CLEVELAND – Life changed in the early part of Thursday morning for a large percentage of people in Chicago, for the North Side and all the way downstate, across huge swaths of the Midwest and even, judging by the din, from more than a few transplants and travelers right here. It took 10 innings, a rain delay, a stark reminder of just how disastrous baseball life has been there for so long. But it changed.
Now, in the lives even of Chicago Cubs fans who are more than a century old, there is a clear and distinct dividing line. There are the days and years and decades before 12:47 a.m. Thursday. And there is the unfamiliar feeling – the absolutely delirious feeling – of whatever life is like now.
Take this in, Chicago. Read it twice if need be. Hold it, cradle it, caress it, cherish it. The Cubs won the World Series.
They did it with a riveting, 8-7, 10-inning victory over the Cleveland Indians in the seventh and final game at Progressive Field, one that tore out the lining of Chicago’s roiling stomach before stitching it back together again. The simple part: Ben Zobrist’s double off Cleveland reliever Bryan Shaw pushed across the lead run, Miguel Montero followed with a run-scoring single, and Chicago . . . Chicago . . .
What to make of Chicago now?
There is so much more to how the Cubs won their first World Series title since 1908, more than could be covered in the 17-minute rain delay that preceded just the 10th inning of – get this – just the fourth extra-inning Game 7 the World Series has ever known.
How to distill it? Well, maybe with the most Cubs fact of all: They held a three-run lead in the bottom of the eighth, with four outs to go. They had their 100-mph closer on the mound to seal it up. And they couldn’t do it.
Suddenly, 2016 was going to fit right alongside 2003 and 1984 and all the rest. That backstory, and the fact that it had been 68 years since the Indians’ last World Series title, colored this entire event.
Clear off the table. Spread out the evidence. Take a deep breath. Let’s sort this out.
The Cubs took what appeared to be control – a laughable notion in Wrigleyville, for sure – by going up 5-1 in the fifth, with all the runs coming off Cleveland ace Corey Kluber and previously impenetrable reliever Andrew Miller. And yet, when Cubs Manager Joe Maddon went to get starter Kyle Hendricks in the fifth, there were potential issues.
Asked prior to the game whether he would insert veteran left-handed starter Jon Lester into a situation with men on base, Maddon was clear. “I don’t think it would be appropriate,” he said. Lester has an awful time holding base runners on because of an absolute phobia of throwing a baseball other than 60 feet, 6 inches. Yet he entered – along with David Ross, his personal catcher – with two outs and a man on first in the fifth.
For the first time, things went a bit haywire. Not in the Cubs’ history, of course. But for the first time Wednesday night.
Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis hit a spinner in front of the plate, and though Ross hustled to get it, his hard throw was wide of first base, putting runners on second and third. Lester then uncorked a pitch that bounced in front of the plate, hit Ross’s facemask and skipped so far away that not only did Carlos Santana score from third, but Kipnis jetted all the way around from second.
Still, the advantage was absolutely with the Cubs. Ross made up for being unable to block Lester’s errant pitch with a solo homer against Miller, who had given up two runs the entire postseason but allowed two in Game 7.
When Lester departed with two outs in the eighth, he received and deserved congratulations. The last of his 55 pitches became an infield single to Jose Ramirez. But when Maddon turned to flame-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman, the situation was manageable: 6-3 lead, one on, one out to get in the eighth, then three more to get in the ninth.
Chapman, acquired in a trade with the Yankees in the summer, comes both with a reputation as one of the game’s best closers but also as a player who prefers to come in with the bases empty in the ninth. That role transformed over the course of the postseason, when relievers are put into the most intense spots, regardless of when they come. Twice in this series, Chapman entered in the seventh. And as the Cubs crawled back from what had been a 3-1 series deficit, he was asked to get the final eight outs of Game 5, then four more outs in Tuesday’s Game 6.
The first hitter he faced was Brandon Guyer, and it was clear immediately that Chapman’s velocity – his defining quality – was down. Normally the hardest thrower in the game, with a fastball that averages more than 100 mph, he settled in immediately at 97 mph. Hard to deal with, for sure. But not his overwhelming self.
And all he needed was one out to escape the eighth.
Guyer, though, cranked a double to right-center. Ramirez, running on the pitch, scored easily. Anyone who thought there were more Cubs fans at Progressive Field was swiftly corrected. At 6-4, the Indians were alive. The city all but shook.
It was nothing, though, compared to Rajai Davis’ at-bat. The veteran signed as a bit player free agent last winter was inserted into the lineup Wednesday in large part because Cleveland Manager Terry Francona wanted his best outfield defense on the field, particularly because rookie Tyler Naquin had a costly misadventure in center during Tuesday night’s Game 6 loss. When he came to the plate, he was hitless in three at-bats.
Chapman fed Davis nothing but four-seam fastballs. He missed with two out of the zone, but there was a telling development: the four that were strikes, Davis didn’t swing and miss. He fouled them off.
With the count 2-2, Chapman came with his seventh straight fastball, this one at 97 mph. Davis jumped on it. It wasn’t majestic. Just historic. It went into the corner in left field, near the foul pole. When it cleared the wall, the Indians spilled out of their dugout like Little Leaguers. Tie game.
In the ninth inning, it seemed as if there was some sort of divine role in all this, because the skies opened up. Could one of these franchises actually win?
Facing Cleveland reliever Bryan Shaw in the 10th, the Cubs did. Kyle Schwarber led off with a single, was replaced by pinch-runner Albert Almora Jr. , who moved up to second on a flyball. Cleveland elected to intentionally walk Anthony Rizzo to get to Zobrist.
It was a logical choice. It didn’t work. Zobrist is a veteran who Maddon believes consistently delivers the Cubs’ best at-bats. Here, he fouled off one 1-2 cutter from Shaw. He didn’t miss the next, sending it into left field, scoring Almora with the run that put them up 7-6. Turns out, after an intentional walk to Addison Russell, they needed Montero’s RBI single to left, too.
That’s because, with two out and one on in the bottom of the 10th, Carl Edwards Jr. allowed Davis, of all people, an RBI single to pull the Indians within a run. Maddon had to turn to veteran lefty Mike Montgomery, who induced Michael Martinez into a grounder to third to end it.
That is – finally finally finally – when the Cubs fans, both here and back in Wrigleyville and worldwide, let loose. That’s when life changed. What it will be like, with the Chicago Cubs as World Series champions, we can’t be sure.
Kris Bryant (#17) of the Chicago Cubs scores a run on an RBI single hit by Anthony Rizzo (#44)(not pictured) during the fifth inning against the Cleveland Indians in Game Seven of the 2016 World Series at Progressive Field on November 2, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio.
World Series 1-3 Comebacks
Teams that have rebounded from an 1-3 deficit to win the World Series:
2016—Chicago (NL) 4, Cleveland (AL) 3
1985—Kansas City (AL) 4, St. Louis (NL) 3
1979—Pittsburgh (NL) 4, Baltimore (AL) 3
1968—Detroit (AL) 4, St. Louis (NL) 3
1958—New York (AL) 4, Milwaukee (NL) 3
1925—Pittsburgh (NL) 4, Washington (AL) 3
1903—Boston (AL) 5, Pittsburgh (NL) 3
Chicago Cubs fans begin to gather outside Wrigley Field in Chicago as the marquee displays the current score of Game 7 of the baseball World Series between the Cubs and the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016.
Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon celebrates with Ben Zobrist after Game 7 of the Major League Baseball World Series against the Cleveland Indians Thursday, Nov. 3, 2016, in Cleveland. Zobrist was named World Series MVP.
World Series Most Championships
27 — New York Yankees
11 — St. Louis Cardinals
9 — Oakland-Kansas City-Philadelphia Athletics
8 — Boston Red Sox
8 — San Francisco-New York Giants
6 — Los Angeles-Brooklyn Dodgers
5 — Cincinnati Reds
5 — Pittsburgh Pirates
4 — Detroit Tigers
3 — Atlanta-Milwaukee-Boston Braves
3 — Baltimore Orioles
3 — Chicago Cubs
3 — Chicago White Sox
3 — Minnesota Twins-Washington Senators (original)
2 — Cleveland Indians
2 — Florida Marlins
2 — Kansas City Royals
2 — New York Mets
2 — Toronto Blue Jays
2 — Philadelphia Phillies
1 — Arizona Diamondbacks
1 — Los Angeles-Anaheim Angels