasn’t won a World Series since 1908, the one that’s lost each of the past seven Fall Classics in which it’s appeared, is one loss from another disappointment.

Kipnis said Saturday night that it will be the hardest win of all to attain.

We’ll see. Right now, against the Cubs and their measly .204 team batting average and .273 team on-base percentage, the Indians are making it look pretty easy.

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

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball. 

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CHICAGO — Nervous time showed up late to the Wrigleyville party Friday night. It arrived unexpectedly and under the cover of darkness.

All day, starting at daybreak, the denizens of Chicago Cubs baseball poured into this neighborhood with great expectations. They were drinking beer at 5 a.m. They crowded the streets. They sang. They chanted.

For those who didn’t have a ticket to the game, bars were charging upwards of $200 cover charges to come in and watch on television. In the two hours leading up to first pitch, other bars and restaurants were charging $20 to $25 just for the privilege of entering the establishment to buy a drink, or dinner.

One person flew in from Asia without a ticket simply to be in Chicago to soak in the atmosphere. Another flew in from Belfast, Ireland. And those are two we know of without canvassing the block.

For those who did have a ticket to the game, the Wrigley Field gates, scheduled to open at 5 p.m., were opened some 40 minutes early, simply to relieve congestion on the streets.

Then, with the wind blowing out and conditions perfect for one of those high-scoring slugfests that Wrigley is famous for, Cleveland’s Josh Tomlin and the Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks went to work. And in the seventh inning, a man with a breakfast-cereal name took a one-out hack that had the same effect as clicking “mute” on your television remote control.

Yes, nervous time showed up well before Coco Crisp swung and Cleveland’s ace bullpen delivered the gutsy 1-0 victory that catapulted the Indians to a two-games-to-one World Series lead with ace Corey Kluber ready to start Game 4 on short rest Saturday night.

Though Hendricks did a nice job of moving the ball around and avoiding damage, the Indians put nearly as much traffic on the bases as there was outside on Clark and Addison Streets. In each of the first five innings, Cleveland put at least one runner on base.

Then Crisp broke the ice, and down to their final nine outs at that point, Wrigley Field seemed to sway and writhe with each at-bat.

It should have been doable for Chicago. Cleveland manager Terry Francona went with relief ace Andrew Miller early, in the fifth, and Crisp’s hero moment came as he was pinch-hitting for Miller.

So Miller was gone for those final nine outs. But setup man Bryan Shaw and closer Cody Allen, as they were against Boston and Toronto, were enough.

“I knew during batting practice we just needed to get our hits,” said Ben Zobrist, one of the few Cubs who has been doing that with consistency this postseason. “Sometimes when you see the wind blowing out, you try to do too much.

“I didn’t see one particular guy doing it, but when you see the wind blowing out before a game, you start licking your chops more than you should. Hopefully that wasn’t the case tonight.”

Wrigleyville was licking its chops all day.

The Cubs? This was the fourth time this postseason they’ve been shut out.

Remember last year when they ran into the buzzsaw that was the New York Mets’ pitching? That was no small part of the reason for this year’s remodel, signing Zobrist and Jason Heyward.

Yet, the Cubs now become the first team since the 1905 Philadelphia Athletics to suffer four shutouts in a single postseason.

Ironic, isn’t it, that you have to go all the way back before the Cubs’ last World Series title in 1908 for that?

“It was our first time seeing [Tomlin], but he’s a fly-ball pitcher and the wind was blowing out,” Anthony Rizzo said. “It’s crazy how we don’t hit a fly ball.”

Tomlin is a nice pitcher who works the outer edges of the strike zone and is baffling when he’s on. He also surrendered 36 home runs this summer, third-most in the major leagues.

And zilch from the Cubs.

Now, here comes Kluber, which is why Friday night’s loss could become dangerously pivotal for the Cubs. They didn’t even dent him in Game 1 in Cleveland. If they don’t figure something out, they’re in real danger of falling behind three games to one.

“I know it’s hard to come back from 2-1,” Chicago catcher Miguel Montero said. “But we’ve been there before and come back.

“I know it’s different in the World Series, but it shouldn’t be different because we’ve got a good team.”

The Cubs are hanging their blue caps on the fact that since they just saw Kluber, he’ll be easier to hit this time. As far as Zobrist is concerned, “We’re going to have to beat Kluber, anyway” if the Cubs are to win the World Series.

So why not Saturday?

“We know what to expect now,” outfielder Jason Heyward said. “Just try to keep it simple. Not do too much. You’ve got to take what he gives you. He’s probably not going to give you a lot.”

But, the Cubs figured out Clayton Kershaw with repeated viewings. So…

“He’s on three days’ rest,” Rizzo said. “Just throwing it out there, he isn’t going to be as sharp as he was in the first game.”

Rizzo paused, then wryly added, “Even if he is, I’m going to convince myself that he’s not.”

It isn’t just Kluber. The Indians now are 23-0 this season in games in which Miller and Cody Allen both pitch.

And while the Cubs have been shut out four times this postseason, Cleveland’s pitching has been off the charts: The Indians have racked up five shutouts against Boston, Toronto and now Chicago.

Maybe the Cubs could have avoided this one, maybe, had Jorge Soler run hard out of the box in the seventh inning when he skied a ball down the right-field line that Lonnie Chisenhall couldn’t catch against the wall. Thinking it was a fly out at first, Soler jogged partway down the first-base line. When the ball ricocheted away from Chisenhall, Soler turned on the afterburners and wound up with a standup triple.

Zobrist didn’t think Soler could have made it all the way around to score.

“No,” he said. “Chisenhall got back to it quick enough that [Soler] wouldn’t have been able to make it even if he was sprinting out of the box.”

Even explaining it that way, you wonder how in the world any player can Cadillac it partway down the line in a World Series game. It was bad form, especially in such a close, tense game.

As it is, the Cubs’ margin for error is getting smaller by the day. On a historic night in Wrigleyville, it wasn’t the way things were supposed to turn out.

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

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

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CHICAGO — The old girl is dressed to the nines. Wrigley Field, on deck to host her first World Series game Friday night since Oct. 10, 1945, is crackling with energy.

And when the Chicago Cubs take the field to face the Cleveland Indians in Game 3, this shrine of a ballpark, which has produced so many memorable afternoons and, later, evenings, will author a first: An African-American wearing a Cubs uniform will play in a World Series game in Wrigley Field.

The Cubs have not been here since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947.

Which means, well, gasp, yes.

It is amazing to even attempt to rationally wrap our minds around it. How we got here, how in the name of Martin Luther King Jr., or even Ernie Banks, this hasn’t happened before in Wrigley, is a testament to a century of futility for the Cubs.

“Ernie and I tried, but we didn’t get there,” Cubs Hall of Famer Billy Williams said.

Williams was standing in the visitors’ dugout at Cleveland’s Progressive Field as he spoke, beaming, looking at his beloved franchise in a real World Series, smiling at the thought of leadoff man Dexter Fowler, shortstop Addison Russell, outfielder Jason Heyward and reliever Carl Edwards Jr. becoming the first black men to play in a World Series wearing a Cubs uniform in any venue.

“The World Series itself is great, but when you look at all the things that have happened in baseball and then you look and see that four African-Americans are playing in a World Series for the Cubs for the first time in all those many years, it’s really something,” he continued.

“It gives you two thrills: To be here at the World Series, and to see those individuals play.”

That it comes at a time of more jagged racial tension in our country’s history, with the Black Lives Matter movement pushing for change and policemen under fire, might not make the debuts of these four Cubs any more significant. But it sure makes them more deeply felt.

“Just knowing Dex and J-Hey, and knowing C.J. [Edwards Jr.], we’ve always been the type of people to never settle for the everyday usual,” said Russell, who became the first African-American to collect a World Series RBI for the Cubs when he drew a bases-loaded walk to push across the fifth run in Chicago’s 5-1 Game 2 victory.

“I think that’s what has driven us. We didn’t have a choice to pick the ethnic background that we have, but it is what it is, and we are who we are, and we try to make the best of it that we can.

“Black Lives Matter is a huge movement. I think African-Americans need to be heard, for sure.”

Russell added that it is “nice on paper” to be able to say that he’s one of the first four African-Americans to play in a World Series for the Cubs. Fowler, who became the first black player to play for the Cubs in a Fall Classic when he led off Game 1 by taking a called third strike against Cleveland ace Corey Kluber, said it was “awesome” to play the role of a trailblazer.

Heyward, the free agent who signed an eight-year, $184 million deal but has lost his starting spot because of a prolonged slump, downplayed the racial angle while acknowledging the larger moment.

“I haven’t thought about it other than we come in every day and prepare as players to do what we can to help our team win,” Heyward said. “We go out there on a daily basis, representing our family name, representing our organization, representing our city, and that’s the bottom line.

“We were born African-Americans, and there’s nothing we can control there. It’s been that way our whole lives, so it’s not surprising to say it’s a first.

“It’s unique and cool and, I guess, humbling to be a part of it for the first time. But we’re just here by chance, you know? Everything happens for a reason.”

What is not by chance, and what is instructive about this particular group of Cubs, is how they’ve ascended racial boundaries all summer long.

Most of the team—black, white, Latin—gathered in Fowler’s Cincinnati hotel room in April to celebrate Jake Arrieta’s no-hitter earlier that day.

Heyward, in a classy pay-it-forward move thanking a veteran who had taken him under his wing when they both were with the Atlanta Braves organization, has footed the bill for David Ross to be upgraded to a hotel suite on every Cubs road trip this year. That has continued into the postseason, Ross said, a gesture that is especially meaningful now because Ross’ wife, children and parents have been traveling in October, and the suite gives them all a place to stay and spread out.

Ross spoke at length of Heyward’s generosity Thursday.

To Heyward, being kind and generous is the way everybody should behave, no matter their ethnicity.

“We’re in a World Series,” Heyward, 27 and a native of Georgia, said. “I know I’m an African-American, so I go represent the best way I can as a person with my teammates and my friends and in terms of the organization because you know you’ve got a lot of different things from a lot of different people and a lot of people are watching. That’s the bottom line. Just treat people how you want to be treated and go from there.”

For reliever Edwards, 25 and a native of Prosperity, South Carolina, his place in Cubs history is humbling.

“It’s pretty awesome,” he said. “We’ve seen Robinson come through, and I’m not saying we’re just like him, but…me and Dex and J-Hey and Addison—this is a great thing to have on our resume.”

Edwards is aware enough of the moment, both playing in his first World Series and understanding the social significance of it, that he plans to keep the cleats he wears whenever he makes his first appearance. In fact, he figures he’ll probably take a few other things home for his archives too because “this doesn’t happen to everybody.”

He’s thought about the timing of this moment and the social forces at work as a backdrop.

“Back home, of course, they put up the Black Lives Matter posts,” Edwards said. “But now everybody at home is putting up my picture on Facebook and social media because it’s something positive.

“Black Lives Matter—everybody is thinking that’s a negative. This is something positive that people can hang on to.”

He figures the kids back in his hometown can benefit from his experience because “if they see somebody from home doing it, it gives them more confidence.”

As Russell said: “It’s absolutely meaningful to us, to our families and, obviously, to our bloodline. I think our ethnicity, we wear it on our shoulders. Whenever you get around a group of people that come from so many different backgrounds, you have to be rooted a little bit, I think, whenever it comes to your ethnicity.”

And so as they step on to the Wrigley Field lawn and move just a bit deeper into Cubs lore, this is one of the most significant steps yet.

“Sports itself has a way of bringing a lot of injustices to the forefront,” Williams, 78, and a native of Whistler, Alabama said. “When you look on the field and you see African-Americans, you see whites, you see Italians, you see all races of people out on the baseball field, and that’s why it helps so much to bring about justice in this world.”

Recently, Williams said he watched the film 42, the biopic of Robinson’s life story. In it, there is a scene in Cincinnati in which Pee Wee Reese walks over and throws his arm around Robinson in a show of support as the fans showered him with racial taunts and other epithets.

It reminded him of his own Hall of Fame induction in 1987 and after, when, he said, “I used to go to the Hall of Fame, and I wanted to find Pee Wee Reese. And when I found him, I would put my arms around him just like he did to Jackie Robinson. And it gave me a great thrill.”

Yeah, as Williams said, it is great to see. Both the Cubs in the World Series and doing it in living, vivid color.

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

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CLEVELAND — Don’t worry. Hitting savant Kyle Schwarber isn’t Superman all down the line. In some respects, he’s just like you and me.       

Take the private plane that winged him back to the Chicago Cubs on Monday night, his first trip to the majors since the devastating knee injury in early April. OK, so the private plane part might not be like you and me. But the accompanying boredom was.

“It was a long three hours,” Schwarber said.

Three hours and a million miles. That’s how long his trip back to the big leagues was this week. Private plane or no, the Wi-Fi was spotty and unworkable. He tried to watch one of his favorite television shows, The Blacklist, but no dice.

So what he had was plenty of time to think. As he reviewed his painful and laborious summer, there was no way he could envision what was up ahead.

But in one area, he had an idea.

Whack!

After not facing major league pitching since April 7, Schwarber stepped into the World Series with aplomb. After rapping a Game 1 double Tuesday, he knocked in two Game 2 runs to key the Cubs to a 5-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night to even the 2016 World Series at one game apiece.

Thwack!

The man who went 0-for-4 during the regular season before blowing out his knee against the Diamondbacks in Arizona is 3-for-7 with two walks and two RBI in nine plate appearances in these two games.

“I can see why Theo sent a plane for him,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona quipped, referring to Theo Epstein, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations. “I would too.

“That’s a lot to ask. But special players can do special things.”

It’s absurd, is what it is. You have a 23-year-old kid who has only played in 71 career MLB games at this point, essentially missed an entire season, missed the first two rounds of the postseason, and Chicago ushered him straight into a World Series.

“Most teams wouldn’t even do that,” Cubs second baseman/left fielder Ben Zobrist said. “No one else in history has done that, right?

“And to get hits in the World Series? It’s just crazy. It really is.”

Yes, Schwarber envisioned this. Well, sort of.

“You want to visualize what it’s going to be like when you come back so you’re not thrown off by what happens when you’re there,” he said. “You want to put yourself in good situations in your head, and hopefully they play out in the field.

“Visualization is a very powerful tool, and I believe in that.”

So instead of watching The Blacklist as he became the first player in history to jump from the Arizona Fall League’s Mesa Solar Sox straight into a World Series, he envisioned hits. He pictured success. He dreamed a thousand dreams over again, the ones he imagined when he was a kid, the same dreams other kids who get bored on plane rides dream. World Series, game on the line, runners on the bases, here comes Schwarber to the plate…

Crack!

It was early April when Schwarber blew out his left knee, and it was mid-April when he had a full reconstruction of his ACL ligament and a repair of his LCL ligament. The surgery was performed by Dr. Daniel Cooper, the team physician for the Dallas Cowboys, and the upshot of it was, work hard and you’ll be good as new next spring, kid.

All summer, as the Cubs played, Schwarber worked. His goal, he said, was to “dominate the day.”

“It was just constant grind,” he said. “There were days when I wasn’t feeling it.”

On those days, when the Cubs were home and in the clubhouse while Schwarber was rehabbing, players by the handful would look to pick him up. Led by reliever Pedro Strop, they would tell him, “You’ll be back by the World Series.” You know, well-meaning things to boost a friend’s confidence. But stuff maybe both of you know is a long shot.

When the Cubs were in Los Angeles during Games 3, 4 and 5 of the National League Championship Series against the Dodgers, the long shot moved onto their doorstep. At his six-month appointment, doctors cleared him to hit. Schwarber immediately phoned Epstein and asked for a chance. The Cubs sent him to the Arizona Fall League to see some pitching.

So now, Schwarber suddenly is locked in a battle with his second colossal problem of the year. Now, he faces reporters, and they ask him questions like the leadoff query following Game 2: Not to be disrespectful to anyone, Kyle, but is this game so easy that you can take six months off and do this?

Schwarber listened and grimaced.

“No, it’s not that easy, first off,” he said. “Baseball’s a crazy game. It will do crazy things to you.”

It will, and it has. Nobody outworks this kid. Ask any of the Cubs; they’ll tell you he was the first one in the clubhouse every day covered in sweat even though he had no chance of playing for months. For Schwarber, every day was Groundhog Day.

Work ethic? Check this out: During his brief time in Arizona, where he went 1-for-6 with one double and two walks for the Solar Sox, before and after the two games he played, he says he tracked roughly 1,300 pitches off of a pitching machine.

“I tried to set it to the nastiest setting that I could, to where it would be a really sharp break, just to train my eyes all over again,” he said.

“He’s insatiable with his work,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.

Man, it shows. In Game 1 against Corey Kluber, who threw some of the filthiest pitches the Cubs have seen all season, Schwarber worked a full count in his first at-bat before striking out, scorched a double to right field his next time up and then battled for six pitches to draw a full-count walk in his third plate appearance against Kluber.

He hadn’t faced major league pitching since April 7, yet against a man who won the 2014 American League Cy Young Award, Schwarber battled as well as any other Cub.

“You see how he’s taking pitches that are just borderline,” Maddon said. “And that’s probably the most amazing part. Hitting the ball is one thing, but you can see he’s not jumpy. He’s seeing borderline pitches, staying off a ball, he’s not check-swinging and offering.

“That’s the part that’s really impressive to me.”

You can see why in July, when many folks thought acquiring Aroldis Chapman from the New York Yankees would cost them Schwarber, among other pieces, the Cubs figured out a path to the trade to keep him.

In July 2015, he was the MVP of the Futures Game. His uncle, Thomas Schwarber, pitched for Ohio State and in the Detroit Tigers system. Kyle, though, opted to attend Indiana University because he knew, despite his success as a middle linebacker at Middletown (Ohio) High School and all the recruiters who were wooing him, he wanted to play baseball. At Indiana, he could.

As recently as August 2015, he told me he still missed playing football because of the “physical factor.” Meaning: He missed hitting people.

But don’t think the football background contributed to his plow-forward determination through rehab this summer.

“No, I think it’s just my personality,” the Cubs’ first-round draft pick in 2014 told me Wednesday night. “That helps more than anything.”

He’s a keeper, in so many ways.

“You saw how he jacks everybody up,” Maddon said of the two RBI Wednesday. “Those couple of big hits he got, again, really, Anthony Rizzo responded well to it. The whole group did. It makes your lineup longer. It makes it thicker. It makes it better.

“Ben Zobrist is seeing better pitches right now because of that, too, I believe.”

The Cubs won 103 games this summer without Schwarber, so the natural question now is, how much better are they with him?

“Good question,” Zobrist said, pausing for a moment to ponder. “I don’t know. I think he certainly adds wins to the team. You talk about that WAR statistic, whatever…he probably would have added some wins to the equation if we had him all year, but we didn’t. He worked his tail off, and it’s huge.”

Third inning, Cubs clinging to a 1-0 lead with Rizzo on second and Zobrist on first. Schwarber got the green light on a 3-0 Trevor Bauer pitch and drilled it up the middle to score Rizzo.

“I was thinking, ‘Please swing,'” Rizzo said. “On 3-and-0, the pitcher doesn’t want to walk you, so he usually throws it down the middle of the plate.”

Said Kris Bryant: “Pretty much everybody here has the 3-and-0 green light, but it takes some guts to do that. It was awesome to see. I love when guys swing at 3-and-0.”

Yes, as Maddon said, you can see how Schwarber jacks everyone up. So now as this World Series heads for Chicago, will the kid be in the lineup Friday night to help jack up a Wrigley Field crowd already salivating at hosting its first World Series game since 1945?

As of Wednesday, doctors hadn’t cleared Schwarber to play defense. Maddon said he has total faith that the kid can play defense. The questions are, what about lateral movement? Quick stops? Change of direction?

“Those are the kinds of things I don’t know anything about,” Maddon said.

Best bet: The Cubs keep Schwarber out of the outfield at home, and Maddon picks a big moment to send him to the plate as a pinch hitter.

But that’s all for Game 3 Friday. As the rain poured down late Wednesday night, Schwarber and his teammates headed for their flight home, an airplane that certainly was going to have good Wi-Fi and better company for Schwarber. His long road back has delivered him into the World Series.

What a place to be.

“Hey, man, I’m living the dream,” Schwarber said. “We’re playing in the World Series; what else can you ask for? I’m just going to keep riding the wave until it ends.”

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

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.       

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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.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

CHICAGO — All around this city, there is noise. Beautiful and joyful, chaotic and urgent.

It is loud. It is majestic and inspiring; the din stretching all the way from Wrigleyville to Michigan Avenue and back, snaking through the neighborhoods, awakening babies, washing over grandmothers, rolling down the city streets and up the sidewalks, closing the bars and then opening them all over again. From the roar of the crowds to the last strains of “Go, Cubs, Go,” silence is yesterday’s companion and tomorrow’s friend. Today, it is but a stranger.

But not here. From inside the brick walls surrounding these 119 acres that comprise this beautiful and historic cemetery, with a World Series on deck for the first time since 1945, this must be the most peaceful place in all of Chicago.

Founded in 1860, Graceland Cemetery is a mere Kris Bryant pop fly away from Wrigley Field. Half-a-mile, to be precise.

How appropriate that Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub, rests for all eternity so close to his beloved cathedral.

How touching that, because of this location, the Chicago Cubs, in all their 2016 splendor, roll on by each road trip—their bus rumbling up North Clark Street to West Irving Park Road, hugging a corner of this cemetery, where it turns and heads for the highway and another charter flight.

“There’s no distinguishing between Ernie and the Cubs,” Cubs owner Tom Ricketts says. “He was a special guy.”

That pilgrims—festooned in Cubs gear from head to toe—persist in flocking here with reverence nearly two years after his death, continues to reaffirm the bond.

“We were planning to go for a walk, and I brought it up last week that I wanted to come here and give Ernie a hello,” says Nick Boyd, 33, who, with his wife Katie, lives just on the other side of one of the cemetery walls. “If they win tonight, I may have to come back tomorrow, too.”

It is the Saturday afternoon before Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. The Cubs will face the Los Angeles Dodgers and, as usual, all is peaceful on these cemetery grounds. Katie, 34, is pregnant and due within the week. The Boyds were at Wrigley Field for Game 2 of the division series against the San Francisco Giants, which was their baby’s first Cubs game—a celebration that just happened to occur on the date of their five-year anniversary.

“I’m a little slower this summer,” says Katie, whose pregnancy limited her to five games (Nick made it to 18). “But I pay more attention and I drink less beer this way.”

The Boyds didn’t know what to anticipate when they visited Ernie, but they’ve felt his call for much of the summer. With the calendar reading October and the stakes increasing in importance, they figured they’d better scoot on over.

“I was expecting to see a hat or a ball at the grave,” Nick says. “I thought there might be something that stood out a little more. But it’s very simple.”

Indeed, the headstone is modest, and the surroundings are bare. It is by design, says Jensen Allen, a Graceland Cemetery administrator. Visitors have left Cubs caps at the grave in the past. And baseballs. And a mitt. And once, a toy bat.

“But our groundskeeper had to clean it off because we have to keep it maintained,” Allen says. “Something could get caught in a mower.”

It is standard operating procedure at cemeteries throughout the land, Allen says. People leave pennies and rocks and balloons and stuffed animals, but they don’t last long because they can cause damage or, perhaps, look junky. So here, the groundskeeper scoops them up and respectfully stores items in the garage in case a person who left something phones to ask for it back.

The headstone is temporary for reasons that are entirely disconcerting. When Banks died at 83 in January 2015, his estate had little money. According to one estimate, per the Daily Mail’s Mia De Graaf, it was only $16,000 in assets. And it turned messy. Per his will, Banks left his entire estate to his caretaker, Regina Rice.

His estranged fourth wife, Elizabeth Banks, sued, alleging that he had been diagnosed with moderate to severe dementia just days before Rice arranged for him to sign his last will, which is why his family, including his three children, was cut out of the estate (per Jason Meisner of the Chicago Tribune).

To stand here quietly at Banks’ grave, with Lake Willowmere serenely glistening just beyond in the afternoon sun, is to be a million miles removed from the ugliness. Here, those who visit are either unaware or simply do not care. They have come to see the Ernie who continues to live in their hearts: the warm man with the perpetual smile and the boyish enthusiasm who made the phrase “Let’s play two!” his signature line.

“I watched this guy play when my grandfather took me to my first Cubs game in the 1960s,” says Lori Loquercio, 50, of Chicago, who estimates she’s attended more than 100 games at Wrigley Field. “Seriously, [my grandfather] knew everybody in the bleachers. He bought me whatever I wanted while he drank beer with all of his friends.

“He took me out of school that day. I was in kindergarten. We walked down Clark Street after the game and stopped in all the bars.”

It was a different time. Loquercio‘s family became close in the 1980s with Manny Trillo, a Cubs infielder from 1975-78, and again from 1986-88, and four-time All-Star. She was in attendance at what was to be the first night game in the history of Wrigley Field (“8-8-88,” she says, proudly ticking off the numbers as if the owner of a winning lottery ticket). Then the rain came in the fourth inning and washed it out until the next night.

“Mr. Cub,” Loquercio says emphatically. “Besides being one of the best African-American players of his time, it was going to watch him go for his 500th home run. Glenn Beckert, Don Kessinger…the games were at 3:30, and I’d run home from school every day to watch the Cubs game.”

She reaches over and gives the headstone a good rub. She will be bowling in her league when tonight’s game begins in another six hours or so (“We’ll be hooting and hollering at the TVs!”), but her heart will be at Wrigley Field.

“Bring ’em luck tonight, Ernie,” Loquercio says reverently as she runs her fingers across the words “Ernie Banks” and the years “1931-2015” and the number “14.”

A permanent monument is on order to replace the temporary headstone and, according to Allen, the cemetery administrator, it is expected to be installed sometime within the next year. Because of the family squabble, she and the Cubs will offer very little information for public consumption. Both the burial here and exact location of the grave, in fact, were kept secret until earlier this year.

The Cubs quietly paid not only for the entire funeral, but also for the burial plot, the temporary headstone and the permanent monument, according to B/R sources. Officially, the donor of the monument is listed as “Anonymous.”

Creators of all the noise just a few blocks away, the Cubs themselves have been so focused and so consumed with their responsibilities that none have had the chance to stop by for a visit. At least not yet. Not as far as anybody around the team or the cemetery knows.

In fact, even though Banks spent so much of his life with and around the club until his health began to fail, most of these Cubs never got much of a chance to spend significant time with him. Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who attended Banks’ funeral, is one of the few who did. Addison Russell, Banks’ direct spiritual heir as the shortstop, didn’t even debut with the Cubs until after Banks had died.

“I heard he was a great, great fans’ person,” Russell says. “The fans, they loved him. The organization loved him. Just looking at him, he seemed like a very happy guy. Always smiling, always wanting to have a good time.”

Russell, just 22, already has played 293 regular-season games over two summers, smashing 34 homers and collecting 149 RBI.

At the same age, Banks had played only 10 major league games.

“Obviously, ‘Let’s play two’ is something that he stood by, something that he liked,” Russell says.

Oh, how Banks would have savored these October days. For all his accomplishments—Hall of Famer (inducted in 1977), 512 career home runs, Presidential Medal of Freedom (awarded in 2013), iconic hero to so many over the generations in Chicago—Banks also holds a spot of ignominy in the game: He played in more regular-season games, 2,528, than anybody in baseball history without ever setting foot in the postseason.

His Cubs came close a couple of times, in 1969 and again in 1970, but Banks never made it to the postseason. He was still active with the club on a few other near-miss World Series occasions in 1984, 1989, 2003 and 2008. Disappointment…all of it.

“He lived and breathed Cubbie blue,” says former Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster, now a special assistant to club president Theo Epstein, of Banks’ permanent residence just a few blocks from Wrigley. “I think it’s great.”

Here, in repose, Banks is surrounded by a dizzying cast of Chicago immortals. Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion of the world, is buried at Graceland. George Pullman, renowned for luxury sleeping train cars. William Kimball, the piano and pipe organ manufacturer. Marshall Field, the retail store maven. William Hulbert, co-founder—along with Albert Spalding—of the National League and, in 1870, one of the early partners in the Chicago White Stockings, who later became, yes, the Chicago Cubs. Philip Armour, whose enormous meatpacking company in the 1800s led to Chicago being dubbed “Hog Butcher for the World.”

Across the acres at Graceland, squirrels frolic in the lush grass. Willow trees weep over the deceased’s remains.

Twice a day, tours led by the Chicago Architecture Foundation wind their way through the grounds. Notably, these tours do not formally stop at the gravesite of perhaps the most well-known resident.

“Because it’s so new,” Allen says. “We don’t order 10 or 20 maps at a time. We order thousands. Ernie will be on our next edition. We may wait to put the picture in until he gets an official stone.”

While it isn’t as if the grounds are overrun by Cubs fans, Allen says “a pretty steady” flow of them come through. Banks’ grave is nearly all the way in the back, in the northeast quadrant, by the cemetery’s West Montrose Avenue border. It’s a pretty good hike from the entrance, so that discourages a few visitors—at least some who arrive on foot and not by vehicle.

The cemetery is so close to Wrigley Field that it has hosted its share of Cubs fans over the years, even before Ernie, and sometimes unwillingly. Tour buses line up on West Irving Park Road, depositing fans for an afternoon at the ballpark or pub-crawling in Wrigleyville.

“They can get a little rowdy,” Allen says. “Even before Ernie was here, they’d line up for the tour buses, and some Cubs fans would come past them and try to scale the [cemetery] fence.”

Most Cubs fans, though, are perfectly well-behaved. And on this Saturday afternoon, those with whom I visit are passing through simply to pay their respects and honor a piece of their family’s heritage and their city’s history.

“He epitomizes the history of the Cubs,” Nick Boyd says. “He was a fantastic player for 18, 19 years. Never quit. Always positive and hopeful. The guy never gave up that spirit of There’s always next year, right?“

Right. Except this year, a riotous journey has carried the Cubs and their fans to a storied destination that they have not visited since one month after the end of World War II. The World Series opens in Cleveland on Tuesday and arrives here in Chicago on Friday for Game 3, and if there were any doubt that spirits will be stirring, well, look at Loquercio rubbing that headstone or stop for a chat with Nick and Katie Boyd.

Forget next year. For the first time since 1908, next year might really be this year. And so the cacophony of sound thunders through this city, louder than all the L trains and O’Hare Airport jets combined.

David Phelps, 24, guides his girlfriend Emily along a cemetery sidewalk. They’re in from Brooklyn for the weekend. Emily is interviewing for medical school.

“I’ve been getting a Chicago history lesson these last couple of days,” Emily says of her Kentucky-born boyfriend, who fell for the Cubs in the 1998 days of Sammy Sosa, as they walk toward the back of the cemetery and Ernie.

It is living history, breathing history, history that is being re-written by a new band of Cubs who every home game walk right past the very old words—”Let’s Play Two”—that are painted on the wall in the tunnel leading from their clubhouse to the field.

Included in that history is Billy Williams, Hall of Famer, teammate and friend of Banks’, who emotionally invoked his name while standing on the Wrigley Field grass on Saturday night as the celebration roared on around him. And so many others.

“Maybe in the offseason I’ll get a chance to go there,” Dempster says.

No doubt, Ernie would cherish the company. He may be departed, but to those who make the sacred journey here, he remains a source of inspiration and comfort, his spirit alive and well.

Meanwhile, Nick and Katie Boyd now are the proud parents of a healthy baby girl, Lyla Belle, born Thursday morning. On Sunday afternoon, they took Lyla for her first walk, right through Graceland Cemetery, with a stop to say another hello to Ernie.

Says Nick enthusiastically: “She’s 2-0 as a Cubs fan.”

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

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

CLEVELAND — Pinch us. The 112th World Series starts here Tuesday night, and the Cleveland Indians will tangle with the Chicago Cubs? For reals? Next thing you’ll tell us is there are cordless telephones you can carry around that also double as computers.

These two teams, collectively, haven’t won a World Series in (quick, somebody find a calculator!)…let’s see (still adding!)…um…(almost there!)…176 long, cold, hardball years. 

Combined, these franchises have been playing professional baseball for 255 years, the Cubs since 1876 (first as the Chicago White Stockings, changing to the Cubs in 1903), the Indians since 1901. Neither has hoisted a World Series championship flag since Cleveland beat the Boston Braves in six games in 1948.

So Midwest meets Midwest, Lake Michigan vs. Lake Erie, The City of Broad Shoulders vs. Believeland, Chi-Town vs. The Land.

Matching it up and breaking it down as we all count it down…

1. Water, Anyone? We’re Parched

This World Series is brought to you by Aquafina, or Evian, or Gatorade (take your pick): These are, easily, baseball’s longest two active World Series title droughts.

As the sign said on Chicago’s Waveland Avenue during Saturday afternoon’s raucous pregame anticipation: “Party Like It’s 1908.” As everyone from Billy Williams to billy goats to Oprah knows, that’s the last time the Cubs won one of these blasted things. They haven’t played in one since 1945.

Last time the Indians won the World Series was in 1948, when Lou Boudreau’s club beat the Boston Braves in six games. They last were here in 1997, when Edgar Renteria singled home Craig Counsell in the bottom of the 11th inning in Game 7 to win it for the Florida Marlins.

“It’s great for baseball,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon says. “Listen, none of this is lost on me. One thing you always hear is that we need to attract younger fans. We have a team of young players, Cleveland [has such great young talent], I would hope people would tune in and check it out.”

“This moment kind of takes your breath away,” Theo Epstein, the Cubs’ president of baseball operations, says. “We never doubted, but at times it seemed a long way away.”

In Cleveland, they’ve had a few days to regain their breath after chain-sawing through Boston and Toronto in the playoffs. And after, you know, the Cavaliers’ NBA title in June.     

“Obviously, they got a taste of the basketball championship,” Indians relief ace Andrew Miller says. “The crowds for the playoff games at home have been special, as you would expect them to be. I’m looking forward to seeing how they react. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Drought, schmout, says Cleveland manager Terry Francona.

“I don’t feel responsible for the fact that my dad didn’t win. That was his fault,” Indians manager Terry Francona quips of his father, Tito, who played outfield for Cleveland from 1959-1964. “We’re responsible for playing the Cubs.”

And that should be a blast over these next several days.

“It’s going to be unbelievable,” Cleveland first baseman/DH Mike Napoli says. “It’s going to be crazy. Here and there.”

Edge: Cubs

2. Cleveland: City of Championships

In Cleveland, how cool will Tuesday night be? The Cavaliers open their NBA title defense against the New York Knicks at 7:30 p.m. at Quicken Loans Arena, Progressive Field’s next-door neighbor. They will receive their rings in a pregame ceremony. 

Thirty-eight minutes later, at 8:08 p.m., Corey Kluber will throw the first pitch of the World Series.

Chicago? The Bears stink, the Bulls haven’t won since 1998, the White Sox haven’t won since 2005, and the Blackhawks couldn’t defend their 2015 Stanley Cup title.

Edge: Cleveland

3. The Coronation of Theo Epstein and Terry Francona

Both men, Chicago’s president of baseball operations and Cleveland’s field manager, stamped their Hall of Fame passes this month.

Epstein was the 30-year-old whiz kid GM when Boston broke The Curse of the Bambino in 2004, winning the World Series for the first time since trading Babe Ruth in 1919 (ending the drought since 1918). Now, he’s the architect of the Cubs’ first World Series team since 1945 with the very real possibility of being the first winner since 1908.

If he winds up being the architect of both the Red Sox and Cubs teams that win their first World Series in decades? Straight to Cooperstown.

Francona was the manager of that ‘04 Boston World Series-winning team, then won again (with Epstein as GM) in Boston in 2007. Now, Francona has pulled the levers and pushed the buttons to move the Indians to historic heights.

“We were together eight years in Boston,” Francona says of him and Epstein. “Eight years in Boston, I would say, is miraculous.”

Epstein texted Francona congratulations 30 minutes after the Indians clinched the AL pennant in Toronto last week, and an hour later, his phone buzzed with a response.

“Hope to see you next week,” Francona texted.

Edge: Even

4. The Ex-Yankee Factor

How backward is this: Remember when some folks once sized up the postseason by adding up the “Ex-Cub Factor,” and the team with the most ex-Cubs immediately became the underdog?

Now it’s the Yankees who went all Amazon and special delivered key pieces to this year’s World Series contestants.

The Cubs acquired closer Aroldis Chapman from the Yankees on July 25 in exchange for four players: pitcher Adam Warren and prospects Gleyber Torres, Billy McKinney and Rashad Crawford.

Six days later, on July 31, the Indians acquired Miller from the Yankees in exchange for four minor leaguers: outfielder Clint Frazier, left-handed pitcher Justus Sheffield and righties J.P. Feyereisen and Ben Heller.

“It’s fun to be a part of this team,” Miller says. “I really enjoyed my time with the Yankees. It’s tough when you leave a comfort zone and a place that you like and people that you like. But I knew I was coming to a team that had won a lot and had expectations to win more. I was coming to play for Tito. I couldn’t have dreamt it up any better.”

Miller is rip-roaring through this postseason, pitching all over the place. The fifth inning. Seventh. Ninth. He has faced 41 batters, and he has fanned 21 of them. At one point, he had struck out 20 of 27 batters faced. He’s producing like few have produced before.

“I think the first thing that really struck a chord with me is, when we walked into the clubhouse when we first got him and he’s watching videos of the opposing hitters [and studying] the scouting report,” Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway says. “Man, you’ve got two pretty good pitches that you could just stick with. But he’s totally prepared, and that’s what allows him to do above and beyond what most people can do.”

Those two “pretty good pitches,” by the way, are a four-seam fastball and a sweeping slider.

Chapman’s 105 mph gas is sexy, but he is the more high-maintenance of the two. It was telling that Maddon said following Game 6 he was happy to get Chapman in for the final five outs, basically, to make him feel good about himself again after surrendering runs earlier in the series.

Edge: Indians

5. For the Glove of the Game

Cubs infielder Javier Baez, 23, doesn’t play defense so much as he performs alchemy in the field whenever the baseball is hit near him. He spins impossible plays into gold.

Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor, 22, is magical in his own way.

Together, these two infielders alone make this World Series a can’t-miss. We may see some of the slickest fielding in baseball history.

“Unbelievable,” Cubs center fielder Dexter Fowler says of Baez. “He’s a diamond in the rough. He plays hard, and he loves the game. You see it in his face.”

“He’s been playing unbelievable,” Napoli says of watching Baez on television this autumn. “It’s been cool to see.

“He’s making some sick plays.”

Lindor is too, while also hitting .323/.344/.581 with two homers and four RBI in eight postseason games this month.

“He’s been a superstar since he’s been here,” Indians closer Cody Allen says. “He’s 22 years old, but he’s a leader in this clubhouse. He’s a special player, one of the guys who helps keep things moving in the right direction.

“I’m looking forward to watching him play these [World Series] games.”

Edge: Even

6. Cleveland’s Bullpen Rocks

Over eight postseason games, Cleveland has a 1.77 ERA overall, and its bullpen owns a 1.67 ERA and 0.99 WHIP (walks plus hits divided by innings pitched; basically, how many baserunners per inning allowed).

The Cubs bullpen has surrendered a 3.53 ERA and 1.21 WHIP.

Francona has deployed his relievers like a master surgeon, winning universal praise for using Miller and Allen in the highest-leverage situations no matter the inning, mixing in Bryan Shaw and spotting Dan Otero and Jeff Manship.

Maddon has gotten far more out of his rotation and hasn’t had to rely on his bullpen nearly as much. 

Edge: Indians

7. Paths to the World Series

The Indians swept Boston in the AL Division Series despite the fact the Red Sox scored more runs than anybody in the majors in 2016. Then they dispatched the powerful Blue Jays, who ranked fifth in the majors in runs scored.

The Cubs bounced the San Francisco Giants in the NL Division Series after the wild-card winners skidded to a 30-42 record after the All-Star break. Then they blitzed a Los Angeles Dodgers team that was toothless against lefty pitchers this year and employed a ragtag crew of pitchers.

Edge: Indians

8. Just Call Uber

The Cubs have been working on building an uber-team since Epstein, Jed Hoyer and Co. were hired in 2011, and this year’s 103-win unit qualifies. From NL MVP favorite Kris Bryant to Anthony Rizzo to infielders Baez and Addison Russell and beyond, this is an exceptionally deep lineup that scored 808 runs this year, second in the NL only to the Colorado Rockies, who benefit by playing in high altitude.

Though the Indians ranked second to Boston in runs scored in the AL, they’ve scored just 27 in eight postseason games. Aside from Lindor (.323) and Lonnie Chisenhall (.269), nobody in the lineup is hitting above .225 this postseason.

“I guess I was hoping they would keep playing extra innings, all kinds of stuff,” Francona says, chuckling, about watching the Cubs win Game 6 on Saturday night. “They’re built for October. They had a heck of a year.

“They’re going to be a handful.”

Edge: Cubs

9. Two World Series Managers, One Interview

It was 2003, and Boston was looking for someone to replace Grady Little.

Epstein, then Boston’s GM, interviewed both Francona and Maddon, who at the time was one of the coaches on Mike Scioscia’s staff in Anaheim.

The Maddon that Epstein hired before the 2015 season after opting for Francona in ’03?

“Same guy, but different context,” Epstein says. “He didn’t have the major league managing pedigree to understand. Also, we were interviewing him for sort of a different role, at a different point in his career, for a different job. In the end we loved him, but we thought taking over a veteran team in a big market, there would have been some risk involved because he’s so unique.

“I think it worked out best for both sides. He got to go to Tampa, which was really a petri dish at that time, and try some things out and grow into it with some young players, and, obviously blossom. And for us, having Tito, who had already managed in the big leagues, it obviously worked out great for both.”

What stood out about Maddon at the time?

“How different he was than anyone else we’d ever interviewed for a managerial job,” Epstein says. “Offbeat sense of humor, use of the language, the way his mind worked and his mode of transportation. He rode his bike everywhere. Everything was different than anything you’d expect from a managerial candidate.”

Edge: Even

10. Historic World Series Characters

Hall of Famer Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown pitched in four different World Series for the Cubs in the early part of the last century, including two title runs in 1907 and 1908, and won five games.

Three Finger? He lost part of one finger on his right hand in a farm-machinery accident when he was a boy and damaged other fingers soon after. Classic.

Albert “Mr. Freeze” Belle dominated the Indians lineup during the 1995 and 1997 World Series runs, slamming 50 homers and collecting 126 RBI in ‘95 and 30 and 116 in ‘97.

Mr. Freeze? Belle preferred the Indians clubhouse to be meat-locker cold, and he was a bully who got his way. Brrrr.

Edge: Cubs

10. Celebrity Fans

In Wrigley Field, among others, you will find Bill Murray, who makes us laugh, John Cusack, who will say anything, and Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam vocalist.

Rooting for the Indians are comedian Drew Carey and NBA star LeBron James (who will be occupied during the NBA’s opening night).

Edge: Cubs

11. Party at Napoli’s

Elder statesman/club leader/cult hero Napoli is the inspiration for T-shirts all around town that have “Party at Napoli’s” printed on them. A fan had one made early this summer and sent it to Napoli. Then, Napoli wore it at a news conference, and it took off.

Since then, official “Party at Napoli’s” T-shirts have raised more than $120,000 for Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital.

The Cubs? Their clinch celebration Saturday night was as wild as you’ll see.

“We can party,” Cubs catcher Miguel Montero says. “I think we lead the league in that, too.”

Both teams are fun, but since the T-shirt money goes to charity…

Edge: Indians

12. Tunes

Following every Cubs victory at home, they blast “Go Cubs Go!” over the sound system, and everybody sings along. Know what’s cool about that? It was written by a late Chicago songwriter named Steve Goodman, who also wrote “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request” and, most famously, the classic “City of New Orleans.” (“Good morning, America, how are you? Don’t you know me, I’m your native son. I’m the train they call the City of New Orleans, I’ll be gone 500 miles when the day is done…”)

In the eighth inning at Progressive Field, everybody sings and dances to the McCoys’ “Hang On Sloopy,” a No. 1 hit song in 1965. Classic song, but…

Edge: Cubs

13. Ballparks

The Cubs produced the best home record in baseball this summer (57-24). Wrigley Field is the Friendly Confines, unless you are the opponent. It has ivy and wind and history. It is a museum.

Progressive Field opened in 1994 and was a colossal upgrade over the old Cleveland Stadium, the real Mistake by the Lake. Nice ballpark, but it ain’t Wrigley.

Edge: Cubs

14. Hobbies

Indians starter Trevor Bauer needed stitches after slicing open his right pinkie finger in a drone accident. The Indians plan for him to start Game 2, with Corey Kluber starting Game 1 and Josh Tomlin Game 3. But if doctors still don’t like the way Bauer’s finger is healing, Francona says Cleveland will flip-flop the latter two and have Tomlin start in Game 2 and Bauer in Game 3.

“I think we’ve all, probably everybody in here, at some point or another had a drone-related problem,” Francona cracked during the Toronto series.

Cubs infielder/outfielder Ben Zobrist rides a bike, and his hand is fine.

Edge: Cubs

15. Final Take

Top to bottom, left to right, east to west, the Cubs are the best team in baseball. They have the deepest talent, the best rotation, a strong bullpen and play breathtaking defense.

Cleveland has been the underdog all the way through this month and continues to rise to challenges. When the World Series was here in 1997, it was so cold it snowed one day during pre-game batting practice, and the game-time temperature of 38 degrees for Game 4 remains a record low for a World Series game. Thankfully, this week’s temperatures should be warmer—and, especially, in one dugout.

Pick: Cubs in 6

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

Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com