Here are 16 Walk-Off Thoughts after the Indians fell to the Chicago Cubs 3-2 in Game 5 of the World Series Sunday night at Wrigley Field.
1. Two errant pitches, Jon Lester and Aroldis Chapman extended the World Series on Sunday night.
2. Trevor Bauer cruised through the first three innings of Game 5. Then, like a switch, the Cubs drilled a couple of pitches and reached on a well-placed dribbler and bunt to put together their only scoring inning of the game. The first was a solo home run by Kris Bryant that tied it 1-1. The second, which was the very next pitch, was a double off the wall in right field by Anthony Rizzo.
3. Both pitches were hammered. One tied it, one put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Outside of those back-to-back pitches, pitching coach Mickey Callaway liked what he saw from Bauer. But those two pitches and that three-run fourth ended up being all the Cubs needed.
4. Said Callaway, “Two mistakes in the fourth. Didn’t get the ball up enough to Bryant and he made him pay. And the first pitch to Rizzo, he’s been swinging early and often and he didn’t really get that up where he wanted to either. Other than that in that inning, he executed some good pitches. They had a good two-strike approach. That’s when you get those little choppers and things like that, when you battle hard with two strikes and you’re putting the ball in play. And then a great bunt by Baez. Other than that, those two pitches, I thought he threw the ball pretty well and his stuff was really good.”
5. Indians manager Terry Francona agreed that Bauer looked great overall, but those two pitches caught too much of the plate. Bauer saw that two-pitch sequence differently, saying, “No, I executed the pitch. I can't control what happens when the ball leaves my hand. I threw it exactly where I wanted to. Roberto didn't move his glove at all and he hit it, so good for him. I executed everything that inning except for the hit that Zobrist got. Bad luck, I guess.”
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6. Bauer should be available out of the bullpen in Cleveland, per Callaway. Bauer’s start to the night—one hit, five strikeouts in the first three innings—gave some additional confidence that the could be used if needed. And, the Indians and Cubs are entering an all-hands-on-deck situation.
7. Said Callaway, “Oh yeah. I’m sure he’s going to be begging Tito to have him in the pen. I’m fairly certain he’ll be out there with his spikes on in these last two games.”
8. The Indians’ offense this postseason hasn’t been great, but the pitching staff has been so strong that it’s been just enough and therefore, not as glaring. The two postseason losses for the Indians entering Game 5 were both scores of 5-1. In this one, the offense had its chances to pick up a few runs but couldn’t as the bullpen held the Cubs in place and within striking distance.
9. After the Cubs’ three-run fourth, the Indians threatened in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings. They came away with one run in those four chances.
10. Said Mike Napoli, “They [the bullpen] gave us a chance to try to scrap out some runs. We got some opportunities, we just didn’t come through. They brought Chapman in pretty early and shut us down. They did everything they had to do to keep this series going. Like I said, we’re going to get back home, have a nice day off tomorrow and get a good workout in and get back after it.”
11. The Indians, in a way, got a taste of their own medicine. Lester threw six strong innings and the Indians couldn’t put together anything against Chapman over the final 2 2/3. Those two accounted for 26 of the Cubs’ 27 outs. It’s the same blueprint the Indians have used—get 5-6 innings from the starter, hand it off to Andrew Miller for two innings or so and then get to Cody Allen. It should have looked familiar.
12. Said Francona, “That was pretty good pitching right there. Chapman, he fell behind 3-0 and he’s got a 99 get-me-over [fastball]. You know, that's pretty impressive. Sometimes you've got to respect what the other team can do, too. Sometimes they beat you. I didn't think we beat ourselves. I thought they beat us.”
13. Francisco Lindor wasn’t surprised Chapman entered a game in the seventh inning for the first time in four years. “We've seen it with Miller. We've seen it with Allen. We've seen it with Shaw. That's part of the game. When you have a good reliever like that, you're going to bring him in as soon as you think you have a chance to win.”
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13. So the series will turn back to Cleveland, and the Indians have a chance to win a championship in front of their home fans, with the Cubs trying to force a winner-take-all Game 7. Josh Tomlin on short rest will go in Game 6 against Jake Arrieta. If the Cubs force a Game 7, Corey Kluber, on short rest again, will take the mound against Kyle Hendricks.
14. “To take two out of three, obviously we put ourselves in a situation to win it tonight, but they’re a good ball club, said Mike Napoli. “They did what they had to do. We’re going to get a good off day tomorrow, get back out there and try to do it in front of our fans.”
15. Either the Indians will celebrate in Cleveland Tuesday or Wednesday night with a parade to follow, or the Cubs will do exactly what the Cavaliers did to the Warriors and come back from a 3-1 deficit to win on the road, which would create a painfully coincidental ending for Cleveland fans to this baseball season. Either the underdogs prevail and continue Cleveland’s dream 2016, or the lovable losers get their dream storyline after being the best team in baseball all year.
16. Said Lindor, “We wanted to finish it here, but that's part of the game. We know they've got a good team. We know they weren't going to sweep the series. No one said it was going to be easy. We have to continue to play the game the right way and take care of business.”