The Cleveland Indians earned home-field advantage for the 2016 World Series by virtue of the American League’s All-Star Game triumph over the National League, which means we can officially take a look at how the schedule for this year’s Fall Classic will shape up.
The best-of-seven championship series will pit the Indians against either the Chicago Cubs or Los Angeles Dodgers, and odds favor the Cubs even though they’ve historically failed to break through when presented with the opportunity.
Chicago is 0-6 in its last six National League Championship Series games with a trip to the World Series on the line, per ESPN Stats & Info, but data from WhoWins.com suggests the Cubs are in a spot to exorcise those demons.
Specifically, teams holding 3-2 leads in a best-of-seven format have gone on to win the series 70.4 percent of the time in a 98-series sample.
So before taking a peek at how the Indians will try to quell their eventual National League competition, here’s a rundown of when and where you can catch this year’s World Series:
While it’s impossible to make a firm prediction for the World Series without knowing who the Indians will square off against, we can examine how they would fare against their prospective competition after they didn’t play a single game against the Cubs or Dodgers in the regular season.
From a pitching standpoint, Cleveland has been head and shoulders above the rest of its postseason peers.
The Indians boast a 1.77 ERA through eight playoff games, which compares favorably to the Cubs’ mark of 3.25 and the Dodgers’ tally of 4.60. Cleveland has also posted three shutouts—one less than all other playoff qualifiers combined.
Perhaps more frightening is the way Cleveland’s bullpen has performed.
To date, Indians relievers have posted a 1.67 ERA, 41 strikeouts and seven walks while holding opponents to a .212 average through 32.1 innings.
Conversely, the Cubs and Dodgers have bullpen ERAs of 3.71 and 4.29, respectively, in the playoffs, with opponents batting better than .240 against both units.
The good news for the NL contenders comes at the plate.
While none of the three remaining teams have bashed the ball to a stellar degree under the postseason lights, the Dodgers lead the pack with a .228 average and .322 on-base percentage.
That said, the Cubs lead the Dodgers in terms of total bases (119-115), doubles (18-9) and slugging percentage (.381-.355). The Indians are hanging steady with a .380 slugging percentage buoyed by 11 home runs.
Predicting a winner based on those comparisons alone would be foolish, but the Indians have to feel good about their chances considering the way their pitching staff has dominated in conjunction with a solid offense that has found ways to generate power and produce runs to create sufficient cushions.
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