World Series IGT: Chicago Cubs @ Cleveland Indians Game 1

[TL1961]

They haven't just won a game. They have destroyed teams with significant hitting power. Outright destroyed them.

2-0

2-1

3-0

"destroyed".

 

[greg23]

Sox 3-0
Jays 4-1

Destruction is not an overstatement.

Vegas does agree with me. Cubs entered the WS as significant favorites and are now a slight to moderate underdog. This is what tonight's game has added in sentiment. Obviously not in this thread. I wonder if it's a Cub thing to be defiant in the face of shrinking odds of success.

Still, good luck.

Cubs are still favored but hey..why let that get in the way.

Despite that, you mean to tell me a -185 series fav loses game 1 and there's a chance they could be a series dog prior to game 2?

Shocking

 

[AmazingGrace17]

Sox 3-0
Jays 4-1

Destruction is not an overstatement.

Vegas does agree with me. Cubs entered the WS as significant favorites and are now a slight to moderate underdog. This is what tonight's game has added in sentiment. Obviously not in this thread. I wonder if it's a Cub thing to be defiant in the face of shrinking odds of success.

Still, good luck.

Did you happen to miss the series against SF or LA??? Apparently, yes.

 

[AmazingGrace17]

Actually, slightly biased. Had $ on Cubs. Didn't think Lester would give up 3 runs in any way, soft or otherwise. Thought Cubs would hit 1-2 long balls. 6-0 is reflective of the fact that indians continue to find ways to hit homeruns off anyone. And with only 3 pitchers shut down the Cubs. Today's game is similar to what they have done during these playoffs. They are for real and i find much misplaced optimism in this thread. That's all.

Just so you know, I'm also a die hard Steelers fan. Why don't you explain how your Cleveland Clowns are also great as well? LOL! Remember Ernest Byner? LOL! I will say the Indians could probably beat the clowns. LOL! Is Johnny Football your BFF? I bet you just dipped in to Josh Gordon's stash and that explains your stupidity.

 

[JaySix]

Actually, slightly biased. Had $ on Cubs. Didn't think Lester would give up 3 runs in any way, soft or otherwise. Thought Cubs would hit 1-2 long balls. 6-0 is reflective of the fact that indians continue to find ways to hit homeruns off anyone. And with only 3 pitchers shut down the Cubs. Today's game is similar to what they have done during these playoffs. They are for real and i find much misplaced optimism in this thread. That's all.

Well if us Cubs fans are looking for positives from a game like this, your 'only 3 pitchers' is one of them. Miller throwing almost 50 pitches and Kluber going 6 is perfect if we had to lose this game anyway..

We have depth in our starting rotation and are not in panic mode. Tomorrow is a new game.. Miller won't be available

Go Cubs!


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[wisconsinbearsfan]

That's fine. We're the team that's built for the long haul. America's trailer park can enjoy their moment in the sun right now because we're still young and we are not the Cubs of yesteryear. They probably don't have a single player in their lineup that is a more talented player than anyone in our infield. They won a game. Big deal. They also got incredibly generous calls at the plate in the early stages of the game.

What??? Are you so fucking arrogant now that the Cubs have turned the corner that you're discounting other teams' talent? Jesus Christ, get a grip on reality.

-:whitesox:

 

[DanTown]

Sox 3-0
Jays 4-1

Destruction is not an overstatement.

Vegas does agree with me. Cubs entered the WS as significant favorites and are now a slight to moderate underdog. This is what tonight's game has added in sentiment. Obviously not in this thread. I wonder if it's a Cub thing to be defiant in the face of shrinking odds of success.

Still, good luck.

Why are you here? You wait until the Cubs lose game one of their first World Series in over 70 years to come here and try and be a "rational" voice? Is your life is so depressing that you get joy trying to troll fans of a team playing in a world series?

I feel sorry for you, win or lose for the Cubs. I know the Cubs will have a team that will be likely to win the 2017 World Series, the 2018 World Series, etc.

At the end of the day, you're the kind of person who spends enough time in their life creating user names to troll fans. Good luck with that, I bet you tell all your friends what you do with your time.

 

[Warden of the Northeast]

The Cubs are really good but they won't win the title this year. Every once in a while a team comes along that gets hto at the right time and everything clicks, Cleveland is that team and will be MLB champs.

 

[Parade_Rain]

Good God, Rondon sucks. WTF happened to him?

Aroldis Chapman.

 

[anotheridiot]

well, coghlan sucked, Joe did not use Soler to pinch hit for Ross with the bases loaded when Ross was coming out of the game anyway, then they blew the lead anyway.

Good thing was cubs got Miller to throw 50, and I know that wont keep Francona from using him every game, but the cub lineup got to see 50 pitches. That always helps this team. It was kind of a given that the indians had the edge this game, Coghlan in the lineup was calling no joy, but the feeling out process is done and the task at hand is beat each starter not named Kluber in game 2,3,5 and 6

 

[Parade_Rain]

Sox 3-0
Jays 4-1

Destruction is not an overstatement.

Vegas does agree with me. Cubs entered the WS as significant favorites and are now a slight to moderate underdog. This is what tonight's game has added in sentiment. Obviously not in this thread. I wonder if it's a Cub thing to be defiant in the face of shrinking odds of success.

Still, good luck.

Eat shit.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

OK, so here's my postmortem of the game. I'm not happy nor am I discouraged. I thought that if we had beaten Kluber that this would be a short series and we'd win it, but if we lost that the series was going 6 or 7 games and we would still have a great chance to win. Nothing has changed. Assuming they can get this game in tonight, very smart decision to move it up btw, I think we're going to beat Bauer and go home tied 1-1. Some points about last night and looking ahead to tonight:

1. Lester did not have his best stuff but he did battle. So much of Jon's game is mental though and he allowed zone issues with the ump and maybe baserunners to knock him off stride early. I get that he wasn't getting the same calls that Kluber was but after watching the whole game called I realized this was a righty/lefty thing with this ump. Miller was squeezed as well and while he was affected he overcame it. Lester will be fine assuming we get to a game 5.
2. Some folks are comparing this game to the Hill game in the NLDS but that's not an apt comparison. The bats were dormant at that stage of the series and they're not dormant right now. There were some very good AB by the likes of Schwarber (!!), Zobrist, Bryant and Baez. Rizzo had the same plate approach he always has but both Kluber and Miller were locating inside. Not a lot of pitchers can do that. Our guys got on base but couldn't capitalize. that will likely be different against Bauer.
3. I understood the call to start Coghlan but it didn't work. I'm assuming Heyward will be in the lineup tonight but if it were me I'd put Zobrist in RF and Contreras in LF to get his bat in the lineup. We need to get some early runs and with the addition of Schwarber there will be opportunities farther down the lineup and I'd like to see Contreras there. Bring Heyward in with the lead in the 5th or so. Again, likely won't happen.
4. Bauer is exactly the kind of starter that Cubs hitting has feasted on this season and who knows if that finger will still bother him. He's got decent stuff, will throw a lot of different pitches including a good cutter, but he's not the type of overpowering pitcher that we struggle with nor is his breaking stuff terribly deceiving. Righties hit him at a .257 clip and a .732 OPS and in the second half all batters hit .270 against him with a .791 OPS. He'll also put men on base with a 3.32 BB/9 in the regular season. Going to my last point and the way righties hit him, and the fact that Montero will be in the lineup, I want Contreras in there. We'll get this guy.
4. Andrew Miller is a concern but he threw 46 pitches last night and frankly our guys were seeing his stuff better than anyone has in the playoffs.
5. We need a good game out of Arrieta tonight. I'd like to see him give up 2 runs or less but if it's 3 runs I don't think that kills us.
6. Tonight needs to be the game where we come out aggressive and stay that way. I like our chances.

Go Cubs!

 

[DrGonzo]

I'm not sure any team could have gotten to Kluber last night. Miller looks like a guy they are very close to sorting out and who will run out of steam before it's over. I suppose it could go seven but I still like how the Cubs match up across the series. I think we get the W tonight.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

Good analysis. The kind of stuff i expect from someone watching the Cubs full time. On paper, there are many valid points on why Arrieta against Bauer should be a game Cubs win 6-7 times out of 10. The concern (for someone wanting to back Cubs) really is this Indians momentum which seems to offset the intrinsic value of matchups and if has throughout the playoffs. Both their hitting and pitching is just coming way above where it should be.

I'm not discounting the Indians or the momentum. I've watched them a lot too including all but 1 playoff game. I'm also a nearly 50 year fan of MLB and not just the Cubs. You're right, sometimes a team of destiny looks like that. Sometimes they look like the Cubs though with a team with a "backs against the wall" mentality. If the Cubs lose tonight my thoughts will likely change but we'll just see. I said from the outset that if the Cubs had lost last night they would win in 5, but if they didn't it was likely going 7 or 6 at the fewest and they'd likely still win. I'm still there and we'll all see if I'm right.

 

[DJMoore_is_fat]

Congrats to the Cleveland Indians for sweeping us 1-0 and winning the WS. What a great series!

After the Dodgers eliminated us 2-1 in the NLCS, I was surprised MLB over turned our elimination and advanced us.

Is the Indians parade today?


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[fatbeard]

I guess my Cubs goggles deceived me last night in regards to the strike zone. Other than the 1st inning Bryant called strike and Lester's final pitch that was given the "Tom Glavine outside corner", Vanover's calls behind the plater weren't really pro-Indian. In fact, he gave Lester a lot of low strike calls.

That doesn't tell the tale in terms of the flow and momentum of the game. I'd like to see the calls broken down by inning, because it seemed to me that there were two different strike zones through the first three innings, after which things normalized and were fairly consistent. I don't trust myself to be an unbiased observer on this, but a number of disinterested parties saw it as well: Smoltz mentioned the calls Kluber was getting early, Sheehan saw it, etc.

By the time Lester started getting low strike calls the Cubs were already down a crooked number and their hitters were skittish from the calls they'd already experienced.

 

[DJMoore_is_fat]

Bauer has a 6.94 ERA his past 7 starts


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[fatbeard]

Good analysis. The kind of stuff i expect from someone watching the Cubs full time. On paper, there are many valid points on why Arrieta against Bauer should be a game Cubs win 6-7 times out of 10. The concern (for someone wanting to back Cubs) really is this Indians momentum which seems to offset the intrinsic value of matchups and if has throughout the playoffs. Both their hitting and pitching is just coming way above where it should be.

"Momentum" does not exist. It's just a lazy narrative used to make sense of playoff small sample size variance.

http://www.fangraphs.com/community/your-one-stop-shop-for-postseason-narrative-debunking/

http://www.fangraphs.com/community/another-look-at-momentum-in-october/

 

[TC in Mississippi]

"Momentum" does not exist. It's just a lazy narrative used to make sense of playoff small sample size variance.

http://www.fangraphs.com/community/your-one-stop-shop-for-postseason-narrative-debunking/

http://www.fangraphs.com/community/another-look-at-momentum-in-october/

I agree, but what we call momentum is exactly what you say and still has some validity. Sometimes teams have a look and their results outpace their actual stats. The Indians are like that. The thing is those things almost always regress to the mean. I don't get worked up when people talk about momentum except to sometimes add the old chestnut "momentum is the next days starting pitcher".

 

[DanTown]

Momentum is not real; if it was, the Giants would have eliminated the Cubs in five games after coming back in the bottom of the eighth of game 3 on the Cubs best pitcher and then throwing eight shutout innings. That massive momentum turned into their elimination in about three minutes in game 4.

The Cubs were a lot unlucky to not score last night but it was to expected that they would struggle to score runs against Kluber/Miller/Allen. Nothing that happened last night changed my mind about this series in terms of the offense.

This series has and will likely depend strongly on the Cubs ability to score runs against Bauer/Salazar/Tomlin in games 2, 3, and 5. Winning last night would have been a huge bonus but losing was not a penalty. 538 puts Indians/Cubs at 55/45. That's essentially a coin flip.

What I'd love to see tonight is

Fowler - CF
Schwarber - DH
Bryant - 3B
Rizzo - 1B
Zobrist - RF
Baez - 2B
Contreras - LF
Russell - SS
Montero - C

Late in game, you can PH for Montero with Soler or Heyward and then move Contreras to C and Soler/Heyward to the OF.