CLEVELAND: There will be a Game 7.
The Indians, looking to close out the series at home, were pounded by the Chicago Cubs 9-3 in Game 6 on Tuesday night, again failing to secure their first World Series title since 1948.
It sets up a winner-take-all Game 7 Wednesday night at Progressive Field. Corey Kluber will start for the Indians on short rest against the Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks. Kluber also started the Indians’ wins in Games 1 and 4, the latter also being on short rest.
With the Cubs’ Jake Arrieta on the mound, Game 6 was effectively over in the third inning. Starter Josh Tomlin was knocked around, the Indians committed their most costly misplay of the postseason and Addison Russell delivered the knockout blow with a grand slam off of Dan Otero.
Tomlin had found success with his curveball against the Cubs earlier in the series. But in the first inning of Game 6, he left one too far out over the plate to Kris Bryant, who crushed it for a solo home run to quickly put the Cubs ahead 1-0.
Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist each followed with singles. Tomlin then induced Russell to hit the routine fly ball to right-center field he needed to escape the inning with limited damage.
Except Tyler Naquin and Lonnie Chisenhall had a miscommunication and let the ball drop between them for a double, allowing two more runs to score and the Cubs to open a 3-0 lead. Naquin and Chisenhall, to open the second inning, then nearly collided on another fly ball that Chisenhall caught as Naquin slid behind him.
Tomlin again ran into trouble in the third inning when a walk and two singles loaded the bases with one out. The Indians turned to Otero to try to keep it a three-run game. But Russell, who had six RBI in the game, hammered a grand slam to center field to make it 7-0.
The Cubs had never previously hit a grand slam in the World Series. The Indians had never allowed one in the World Series. It was a haymaker, and the hit that began to turn the attention toward Wednesday night.
For the second time this series, the Indians struggled against Arrieta, who took a no-hitter into the fourth inning. That was broken up by Jason Kipnis, who doubled off the wall in left-center and scored on Mike Napoli’s single to center field.
Naquin came to the plate later in the inning with the bases loaded and two outs but struck out swinging to end the threat and hold the score at 7-1.
An inning later, Kipnis homered to left-center field to make it 7-2. It was his fourth home run and ninth RBI this postseason. Both are team highs.
Danny Salazar entered his second game this series and threw two scoreless innings and struck out four. The Indians stayed away from the back-end of their bullpen, setting it up behind Kluber for Game 7.
The Cubs, with a 7-2 lead, went to Aroldis Chapman in the seventh inning with two runners on and two out. Chapman induced a ground ball off the bat of Francisco Lindor and after covering first came up limping. Lindor was called safe, but the play was overturned after the Cubs challenged the call. Chapman worked the eighth inning and began the ninth despite the large lead, needing 20 pitches to get four outs.
Rizzo capped the Cubs’ night by blasting a two-run home run to right field off of Mike Clevinger in the ninth. With Chapman out of the game in favor of Pedro Strop, Roberto Perez hit an RBI single to right field but was thrown out trying to advance to second base.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ