November 1, 2016

Chicago Sun-Times Maddon looks to Arrieta to go deep, take Cubs to Game 7 By Daryl Van Schouwen

CLEVELAND — Of all the great things right-hander Jake Arrieta has done in such a relatively short time frame – think 0.75 second half ERA in 2015, the lowest in the history of the game – what will it matter should he fail to pitch the Cubs into Game 7 of the World Series Tuesday night?

It’s unfair to say what the 2015 National League Cy Young Award winner has accomplished – he followed that second half with a good, not great 3.10 ERA in 2016 – won’t mean much if he doesn’t come through against the Indians in Game 6 at Progressive Field, but such is the nature of sports. It’s ‘What have you done for me in the last three hours?’ Or ‘What did you do when your team needed you to pass the baton to Kyle Hendricks for Game 7?’

In the last week, Arrieta did enough to help the Cubs win Game 2 in Cleveland, a 5-1 Cubs victory in which he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning but did not finish the frame. But if he’s not sharp Tuesday, Arrieta will be remembered this entire offseason and into next year for what he didn’t accomplish in Game 6.

Arrieta knows this, and he says he has to guard against trying to shoulder more burden than he’s capable of. This is what some of the Cubs young hitters have done in the World Series and, by perhaps swinging for the long ball instead of trying to simplify and contribute a quality, productive at-bat, have doomed themselves to failure.

Arrieta, who pitched the Cubs into the first round of the playoffs by dominating the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2015 Wild Card game, can’t let that happen on the mound.

“I don’t necessarily know if we have that mindset,’’ Arrieta said of the Cubs starters. “We go out there and focus on executing and trying to limit the opponent to as few runs as possible, regardless of how many we score. That’s the intent. I have to take care of my end of the bargain to the best of my ability, and I know that our offense is doing the exact same thing.’’

There is some pressure on Arrieta to go deep into this game, though. While closer Aroldis Chapman will have a full day of rest with the off day Monday, he did throw a hefty 42 pitches over 2 2/3 innings in the Cubs’ 3-2 victory in Game 5 and likely won’t be available for anything that long, so Cubs manager Joe Maddon said Monday he needs at least six innings from Arrieta.

The good thing? Arrieta, who needed 98 pitches to get through 5 2/3 inning in Game 2 (he struck out six and walked three), will be working on five days rest.

On the flip side, the Indians are using three starters, pitching them on three days rest, and taxing their bullpen. But it’s a formula that has worked to the tune of a 10-3 record this postseason.

For Arrieta, the extra day welcome this time of year.

“It should be helpful,’’ Maddon said. “Most pitchers are used to full or even extra rest this time of the year. There will have to be an adrenaline surge for the Cleveland pitchers but they’re not looking for seven innings.’’

From Arrieta, Maddon is looking for “at least six and seven possibly.’’

This is where Arrieta needs to step forward, again, and back his signature swagger with a strong, deep performance. Swagger? This is the guy who, when told he might go 30-2 this season after making two 2015-like starts out of the gate, said, “Why not 32-0?”

Maddon is saying, “How about seven good innings?”

“It’s up to us to take it to that seventh game,’’ Maddon said, “and then you’re really going to have a classic everyone will remember. We feel good about having Jake pitching tomorrow.’’

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Chicago Sun-Times Can the Cubs do this thing? Sure they can By Rick Morrissey

CLEVELAND – Hope has been a Cubs fan’s best friend for more than a century, but it always seemed to be aimed at a distant speck on the horizon.

Suddenly, shockingly, wait until next year has become wait until tomorrow. Hope might not be strutting quite yet, but it does have a skip in its step.

The Cubs play the Indians in Game 6 of the World Series on Tuesday night with every reason to believe that their fortunes have turned and that maybe, just maybe, they can win this thing.

That they trail the Indians 3-2 with the final two games in Cleveland might seem to be darkness personified. Forget that. Darkness was being down 3-1 before Game 5 began. Darkness was two straight losses at Wrigley Field going into Sunday night’s game.

By comparison, what we have here is a light show of possibility.

The Aroldis Chapman game might have changed everything. (If the Cubs do win this series, it will forever be known as the Aroldis Chapman Game, capital “G.’’) Joe Maddon, no shrinking violet, especially on a national stage, surprised just about everybody when he brought his closer into the game with one out in the seventh inning of Game 5. Chapman responded with 2 2/3 innings of shutdown pitching in the 3-2 victory. You’ve heard of air guitar? Cleveland hitters played air bat against him. He struck out four of the eight Indians he faced.

This series was always going to be about the pitchers, but they have become even more the focus. The Cubs have Jake Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks scheduled for the next two games, respectively, and the Indians will answer with Josh Tomlin and Corey Kluber, who will pitch on three day’s rest for the second start in a row, if he has to.

What this really comes down to, though, is which team can get to its star relievers first. Now that Chapman has broken through whatever barriers he erected about pitching more than an inning, he’ll surely be available for longer work again in Game 6. It really is do or die, and it really is all hands on deck. All those clichés.

If the Indians have a lead, they’ll turn to reliever Andrew Miller, who has been almost unhittable in the postseason, and closer Cody Allen.

It’s a race to get to the relievers’ arms.

Arrieta probably doesn’t want to hear that, but every Cubs starter in the playoffs has learned this lesson. Is Arrieta a better pitcher than Tomlin? Yes, but Tomlin was very good in October, and Arrieta was up and down. If the Cubs want to get to Game 7, they very much need the up version of Arrieta. It would make things so much easier on breathing passages in the greater Chicago metropolitan area.

But the feeling among the Cubs and their fans should be one of optimism. There are no givens here, of course. The Indians are a complete team, and it’s going to take something extraordinary to beat them two games in a row at

Progressive Field. The Cubs can do extraordinary. They did extraordinary in a 103-victory regular season. They did extraordinary in the Game 5 victory before a roaring crowd at Wrigley.

Besides the good Jake, the Cubs could really use the Javy Baez who shared the National League Championship Series most valuable player award with Jon Lester. The guy swinging from his heels and missing badly in the World Series looks like the Javy from 2014, his rookie season.

Lurking is Kyle Schwarber, who has a chance to build on his sports miracle story. He’ll DH again in Cleveland after sitting out most of the regular season and all of division and championship series because of a knee injury. In his short time with the Cubs, he has shown a fondness for rising to the occasion. This would be the occasion of all occasions.

The last team to win a World Series after being down 3-1 was the 1985 Royals, but they didn’t have to win the final two games on the road to do it. This is going to take some enormously heavy lifting by the Cubs. They’re a strong bunch, but so is Cleveland. The Indians likely didn’t envision themselves winning three straight at Wrigley to close out the Series, so it’s hard to see them on their heels after the Game 5 loss.

But this is about what the Cubs are feeling, and the word that comes to mind is emboldened. That’s miles beyond hopeful.

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Chicago Sun-Times Cubs, Indians have been well below their scoring norms By John Grochowski

Through National League Division Series and NL Championship Series play, the Cubs were the highest-scoring team in the 2016 postseason.

Despite two shutout losses to the Dodgers, the Cubs had scored 48 runs in 10 games, 12 more than the Dodgers had scored in 11 games. At 4.8 runs per game — about the same level as their 4.99 average in the regular season — the Cubs were tied with the Nationals, who scored 24 in a five-game NLDS loss to the Dodgers.

Those high-scoring ways have come to an abrupt halt in the World Series. Entering Game 6 on Tuesday, the Cubs have scored only 10 runs. That their season remains alive is partly because the Indians have had their own struggles at the plate, averaging 3.4 runs after averaging 4.83 in the regular season.

The Cubs and Indians have combined to score 5.4 runs per game through five games after combining to score 9.82 in the regular season. If that holds up, it would be the largest offensive shortfall of the LDS era, when the 1995 addition of an extra round of playoffs pushed the Series into late October and sometimes early November.

You can’t draw firm conclusions from a five-game sample, but Series games overall tend to be lower-scoring than regular-season games. The explanations usually offered are that good pitching is part and parcel of Series-level teams and that scheduled days off lead teams to shorten rotations. Hitters never face bottom-of-the-rotation pitchers. Bullpen usage changes, with top relievers entering more often in high-leverage situations.

Another factor is the late-October/early-November weather, which can get downright nasty in cities such as Chicago and Cleveland.

This is the 22nd World Series of the LDS era. In the previous 21, 13 teams have exceeded their regular-season scoring averages and 29 have fallen short. The teams have combined for fewer runs than their regular-season average in 17 Series and have exceeded their average in only four.

Sometimes the difference is quite small, as it was when the Giants and Royals combined to score 8.17 runs per game in the 2014 Series, compared with their 8.12 combined average in the regular season.

Other times, the difference has been much larger. In 2003, the Yankees and Marlins combined to average only 6.33 runs in the Series after averaging 10.02 in the regular season.

On average, the shortfalls have been larger that the excesses. In the 17 lower-scoring Series, teams combined to average 2.25 fewer runs per game than they did in the regular season; the four higher-scoring Series have brought combined averages of 1.05 runs more than in the regular season.

There have been seven seasons in the LDS era in which Series teams combined to average three or more runs fewer than in the regular season and another three with combined shortfalls of at least two runs. There has been only one season with a combined gain of two or more runs — 2002, when the Angels and Giants averaged 12.15 runs in the Series after averaging 10.09 in the regular season.

The Cubs-Indians Series is extreme, but it fits the broader pattern: Each run tends to be more precious when you get to the Series.

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Chicago Sun-Times Did one week in July determine the outcome of this World Series? By Gordon Wittenmyer

CLEVELAND – If Sunday night at Wrigley Field was any indication, the Cubs made the right decision by pursuing Door No. 2 with Aroldis Chapman in trade talks with the Yankees at the summer deadline.

That is, unless Andrew Miller gets a chance to end the Cubs’ season in the next two nights by doing what he has done throughout this postseason.

Of course, Kyle Schwarber might have something to say about that now that he returns to the Cubs’ lineup for Game 6 of the World Series in Cleveland on Tuesday and, possibly, Game 7 on Wednesday as the Cubs try to come back against the Indians.

These might be the three most intriguing – if not decisive – players for either team as this historic World Series makes its final stop, at Progressive Field, with the Indians one victory from a first title in 68 years, the Cubs a two- game streak from their first in 108.

All of which means that sweet relief from generations of heartache and failure for one city’s fan base might have been decided during one seven-day span in July.

“It wasn’t the ideal situation [being traded], but the way it’s worked out, it’s hard for us to complain,” said Miller – the Cubs’ first choice when the Yankees put back-end bullpen lefties Miller and Chapman on the trade market.

“Both of us couldn’t have asked for better places to land.”

The Cubs were in position to reverse those landing spots – or at least keep Miller from becoming the roadblock to a championship he already has proven to be.

When the Cubs balked at including either Schwarber or Javy Baez in a deal, the Cubs shifted focus to rent-a-closer Chapman for a package built around the organization’s top prospect, shortstop Gleyber Torres, and closed that deal July 25.

Seven days later, the Indians sent a top-heavy package of prospects to New York for Miller, a multi-inning horse this postseason, who’s signed through 2018.

Despite conflicting reports, the Cubs never were in play to acquire both, with the Yankees looking to drive value with separate bidding wars.

“To break up our major league team and trade Baez, who could have a huge role, and also given the way we feel about Schwarber,” Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said, “that was something we focused on: `Let’s not touch the core group of guys in order to improve our bullpen at the deadline.’ “

The Yankees might have had a better chance getting a Ricketts sibling in the deal than Schwarber, given the man crush Theo Epstein’s front office has on the lefty slugger.

“We made it clear all along that he wasn’t a guy that was on the table,” Hoyer said. “Not only do we think he’s a legitimate middle-of-the-order bat, but I do think his makeup and his intangibles are exactly what we’re looking for. And if you believe in that you have to practice what you preach. If you believe in makeup like that, and you have a guy like that, it’s hard to deal him.”

That makeup came into play when Schwarber outworked his rehab schedule, earning a medical green light to bat and run at least six weeks ahead of the original prognosis for his reconstructed left knee – and just in time to become the Cubs’ World Series designated hitter after just four hitless at-bats in the regular season.

“I’m very excited about writing his name in [Tuesday],” said manager Joe Maddon, who got a 3-for-7, two-walk performance in the first two games of the Series from the kid after 6½ months between big-league pitches.

As for Baez, he’s one of the biggest reasons the Cubs reached their first World Series in 71 years, earning co-MVP honors in the National League Championship Series.

And by the time Chapman notched a career-high eight outs to closer Sunday’s 3-2 victory, the Cubs started to look like they might even have wound up with the more desirable reliever.

“He’s an animal,” teammate Kyle Hendricks said.

And Chapman (42 pitches Sunday) might even be available again Tuesday, Maddon said on Monday.

But Miller remains looming and rested to counterpunch – having averaged six outs an appearance during a dominant postseason.

And Hoyer knows this whole thing could come down to those two lefties – if not that week in July.

“There’s going to be a comeback at some point in [a game] this series,” he said. “For the most part, there’s a comeback in every series. And that largely comes down to the bullpen.”

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Chicago Sun-Times Cub notes: Little-known Schwarber impact, Lester in pen, Chapman By Gordon Wittenmyer

CLEVELAND – For those who might have missed it, Cubs outfielder Jorge Soler skipped the ski mask and extra layers when he started in right field on a 43-degree night the last game of this World Series played at Progressive Field.

How? Why?

Credit Kyle Schwarber with another shocker for the Cubs.

“Schwarber showed me how to do it,” said Soler, historically the most temperature sensitive player on the Cubs’ roster – who has a sub-.200 career average in sub-50-degree temps.

As the Cubs and Indians play the first World Series game in November in 15 years Tuesday night, the temperatures in Cleveland are expected to be unseasonably warm. But if that changes with a sudden north-wind blast, Soler said he’s ready.

“It doesn’t bother me anymore,” said Soler, who was 0-for-2 with a walk in the Cubs’ frigid Game 2 victory. “It bothered me in the past, but this year I prepared myself mentally to not let it bother me.”

That’s thanks to Schwarber, the Ohio native, who taught him how to trick his mind against the cold, Soler said.

“I just tell myself that it’s not cold, even though it is,” Soler said in Spanish, through team translator Mateo Moreno. “It affected me before because I knew it was cold, but I’m trying to block that out in my head now.”

Soler, who has a career .169 average in sub-50 temps, improved slightly to 3-for-15 (.200) with six walks (.429 on- base percentage) this year.

Schwarber made an impression even before saying anything, Soler said: “He doesn’t feel that cold. He plays in short-sleeve shirts. He knows how to handle it.”

All hands on deck

Manager Joe Maddon said Jon Lester is in play for a relief appearance if needed to help survive or close out the series after pitching just six innings Sunday night in Game 5.

“There’s a lot of subplots going on,” said Maddon, who suggested he might hold Lester’s personal catcher David Ross back from pinch-hitting duties until knowing whether he might use Lester.

Super Chapman?

Maddon also said Aroldis Chapman could be available out of the bullpen – possibly for more than an inning – as soon as Tuesday, just two nights after throwing 42 pitches in a career-high 2 2/3 innings.

“I’ll talk to him [before Tuesday’s game],” Maddon said. “He’s a pretty strong guy. Beyond that, I don’t think we’ve overused him to this point, just talking about the latter part of the season and the playoffs.

“I’ll definitely listen to what he has to say. I’m betting that he would probably think that he would be good for two innings, I would imagine, [Tuesday]. But if not, we’ll take what he can give us and then work forward from there.”

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Daily Herald Give Epstein credit for seamlessly integrating Baez, Contreras By Bruce Miles

CLEVELAND -- If there's one thing Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein has been generous about, it's giving credit to the previous baseball regime led by former general manager Jim Hendry.

Epstein continues to send thank-yous to Hendry and his staff for drafting infielder Javier Baez and signing Willson Contreras as an undrafted free agent.

And why not? Baez was the co-MVP of the National League championship series, and rookie Contreras has emerged as the Cubs' No. 1 catcher.

Epstein and his crew no doubt deserve some credit, too. In baseball and other businesses, new management teams too often dismiss inherited talent as not being "our people."

But instead of looking at the raw talent of Baez and Contreras and trading it away, the new Cubs baseball- operations team stuck with the players and nurtured them through the system.

"Jim Hendry and his lieutenants did a great job finding those guys," said Epstein, who took over in the fall of 2011. "They were both in Boise when I got here. The talent was obvious. Like any other player in the low minors, some of the tools stand out and some of the challenges are there in the development path. It was obvious a lot of people would have to touch them along the way and help bring them along.

"Both guys have made incredible strides and are really talented and are passionate about winning. That's the thing I like, not to generalize or lump two guys together, but they're both really emotional players because they're passionate about winning. There is so much to work with between their physical tools and their drive and for their passion for the Cubs and winning."

Of course, with the skill sets Baez and Contreras possessed, there was no way the new Cubs baseball guys were going to discard them because somebody else acquired them. The Hendry team took Baez in first round of the 2011 draft and signed Contreras as an infielder out of Venezuela in 2009.

"It always starts with ability first," said Jason McLeod, the Cubs' scouting and player-development chief. "Javy was drafted in 2011, and we showed up four months later, so we've been with him pretty much from the beginning.

"Willson at that time was in rookie ball. For us, it's just like any other player you bring into the organization. Maybe your weren't here when they were originally signed or drafted. To get them when they're in rookie ball or short- season ball they way we did, we've been with them pretty much since they were in pro baseball."

This year, both players have made dazzling plays, and both have made mistakes common to young players.

"Javy is so ridiculously talented -- bat speed, power, defense," McLeod said. "He always showed the great hands. There was some swinging-and-missing, of course early on and even when he was putting up big numbers. We saw it in the major leagues, as well. But he was a guy who had this user talent.

"With Willson, it was more unrefined. There were the raw tools there, but it really took him step by step by step and struggling. This was a kid, who two years ago was struggling to hit for a high average in Daytona. Then he goes into the 2015 season and wins the Southern League batting title, carried it right into this year in Triple-A, and here he is.

"I don't think any of us could have said he'd be starting behind the plate in the World Series. But that's his ability, his talent and the skill finally got to catch up."

As the head of the operation, Epstein looks on with pride at the Cubs' two prodigies.

"It's cool to think back about first impressions of what they first looked like from when we saw them in the low minors to where they are now," he said. "But just a great job by Jim and his guys in identifying them and then the development folks who are here helping them along the way. We're just looking for players who can help the Cubs win and who want to be here. It doesn't matter who brought them in or whether they're drafted guys or traded guys or who have been her awhile or they just got here.

"Winning is so hard you can't try to do it a certain way. You just look for players who can help you win."

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Daily Herald Lester wouldn't rule out pitching Game 6 or 7 By Bruce Miles

CLEVELAND -- Jake Arrieta will start Game 6 of the World Series for the Chicago Cubs Tuesday night at Cleveland, and Kyle Hendricks will go in Game 7, if the Cubs can extend it.

Jon Lester, who started and won Game 5, would not rule himself out of coming out of the bullpen in Game 6 or 7.

"Hey, whatever we've got to do," he said. "I mean, this time of year there's no barriers. There's no nothing. It's all hands on deck. I love our bullpen, love what these guys have done, but if there's a matchup in there that Joe (manager Maddon) likes, I'll be ready."

Lester is 1-1 with 2 starts in the World Series.

Youth is served:

The Cubs faced an elimination game Sunday night in Game 5 of the World Series. That didn't stop manager Joe Maddon from going with a battery of pitcher Carl Edwards Jr. and catcher Willson Contreras, both of whom began the season at Class AAA Iowa.

"I have a lot of confidence in both guys," Joe Maddon said. "At that moment I wasn't focused on that at all. I think you've seen CJ (Edwards) do some outstanding work. You've seen Willson really grow throughout the course of the season. I keep trying to make the point that these guys gaining this experience right now absolutely bodes well for the future, too.

"I think when you demonstrate confidence in these kids and they succeed and they come back the next year, they're a little bit better just for the experience itself."

Contreras is scheduled to be the catcher in Game 6.

Stats and stuff:

Second baseman Javier Baez has 16 hits during the postseason. That ties him with Kenny Lofton (2003) for second most in a single postseason in Cubs history behind only Moises Alou, who had 19 hits in 2003, when the Cubs went seven games in the National League championship series.

Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman pitched a career-high 2⅔ innings in Game 5 to earn the save in the longest relief outing of his career. Chapman pitched 2⅓ innings on July 9 of this year while with the Yankees against the Indians.

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Daily Herald As Game 6 approaches, Cubs focus on writing their own history By Bruce Miles

CLEVELAND -- Game 6 of the World Series has produced some high drama over the years.

Carlton Fisk's home run in 1975 capped the granddaddy of all Game 6 World Series games, and Mookie Wilson's grounder through Bill Buckner in 1986 isn't far behind.

The Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians will play Game 6 of the 2016 World Series Tuesday night at Progressive Field. The teams are coming off an electric Game 5 that could go a long way toward making this Series as one for the ages, depending on what happens in Cleveland.

The Cubs came from behind Sunday night and then held off the Indians 3-2 at Wrigley Field to pull within three games to two in the Series.

For the past several days, Cubs manager Joe Maddon has been touting this World Series as a great sales tool for baseball. This Series between two charter members of the American and National Leagues is showing signs of being one to remember.

"Yeah I'm sure people of Chicago, especially after last night's victory, that was pretty amazing," Maddon said Monday evening as the Cubs prepared to fly to Cleveland. "Even getting to that juncture is going to stand out for many years. Now, it's up to us to take it to that seventh game, and you're really going to have that classic that everybody will remember.

"It's kind of lived up to the billing. You talk about the Fall Classic -- two really good teams, teams that are really playing with a lot of passion nightly, a lot of young players. I love the fact that there's a lot of good young players on both teams.

"It's great for the industry. It's great for baseball. Hopefully, we're going to start to attract more youngsters. Regardless of whether they want to play or not, just lining them up to be baseball fans."

The Cubs had found themselves down three games to one in the World Series, but they feel good about having pitchers Jake Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks lined up to start Games 6 and 7

They also have Kyle Schwarber back in the lineup as designated hitter for the games at Cleveland. Schwarber, who is coming off major knee surgery in April, has not been medically cleared to play the field, but his bat adds a whole new dimension to the Cubs lineup at DH.

"When I managed in the American League, I always thought it was somewhat of a disadvantage going to the National League, subtracting one offensive player," said Maddon, who managed the AL's Tampa Bay Rays to the World Series in 2008. "It's probably more pronounced for teams that have profound, legitimate DH's. I'm a much bigger fan of National League game in general. But under these circumstance where we're at right now, I'll take that American League game, just to get Schwarbs involved."

The Cubs are sending Jake Arrieta to the mound against the Indians' Josh Tomlin. As far as the Cubs see it they have nothing to lose.

"Why not us?" asked third baseman Kris Bryant after Sunday night's Game 5 victory. "I feel like we play our best with our backs up against the wall. Hopefully we can get out there and win Game 6 because you never know what can happen in a Game 7.

"We're about writing our own history. This team is a special one, and we look at so many times throughout the year where we haven't been playing good. But I feel like we can turn that around."

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Daily Herald Rozner: Cubs hoping good Jake shows up in Game 6 By Barry Rozner

CLEVELAND -- In his penultimate start of the regular season, Jake Arrieta was brilliant, looking a lot like the Jake Arrieta of 2015.

But that was the exception in 2016.

The reality is he wasn't nearly the same pitcher, not that anyone could have expected him to dominate again in historical fashion.

Still, Arrieta struggled with command most of the season, until that Sept. 23 start against the Cardinals, when he struck out 10 against only a walk and 5 hits in 7 innings, throwing 99 pitches.

"The big thing for me is controlling my effort," Arrieta said after that game. "When I'm able to do that, my stuff speaks for itself.

"Sometimes the competitiveness, the stubbornness gets in the way, but once I push that aside, my stuff works pretty well."

That spectacular Arrieta is still out there lurking, and as he approaches the biggest start of his life in Game 6 of the World Series, he would be wise to remember his own words and not overdo it, letting his great stuff be great.

In a Game 2 victory in Cleveland last week, Arrieta had no-hit stuff and struck out six with 3 walks and 2 hits in 5⅔ innings, lasting 98 pitches, but again struggled with command at times before Mike Montgomery and Aroldis Chapman finished the game.

The Cubs needed that one after losing Game 1, but this is an elimination game and Arrieta has little room for error.

"It's just like any other game where you feel comfortable with the game plan and you go out there to do your best to follow through on the execution," Arrieta said. "So that's really the only thing that I'll be thinking about as Tuesday approaches, is just trying to be efficient, trying to be as good as I can about moving the ball in and out, up and down and changing speeds and trying to keep those guys off balance.

"I'm not really going to expose everything or the way I'm really going to attack those guys. I just want to execute with quality in and out of the strike zone, and try to get ahead in the count as early and as often as I can to open up some more options for myself."

The Cubs got to Trevor Bauer early in Game 2 and allowed Arrieta a little breathing room, but this time he gets Josh Tomlin and his breaking stuff, the same Tomlin who frustrated the Cubs in Game 3, giving up just 2 hits and a walk in 4⅔ as the Cubs lost 1-0.

Arrieta, however, insists he won't let the Cubs' offensive difficulties affect his thinking or approach.

"I don't necessarily know if we have that mindset (as pitchers)," Arrieta said. "We go out there and focus on executing and trying to limit the opponent to as few runs as possible, regardless of how many we score.

"I have to take care of my end of the bargain to the best of my ability, and I know that our offense is doing the exact same thing."

The Cubs are thinking about getting it to Game 7, but first they need Arrieta to do his part in Game 6.

"We know we've got a challenge on our hands, but this isn't a time of year where anything's going to come easy," Arrieta said. "We're going to have to earn it."

Arrieta says he won't let the magnitude of this one weigh on him, and that he'll just go out and do his thing.

For the sake of franchise, it needs to be one of his best.

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Daily Herald Before getting another crack at Kluber, Cubs must solve Tomlin in Game 6 By Scot Gregor

Fans can't be blamed for overlooking Game 6 and worrying about how the Chicago Cubs are going to solve Cleveland Indians right-hander Corey Kluber in the deciding game of the World Series.

The Cubs won't make the same mistake. They are well aware that before dealing with Kluber, they have to beat Josh Tomlin in Game 6 Tuesday night at Progressive Field.

"Hopefully we can get out there and win Game 6 because you never know what can happen in a Game 7," third baseman Kris Bryant said after the Cubs edged the Indians in Game 5 at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs won 3-2 Sunday night, and they now trail the Indians 3 games to 2 in the Fall Classic.

With Kluber looming in Game 7, the Cubs need to have much more success against Tomlin in Game 6 to get a third crack at the Indians' ace starter.

Tomlin faced the Cubs in Game 3 of the World Series at Wrigley Field Friday night and was impressive, allowing 2 hits over 4.2 innings in Cleveland's 1-0 win.

On Tuesday night, Tomlin takes the mound with three days of rest for only the second time in his career. On the flip side, the right-hander threw only 58 pitches in Game 3.

"It's obviously a little better than throwing 100 or 110, but in this environment you're still getting up and down four or five times and it's a little more stressful than a regular season start," Tomlin said. "But the body's feeling good. Everything's feeling the same as it did last start, so hopefully that bodes well for me."

Tomlin has come a long way from August, when he was 0-5 with an 11.48 ERA. In 3 postseason starts, he's 2-0 with a 1.76 ERA.

"If Tomlin doesn't win, he won't beat himself and he won't back down," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "All the things we talk about, not backing down from a challenge and valuing winning and things like that, being a good teammate, he embodies all those better or as good as anybody I've ever seen."

Tomlin opposes Cubs right-hander Jake Arrieta, who started against the Indians in Game 2 at Cleveland and got the win after pitching 5.2 innings and allowing 1 run on 2 hits and 3 walks.

"It's going to be cold, probably, like it was when we were out there last time," Arrieta said. "I'm not really going to expose everything or the way I'm going to attack those guys. I just want to execute with quality in and out of the strike zone, and try to get ahead in the count as early and as often as I can to open up some more options for myself."

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Cubs.com Cubs eye list of clubs to rally from 3-2 WS hole By Cash Kruth and Manny Randhawa

The Cubs beat the Indians, 3-2, in Game 5 of the World Series at Wrigley Field on Sunday night, sending the Fall Classic back to Cleveland for Game 6 on Tuesday at Progressive Field.

Looking at the big picture, the math still favors the Indians. Of the 64 teams that have had a 3-2 lead in the World Series, 43 of them (67 percent) have won it all. Of course, that means 21 clubs have come back from a 3-2 deficit. And since the World Series switched to a 2-3-2 format in 1925, there have been six clubs to win Games 6 and 7 on the road: the 1926 Cardinals (over the Yankees), the '34 Cardinals (over the Tigers), the '52 Yankees (over the Dodgers), the '58 Yankees (over the Braves), the '68 Tigers (over the Cardinals) and the '79 Pirates (over the Orioles).

That Bucs team is the true inspiration for this Cubs club, as not only did it win the final two games on the road, but it also came back from a 3-1 deficit. Since then, there have been eight clubs that came back from a 3-2 deficit in the World Series. Here's a look at how those eight (plus the "We Are Family" Pirates of '79) pulled off their epic comebacks.

2011: Cardinals over Rangers

In an epic Game 6 at Busch Stadium -- considered one of the greatest Fall Classic games of all time -- St. Louis found itself down to its final strike in a 7-5 game. David Freese drove a 1-2 pitch from Texas closer Neftali Feliz off the wall in right field for a two-out, two-run triple to tie the game in the ninth.

The Rangers answered with a Josh Hamilton two-run homer off Jason Motte in the 10th. But in the bottom of the 10th, once again down to their final strike, the Cardinals got a season-saving hit -- this one a game-tying single to center from Lance Berkman. In the 11th, Freese was the hero again, hitting a solo homer to center to force a decisive Game 7, which St. Louis won, 6-2, for the franchise's 11th championship.

2002: Angels over Giants

With the Giants holding a 5-0 lead in the seventh inning of Game 6 in Anaheim, things looked dire for the Angels. But Mike Scioscia's club staged a tremendous comeback: With two on and one out in the bottom of the seventh, Giants manager Dusty Baker brought in Felix Rodriguez to relieve starter Russ Ortiz. Scott Spiezio greeted Rodriguez with a three-run homer down the right-field line. In the eighth, Darin Erstad hit a solo shot off Todd Worrell, and two batters later, Troy Glaus doubled to give the Angels a 6-5 lead.

Following the demoralizing Game 6 loss, the Giants were shut down by current Cubs starter John Lackey in Game 7. Garret Anderson doubled and drove in three runs as the Angels claimed their first World Series title with a 4-1 victory.

2001: D-backs over Yankees

In the first Fall Classic after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium before Game 3. New York won all three games at the venerable ballpark to reach the verge of its fifth championship in six years.

But the D-backs fought back, winning Game 6 in Arizona behind an offensive eruption and strong start from Randy Johnson, 15-2. That set up a Game 7 that would enter the bottom of the ninth inning with the D-backs trailing, 2-1, and facing future Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera. With runners at first and second and one out, Tony Womack doubled home the tying run.

Two batters later, Luis Gonzalez hit a broken-bat, jam shot over a drawn-in infield for a World Series-winning single to center, clinching the title for Arizona.

1991: Twins over Braves

Kirby Puckett was the hero for Minnesota, hitting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th of Game 6 to break a 3-3 tie and send the Series to a decisive seventh game.

Game 7 was an epic pitchers' duel between Atlanta's John Smoltz and Minnesota's Jack Morris. Smoltz tossed 7 1/3 scoreless frames, and Morris went 10 innings without surrendering a run. The result was a scoreless game into the bottom of the 10th, when pinch-hitter Gene Larkin singled to left-center to bring a second title in five years to the Twins.

1987: Twins vs. Cardinals

The Twins romped the Cardinals to open the Series, taking a 2-0 lead before dropping three straight. The offense returned for Game 6, in which Minnesota used a pair of four-run innings to defeat St. Louis, 11-5.

The Twins clinched in front of their home crowd thanks to starter Frank Viola's strong performance in Game 7, when he allowed two runs and fanned seven over eight innings.

1986: Mets vs. Red Sox

The Mets made it a series when they rallied to win Games 3 and 4 in Boston after losing the first two in New York, but the Red Sox won a big Game 5 at Fenway Park. The Mets won both games at Shea Stadium, beginning with an epic 6-5, 10-inning win in Game 6 -- better known to Sox fans as the "Buckner Game."

New York left no doubt in Game 7, posting consecutive three-run innings in the sixth and seventh behind a solo homer from Most Valuable Player Ray Knight to bring the title back to Queens.

1985: Royals vs. Cardinals

Game 7 was a laugher: An 11-0 Kansas City victory. How the Royals got there, however, was no laughing matter. They rallied from a 3-1 Series deficit beginning with a 6-1 victory in Game 5 at Busch Stadium, then eked out a classic win in Game 6 thanks to Dane Iorg's walk-off two-run single, which was set up when Jorge Orta was mistakenly (and infamously) called safe at first base by umpire Don Denkinger.

The Cardinals were searching for answers after two consecutive losses in Milwaukee and quickly found them in Game 6, crushing the Brewers' pitching staff en route to a 13-1 win.

Game 7 featured more drama, with a two-run single by Keith Hernandez in the sixth inning erasing Milwaukee's lead and propelling the Cardinals to yet another World Series title.

1979: Pirates vs. Orioles

A six-run eighth inning in Game 4 tilted the Series decisively in Baltimore's favor … or so everyone thought. The Pirates didn't get the memo. They used multiple late rallies to post a 7-1 win in Game 5 at home and then won Game 6, 4-0, in Baltimore.

The O's got out to a 1-0 lead in Game 7, but the Pirates went ahead for good in the sixth on a two-run homer by Willie Stargell and added two more insurance runs in the ninth to bring home the title. Pittsburgh became the third team to ever overcome a 3-1 World Series deficit by winning the final two games on the road -- joining the 1958 Yankees and the '68 Tigers.

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Cubs.com Return to Cleveland means return of Cubs' X-factor By Adam McCalvy

CLEVELAND -- The Cubs' X-factor in this World Series was a non-factor in three games at Wrigley Field. Kyle Schwarber, limited to pinch-hit duty by a surgically repaired left knee, took one swing in Chicago's 26 innings at bat, producing a broken-bat flare to second with the bases empty in the eighth inning of Game 3.

Now, Schwarber will be a factor again. With the Series shifting back to Progressive Field for Tuesday's Game 6, Schwarber will transform from cheerleader back into designated hitter. It's a role he filled ably in Games 1 and 2.

"It was almost an advantage for us to play there [in Chicago]," said Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis. "When you put him back in the DH, he's a good hitter. He's a great hitter, actually. In the playoffs, he's shown that [he can] not make the situation too big. It makes them a tougher lineup, for sure."

Or as Indians Game 6 starter Josh Tomlin put it: "I mean, you're essentially taking out the worst hitter in the lineup and putting in one of the better hitters in the lineup. So it's definitely different."

The 23-year-old Schwarber, an Ohio native, gave the Cubs a lift at the start of the Series just by making the roster. He was hitless in the regular season, felled in the Cubs' third game by a devastating left knee injury that was supposed to sideline him until 2017 Spring Training. Instead, there was a promising checkup during the National League Championship Series, which led to a two-game stint in the Arizona Fall League, which led to Schwarber batting fifth in Game 1 of the World Series.

After fighting back tears during the national anthem, Schwarber showed he was ready. He struck out against Indians ace Corey Kluber in the second inning but doubled off the wall in his second at-bat. In his third trip to the plate, Schwarber did something only one other left-handed hitter had done all season: He worked a walk from Indians lefty Andrew Miller.

In Game 2, Schwarber hit a pair of RBI singles and walked again in a 5-1 Cubs win. "I've never seen anything like it," said Jake Arrieta, the winning pitcher in Game 2 and the Cubs' scheduled starter for Game 6. "I remember hearing [Hall of Famer John Smoltz] comment on the broadcast -- and this guy played for 20 years -- he said he's never seen anything like it.

"For a guy to be able to do something like this in his second year is just ... you know ... I'm kind of speechless."

The return of the DH is also convenient for the Indians, who will not have to force Carlos Santana into left field, where he started Games 3 and 5, or first base, where he played Game 4.

But the return of Schwarber could help the Cubs overcome what has historically been an advantage for American League teams. Each year represents a small sample, but the DH for the AL team has produced a higher OPS than the DH for the NL team in 20 of the 35 World Series with the DH in play, including each of the past four. The last NL DH to top his AL counterpart was the Cardinals' Lance Berkman in 2011, whose 1.038 OPS beat the Rangers' Michael Young's .974.

One of the exceptions featured the Indians in 1997, when the Marlins' Jim Eisenreich, Cliff Floyd, Darren Daulton, Alex Arias and Kurt Abbott combined for a 1.404 OPS from the DH spot, topping Cleveland's David Justice at .582. For a larger sample size, one can compare the regular-season production of the players who served as their teams' primary DH in the World Series. In this exercise, the NL team's DH had a clearly better season than the AL team's DH in nine of 35 seasons, most recently in 2014, when the Giants' Mike Morse had an .811 OPS, versus the Royals' Billy Butler at a .702 OPS. This year, of course, the latter exercise does not work. Schwarber had five plate appearances before his outfield collision with Dexter Fowler on April 7.

However, go back a year and you get an idea. Against right-handed pitching in 2015, Schwarber was a force. He hit .278, posted a .396 on-base percentage and slugged .557. Cleveland is scheduled to start right-hander Kluber on short rest in a potential game 7, following the righty Tomlin in Game 6.

"It gives them a little more balance," Indians manager Terry Francona said of the Schwarber factor. "It gives them some thunder that they'll situate right in the middle, which you have to respect. But I mean, they've got a lot of other good bats, too. I think people can get carried away with some things. Again, we respect him, but we also respect the other guys, too.

"But I'm sure they're excited about being able to play him and having his bat in the lineup."

Francona was right.

"I'm a much bigger fan of the National League game in general," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said, "but under these circumstances where we are right now in the year, I'll take that American League game just to get 'Schwarbs' involved."

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Cubs.com Maddon, Cubs embracing historic opportunity By Carrie Muskat

CLEVELAND -- Joe Maddon loves Halloween. If he was home in Tampa, Fla., the Cubs' manager would be handing out candy to the neighborhood kids. The team delayed its charter flight on Monday so the players could go trick- or-treating with their children, and Maddon sounded more worried about finding a wig for his costume than who plays right field. But he will be happy to be in Cleveland, where the Cubs have some unfinished business.

Chicago avoided elimination in the World Series on Sunday night with a 3-2 win over the Indians at Wrigley Field, and the best-of-seven set now shifts to Progressive Field with Game 6 on Tuesday night. The Indians still lead the Series, 3-2, but Maddon senses the momentum may have shifted.

"Getting back to Cleveland with Jake Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks rested and Kyle Schwarber back in the lineup presents itself differently," Maddon said. "I think everything changes at that point."

Arrieta (18-8, 3.10 ERA in the regular season) will start Game 6 and Hendricks (16-8, 2.13 ERA) is in line for Wednesday's Game 7 if the Cubs can extend the Series. The biggest boost will be the return of Schwarber to the lineup as the designated hitter now that the Cubs will be playing by American League rules. Schwarber is 3-for-8 so far in the World Series, his first big league game action since April 7 when he tore two ligaments in his left knee.

"It'll be nice -- especially there," Anthony Rizzo said of getting Schwarber's left-handed bat back. "It's a shorter porch to right. It'll be warmer. He'll have good at-bats and he'll be ready for them."

Indians pitchers have made it tough on the Cubs, compiling a 1.84 ERA in the five games.

"I still believe in my pitching staff," Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor said. "I still believe that we can do it."

This is the 65th time the World Series has stood at 3-2, and of the previous 64, the team with the lead has gone on to win it all in 43 instances (67.2 percent). In the four times the Cubs have trailed, 3-2, in a best-of-seven series, they've lost each series and only won Game 6 once -- in the 1945 World Series against the Tigers. Detroit won Game 7 in what was the last Fall Classic played at Wrigley Field before this year.

There was a feeling of euphoria among many Cubs fans at Wrigley Field after Sunday's win.

"That's your typical World Series game, 3-2 -- and it comes down to every pitch, every play made," Chicago catcher David Ross said. "It's just fun for me to be a part of this."

The Cubs are the 47th team in Major League history to win 103-plus games in a regular season. They are hoping to avoid being the 29th team with 103 wins that does not win a World Series. That list includes the 2004 Cardinals (105 wins), the '02 Yankees (103 wins), the '02 Athletics (103 wins), the '01 Mariners (116 wins) and the 1999 Braves (103 wins).

No matter what happens this week in Cleveland, Maddon says this was a successful season.

"I anticipate we're going to be able to finish this off," Maddon said. "If you don't, then you still look at the stepping stones and building blocks to get to this point. You can't tell me last year wasn't successful -- just getting to the Championship Series -- and you can't tell me this year wasn't successful, getting to the World Series.

"I'm not of that mindset that the winner take all is the successful one and the one who doesn't is not," he said. "The Dodgers were very successful this year, the Giants were very successful this year. A lot of teams were. Of course, the goal is to win it all. but there's also the building component, the culture component -- all the different things that permit you excellence on an annual basis are now in place. All those things matter."

Prior to an elimination game in the National League Championship Series last year against the Mets, Maddon brought back a magician to perform. Simon Winthrop did some tricks in the clubhouse when the team was in New York in June that year, and somehow his magic act helped spark the Cubs. However, it didn't work against the Mets, who swept the series.

Facing elimination on Sunday against the Indians, Maddon didn't feel a need for any card tricks, live animals or mariachi bands, although Rizzo did play the music from the movie "Rocky" in the home clubhouse and did some shadow boxing with teammates. Actor Bill Murray was walking around in the clubhouse before Game 4. He wasn't wearing a onesie.

In Spring Training, Maddon recognized the high expectations and wanted the players to "embrace the target."

"From Day 1, we've been engulfed, surrounded, inundated with these thoughts, and our guys have handled it great," Maddon said. "I don't think there's any Cub fan throughout the universe who would not be happy with where we're at this particular moment based on what's occurred in the last century and over the last several years. I see nothing but good."

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Cubs.com Focused Chapman gets the job done for Cubs By Anthony DiComo

CLEVELAND -- Three days before he became the latest Major League reliever to defy modern convention, recording eight outs in the Cubs' World Series Game 5 victory over the Indians, Aroldis Chapman took the field.

If not for his electric-red high-top sneakers, Chapman would have been invisible, jogging out to the far left corner of Wrigley Field for a game of catch. He paused briefly for a quick conversation, then a photo with an old acquaintance. Otherwise, Chapman went about his work, not saying more than a word or two to anyone. When his throwing session was done, he paused not for interviews or attention on his way back to the clubhouse.

It may as well have been mid-June.

Back on the field, more than a dozen cameras chased glimpses of Kyle Schwarber -- would he play the field at Wrigley? would he ride the bench? -- wherever he went. Across the way, reporters from around baseball asked Indians reliever Andrew Miller for the umpteenth time how he's able to stretch his abilities in October. Chapman stayed quiet.

"I don't think he wants all that attention," Cubs bullpen coach Lester Strode said. "That's my opinion. He comes in, he loves the game, he loves doing what he does. He has a routine that he goes through each and every day and he doesn't get away from it. If there's something that someone asks of him or needs from him, he's very professional and does what he needs to do, and not get out of his day-to-day routine."

That is what made Chapman's Game 5 performance -- 2 2/3 innings, one hit, four strikeouts, 19 pitches of at least 100 mph -- so unexpected. Unlike Miller, who has a history of this sort of thing, Chapman is a creature of habit. A creature of routine. A three-out pitcher in a modern baseball construct that caters to that sort of thing.

"I'm always prepared for the ninth inning," Chapman said through an interpreter. "That's my job. I understand that. But I always appreciate it if they let me know that I'm going to pitch more than the ninth inning. That's fine with me."

Given his druthers, however, Chapman would take the workload without the attention. Keeping a low profile throughout his career, Chapman has particularly done so since returning from a suspension for violating Major League Baseball's Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy earlier this year.

Even beyond that, Chapman doesn't draw attention for the simple reason that what he's doing, by his standards, is not all that unusual. Entering Game 5, Chapman's 2.61 postseason ERA was not an outlier for him, nor were his 14 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings. That's who Chapman has been for the past seven years with the Reds, Yankees and Cubs

"I just think the expectations based upon what he's been doing over the years," Strode said, "everybody is not totally surprised about his velocity and what he's accomplishing throughout the course of this whole season -- including the postseason."

If there were a surprise, it occurred in Game 5, after Chapman began warming with no outs in the seventh inning. Teammate Kris Bryant called the left-hander's performance "exactly why we got him," even if he had no prior history of doing what he did. For their part, the Indians weren't shocked.

"Nobody's ever just run into the bat rack when Chapman comes into the game," Cleveland manager Terry Francona said. "I can guarantee you that."

Now the question becomes how Chapman will handle the final two games of this World Series, should they win Game 6 to force a winner-take-all Game 7. Before Sunday, Chapman had never recorded more than seven outs in a game. His pitch count of 42 fell two short of a career high. So considering Chapman's historical usage -- an inning here, an inning there -- it is worth wondering how he might respond.

Worth wondering, for the Cubs, but not exactly worth worrying.

"He's a pretty strong guy," manager Joe Maddon said. "Beyond that, I don't think we've overused him to this point. ... We'll take what he can give us and then continue to work forward from there."

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Cubs.com Cubs rest assured after resting pitchers By Phil Rogers

CLEVELAND -- This is Jake Arrieta's time. He's headed into the biggest start of his career, and is fueled by kale shakes, relentless cross-training and a workload that was tailored to have him in prime condition for the first November of his baseball life.

Consider the controllables fully controlled.

Arrieta carried the Cubs deep into the postseason last year, and Joe Maddon loved it. But the manager and his front office hated how the National League Cy Young Award winner seemed over-extended in his last two starts of the long ride, and they vowed not to let that happen again.

The Cubs limited the workload for Arrieta and the other starting pitchers in the second half of the season, and the rewards for that could come in the biggest games of the year.

Maddon wasn't just relieved that Aroldis Chapman preserved a 3-2 lead in Game 5 to send the World Series back to Cleveland, but hopeful that he's holding a winning hand of cards.

"We get to go with two rested starting pitchers," Maddon said, referring to Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks, in line to start Games 6 and 7.

This is no small factor.

It could prove to be huge.

And as is true for most things with Theo Epstein's Cubs, it hardly happened by accident.

Heading into Spring Training, one of the biggest questions the Cubs faced was how Arrieta's powerful arm would bounce back after throwing 248 2/3 innings in 2015. The doubts didn't last as long as the average Arizona cold front, however.

Arrieta had never thrown even 180 innings in a season before 2015. But by mid-March it was clear that the big right-hander from Texas, the conditioning freak who has made it fashionable for big leaguers to increase flexibility through Pilates, would be just fine.

"I'm in better shape than I've ever been in, and I'm ready for another 250 [innings]," Arrieta declared after his second outing in Spring Training.

This was music to the ears of the Cubs and their fans. But Maddon and Epstein had other ideas about the workload for Arrieta, Jon Lester and John Lackey. They wanted to cut it back significantly in the regular season, saving their arms for an extended postseason run.

"We attempted to do that from Day 1," Maddon said. "Like I've said, I had that conversation with Jake in Spring Training in the food room in Mesa the first time I saw him. We talked and I brought it right up immediately. We've been on the same page, taking him out of the games a little bit sooner." Maddon slipped in and out of a six-man rotation from July through the end of the regular season. Mike Montgomery made five starts after being acquired from Seattle, and five starters took one turn apiece.

Arrieta's start Tuesday night will be his fourth of the postseason, 35th of the year, but he'll carry a total workload of only 214 innings into a game that will either send the Cubs to a deciding seventh game or home for the winter.

By taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning in Game 2, Arrieta hinted at having a huge performance in him, perhaps even one like his complete-game victory at Pittsburgh in the NL Wild Card Game last season. He is 1-1 with a 3.78 ERA in his three 2016 postseason starts, striking out 16 in 16 2/3 innings.

"Hopefully Jake can give us another great start like he did in Cleveland," Lester said after winning Game 5 on Sunday. "We'll see where we're at and keep going."

Though the Cubs trail the Indians, 3-2, they have their pitching lined up where they want it, while the injury- depleted Tribe will start Josh Tomlin on three days' rest in Game 6, and if necessary, Corey Kluber in a second consecutive short-rest start in Game 7. The Indians' ace has already thrown 245 1/3 innings, more than 30 beyond Arrieta's total.

Hendricks, who is in line to start Game 7 for the Cubs, won the NL ERA title but threw only 190 innings in the regular season. He's thrown another 20 2/3 innings in October, going 1-1 with a 1.31 ERA, but he hasn't thrown as many as 100 pitches in a start since Aug. 13.

"Jake, too," Maddon said. "We've kept him right around 100 pitches [every time out for awhile]. They really should be in good shape, good stead going into the next starts."

Lester looked shocked when Maddon pinch-hit for him in the sixth inning of Game 1 in the NL Championship Series. The veteran had given up one run in six innings, throwing only 77 pitches, but Maddon moved to increase a 3-1 lead and put the load on his bullpen, not his starter.

That scene has played out with some frequency over the last few months, with starting pitchers feeling they were pulled when they could have stayed in.

"It's always tough to rein in a thoroughbred," Maddon said earlier in October. "They all want to pitch. They all want to play. They want to throw more pitches. ... But at some point you got to know what's the right thing to do." While Arrieta was 12-1 with an 0.75 ERA in the second half of 2015, he gave up four runs both to the Mets in the NLCS and the Cardinals in the NL Division Series -- not terrible, but disappointing. He's positioned to write a different ending to this season, and if he can, then Hendricks gets a chance to make history.

On full rest, plus a little extra.

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Cubs.com Maddon appreciates Zobrist's unique impact By Richard Justice

CLEVELAND -- It was one of dozens of plays that mattered. It was also easy to overlook in the course of a tense, wonderful World Series game that had all kinds of nooks and crannies.

Afterward, though, it was one of the first things Cubs manager Joe Maddon mentioned in discussing a 3-2 victory in Game 5 on Sunday. As usual, his left fielder, Ben Zobrist, had caught his eye.

"Don't understate how important that play was Zobrist made," Maddon said. "A lot of times that would have turned into a double. That was a great play by Zo."

The Cubs were holding onto that 3-2 lead when Indians first baseman Mike Napoli led off the top of the seventh inning by slapping a ball into the left-field corner.

As the play began to unfold, it looked like a sure double. But Zobrist got to the ball quickly and fired it back into the infield so precisely that Napoli settled for a single.

Moments later, Napoli got to second base on a passed ball. If Zobrist hadn't cut off the ball in left, Napoli would have been on third with no outs and might have scored the tying run when Carlos Santana flied out to left.

At that point, everything would have changed as the Cubs fought to avoid elimination. Instead, that tying run remained at second as Maddon summoned closer Aroldis Chapman for the final eight outs, forcing the World Series back to Cleveland for Game 6 on Tuesday.

Maddon may appreciate Zobrist better than anyone. He was the Rays' manager when Zobrist began his Major League career, and it was Maddon who discovered that Zobrist had a unique value.

The manager came to appreciate that all the little things Zobrist does so well have a huge impact on a season. It's not just that Zobrist can play virtually every position. It's that he plays them at a high level and is also willing to play them.

In 11 seasons, Zobrist has started 664 games at second base, 378 in the outfield, 196 at shortstop, 11 at first base and five at third.

When he signed a four-year, $56 million deal with the Cubs last offseason, the plan was for him to play second base. But as Javier Baez emerged, Zobrist moved to left field.

Zobrist's lasting impact on baseball may be that he has shown every team the value of the super-utility role. In eight seasons as a full-time player, Zobrist has made three All-Star teams and averaged 35 doubles, 16 home runs and an .806 OPS. In this World Series, he has been the Cubs' best offensive player, hitting .368 with a double and a triple in five games.

"He embraced that role," Maddon said. "Because always for Ben, it's always been about winning."

Zobrist has embraced the whole Chicago experience, buying a home in Wrigleyville and once riding his bike to Wrigley Field in full uniform. His wife, Julianna, an accomplished Christian singer, performed God Bless America before Game 4 on Saturday at Wrigley Field.

Now 35, Zobrist joined the Cubs in part because of his relationship with Maddon, but also because he believed Chicago had a chance to break a 108-year World Series championship drought.

"I love baseball history," Zobrist said, "and Wrigley Field is as good as it gets when it comes to that. You've got the ivy, and the first time we pulled up to that stadium back with Tampa Bay, the bus is going through the neighborhoods, and then all of a sudden this stadium just pops out of nowhere. For me, I ride my bike to the field and things like that, that kind of makes it feel like old school baseball all over again. I love that feel."

The Cubs are playing five 25-and-under position players some nights, and the Indians' pitching staff has gotten them chasing balls out of the strike zone at times.

Zobrist had a .386 on-base percentage in 2016, with more walks (96) than strikeouts (82). Maddon believes the young Cubs will learn from Zobrist's approach to the strike zone.

"Right now, he's such a calming influence," Maddon said. "You watch his at-bats, they are absolutely the same all the time, and I think you look at the ascension like of a Baez as an example or Addison [Russell]. I know they're watching him. I anticipate over the next couple years you'll see our young guys working those same kind of at- bats."

Having won a World Series ring with the Royals last season, Zobrist is trying to soak up the experience of playing in a World Series for the Cubs.

"It's definitely more than I ever expected," he said. "When I left Tampa Bay, I felt like if my career ended at that point, I'd be OK. For some reason, the Lord keeps my body going and keeps me productive, and I've been able to do some things the last couple years to help some teams."

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Cubs.com Solid in field, Heyward turning it around at plate By Jamal Collier

CHICAGO -- After a subpar regular season and postseason that had him out of the Cubs' starting lineup for the first three games of the World Series, Jason Heyward has shown some flashes of production.

In back-to-back starts in right field, Heyward produced much more competitive at-bats. He collected two hits in Game 4 and another in Game 5. Of the Cubs' 10 hardest-hit balls this Series as tracked by Statcast™, Heyward owns two of the top four and three of the top 10.

If the Cubs are going to complete a World Series comeback despite trailing three games to two entering Game 6 on Tuesday night, Heyward can still be a key factor.

"We're just having fun with it, that's kind of it," Heyward said. "It's a unique situation, it's a fun situation. We've still got games to play."

During Game 5, he made a highlight-reel catch to show why he is still an elite defender.

In the third inning, Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer lifted a foul popup that appeared headed for the stands down the right-field line. Heyward gave chase and leaped onto the wall, but the crosswinds at Wrigley Field pushed the ball back into the field of play. Heyward had the awareness to adjust and the athleticism to jump off the wall and extend over his head to secure the grab.

Thanks to a first step of 0.17 seconds, Heyward covered 53.8 feet with a 93.5 percent route efficiency, as measured by Statcast™.

"I know it looked cool; I was just trying to catch the ball," Heyward said.

Heyward's strong play of late was also a payoff for Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who has continued to start some players for their defensive abilities even though the Cubs have at times been starved for offense during the Series.

"I love counterintuitive," Maddon said with a smile. "I love it, man."

Maddon met with Heyward about not starting him during the first three games and praised Heyward's understanding of the situation. Heyward said the meeting was not necessary, realizing Maddon's desire to pencil in the lineup that gave the Cubs the best chance to win.

Maddon acknowledged that during the offseason, Heyward -- who signed an eight-year, $184 million free-agent contract last offseason -- will meet with some of the organization's hitting coaches to make adjustments or simply overhaul his swing. But recently, the Cubs have seen some encouraging signs from Heyward that may prove crucial as they try to win the championship.

"He definitely also needs time to shut 'er down," Maddon said. "I don't believe in the 12-month thing, especially for a guy that's been playing as much or as often as he has. It's more mentally draining than it is physically, ever. So probably shut it down, think it through, come back, and then get physically and mentally into it again.

"For right now, believe me, his work is outstanding. They've been working all year. He's shown spurts or signs of really coming through what he had done in the past. But for right now, pretty much just go play without overthinking it right now. Just go play and just contribute to us winning somehow."

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ESPNChicago.com Cubs going again with Jake Arrieta-Wilson Contreras battery By Jesse Rogers

CLEVELAND -- Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon isn't changing his pitcher/catcher combination for Game 6 of the World Series against the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night as rookie Willson Contreras will be behind the plate for Jake Arrieta, just as in Game 2.

Maddon also intimated that Contreras could be behind the plate for Game 7 on Wednesday if the Cubs can stave off elimination. The Indians lead the series 3-2.

"It's normally been Contreras with Kyle (Hendricks), also, but tomorrow (Tuesday) you're going to see Willson," Maddon said in a Monday evening conference call with reporters.

There was some speculation that Maddon might start veteran catcher David Ross considering the magnitude of the game combined with Contreras' offensive struggles. He's just 1-for-14 (.071) in the World Series after starting the postseason hot. Maddon indicated Ross could be used later in Game 6 or 7 if starter Jon Lester is needed.

"There's also Jonny Lester in the bullpen, and you'd have to make a decision how you want to utilize that if you actually put Jonny in the game," Maddon said. "Who you want catching Jon in that moment? So there's a lot of little subplots going on."

Maddon wasn't sure how much closer Aroldis Chapman would be available for Game 6 after throwing 42 pitches over 2.2 innings in Game 5.

"I don't know that we could do what we did yesterday, necessarily," Maddon said. "But I'll talk to him tomorrow. He's a pretty strong guy. Beyond that I don't think we've overused him to this point. ... I'll definitely listen to what he has to say. I'm betting that he would probably think that he would be good for two innings, I would imagine tomorrow. But if it's not, we'll take what he can give us and then continue to work forward from there."

Maddon will have Kyle Schwarber at his disposal again as the series shifts back to Cleveland. He'll be the designated hitter in Games 6 and 7.

"I'm a much bigger fan of the National League game in general, but under these circumstances, where we are right now in the year, I'll take that American League game just to get Schwarbs involved," Maddon said.

Schwarber is 3-for-8 with two RBIs and two walks but hasn't started since Game 2.

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CSNChicago.com Why Cubs Made The High-Risk, High-Reward Play To Build Around Javier Baez By Patrick Mooney

Leading up to the 2011 draft, the Cubs heard a story out of an all-state event for the best players in Florida. Each guy was supposed to introduce himself and say where he was from and where he was committed to play in college.

So Javier Baez stood up, pointed to the tattoo on the back of his neck and announced: “I’m going to the University of Major League Baseball.”

“That’s Javy,” Tim Wilken said.

That’s why the Cleveland Indians still have to account for Baez, even as he takes some of the “hernia swings” Wilken once saw while tracking the uber-talented, ultra-confident prospect at Arlington Country Day School in Jacksonville.

Baez is 3-for-21 with nine strikeouts and zero extra-base hits and no walks during the World Series. But no Cub has raised his profile more in October than Baez, who can still add to his personal highlight film in November without doing much at the plate.

It’s the daring base-running, the take-charge attitude at second base for a team that led the majors in defensive efficiency, and the sixth sense for tags as the Indians try to push the running game. Down 3-2 heading into Tuesday night’s Game 6 at Progressive Field, the Cubs need more Javy Being Javy moments.

Some of that swagger and overaggressive style scared away other teams, but Wilken credited area scout Tom Clark for getting to know the Baez family as well as the player’s makeup and love of the game. Wilken’s maverick style also got him inducted into the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame this summer for his work with the Toronto Blue Jays (Chris Carpenter, Roy Halladay) and Tampa Bay Rays (Wade Davis) and Cubs (Jeff Samardzija, Josh Donaldson, Andrew Cashner, D.J. LeMahieu).

As the scouting director during the final months of the Jim Hendry administration, Wilken framed the 2011 draft with a question to his staff: Which is harder to find: a legitimate middle-of-the-order hitter or a top-of-the-rotation starter? The Cubs came up with the same answer that would drive Theo Epstein’s front office, targeting Baez with the No. 9 overall pick.

Wilken left the Cubs last year to become a special assistant with an Arizona Diamondbacks franchise now in transition again with Mike Hazen taking over for fired general manager Dave Stewart.

When Baez became the first Cub to steal home plate in a postseason game since 1907 – part of a brilliant all- around performance that eliminated the Los Angeles Dodgers and made him the National League Championship Series co-MVP – Wilken watched from (where else?) a Marriott Courtyard in Jupiter, Florida, near the spring- training complex shared by the St. Louis Marlins and Miami Marlins. After scouting a heavily attended Perfect Game showcase, baseball officials watched Baez become a star on the satellite TV set up in the lobby.

“You stick your neck out with every pick,” Wilken said. “He’s high-risk, high-reward. And hopefully as he’s put these things together, it’s going to be a high reward for him and the Cubs, wherever his career takes him from here.

“But at the same time, (he had) the one thing that a lot of guys that are high-risk, high-reward (don’t). Normally, those guys don’t play the game that well. They do have those kinds of tools, but you don’t know how they’re going to (put it together).

“He was still a very good base-runner. He was still a very good slider. He still had plus arm strength. He still had great hands. He still was the good tagger and his instincts were off the charts. So in one sense, it wasn’t (risky).”

Open-minded manager Joe Maddon immediately noticed Baez and recognized those strengths instead of focusing on his weaknesses. Baez gained a new perspective on life after the death of his sister last year. Epstein’s inner circle never really came close to selling low and trading Baez for pitching.

The Indians looked at Baez as part of a bigger deal for Carlos Carrasco or Danny Salazar, but Cleveland has a reputation for using trade talks to get a better read on its farm system. The San Diego Padres didn’t push hard enough to move Tyson Ross. The Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves actually liked Jorge Soler more than Baez while shopping Cole Hamels and Shelby Miller.

“The only thing you were wondering was: Could he calm down his swing?” Wilken said. “There were times you could see a pretty decent two-strike swing as an amateur. It would be rare, but if you were there to see it, you’d say: ‘OK, I can gamble on that.’ I can gamble on (Cubs hitting coach John) Mallee or whoever else they want to give credit for (those) better two-strike swings.

“Credit whoever talked to him. Credit to him for taking (the advice). But that ability was there – and I don’t know if people got to see that. And there were only glimpses of that. Fortunately, it happened it front of me. That made it much easier, because all the rest of his game was fine. He wasn’t (some) crude (player).”

Another middle infielder born in Puerto Rico who moved to Florida also caught Wilken’s attention that year. But the Cubs had reports that Francisco Lindor would go in the third-to-sixth range near the top of the first round. The future All-Star shortstop surprisingly fell to the Indians at No. 8, or one spot in front of Baez.

“He was the ‘Steady Eddie,’” Wilken said. “He didn’t have that field charisma or flair that Baez had. But he was – if there’s such a thing with a high school guy – a sure draft. We kind of throw that tag mostly on college guys. But Lindor was far ahead of the scales as far as being under control of himself at the age of 17.

“If we did call a timeout or whatever, I still think at the end I might have taken Baez, just because of the damage he could possibly do as an offensive player.”

And now either Baez (108 years) or Lindor (68 years) will be front and center when one team finally ends a World Series drought.

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CSNChicago.com Jake Arrieta Not Putting Added Pressure On Himself As Cubs Look To Force Game 7 By JJ Stankevitz

Jake Arrieta reflexively figured the temperature for Game 6 of the World Series Tuesday night at Progressive Field would be cold, as was the case for his frigid Game 2 start last week.

In maybe the biggest surprise of the World Series, though, Arrieta might be pitching in 70-degree November temperatures on the shores of Lake Erie when he take the mound for the biggest start of his career.

Arrieta allowed one run on two hits with three walks and six strikeouts in the Cubs’ 5-1 win over the Cleveland Indians in Game 2, He was effectively wild — only 55 of his 98 pitches were strikes (56 percent) — but received the most run support of any Cubs starter in the World Series.

Improving on that efficiency is one of Arrieta’s main focuses heading into Tuesday night.

“It's just like any other game where you feel comfortable with the game plan and you go out there to do your best to follow through on the execution,” Arrieta said. “So that's really the only thing that I'll be thinking about as

Tuesday approaches, is just trying to be efficient. Trying to be as good as I can about moving the ball in and out, up and down and changing speeds and trying to keep those guys off balance.

Getting more than 5 2/3 innings out of Arrieta could be key if the Cubs force an all-hands-on-deck Game 7, in which the best-case is the Cubs’ bullpen being as fresh as possible. But Arrieta only threw six or more innings once in his five September starts, though the Cubs’ plan to keep him fresh from the start of spring training could pay off in his final game of the 2016 season.

“We attempted to do that from day one,” manager Joe Maddon said. “I had that conversation with Jake in spring training in the food room in Mesa the first time I saw him. We talked and I brought it right up immediately. So we've been on the same page, taking him out of the games a little bit sooner.”

Arrieta has thrown 214 innings between the regular season and playoffs in 2016, a year after he logged 248 2/3 innings during the Cubs’ run to the National League Championship Series. But not only has Arrieta’s workload been lessened this year, the 98 pitches he threw in Game 2 were relatively stress-free in that 5-1 win. That should help him, too, heading into a start in which every pitch he throws will be a high leverage one, given the Cubs’ Game 3 struggles against Indians right-hander Josh Tomlin.

“We go out there and we focus on executing and trying to limit the opponent to as few runs as possible, regardless of how many we score,” Arrieta said. “That's the intent. That's the mindset there is I have to take care of my end of the bargain to the best of my ability, and I know that our offense is doing the exact same thing.”

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CSNChicago.com How Anthony Rizzo Predicted Kris Bryant's Mvp Season For Cubs Team Thinking 'Why Not Us?' By Patrick Mooney

Anthony Rizzo and Jason McLeod separately went to the Rosemont Theatre to listen to country music last December and both wound up backstage at the Brett Eldredge concert, one of the many perks that come with being a Cub.

McLeod had drafted Rizzo out of high school for the Boston Red Sox, worked on the Adrian Gonzalez trade with the San Diego Padres and then watched him develop into an All-Star first baseman in Chicago. Six years later, the senior vice president of scouting and player development helped find the other half of “Bryzzo,” taking Kris Bryant with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2013 draft.

“We were talking about the upcoming season,” McLeod recalled. “Rizz goes: ‘I think KB’s going to be the MVP.’ I was like: ‘Really? Next year? In his second year?’ He goes: ‘Yeah, I think he’s that good ... of course, that’s if I’m not the MVP.’

“He was kind of kidding about it. But Anthony was serious about the fact that: ‘This guy is ridiculous. I think he’s going to be the MVP next year.’”

The Cubs are down 3-2 in the World Series because the Cleveland Indians have maximized Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber and a lights-out bullpen. But is there another pair of young stars you would rather have in the middle of your lineup — not to mention Kyle Schwarber lurking as the designated hitter — for Game 6 on Tuesday night at Progressive Field and, really, the next five seasons?

“People make predictions all the time,” Rizzo said. “Maybe with a few concert activities (involved). If you recall, I was up singing on stage that night.”

Rizzo predicted the Cubs would win the National League Central coming off a fifth-place finish in 2014, and he basically got credit for that last year when his third-place team won 97 games and then eliminated the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals from the playoffs.

Maybe we all should have seen this coming with Bryant. Since his junior year at the University of San Diego, Bryant has been the national college player of the year, the 2013 Arizona Fall League MVP, the consensus minor league player of the year in 2014, last season’s NL Rookie of the Year and a Hank Aaron Award winner this year.

“He’s that talent,” Rizzo said. “It’s his ability to adjust pitch to pitch, which is not easy to do, at-bat to at-bat, game to game. His head is still all the time. He’s got the same swing every single time.”

It’s more than just the MVP-level offensive numbers — 39 homers, 102 RBIs, 121 runs scored, .939 OPS — because Bryant reached a Ben Zobrist state of defensive versatility by unselfishly playing all over the infield and outfield.

And it’s hard to find a more steady, polished professional, even though he’s only 24 years old. Where John Lackey sometimes looks at the playoff media obligations as beneath him — answering a couple of questions after he pitches four or five innings every eight or 10 days — Bryant regularly stands at his locker for as long as any reporter from any outlet needs him in the postgame clubhouse.

Bryant always projects calm, even when he’s 1-for-14 in the World Series and had uncharacteristically committed two throwing errors in a Game 4 loss and the Cubs are on the brink of elimination.

A silence fell over Wrigley Field when the Indians took an early 1-0 lead on Sunday night — and then the stadium started rocking again once Bryant lined Trevor Bauer’s fastball over the left-center field wall for a home run. That sparked a three-run fourth inning as the desperate Cubs hung on for a 3-2 win in front of 41,711 in a Game 5 that delivered a 15.3 overnight rating for Fox.

“Nothing surprises me with what Kris does,” McLeod said. “He’s got a different mentality where he doesn’t get caught up in the day-to-day attention. He obviously understands the attention that he gets. But he prepares as if he’s like an extra man. He’s very regimented, very routine-oriented. And it’s just awesome to see how he handles it all.”

By getting his own adidas billboard by the Wrigley Field marquee and shooting a Red Bull commercial with a goat — all before making his big-league debut. Even one loss away from their season fading to black, these Cubs feel the natural confidence that flows through Bryant.

“Why not us?” Bryant said. “I feel like we play our best with our backs up against the wall. We took care of business. Hopefully, we can get out there and win Game 6, because you never know what can happen in a Game 7.

“We’re all about writing our own history.”

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Chicago Tribune Cubs could take advantage if Indians feel pressure back at home By David Haugh

Forecasts call for Tuesday's temperature to reach 75 degrees with Lake Erie winds blowing at 15 mph, lovely Fall Classic conditions more fitting of summertime but with the air still heavy with local history.

Exactly 68 years' worth of history, if you are counting. And rest assured every baseball fan in "Believeland,'' waiting for the city's first World Series title since 1948, is.

It's the Indians' turn to lug their franchise's losing legacy around the bases and into the field Tuesday in Game 6 at Progressive Field, a burden much heavier in front of expectant fans whose unavoidable anxiety just adds to the weight. This is the first World Series requiring baggage handlers for everything both fan bases bring to every home game. The Cubs know how bulky that can make things when trying to pitch, hit and field.

They felt the tension all weekend at Wrigley Field, where three World Series games were viewed by adoring fans as major milestones to complete on a bucket list as much as sporting events to decide a champion. The 102-year-old ballpark rocked, gloriously, as loud and electric as it ever has been thanks to wide-eyed fathers and sons and moms and grandmas who had invested as much emotion as money just to finally say they saw the Cubs in the World Series.

But in the quiet moments, and there were more than a few during Cubs losses in Games 3 and 4, the obvious angst in the atmosphere made the place feel like Chicago's largest baseball support group. Until Kris Bryant homered to lead off the fourth inning Sunday, a pervasive sense of doom lingered.

Away from Wrigley, a freer Cubs team will feel more comfortable playing baseball. Back at Progressive, the Indians inevitably will face pressure that comes from being one victory away from prosperity so few in the 216 area code remember. That potentially gives the Cubs their biggest advantage over a well-managed bunch that has done almost everything right in the postseason.

Joe Maddon sounded like a guy trying to exploit the Cubs' more relaxed mindset on the road when speaking to reporters on Halloween night before boarding the team flight.

"I want to keep the guys as focused and loose at the same time as possible,'' Maddon said. "I want the guys to go out (Tuesday) and let it fly.''

So while Indians players worked out Monday night under the lights at Progressive, the Cubs trick-or-treated in their Chicago neighborhoods, dressed up as World Series underdogs.

If the Cubs take an early lead, the collective mood in the ballpark at Carnegie and Ontario could turn just as tense as it was at Clark and Addison. Waiting since 1908 for a championship allows the Cubs to occupy an unwelcome distinction in sports but, remember, baseball futility considers this place its second home, much to the chagrin of the locals.

If you think Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber will be tough to retire for Indians pitchers, their fans could have a harder time wrestling with haunting memories of 1995, 1997 and 2007.

They have their own demons to exorcise that have nothing to do with this Indians team but everything to do with this Series. Sound familiar, North Siders? They remember all too well being two outs away from winning the 1997 World Series before blowing the lead in the ninth inning and watching the Marlins celebrate in the 11th. They recall all too well having the Red Sox down 3-1 in the 2007 ALCS only to lose three straight to an opponent that advanced to sweep the World Series. They relate to pessimism.

They also just celebrated a Cavaliers NBA championship that saw LeBron James lead his team back from a, ahem, 3-1 series deficit. They know it can happen in pro sports because, as the billboards say, they were all witnesses. So as they worry, you wonder how all that nervous energy will affect an Indians team coming off a taut, tough 3-2 loss in a classic at Wrigley.

"That game is probably as mentally draining as you're going to get,'' Maddon said.

And Maddon won. Imagine the emotional toll Game 5 took on the losing team.

It had everything; clutch hitting, gutsy pitching and did-you-see-that defense. The best debate revolved around which was bigger, Bryant hitting a homer that sparked the offense or closer Aroldis Chapman extending himself to get the final eight outs? Which catch was cooler, right fielder Jason Heyward climbing the wall like Spider-Man or Anthony Rizzo reacting quickly to nab a foul popup that bounced out of catcher David Ross' glove?

The game was so good that it instantly belongs on the list of significant sports moments that happened within the city of Chicago this millennium, since 2000. One list, in order: 1. Blackhawks win 2015 Stanley Cup championship on home ice, 2. Cubs win World Series Game 5 in 2016, 3. White Sox win Game 2 of 2005 World Series on Scott

Podsednik's home run, 4. Bears beat Saints in 2006 NFC championship game, 5. Mark Buehrle's perfect game at U.S. Cellular Field on July 23, 2009.

Had the Cubs won all three games over the weekend, they could have produced the biggest Chicago sports moment of any century, anywhere. They still have that chance, except on the road, where they might be better off anyway.

As the Indians soon could learn, home can be where the heartache is too.

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Chicago Tribune Cubs believe they're in good shape despite 3-2 deficit in World Series By Mark Gonzales

Dexter Fowler looked across the Cubs clubhouse Sunday night in the direction of closer Aroldis Chapman after the flame-throwing left-hander saved the Cubs season with 2 2/3 scoreless innings.

"I don't think there is a reset button," Fowler said before the Cubs left Monday night for Cleveland.

"We're preparing to win. It's all or nothing."

As for Chapman, who threw 42 pitches, "he's strong," Fowler said. "He'll be fine."

Despite their 3-2 deficit in the World Series, the Cubs are convinced they are as strong as they've ever been as they prepare for Game 6 at Progressive Field.

Jake Arrieta, who pitched 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball in a Game 2 victory, is well-rested for Tuesday night's start.

The Cubs also will regain the full-time services of slugger Kyle Schwarber, who was limited to one pinch-hitting appearance during the three games at Wrigley Field.

As designated hitter, Schwarber will rejoin a lineup that showed minor signs of a revival in Game 5 with three runs in the fourth inning from the middle of the order.

And the rest of the bullpen will be at full strength after Chapman carried the bulk of the workload to keep the Cubs alive.

Joe Maddon has thirsted for the opportunity to manage a Game 7 of a World Series after his Rays were knocked out by the Phillies 4-1 in the 2008 Series. That could mean pulling out all the stops in Game 6, as he did in Game 5 by employing Chapman for a career-high 2 2/3-inning save — the longest since Madison Bumgarner of the Giants threw a five-inning save in Game 7 of the 2014 Series.

Jon Lester, who pitched six innings and 90 pitches in Game 5, didn't rule out his availability for Game 6 or 7.

"It's all hands on deck," Lester said. "I love our bullpen. I love what these guys have done, but if there's a matchup in there that Joe likes, I'll be ready.

"Hopefully Jake can give us another great start like he did in Cleveland, and we'll see where we're at and keep going."

The Cubs will face Indians starter Josh Tomlin, who allowed only two hits in 4 2/3 innings in Game 3 but will be working on only three days' rest.

Still, Tomlin threw only 58 pitches, and formidable left-hander Andrew Miller lurks as a middle-to-late-inning game-changer.

"We're excited," Fowler said. "We're up to the challenge."

Some of the confidence the Cubs displayed after losing Game 4 came from the fact they overcame deficits against the Giants in the National League Division Series and the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series. They rallied for four runs in the ninth for a clinching victory against the Giants and overcame a 2-1 deficit with three consecutive wins against the Dodgers.

"I feel like we play our best with our backs up against the wall," Kris Bryant said. "We took care of business (in Game 5). Hopefully we can get out there and win Game 6 because you never know what can happen in a Game 7."

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Chicago Tribune Josh Tomlin's plan for Game 6 start: 'Living in that moment' By Colleen Kane

Josh Tomlin did his duty in the biggest game of his career Friday, pitching 4 2/3 scoreless innings to help the Indians shut out the Cubs in a Game 3 World Series victory.

The stakes have been raised significantly for his second career Series start.

When Tomlin takes the mound Tuesday at Progressive Field, the 32-year-old right-hander will have the chance to become the winning pitcher in a World Series clincher.

"I know it's a Game 6 and we have a chance of winning a World Series, but you can't have that mindset of trying to go out there and win the game in the first inning," Tomlin said. "You have to go out there and take each pitch as it is and start living in that moment until Tito comes and gets the ball, and then see what happens."

As Corey Kluber and Trevor Bauer did in the last two games at Wrigley Field, Tomlin will start on three days' rest, something he has done only once in his career in 2010.

Tomlin threw only 58 pitches in his last start, though he noted the intensity of that work was higher than in a regular-season game. He said he has listened to his body a little more and cut back on lifting between starts, and his body feels good.

"Knowing these guys takes away some of the anxiety because we've asked them to do some short rest, and I know how much they enjoy trying to meet the challenges," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "If Tomlin doesn't win, he won't beat himself, and he won't back down. Not backing down from a challenge and valuing winning and being a good teammate, he embodies all those better (than) or as good as anybody I've ever seen."

Tomlin said he believes in-game adjustments will be important as he takes on the Cubs lineup a second time.

After posting a 1.76 postseason ERA in his first 15 1/3 innings, Tomlin faces a little less pressure given the Indians carry a 3-2 Series lead, but he's not looking at it like that.

"We understand it's not just about getting here, it's about trying to win as well," Tomlin said. "There's nobody in that clubhouse that's complacent. It's not like we have a 3-2 lead so it's just going to happen. That's not the mindset we take at all."

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Chicago Tribune Joe Maddon unlikely to push Aroldis Chapman as far in Game 6 By Mark Gonzales

Monday's day off can only help Aroldis Chapman and the Cubs.

Manager Joe Maddon plans to check Tuesday with his closer on his availability for Game 6 of the World Series after Chapman threw 42 pitches Sunday night.

Maddon said he believes Chapman hasn't been overused but doesn't envision stretching out for 2 2/3 innings for a second consecutive game.

"I'm betting he would probably think he would be good for two innings," Maddon said on a conference call Monday night. "If it's not, I'll take what he can give us."

Maddon also insinuated that Jon Lester, who threw six innings and 90 pitches Sunday, could be available. That could affect the catching situation, since rookie Willson Contreras will handle Jake Arrieta with David Ross possibly coming off the bench to catch Lester.

"Who do you want catching Jon in that moment?" Maddon said. "There are a lot of little subplots going on."

DH dossier: After managing in both leagues, Maddon said he still prefers National League rules that don't employ a designated hitter.

But he's not complaining about the Series shifting to Cleveland, where the DH will be in use. Kyle Schwarber, who wasn't medically cleared to play the outfield because of his recovery from knee surgery six months ago, went 3-for- 7 in the first two games of the Series as the DH.

"Under these circumstances ... I'll take that American League game just to get Schwarbs involved," Maddon said. "The fact that Kyle cannot play defense but can still play offense and run the bases, it does work out well for us."

You're on your own: The Cubs have no plans to host a Wrigley Field watch party for World Series Game 6 or, if necessary, Game 7. "We made a decision early on not to host watch parties during postseason away games and that decision has not changed," Cubs spokesman Julian Green said.

In Cleveland, the Indians hosted watch parties at Progressive Field for Games 3, 4 and 5 and announced total attendance of more than 67,218.

Extra innings: The Cubs were scheduled to arrive at their hotel late Monday night after allowing the players to celebrate Halloween with their families. ... Outfielder Eloy Jimenez, the Cubs' top prospect, will play for the East in the Arizona Fall League Futures Game on Saturday in Surprise, Ariz.

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Chicago Tribune Happy to be home, Indians also know AL lineups good for both sides By Colleen Kane

Indians outfielder Rajai Davis likes the idea of having "a lot more room" to celebrate in the home clubhouse at Progressive Field than on the visitors' side at Wrigley Field.

Second baseman Jason Kipnis thinks it would be nice to win in Cleveland for the fans, who have had to watch the Indians clinch every stage of the postseason this year on the road.

For an Indians team that lost to the Cubs in Game 5 of the World Series at Wrigley Field, the consolation prize is getting two more chances to capture their first championship since 1948 on their home turf as they return with a 3-2 Series lead.

"It means everything," Davis said. "The city wants to do it here anyway. … We'll get to celebrate really nice, assuming we do get to celebrate here. We have a lot more room here. We'll actually invite you guys (in the media) in here, let you come in and enjoy the celebration."

There also are the in-game benefits to returning home for Tuesday's Game 6, which pits Indians right-hander Josh Tomlin against Cubs right-hander Jake Arrieta.

For one, the Indians went 53-28 at Progressive Field during the regular season and 5-1 in the postseason, and manager Terry Francona said he thinks the players are naturally more comfortable in their home batter's box.

The Indians also will be able to restore their regular lineup after starting designated hitter Carlos Santana in left field for two of the three games at Wrigley Field and sitting first baseman Mike Napoli in the other. Being at full strength is big for a team that went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position in Game 5.

"I was really proud of (Santana)," Francona said. "It took a lot of work in that four- or five-day span for him to be out there, and it was pretty cool. I'll be glad that we can DH somebody, though."

Returning to American League rules is a double-edged sword, however, because the Cubs will be able to insert Kyle Schwarber back into their lineup. Schwarber, who isn't medically cleared to play in the field, went 3-for-8 with two RBIs, two walks and four strikeouts as the DH in the first two games in Cleveland.

"Even if he was coming off only 15 at-bats in the fall league or something, he was impactful," Kipnis said. "It was almost an advantage for us to play there to limit him to only one at-bat a game, if that. … He's a great hitter. Already in the playoffs he has shown that, to not make the situation too big. It makes them a tougher lineup, for sure."

Forever young: At 36, Davis became the oldest player to steal three bases during a World Series game Sunday and also is the only player in Indians history to do so in a Series game.

Davis stole second and third in the eighth inning against Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman, and he said he could tell he was in Chapman's head because of the pitches Chapman threw to Kipnis.

Francona said he was still debating how to use Davis against Arrieta. Davis, who had 43 regular-season stolen bases, said he thinks damage can be done on the bases Tuesday, with one caveat.

"The key is just getting on base, getting some guys with some speed on base too," Davis said. "(Arrieta) has some quick feet, but he's a guy who is susceptible to a stolen base, especially if he's not making good pitches, not throwing strikes. As base stealers, we have to take advantage of what he gives us and be ready."

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Chicago Tribune Jake Arrieta ready to take mound with Cubs' season on the line By Paul Skrbina

Earlier this season, retiring Cubs catcher David Ross was asked how he would approach an at-bat against Jake Arrieta.

His book on the right-hander had nothing to do with baseball.

"Get in the box and pray, I think," said Ross, who caught Arrieta's no-hitter in April and has two hits, including a home run and four RBIs against him in four career at-bats.

"You're asking the wrong guy. You've got to battle. He's so deceptive. He even gets away with his mistakes because he's so deceptive. … I don't know what I'd do.

The Indians will be faced with the same question Tuesday in Game 6 of the World Series at Progressive Field.

Arrieta held Cleveland hitters hitless through 5 1/3 innings of Game 2 until Jason Kipnis doubled during the Cubs' 5- 1 victory. Arrieta's control eluded him early in that game, when he walked three, including two with two outs in the first inning.

But he bounced back to finish with six strikeouts and allowed one earned run.

"His command (was) a little bit scattered at times, but he battled through," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.

The Cubs, who trail the series 3-2, once again will have their season on the line. And they're confident having last year's National League Cy Young Award winner on the mound will give them a fair chance to extend the series to seven games.

Arrieta, too, is confident. He spoke matter-of-factly before the Cubs' 3-2 victory in Game 5 on Sunday about pitching again this season, though he wasn't willing to reveal much more.

"I'm not really going to expose everything or the way I'm really going to attack those guys," he said. "I just want to execute with quality in and out of the strike zone, and try to get ahead in the count as early and as often as I can to open up some more options for myself."

And keep open the possibility of a Game 7 for the Cubs.

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Chicago Tribune Cubs aren't flipping their wigs over late arrival in Cleveland By Mark Gonzales

Before manager Joe Maddon left his Wrigley Field office Monday night to prepare for the Cubs' trip to Cleveland, a clubhouse attendant was dispatched to find a wig for him.

Yes, this marks the Cubs' final trip of the season, and Maddon encouraged his players to dress in honor of Halloween after allowing them to spend extra time with their families so they could enjoy a full day at home and go trick-or-treating with their children.

"We made this up in advance," Maddon said of the decision to depart later than normal so the players could enjoy Halloween with their families.

Besides, "after last night's game, I was in no mood to get up and travel," said Maddon, referring to Sunday night's tense 3-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians that kept their World Series hopes alive.

In keeping with one of his slogans of "don't let the pressure exceed the pleasure," I want to keep the guys as focused and loose at the same time as possible," Maddon said. "I want us to go out and just free-wheel it, play our game, let it fly. I don’t want us to be concerned with anything but let us playing a good game of baseball."

There have been a few sightings of children dressed up as Maddon, complete with a beard and glasses.

A source reported that one trick-or-treater seen Monday night dressed as Maddon in the Lincoln Park area was the son of general manager Jed Hoyer.

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Chicago Tribune Cubs' Joe Maddon tempers talk over bullpen revolution By Mark Gonzales

The use of formidable Andrew Milller for multiple innings in the middle of games has helped vault the Cleveland Indians to within one game of their first World Series title since 1948.

It's also caused many observers to take a close look at how bullpens are used and whether Miller's success will cause teams to alter their scripts.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who used Aroldis Chapman for a 2 2/3-inning save Sunday night, said it's possible that this could become more common. But Maddon warned against assuming this was the wave of the future after examining the rosters of other teams.

"Try to pinpoint even one or two relievers out of everybody’s bullpen who you think can handle that kind of load with that kind of effectiveness all season long," Maddon said Monday during a conference call. "It’s very difficult to do because the point of diminishing returns would set in if you try to push it from day one."

As an example, Maddon cited a team could be tempted to push such a reliever harder during an important series in the middle of the season or in August that eventually could present repercussions.

"In order to get to this point, you have to be able to utilize an entire roster and guys coming up from Triple-A," Maddon said. "Right now, it’s being glamorized a bit. This is not fantasy baseball. These guys are human and have only so many abilities to throw a baseball within a year. Right now in a micro-situation, it’s possible with these guys, especially like Miller.

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Chicago Tribune Kyle Schwarber is X-factor for Cubs in Game 6 By Paul Sullivan

In early July, Cubs President Theo Epstein first began squelching trade rumors out of New York involving Kyle Schwarber, telling reporters he was looking forward to watching the slugger return next spring in Mesa, Ariz.

Schwarber was grateful for the support but declined to go along with the narrative he wouldn't be back until spring training.

"I'm going to work my butt off to get back as soon as I can, whatever the timetable is," he said. "I want to do more. I think that's only a good mindset to have, and whatever happens happens."

What happened is now part of World Series lore.

Schwarber returned from a six-months-plus absence last week in Game 1 of the 2016 World Series and went 3-for- 7 with a pair of walks and two RBIs while serving as the designated hitter in the first two games at Progressive Field.

After being out of the starting lineup in the three games at Wrigley, because of doctor's orders, Schwarber returns on Tuesday in Game 6 with a chance to help force a seventh game.

With the Cubs trailing 3-2 and the offense still struggling, Schwarber could be the X-factor they desperately need.

"He's back, and I'm sure he's champing at the bit to get in the lineup," Anthony Rizzo said. "He's going to have big at-bats Tuesday, and he's going to be ready for it. And he's got all of our confidence behind him."

Schwarber had only one pinch-hit opportunity in the games at Wrigley, hitting a soft popup off Bryan Shaw to shortstop Francisco Lindor, who was playing on the other side of second on a shift, in the eighth inning of Game 3.

On Tuesday he'll face right-hander Josh Tomlin, who pitched 4 2/3 shutout innings in the Indians' 1-0 win in that game.

"We might have expanded (the strike) zone here and there, but that's an adjustment that can easily be made," Schwarber said of Tomlin. "And that was a bunch of guys first time facing him too. I'm sure (Tuesday) it'll be a completely different situation and approach."

Getting to Tomlin early figures to be a key since he probably won't pitch long. The Indians bullpen has been lights- out in the World Series, and manager Terry Francona has been using it like a plumber uses a snake.

The Cubs are hitting .210 in the Series with 10 runs in five games, and relievers Andrew Miller, Cody Allen and Bryan Shaw have allowed one earned run over 13 innings with 24 strikeouts and five walks.

If the Cubs are trailing before "Miller Time" in Game 6 or Game 7, it's probably curtains. The problem is no one knows when uber-reliever Miller will come into a game because of Francona's unpredictability.

Former Indians slugger Jim Thome compared Cleveland's bullpen depth to the Royals' lockdown pen of 2014 and '15, which tended to enter games in the fifth or sixth inning. Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland nailed down the final three, making manager Ned Yost's job relatively easy.

"To be honest, Ned was kind of similar with 'Tito,'" Thome said, using Francona's nickname. "They're being consistent with what they have."

It takes someone like Miller, who has absolutely no ego, to make it work. Miller doesn't care when he pitches, and since he's the best of the Indians relievers, no one else can really complain about roles.

"You have to have the right guys to do it, personality-wise," said Indians bullpen coach Jason Bere, a former starter for the Cubs, Indians and White Sox. "If you're talking about doing something like that in the regular season … you have to have guys that are willing because of how things are broken down for arbitration, free agency and things like that."

In other words, the relievers need those holds and saves stats to get their money, and pitching in the fifth or sixth isn't conducive to piling up stats.

"Fortunately we have a guy like Andrew who doesn't care," Bere said.

Miller already received closer money from the Yankees and didn't make a peep when they brought in Aroldis Chapman last offseason and made him the closer, moving Miller to a setup role. Bere said the money is not the issue for Miller.

"That helps, certainly," Bere said. "But he just wants to pitch when the game is on the line, in high-leverage situations. He wouldn't be able to do what he does if we didn't have the other guys we have. Right now it's working."

According to fangraphs.com, Indians pitchers have thrown breaking balls on 34 percent of their pitches through Game 5, after the Cubs saw 25 percent breaking balls (curveballs and sliders) during the regular season. The Cubs had the eighth-worst average on curves in 2016.

This has resulted in some poor swings at pitches outside the zone by Javier Baez, Willson Contreras and others, either putting them behind in the count or resulting in weak contact.

"I know we've gotten some guys to expand (their zone) during this series," Bere said. "But I think it's how we got there, too, with some quality pitches early. Look at Corey Kluber in Game 1. His sinkers broke so late, and then they were chasing other pitches — and how can't you chase when he's throwing 94, 95 (mph), two-seamers that are catching the plate.

"You can't sit around and wait. I'm sure some people are saying, 'What are they swinging at? Well, did you see the other two pitches before?' "

Schwarber's return should help alleviate some of those issues since his batting eye and approach have been remarkable, especially considering he missed six months after knee surgery. The Cubs season is not on Schwarber's big shoulders, but he does carry a big stick.

It's funny to think that when the trade rumors began in July, Schwarber had to consider the possibility he could leave the organization he came up with and loved.

"I'm going to worry about being a Cub and worry about my rehab and worry about this team and them going to the World Series," he said that day.

Mission accomplished.

Now for your next assignment …

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Chicago Tribune Cubs trust Carl Edwards Jr., who could be their closer of the future By Paul Skrbina

Carl Edwards Jr. wore his black National League Central champion cap backward and held his 1-year-old daughter, Ava, in his valuable right arm as he and his family absorbed the division-clinching celebration at Wrigley Field on Sept. 16.

"This is something else," one family member said.

Something else is exactly what Edwards' future may hold.

If the present is an indication, the 25-year-old rookie reliever they call "the String Bean Slinger," the 6-foot-3, 170- pounder who on May 11 was called up from Triple-A Iowa to serve as the 26th man on the roster for a doubleheader and returned to the big leagues June 20, could be the team's closer of tomorrow.

With current closer Aroldis Chapman likely to be costly on the free-agent market and former closer Hector Rondon and setup man Pedro Strop seeing reduced roles in the postseason, Edwards might be the next man to be the last man in for the Cubs.

"Sometimes he speeds things up, but that's part of my job — to make sure he keeps the ball down and he keeps calm," rookie catcher Willson Contreras said earlier this season. "We're pretty much on the same page every time I'm catching him. It's a lot easier."

Edwards came to the Cubs from the Rangers with Justin Grimm, Mike Olt and a player to be named for Matt Garza in 2013.

He pitched 42/3 innings in five games last season. Thanks to a 96-mph four-seam fastball and an exceptional curveball, Edwards has landed in the good graces of Cubs manager Joe Maddon this year.

Edwards upped his innings to 36 in 36 appearances during the 2016 regular season, when he had a 3.75 ERA and allowed just 15 hits while striking out 52 of 138 batters. He has allowed four hits and one run in 52/3 postseason innings.

Maddon hasn't been shy about using Edwards in key situations in the postseason, either. He brought him in to start the seventh inning of a scoreless 1-Game 3. Edwards took loss that night after allowing an RBI single to Coco Crisp for the game's only run.

But Maddon went right back to him Sunday, again to start the seventh, this time to protect a one-run lead in relief of National League Cy Young Award front-runner Jon Lester.

Edwards didn't flinch.

"I didn't really feel any tension," he said. "I was just trying to do what I have to do to keep my team in it, to help us survive another day."

After Mike Napoli singled and moved to second on a passed ball, Edwards got Carlos Santana to fly out before giving way to Chapman, who went on to record a 2 2/3-inning save.

Edwards understood the move as he stood at his locker afterward, heaping praise on the man he could one day replace as the team's closer.

"I wasn't surprised. Joe Maddon is like a wizard," Edwards said. "Something had to tell him, 'Hey, Chapman can go 2 2/3 today.' I don't question him."

Question is, will Edwards be that guy in the near future?

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Chicago Tribune Cubs say no plans for watch party at Wrigley Field By Tim Bannon

The Cubs have no plans to host a Wrigley Field watch party for World Series Game 6 or, if necessary, Game 7.

"We made a decision early on not to host watch parties during postseason away games and that decision has not changed," Cubs spokesman Julian Green said Monday.

In Cleveland, the Indians hosted watch parties at Progressive Field this weekend for Games 3, 4 and 5 and announced total attendance of more than 67,218.

Those games that were played at Wrigley Field were shown on the giant video board at Progressive Field.

Last year, the Cubs said they explored the possibility of a watch party for the wild-card game against the Pirates, but decided against it after considering the logistics.

"Given the excitement we have seen from Cubs fans this season," Green said last year. "We know our fans will find a great place to watch the game and cheer on our team."

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