The entire baseball season comes down to this moment.
The Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs.
1948 vs. 1908.
One of these two teams will finally break that long championship drought that has plagued them for so long.
Unlike the Cubs, who until now hadn’t gone to the Series since 1945, the Indians had two chances in the 1990’s to end their winning drought, both times they fell to the Atlanta Braves and the (then Florida, now Miami) Marlins. The Marlins series in particular was very heartbreaking because the Indians were just two outs away from winning only to lose it all in the 9th.
Game 1 is scheduled for Tuesday in Cleveland, where Wild Thing sadly will not throw out the first pitch, or any pitch for that matter. Whose drought will come to an end? Will the Indians continue Cleveland’s magical year, or will the Cubs fulfill their destiny and win their first World Series since 1908? Stay tuned to find out.
Pitching
The Cubs have a more heralded rotation simply because it is stacked with big names like Jon Lester, Jake Arietta, and John Lackey, with Aroldis Chapman closing out the games but do not sell the Indians short. They can match up just as well with Corey Kluber, Josh Tomlin, Trevor Bauer and Ryan Merritt. There are also reports saying that Danny Salazar may be returning for the World Series, so that adds some extra umph for the Indians.
But the real strength of the Indians this postseason has been their bullpen, anchored by Andrew Miller and closer Cody Allen. They have effectively shut down their opponents in the later innings throughout these entire playoffs.
Batting
With all of those great arms, where the heck are you going to get offense?
That should not be too hard. These two teams have two very different styles of scoring runs. The Indians score runs by manufacturing them, such as sacrifices, timely hits and home runs, while the Cubs are looking to blast it out of the park every chance they get.
The Cubs once again have the more heralded lineup here with 2015 Rookie of the Year Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Addison Russell anchoring one of the most dangerous lineups in baseball. These guys are always looking for that big home run and do just enough to get the win on the backs of their pitchers.
The Indians counter with Jason Kipnis, Mike Napoli, Jose Ramirez, Lonnie Chisenhall, and Carlos Santana. These guys have come through with big hits when they needed them simply because their pitching has been so lights out this postseason, they haven’t needed to score a bunch of runs but with the Cubs, it will be a different story.
Who Wins?
This series has the potential to be an instant classic simply because of the implications surrounding both sides and also the drama of the Cubs finally getting to the World Series, but I think the Indians will continue Cleveland’s magical ride this year.
Indians in seven.
It’s going to be a wild ride, fans, so let’s enjoy it while we can.
