After a Halloween weekend at Wrigley, the World Series picked back up in Cleveland for Game 6. The Cubs may have received quite a fright by the time they went down 3-1 in the Series, but they didn't show it tonight. Josh Tomlin led things off for the Indians, and things were going pretty well for him...right up until he gave up a Kris Bryant home run with two outs in the top of the 1st inning. Then Rizzo followed up by a hit. Then Zobrist got on base. Then Addison Russell hit a ball that looked like it would be caught to end the inning, only it wasn't. The right fielder went for the ball, the center fielder went for the ball, they both missed it, ran right past each other, and the ball dropped harmlessly in between them. In the commotion, Rizzo made it easily home, while Zobrist beat the throw to the plate as well, knocking down the Indians' catcher in the process. Wilson Contreras finally flied out, ending an inning where the Cubs sent 7 men to the plate and scored 3 runs.
Then Jake Arrieta got to work. Arrieta threw a great game, going 5 2/3 innings while only giving up 2 runs. Meanwhile, as Jake was mowing through Cleveland's lineup, the Cubs did even MORE damage. In the 3rd inning, Kyle Schwarber marked his return to the lineup by walking. Then he was advanced by a Rizzo single. Then Rizzo and Schwarbino were both advanced by Zobrist's single. Then Terry Francona decided he'd seen enough and pulled Josh Tomlin. Then Addison Russell stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and a new pitcher. Very next pitch: into the stands. GRAND SLAM! (for those of you keeping track at home, that was good for the first World Series Grand Slam since Paul Konerko's in Game 2 of the 2005 World Series). At that point, we were up 7-0. The rest of the game just featured us holding the line, allowing one more Cleveland run to score, and watching Rizzo shoot another 2-run bomb into the stands. End result: Cubs win 9-3.
Yes folks, you read that correctly, the Cubs won to force a Game 7 after being down 3-1 in the Series. Between now and game time, mountains of ink(both digital and non-digital) will be spilled about the groundbreaking significance of Game 7, the meaning of it, and how the lives of one fan base will be changed overnight. And not one single drop of that ink will be too much. We're talking a combined 176 years of misery here people! One more win tomorrow and Cubs fans or Indians fans will be telling their grandchildren 60 years from now where they were and what they were doing on the night of November 2, 2016. For purely selfish reasons, I hope that I'm the one able to do that. But we won't know for sure till the game ends. So for that reason and so many others, let's do this. Let's bring on the 2 most treasured words in all of sports: Game 7.
