Finally, the 2016 MLB World Series is here!
The Chicago Cubs will appear in their first World Series since 1945, the same year the so-called Billy Goat curse came into play. Even worse for fans the Cubs haven’t won a world series since 1908 when they beat the Detroit Tigers. The Cubs are coming off a hard fought victory over the Dodgers in the NL Championship series. It wasn’t all smooth sailing - the Dodgers took a commanding 2-1 lead when they won the third game 6-0 against pitcher Jake Arrieta. But that’s as close as the Dodgers came, Chicago won the next three games to advance to the World Series.
Jon Lester will take the mound in Game 1 at Progressive Stadium in Cleveland. Lester should be well rested with only two performances in the post season so far. His most recent performance was over the Dodgers, when he gave up one run in seven innings.
We all knew that the Cubs pitching and bullpen was one of the best we had seen before, but the question was, could they continue great form throughout the year and bring it when it mattered. The answer to that question is... "yes sir"!
If we look more recently, the last three games in the NL Championship they only gave up six total runs on 17 hits. The batting is just as impressive with the likes of Kris Bryant, Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo who all have great averages and RBI’s and all seem to work well together. One word that describes the Cubs is consistency and if they continue that through October then they will be hard to beat.
The Cleveland Indians enter the World Series with only one defeat which came at the hands of wildcard qualifier the Toronto Blue jays. The Indians have been winning with ease throughout the postseason and we have to thank the pitching and fielding. The pitchers have been in total control only giving up 13 runs through the postseason which is one stat hard to believe. They really tighten their grip in the postseason and make teams work so hard for something positive.
The Indians will start their first World Series since 97’ with Corey Kluber who has certainly been one of the best performers throughout postseason. He really had only one bad start, which was the one they lost. The Indians are still undefeated at home and start game one with Danny Salazer returning from a forearm strain which is a bonus and just like the Cubs, the Indians have a fantastic bull pen with the likes of Andrew Miller and Cody Allen being the difference in a successful postseason.
The only problem I see with the Indians is if the pitching is struggling, can the team hold up in offence? The Indians haven’t been putting up huge run scores in the postseason compared to the Cubs, but they do certainly have the team to do so with hard hitting Hanley Ramirez and Francisco Lindor holding the fort.
I really think we will have a tight battle and will see the series go the distance with the under dog Indians doing what the Cavaliers did earlier this year.
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