Clay Buchholz Traded to Phillies

The Red Sox have traded Clay Buchholz to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Boston will receive minor-league second baseman Josh Tobias, who played in Class A last year.

Buchholz's departure leaves six pitchers vying for spots in the Red Sox's 2017 rotation: Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, Drew Pomeranz, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Steven Wright.

In other news:

Koji Uehara signed a one-year deal with the Chicago Cubs.

Junichi Tazawa and Brad Ziegler each signed two-year contracts with the Miami Marlins.

The Recent Additions

In addition to starting pitcher Chris Sale, the Red Sox have also recently picked up right-handed reliever Tyler Thornburg and first baseman/DH Mitch Moreland.

Alex Speier writes about how it all happened.

The conversation was largely philosophical: What did it mean to pursue deals that would make the team better over the next three years but that would have consequences beyond that?

Schadenfreude 201 (A Continuing Series)

Chris Sale Joins Red Sox Rotation After Surprising Trade

The Red Sox have acquired pitcher Chris Sale in a blockbuster trade.

The White Sox will receive infielder Yoan Moncada, pitcher Michael Kopech, outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe, and pitcher Victor Diaz.

Sale will turn 28 next March 30. He pitched for the White Sox for seven seasons.

AL MVP: Mookie Betts Finishes Second To Mike Trout

Mike Trout has played five full seasons in the major leagues - and a very strong case can be made for him deserving the AL's Most Valuable Player award in all five of them. His finishes? 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 1st.

They have not posted the voters' individual ballots, yet, so I don't know who is the mind-boggling dumb idiot who had Trout 7th on his ballot.

Rick Porcello Wins AL Cy Young Award

Rick Porcello has won the 2016 American league Cy Young Award.

Detroit's Justin Verlander received 14 first-place votes to only eight for Porcello, but the Boston right-hander got 18 second-place votes compared to Verlander's two to enable him to win in a very close race.

Pitcher, Team            1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   Points
Rick Porcello, Red Sox      8    18     2     1     1     137
Justin Verlander, Tigers   14     2     5     4     3     132
Corey Kluber, Indians       3     6    12     8     1      98
Zach Britton, Orioles       5     3     2     5     9      72
Chris Sale, White Sox             1     4     9     6      40
J.A. Happ, Blue Jays                    3     2     1      14
Aaron Sanchez, Blue Jays                1           3       6
Masahiro Tanaka, Yankees                      1     4       6
Andrew Miller, Yankees/Indians          1                   3
Michael Fulmer, Tigers                              1       1
Jose Quintana, White Sox                            1       1

BBWAA:

The five-point differential is the second closest of any election since ballots permitted voting for more than one pitcher in 1970. Verlander, who was not listed on two ballots, also finished second in the 2012 election to the Tampa Bay Rays' David Price, 153-149.

Ian Browne, MLB.com:

In 27 of Porcello's 33 starts, he allowed three earned runs or fewer. In nearly half of his starts -- 16 of them -- he permitted two earned runs or fewer. And on nine occasions, Porcello gave up one or zero earned runs.

Then there was the durability. Not only did the 27-year-old make every start, but he never went fewer than five innings. In fact, he lasted fewer than six innings a remarkable three times all year. ...

Porcello led the Majors with 22 wins, the most by a Boston pitcher since Martinez's 23-4 masterpiece in 1999.

Check out various other portions of the leaderboard, and Porcello isn't hard to find. He was fifth in the AL in ERA (3.15), second in WHIP (1.01), fourth in innings (223), second in BB/9 (1.29) and first in the Majors with a 5.91 SO/BB ratio. ...

When the pennant race heated up, so did Porcello. From June 28 through the end of the season, Porcello turned in 17 quality starts in his final 18 outings.

Howard Bryant: "The Mascot Must Go"

Howard Bryant, ESPN:

[B]aseball apparently needs to be told right from wrong, as a kindergartner would be about calling people names. One ubiquitous image ran throughout the [World] Series, and it wasn't the video feed from some North Side tavern of delirious Cubs fans sloshing beer on one another after the eventual winners scored yet another run. It was the red face of Chief Wahoo emblazoned on the sleeves of the Indians' uniforms and on the front of their baseball caps, the caricature of big teeth and the untrustworthy smile preceding deception.

[Commissioner Rob] Manfred has said, completely unconvincingly, that there is no place for racism in the game of baseball. He is wrong, of course. There is a place for it in baseball, and that place is on the jerseys and caps of Cleveland's baseball club, the blankets, T-shirts and foam fingers it sells, along with virtually everything for sale in the team gift shop. Before Game 2, sitting next to Aaron and Ortiz, Manfred did the worst thing a white man in his position could do: He attempted to turn an obvious issue of simple decency into one of the great, complex and wrenching issues of our time. He said he and Indians owner Paul Dolan would "revisit the issue" of Chief Wahoo, as if an image borne from one of the most racist periods in American history required further review, discussion, caucus or, worse, some form of canvassing of an indigenous tribe to ask if it's offended by the use of the logo, as if the commissioner of a multibillion-dollar industry has no common sense of his own. ...

Manfred took the question of Chief Wahoo with a head shake and a flash of temper, as if he were the one being inconvenienced by baseball's willful racism. There is a difference between difficult and complicated, and the issue of Native Americans as caricatures for sports teams might be difficult because the white men in charge have no interest in the courage it would take to retire top-selling images or confront the appearance of succumbing to public pressure, of being told what to do and to alienate the overwhelmingly white season-ticket base. But it is not complicated. ... The mascot must go.

Mookie Betts Has Surgery On Right Knee

Mookie Betts underwent successful right knee arthroscopy, chondroplasty, and a loose body removal on Thursday. He should be fully recovered by spring training. Betts was also named as the best defensive player in baseball, which is amazing since he moved from second base to the outfield very recently (2014).

Gary DiSarcina will be the Red Sox's new bench coach. He managed the Lowell Spinners from 2007-09 and was Pawtucket's manager in 2013.

The 2017 spring training schedule has been released. ... Truck Day is Monday, February 6.

Red Sox Pick Up Buchholz's 2017 Option

Various bits of news as the offseason gets underway:

The Red Sox picked up Clay Buchholz's $13.5 million option for 2017. WEEI's Rob Bradford explains why that was a good move.

On the other hand, the team decided not to exercise catcher Ryan Hanigan's option.

The Arizona Diamondbacks hired Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo as their manager. Lovullo had been John Farrell's bench coach in Boston for the past four seasons and he stepped in as interim manager late in 2015 when Farrell underwent treatment for lymphoma.

JetBlue Airlines announced that it was naming Gate 34 in Terminal C at Logan Airport after David Ortiz. Big Papi's reaction? "You mean I'm going to have my own gate at the airport? You're [messing] with me, aren't you?"

Thomas Boswell Shares The Game 7 Column That He Did Not File

A look behind the typewriter: Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell has posted the column he would have filed had the Cubs lost Game 7 of the 2016 World Series.

First Boswell explains:

When Game 7 of the World Series ends in the 10th inning at 12:47 a.m. — and every print journalist in the press box has a deadline that just became . . . 12:47 a.m. — you have to have two completely opposite versions of reality operating in your mind simultaneously, each given equal authority because both truly are possible. So below is the beginning of the column that I had written, but of course never filed, about Cleveland's wonderful world title — and Chicago's almost unthinkable blown lead.

Then, a key portion:

The foolish overuse of Chapman in Game 6 by Cubs Manager Joe Maddon will now, with hindsight, be the future measuring stick for fretful over-managing. In Game 5, Chapman got a career-high eight outs to save a 3-2 win, using 42 pitches. On Tuesday, Maddon used the southpaw for a crucial out in the seventh inning. That should have been enough, since the Cubs took a five-run lead into the eighth. Yet Chapman pitched the entire eighth inning.

Then, almost inconceivably, Maddon left Chapman in to face the first hitter of the ninth inning, despite a 9-2 Chicago lead. Remember, Chapman also threw a total of 24 warmup pitches in those three innings, most of them close to 100 mph.

After that game, Tribe Manager Terry Francona had said, "We hung around enough so at least Chapman had to pitch. You never know; that might help us."

Indeed. Maddon has done what seemed impossible. He's made former Boston manager Grady Little look like a genius for leaving Pedro Martinez in too long against the Yanks with the 2003 pennant on the line.

And here is the column Boswell was writing at the same time, the one in which the Cubs won.

In Chicago, Five Million Attend Cubs Parade

The World Champion Chicago Cubs had their victory parade today - and five million people showed up.

The Cubs Finally Won The World Series, And It Took One Of The Best Baseball Games Ever To Do It
Grant Brisbee, SB Nation

The Chicago Cubs, the best team in baseball, won the World Series. This is going to look a lot less mysterious to future generations, when they look back at the standings, the stats, the eventual careers these players will have. Decades from now, the future folk might not remember what a Bryan Shaw is, but they might know Kris Bryant, and they’ll look at the 2016 Cubs and nothing will seem out of place. What a fine team, they might remark.

The rest of us will just sit here, blinking a lot and shivering, until the future folk find us and give us water and sustenance. Because the Cubs just won the World Series, and the fabric of reality is in tatters, and there are kittens playing with the tatters. The Cubs. The Cubs won the World Series.

In Chicago, The Final Wait For A Cubs Win Mixes Joy And Sorrow
Wright Thompson, Senior Writer, ESPN The Magazine

CUBS FANS awoke Wednesday to one last wait, with little to do before Game 7 but think, about themselves and their families, about the people who've come and gone during these 108 years of failure. Hundreds found themselves drawn to Wrigley Field, where workers were already breaking down the concessions and cleaning out the freezers. Some people said they didn't even mean to come. They started off on a trip to the store and ended up standing in front of the stadium's long brick wall facing Waveland Avenue. Many wrote chalk notes to the dead. Some dedicated messages. This one's for you, Dad. Others wrote names. Dan Bird. Ben Bird. Eugene Hendershott. A man with a bright smile but melancholy eyes wrote the name of his late wife, Andrea Monhollen. They met four blocks from here, on Racine. She's been gone six years.

Cubs' WS Win Has '04 Sox Reflecting On Title
Ian Browne, MLB.com

Gabe Kapler: "When the cameras flashes to the fan base and you see how desperately they are hanging on every single pitch, it all looked so familiar. I remember how we would look out into the stands at Fenway and how emotional the mothers and the fathers and the grandmothers and the family members were. They were deeply, deeply invested in the outcome of even the tiniest nuances of the game. That was the same sort of investment happening in Cleveland and in Chicago."

Maddon Nearly Choked Away Cubs' Chances With Bad Bullpen Decisions

Joe Maddon Did His Best To Try And Add To Cubs' Misery, 'He Choked' As Manager In The World Series
Andy Martino, Daily News

"It's amazing to say, but they won despite him, not because of him," said one rival scout Thursday morning, echoing an opinion that bounced around baseball all Wednesday night and into the morning. "He choked."

Wednesday night, Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks was cruising, and Maddon decided to get cute. Like a child demanding a new toy, even though the one he had was perfectly fine, the antsy manager started warming up Jon Lester, and called on him with two outs in the fifth inning ...

[E]ven though Lester ended up pitching effectively, the manager's early hook on Hendricks set into motion a complicated bullpen mess that was entirely avoidable, and led to an exhausted Chapman allowing a game-tying homer to Rajai Davis. Maddon merely needed to stay inside himself and manage as if this were a regular game, and he likely would have won easily.

The Inning The Cubs Stole
Dave Cameron, Fangraphs

I don't know if there's any way to tell the story of Game 7 without talking about how that game was almost lost in the bottom of the ninth on multiple occasions. An overworked pitcher with nothing left, throwing meatballs to Cleveland's best hitters, and it somehow resulted in a 1-2-3 inning. That's baseball for you.

The Cubs absolutely deserve to be champions today. They were the best team of 2016, and this time, the postseason rewarded season-long excellence. But man, that bottom of the ninth. That could have so easily gone differently. That probably should have gone differently.

World Series 7: Cubs 8, Cleveland 7 (10)

Cubs      - 100 221 000 2 - 8 13  3
Cleveland - 001 020 030 1 - 7 11  1

Kyle Hendricks / Corey Kluber

This is the 38th World Series Game 7. In the previous 37, the home team has won 19 times, the road team 18.

Billy Witz, New York Times:

The Chicago Cubs, who have endured 108 years without a championship, and the Cleveland Indians, who have waited a mere 68, are nothing if not patient.

So what's one more day?

All those decades of disappointment and heartbreak will be washed away for one of these franchises on Wednesday night as the 112th World Series culminates in a Game 7. ...

The winner will relish what will surely be viewed as a transformative victory in either city. The loser will be left with another chapter of anguish — perhaps the cruelest one in a history of them.

Zack Meisel, Cleveland.com:

This is it. There's no Game 8. There's no next round. There's only a long, bone-chilling winter ahead for one team and a long off-season marked by championship splendor for the other.

Rick Morissey, Chicago Sun-Times:

A Game 7 involving the long-suffering Chicago Cubs and the long-suffering Cleveland Indians to decide which team finally gets sprung from its respective prison cell. Who thought up this ridiculous storyline? Someone with a sense of humor and a mean streak. When it's all over, one team is not going to know what to do with itself, and the other is going to walk away crushed – again.

Richard Sandomir, New York Times:

Through five games, the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians has attracted the most viewers for the Series since 2004, when the Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals to win their first title in 86 years.

World Series 6: Cubs 9, Cleveland 3

Cubs      - 304 000 002 - 9 13  0
Cleveland - 000 110 001 - 3  6  1

Addison Russell drove in six runs, with a two-run double and a grand slam, as the Cubs forced a Game 7 in Cleveland. Tomorrow night's game will be the third Game 7 in the last six seasons; the 2011 and 2014 World Series also went the distance.

Jake Arrieta (5.2-3-2-2-9, 102) pitched very well, although he did leave the bases loaded in the fourth. He was pulled after issuing a two-out walk in the sixth.

Before that, though, Chicago battered Josh Tomlin (2.1-6-6-0-1, 48). Tomlin began the game by getting two outs on only five pitches, but Kris Bryant (4-for-5) homered to left. After singles by Anthony Rizzo (3-for-5) and Ben Zobrist (2-for-4), Russell lifted a fly ball to right center. There was miscommunication between center fielder Tyler Naquin and right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall and the ball fell untouched between them, and two runs scored.

In the third, Kyle Schwarber walked and after Bryant popped to right, Rizzo and Zobrist singled, loading the bases. Cleveland manager Terry Francona yanked Tomlin and brought in Dan Otero. Russell blasted Otero's 2-0 pitch to left-center for the 19th grand slam in World Series history. Russell's six RBI also tied a World Series record (Bobby Richardson (1960), Hideki Matsui (2009), and Albert Pujols (2011)).

In the first five games against Cleveland, the Cubs were 12-for-77 (.156) with men on base. In the first three innings tonight, they went 5-for-7.

Chicago manager Joe Maddon made a curious decision to use Aroldis Chapman in the seventh inning. Lefty Mike Montgomery had put two men on and even though the Cubs led by five runs, Maddon went with the fireballer who had thrown 42 pitches in grabbing an eight-out save in Game 5. Chapman got the final out of the seventh on a grounder to first, taking the underhanded toss from Rizzo and stepping on the bag a split-second before Francisco Lindor. Actually, the initial call was safe, but that was overturned when the Cubs challenged. (That was really the only time that Cleveland had a chance to come back. If the initial call had stood, Cleveland would have had the potential tying run on-deck.)

Up by five and with six outs to go, Maddon seemed over-cautious in tapping Chapman for the eighth. After a strikeout, he gave up a single to Jose Ramirez, then got pinch-hitter Yan Gomes to ground into a double play. Maddon, after the game: "It was just the middle of their batting order. There was just no other way to look at that and feel good, man. That could have been the ballgame right there."

Rizzo hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth, giving Chicago a seven-run advantage, and Maddon still had Chapman start the ninth. The move really made no sense, since Maddon could need Chapman for multiple innings in Game 7. (And if Maddon doesn't trust his other relievers to get three outs before allowing seven runs, why are they even on the roster?) After Chapman walked Brandon Guyer to start the inning, Maddon went to Pedro Strop and Travis Wood to close out the game. Chapman ended up throwing 20 pitches.

Bryant and Rizzo are the first 3-4 hitters in World Series history to have a combined seven hits.

The Cubs (1945) and Cleveland (1997) have each played one World Series Game 7 - they both lost.

Jake Arrieta / Josh Tomlin

World Series 5: Cubs 3, Cleveland 2

Cleveland - 010 001 000 - 2  6  1
Cubs      - 000 300 00x - 3  7  0

Trevor Bauer / Jon Lester

Cleveland could end 68 years of baseball futility with a victory tonight.

Thirty-nine of the 44 teams that have led a World Series 3-1 went on to win the championship. ... The last team to win Games 3, 4, and 5 of a World Series on the road was the 1996 Yankees.

In 12 postseason games, Cleveland has allowed only 22 runs (an average of 1.8 runs per game). ... They have allowed more than two runs in only four of those 12 games.

As for the Cubs, no team has come back from 1-3 to win the World Series since the 1985 Royals. Here are the five World Series teams to do so:

1925 - Pirates over Senators
1958 - Yankees over Milwaukee
1968 - Tigers over Cardinals
1979 - Pirates over Orioles
1985 - Royals over Cardinals

The Cubs have a World Series batting average of .141 (9-for-64) and a OPS of .390 with runners on base. ... With runners at second and/or third, Chicago is 5-for-37 (.135).

LOL: With victories in Games 3 and 4, Cleveland has as many World Series wins at Wrigley Field in two days as the Cubs do in 100 years. Chicago is 2-13 on its home field in the WS.

World Series 4: Cleveland 7, Cubs 2

Cleveland - 021 001 300 - 7 10  0
Cubs      - 100 000 010 - 2  7  2

Pitching on short rest for only the second time in his career, Corey Kluber (6-5-1-1-6, 81) quieted the Cubs' bats once again - and brought Cleveland to within one game of baseball's 2016 championship. Jason Kipnis (3-for-5) put the game out of reach with a three-run homer off Travis Wood in the seventh. Cleveland can clinch its first World Series since 1948 with a win tomorrow night.

Before tonight's game, the team that had scored first in every LCS and World Series game had been victorious (14-0). But after the Cubs had taken a 1-0 lead in the first, Chicago starter John Lackey (5-4-3-1-5, 84) gave it right back. Carlos Santana began the top of the second with a home run. Two errors from Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant, along with an infield single from Kluber, brought in another run. Cleveland made it 3-1 in the third when Kipnis doubled and scored in Francisco Lindor's single.

The Cubs put two runners on base with two outs in the third (walk, HBP), but Kluber struck out Ben Zobrist in an eight-pitch at-bat. Anthony Rizzo doubled to open the home half of the sixth, but Kluber stranded him there, as Zobrist flied to left, Willson Contreras struck out, and Addison Russell grounded to third.

Even with a six-run lead, Terry Francona did not screw around. He had Andrew Miller pitch the seventh and eighth innings. Miller retired the side in the seventh and allowed a leadoff homer to Dexter Fowler in the eighth. Dan Otero gave up a one-out single in the ninth, but had no other trouble.

Kluber has allowed only three earned runs in 30.1 postseason innings this month (0.89 ERA). Only Christy Mathewson has had a lower ERA over his first five postseason outings (0.38).

Corey Kluber / John Lackey

Tonight's game seems like a must-win for the Cubs. If they lose, they are down 1-3, with two of the possible three remaining games in Cleveland. And 69 of 81 teams (85%) up 3-1 in a best-of-7 went on to win the series.

World Series 3: Cleveland 1, Cubs 0

Cleveland - 000 000 100 - 1  8  1
Cubs      - 000 000 000 - 0  5  0

In its 11 postseason games, Cleveland has pitched five shutouts.

Josh Tomlin (4.2-2-0-1-1, 58) was pulled with two outs in the fifth with an extremely low pitch count, but it did not matter. Terry Francona's bullpen trio of Andrew Miller, Bryan Shaw, and Cody Allen kept the Cubs off the scoreboard.

Coco Crisp drove in the game's only run with a first-pitch, pinch-hit single off Carl Edwards that scored Michael Martinez from third with two outs.

Chicago had some chances to tie the game in the late innings. Jorge Soler tripled down the right field line with two outs in the seventh, but he was jogging out of the box and perhaps missed a chance at an inside-the-park home run. With pinch-runner Jason Heyward at third, Javier Baez grounded to shortstop.

In the bottom of the ninth, Anthony Rizzo singled and Chris Coghlan went in to run. Ben Zobrist struck out and Willson Contreras grounded out to third.  Coghlan took third on that groundout and went to third as Heyward reached on a fielding error by Mike Napoli. With Baez batting, Heyward dashed to second. It was Baez again with the chance to possibly win the game with a hit, but he struck out on a high fastball on a 2-2 count, ending the game.

Josh Tomlin / Kyle Hendricks

Tonight's game is the first World Series game played at Wrigley Field since October 10, 1945 (25,950 days).

At 5:30 this morning, Cubs fans were already lining up outside bars in Wrigleyville:

Cover charge at most of the bars: $100.

Also: "The Postseason Strike Zone Isn't Any Better"

World Series 2: Cubs 5, Cleveland 1

Cubs      - 101 030 000 - 5  9  0
Cleveland - 000 001 000 - 1  4  2

The Cubs evened the World Series at one game apiece as Jake Arrieta (5.2-2-1-3-6, 98) took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and the trio of Anthony Rizzo (double, 2 walks, 2 runs, RBI), Ben Zobrist (single, triple, walk, run, RBI), and Kyle Schwarber (2 singles, 2 RBI, walk, run) - Chicago's 3-4-5 hitters - led the offense.

The Cubs lineup was the first in postseason history with six players who are 24 years old or younger (Schwarber, Kris Bryant, Javier Báez, Addison Russell, Jorge Soler, Willson Contreras).

Arrieta's 5.1 innings was the longest no-hit bid in a World Series game since the Mets' Jerry Koosman went six no-hit innings against the Orioles in Game 2 of the 1969 World Series.

Trevor Bauer (3.2-6-2-2-2, 87) did not have to contend with a bloody finger on his pitching hand, but he was not sharp regardless. He needed 29 pitches to get through the first inning. With one out, Kris Bryant singled and scored on Rizzo's double. In the third, Rizzo walked with two outs and singles by Zobrist and Schwarber brought him home to make it 2-0. Bauer threw 71 pitches through three innings, and he did not escape the fourth.

Chicago scored three times in the fifth. Zach McAllister walked Rizzo with one out. Zobrist lined a shot into the right field corner which was probably going to be a double before Lonnie Chisenhall slipped and fell fielding the ball. Zobrist ended up with a triple and an RBI. Bryan Shaw came in for Cleveland and promptly gave up an RBI-single to Schwarber. After Javier Baez struck out for the second out, Willson Contreras reached on an infield error and Shaw walked the next two men on only nine pitches, the last one forcing home Chicago's fifth run.

Meanwhile, Cleveland could do nothing with Arrieta, even though the Cubs starter was not pinpoint sharp; he walked two men in the first inning and one in the fourth. Up 5-0 in the sixth, he finally allowed a hit to his 20th batter, when Jason Kipnis doubled to right center. A groundout moved Kipnis to third and he scored on a wild pitch. After Mike Napoli singled, Cubs manager Joe Maddon called on lefty Mike Montgomery.

Montgomery struck out the first two batters in the seventh before Brandon Guyer singled and Roberto Perez walked. Nonplussed, Montgomery fanned Dexter Fowler on three pitches. After giving up a two-out single to Napoli in the eighth, Montgomery was relieved by Aroldis Chapman, who struck out Jose Ramirez to end the inning. Chapman walked Guyer with two outs in the ninth, but got Perez to ground to shortstop to end the game.

Cleveland's defeat was the first World Series loss of Terry Francona's managing career. He is 9-1 after sweeps with the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007 and Cleveland's victory in Game 1 on Tuesday.) ... In addition to their nine hits, the Cubs batters drew eight walks. ... Game 3 will be at Wrigley Field on Friday night.

Jake Arrieta / Trevor Bauer

World Series 1: Cleveland 6, Cubs 0

Cubs      - 000 000 000 - 0  7  0
Cleveland - 200 100 03x - 6 10  0

Corey Kluber (6-4-0-0-9, 88) set a postseason record by striking out eight batters in the first three innings. Roberto Perez hit two home runs and drove in four runs.

Cleveland got on the board quickly against Jon Lester (5.2-6-3-3-7, 97). Lester got the first two outs in the opening inning on only five pitches, but then the next five Cubs reached base. Francisco Lindor grounded a single up the middle and stole second. Lester walked Mike Napoli and Carlos Santana, loading the bases. Jose Ramirez's infield single brought home one run and when Brandon Guyer was hit by a pitch, it was 2-0.

The only real threat Chicago made in the first six innings was when Ben Zobrist (3-for-4) doubled to lead off the second. Kluber promptly struck out the next three hitters. Zobrist also led off the seventh with a hit - and that was when Cleveland manager Terry Francona called on Andrew Miller.

Miller was not as lights-out as he had been in the ALCS, He walked the first man he faced and then allowing a single that loaded the bases with none out. But the Cubs - with the potential go-ahead run at the plate - would come up empty, managing only a pop-up to short center and two strikeouts. Chicago put two men on against Miller in the eighth, but Kyle Schwarber, playing in his first major league game since April 7, struck out.

Miller ended up throwing 46 pitches, the most he has thrown in a game this season. Will he be available for Game 2? The last time a reliever threw at least 46 pitches and then worked the next day was Keith Foulke, in the 2004 ALCS.

Francona is now 9-0 in World Series games. ... The last Game 1 shutout was by the 1990 Reds. ... The start of Game 2 has been moved up an hour, to 7 PM, because of rain in the forecast.

Jon Lester / Corey Kluber

World Series Schedule (All Games 8 PM)

Game 1: Tuesday, October 25: Cubs at Cleveland
Game 2: Wednesday, October 26: Cubs at Cleveland
Game 3: Friday, October 28: Cleveland at Cubs
Game 4: Saturday, October 29: Cleveland at Cubs
Game 5: Sunday, October 30: Cleveland at Cubs
Game 6: Tuesday, November 1: Cubs at Cleveland
Game 7: Wednesday, November 2: Cubs at Cleveland

The 112th World Series features the two major league teams with the longest championship droughts. The Chicago Cubs have not won baseball's championship since 1908, while Cleveland last won in 1948.

The Cubs are making their 11th appearance in the World Series (1906, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, 1945). That is only one fewer than the Red Sox. For Cleveland, it is their sixth World Series (1920, 1948, 1954, 1995, 1997). (Winning years are in bold.)

The two team's logos, from roughly when they each last won a title - Cubs (1911-14), Cleveland (1946-50):

Also:

Sam Miller, ESPN: Are Statheads Responsible For The Most Exciting Postseason In Years?

Grant Brisbee, SB Nation: The Cubs Won The Pennant Because Curses Are Dumb

August Fagerstrom, Fangraphs: The Math Behind Jon Lester's Harmless Oddities

Jeff Sullivan, Fangraphs: Why They Don't Run Like Mad On Jon Lester

Corinne Landrey, Fangraphs: Does Cleveland Even Need Danny Salazar?

John Woodrow Cox, Chicago Tribune: Chief Wahoo, Cleveland Indians' Logo, Heads To The World Series. Prepare For Outrage.

Sports Media Overwhelmingly Pick Cubs To Win World Series

The "experts" at several sports media outlets have posted their predictions for the World Series - and most of them expect the Chicago Cubs to end their 108-year title drought.

ESPN: 26 of 32 pick the Cubs

MLB.com: 11 of 14 pick the Cubs

CBS Sports: 5 of 6 pick the Cubs

SI/Fox Sports: 4 of 6 pick the Cubs

The Sporting News: 4 of 5 pick the Cubs

My pick: Cubs in 6.