Cleveland Indians Beat Chicago Cubs 6-0 In Game 1 Of World Series

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 more runners on base, but again failed to score against Miller.

Game two of the series is Wednesday at 6:08pm central time.  The start time was moved up one hour because of rain in the forecast in Cleveland.