Another night of Corey Kluber puts Cleveland one victory away

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After only just eking out a nail-biter of a victory to take Game 3 of the World Series, the Cleveland Indians romped in last night’s Game 4. It didn’t start out that way — the Chicago Cubs struck first, with a leadoff double in the first inning that set them up to take a 1-0 lead. But the second inning brought something that hadn’t happened in the first three games of this series: a lead change. After tying the game on a Carlos Santana home run, Cleveland took advantage of a pair of Chicago errors to add another run in the inning and go up 2-1. From there, the game was essentially all Cleveland.

Indians starter Corey Kluber, pitching on three days’ rest, settled in to follow up his Game 1 gem with an outing that was nearly as great. After the two hits and one run of that first inning, Kluber’s next five were scoreless with just three hits and five strikeouts, and he made it through his final two frames on only 15 pitches. Then it was time for Andrew Miller, who proved that he is indeed human by finally giving up a run — albeit only when Cleveland held a six-run lead, courtesy of a three-run dinger from Jason Kipnis. And though his scoreless streak is over, he’s now the proud owner of the strikeout record for a reliever in a single postseason, with 29 Ks (and potentially counting). In the end, Cleveland walked away with a 7-2 victory.

Cleveland, injury-stricken starting pitching and all, now sits just one win from their first World Series title since 1948. And Chicago is one loss from watching the glory of their 103-win season melt away as yet another year threatens to pass without a single World Series win at Wrigley Field. With Jon Lester on the mound for tonight’s Game 5 — and the promise of Jake Arrieta and then Kyle Hendricks behind him for potential Games 6 and 7, all on full rest — the situation isn’t quite hopeless for the Cubs. But right now, it’s pretty close.