Updated at 11:55 p.m. ET with final score
The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago Cubs 6-0 in Game 1 of the 2016 World Series on the strength of a commanding performance by their starter Corey Kluber who struck out nine batters over six innings.
Kluber was so dominant that he struck out eight of the first nine Cubs batters he faced. He had the help of back-up catcher Roberto Perez who clobbered two home runs.
Cubs starter Jon Lester gave up three runs over 5 2/3 innings. The Indians got to Lester early in the game. He gave up a hit and walked two batters in the top of the first inning before giving up an infield hit and hitting a batter. By the end of the first, the Indians were ahead 2-0 and their fans smelled blood.
The Indians added another run when Perez hit a home run to left field off Lester in the fourth inning. He struck again in the bottom of the eighth inning hitting a three-run homer, again to left field, off reliever Hector Rondon.
The Cubs twice threatened to get back in the game. In the seventh inning, they loaded the bases with no outs, but Indians reliever Andrew Miller shut them down. In the eighth inning, the Cubs put two runners on base but again failed to score.
Our original post:
Game 1 of the 2016 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians is underway.
The home-team Indians jumped out to 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after Cubs starter Jon Lester walked the bases full and then gave up an infield hit and hit a batter.
Both teams have waited decades to call themselves champions. As the Two-Way reported earlier, it's been 68 years since the Indians last won the Series and 108 years since the Cubs were baseball's champions.
(The last time the Indians played in the World Series was 1997 and they lost in a seven-game series to the then-Florida Marlins.)
Typically, a World Series generates its own excitement. Still, with all due respect to baseball's Chicago Cubs, Major League Baseball's best regular-season team with 103 victories this year, tonight is a special night in Cleveland.
Before the first pitch, Indians fans streaming into Progressive Field were bouncing off the vibes from the arena right next door.
That is Quicken Loans Arena, where the National Basketball Association's current kings, the Cleveland Cavaliers, are kicking off their 2016-17 season. Tonight they raised a championship banner from their historic 2015-16 season when they became the first NBA team to overcome a 3-1 game deficit and win the series against the Golden State Warriors.
But enough of basketball — my colleague Tom Goldman is on the scene at Progressive Field, and he summed up the mood inside the ballpark this way: "You can see it in the eyes of every fan here in Cleveland. The Cavs! The Indians! It's beyond festive. It's a dream come true in Cleveland!"
The temperature at game time was 50 degrees. Ski hats and parkas are in full force, says Tom, and of course, the coats and headgear are mostly in the Indians' red, white and blue colors.
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