Behind Russell, Cubs Send Series To Game Seven

The Cubs know how special a season this has been for their franchise and their city.

Clearly, they aren’t ready for it to be over.

Kris Bryant homered in the first inning and Addison Russell hit a grand slam in the third to cap a huge early outburst, and the Cubs routed the Indians 9-3 in Game Six of the World Series on Tuesday night in Cleveland to even the series at three games apiece.

The winner-take-all Game Seven will be played Wednesday night in Cleveland.

“It’s just no panic,” Russell said postgame. “It’s a lifestyle. We’re here to have some fun. We’re here to win some ballgames. We’re going to pick some teammates up. That’s just our game. That’s how we’ve played all year.”

With the Cubs trying to crawl back from a 3-1 series hole, Bryant got his team started off on the right foot. The presumptive National League MVP homered off Josh Tomlin to put the Indians up right away and start a two-out rally, aided by sloppy Indians defense in the outfield.

Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist followed Bryant’s blast with back-to-back singles and Russell’s routine fly ball to right fell in between center fielder Tyler Naquin and Lonnie Chisenhall, who both backed off thinking the other would take it. Rizzo scored easily from second and Zobrist made it all the way home from first after Jason Kipnis’ relay throw took catcher Roberto Perez up the line for an error.

To add insult to injury, Zobrist slammed into Perez on his way to the plate, a legal play representative of the sudden thwack the Cubs had just laid on the Indians.

“I love this team with our backs against the wall,” Bryant said. “We saw it two days ago, we saw it tonight, it was just really good baseball.”

It got worse for the Tribe in the third. Tomlin loaded the bases with one out and was pulled in favor of Dan Otero. Otero promptly served up a long grand slam to Russell to center field, making it 7-0 Cubs.

That massive lead was more than enough for Cubs starter Jake Arrieta, who struck out nine over 5 2/3 innings while giving up only three hits.

Mike Napoli’s RBI single in the fourth and Kipnis’ solo home run in the fifth were all the Indians could manage offensively against Arrieta, never close to recovering from their early seven-run hole.

The Cubs brought in relief ace Aroldis Chapman just to be safe in the top of the seventh, and he got them to the ninth. It was Chapman’s second consecutive game entering in the seventh inning, but manager Joe Maddon said he doesn’t expect the workload—20 pitches on Tuesday—to prevent him from pitching in Game Seven.

“He’s a very strong young man and I’ll talk to him,” Maddon said, “but I think he’ll be fine for Game Seven honestly.”

Rizzo added a final blow with a long-two-run homer in the ninth. The Cubs rapped out 13 hits, including four by Bryant and three by Rizzo.

American League Cy Young Award candidate Corey Kluber will take the mound for the Indians in Game Seven against Kyle Hendricks, the National League ERA leader during the regular season.

“You dream for that,” Bryant said. “We know it’s going to be a good game. We know their guy is going to be good (and) we’ve got one of our best pitchers this year too going. You dream for this.”

Terry Francona and Maddon have squared off in a Game Seven before when the Rays beat the Red Sox in the 2008 ALCS.

“It’s Game 7,” Francona said. “You’ve got two really, really good pitchers, and it will be exciting.”