Somebody’s heart breaks tonight. Somebody’s just-once-before-I-die prayer gets answered tonight.
Chicago and Cleveland are tied at three games apiece in the 2016 World Series after two straight wins by the Cubs.
Game 6 was over almost before it started, when the Cleveland outfield decided to play a game of Little League World Series and allowed an easily catchable ball to fall between them, allowing two soul-crushing runs to score in the first inning.
Two innings later when Addison Russell hit a grand slam and sent the score to 7-0, it was just a matter of getting through the final six innings.
Cleveland even sort of mounted a semi-threat in the fourth inning by getting a run and loading the bases. A home run would have made it a two-run game. The strike out that happened instead made it a done deal.
The Cubs ended up winning 9-3 to send the World Series to a Game 7.
Corey Kluber takes the ball for the Indians tonight. He has started five games this post season, going 4-1 with a 0.89 ERA in 30.1 innings. He will become the nineteenth pitcher to start Games 1, 4 and 7 of the World Series. Only two others have gotten a win in all three games. Bob Gibson of the Cardinals in 1968 and Stan Coveleski of the Indians in 1920.
Kyle Hendricks is on the mound for the Cubs. He has been slightly less amazing this post-season than Kluber, but only slightly, a victim of Yu Darvish Disease twice. He has been the victim of two 1-0 losses in his four post season starts. Over 20.2 innings he’s registered a 1.31 ERA.
So a Game 7 is going to happen between two sad sack franchises with championship droughts decades and even centuries long.
That ends tonight for one of these teams.
It continues, unfortunately, for the other.
*****
TODAY’S GAME:
Kyle Hendricks (16-8, 2.13) vs. Corey Kluber (18-9, 3.14)
Game time: 7:08, FOX
How the Cubs hit against Kluber.
How the Indians hit against Hendricks.