Cleveland Indians Win Game 3 of the World Series
Friday night's Game 3 of the 2016 World Series saw the Cleveland Indians win by the slimmest of margins in a battle of the bullpens.
The Indians beat the Cubs 1-0 to take a 2 games to 1 lead in the best-of-seven Fall Classic.
Both starting pitchers failed to make it through five innings as the Indians and Cubs continued to tax their bullpens. Former Texas Tech Red Raider, Josh Tomlin, pitched 4 2/3 innings for the Indians as he struck out one, walked one and only gave up two hits. Cubs starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks fared slightly worse going 4 1/3 innings and giving up six hits, but he also didn't give up any runs.
Indians middle reliever Andrew Miller is again making a case to be named MVP as he pitched 1 1/3 innings and didn't allow an inherited runner to score.
The game's only run came in the top of the seventh inning as Coco Crisp singled to right field allowing Michael Martinez to score.
The Cubs had a chance to possibly tie, or even win the game, in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Anthony Rizzo singled to left to start the bottom of the ninth. Rizzo was lifted for a pinch-runner, Chris Coghlan. The next hitter, Ben Zobrist struck out. Coghlan then advanced to second base on a ground out by Willson Contreas. The next hitter, Jason Heyward reached base after an error by Indians first baseman Mike Napoli. Coghlan advanced from second base to third base on the error.
So, with two men on base Javier Baez came up to bat with ample opportunity to tie or win the game. He worked the count to 2-2 on Indians closer Cody Allen. However, the next pitch was a high and outside fastball, which Baez swung at and missed to strike out and end the game.
Miller picked up the win for the Indians and Allen the save. Cubs pitcher Carl Edwards, Jr. (not related to the NASCAR driver) took the loss.
Game 4 is Saturday night at 7pm on FOX with additional pregame and postgame coverage on FS1.