The Cleveland Indians used dominant pitching and a few big hits to score a 6-0 win over the Chicago Cubs to take Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday night at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
A pair of first-inning runs—thanks to an infield single and a hit by pitch, both with the bases loaded—were all Cleveland needed with ace Corey Kluber and stud relievers Andrew Miller and Cody Allen combining on a seven-hit shutout, the team’s second straight shutout in postseason play.
Catcher Roberto Perez had two home runs to pad the Indians’ margin of victory, a solo shot in the fourth and a three-run bomb in the eighth. He had three homers in 61 games during the regular season, when he batted .183.
Kluber went six-plus innings and allowed four hits with nine strikeouts. Eight of those were in the first three innings, the most in the first three frames of any World Series game, and six were on called strikes. He left after allowing a leadoff single in the seventh and then Miller gave up a walk and a single to load the bases with no out before getting out of the jam.
Chicago got two more on in the eighth against Miller, who threw 46 pitches in two innings of work for his most pitches since he was a starter in 2011. Allen allowed a double but then retired the other three batters to close it in the ninth.
The Cubs will look to even the series on Wednesday when Jake Arrieta goes against Cleveland’s Trevor Bauer. First pitch is set for just after 7 p.m. ET, moved up an hour because of a threat of rain in the area.
Scroll down for all of our updates, analysis, statistics, tweets, pictures and anything else worth noting from Cleveland.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com