The Cubs have to be pretty fired up after their huge game five win at Wrigley. Aroldis Chapman, love him or hate him, chucked an unbelievable performance. Even Terry Francona was impressed by his velocity and composure through a playoff-high three innings of work to solidify the team’s 3-2 win. However, that’s in the past and now the Cubs need a massive showing to stay alive on the road and in a raucous environment. Alright, now that the stage is set, let’s talk Jake Arrieta.
The most well known beard in Chicago needs to repeat his unreal game two performance where he pitched 5 2/3, surrendered two hits and one run en route to the Cubs first World Series win since 1945. Now, they’ll need their bats to come alive should they want to walk out of Cleveland with a game seven ahead on Tuesday. They’ve been outscored in this series 17-10 and have only put up more than three runs once.
Now, for this to happen, their top four need to come alive. The meat of the order has to be just that, the meat of the order. Dexter Fowler, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Ben Zobrist have combined for a total of four RBI’s and 13 strikeouts. They need to bring their bats to Progressive on Tuesday or the Indians will likely be hoisting the gold. Now, with that said, the Cubs have received excellent production from Sunday night’s number seven hitter Javier Baez and pinch hitter/catcher William Contreras. So, even if the main guys don’t show, Chicago can still give themselves a chance. Excluding the World Series, thus far, they are still the highest scoring road team in the postseason. So the potential is there, they’ll just need to dig down deep for this one.
The Indians are putting a very strong Josh Tomlin on the hill. He’s 2-0 this postseason and pitched 4.2 innings of shutout work on Friday in Cleveland’s game three 1-0 win. Tomlin has been a shutdown pitcher since September 25th, when he still only gave up one run, in his last loss against the White Sox. Prior to that, he hadn’t put an ‘L’ on the board since August 25th. The kid has been solid and will be a strong candidate for further hardware once the World Series comes to a close.
As for the Indians’ bats, they have been fairly hot at home. Game two was a rough one, but seven runs in two games really isn’t that bad. If the team can muster even a few runs, they’ll give themselves a great chance to win with Tomlin on the bump. He’s only given up nine hits and three runs in nearly 15 innings this postseason and has only required minimal bat support. He can win this game for Cleveland single-handily. If the batting order can wake up from Sunday’s slumber – this game could be a cake walk for Cleveland.
Writer’s Prediction
Cleveland comes out strong but Chicago forces a game seven with a 3-2 win.
