Coco Crisp snapped a scoreless tie in the seventh inning with a pinch-hit single that gave the Cleveland Indians a 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs in a pivotal Game 3 of the World Series on Friday.
Cleveland’s bullpen made the scant lead stand up as the Indians seized a 2-1 advantage in the best-of-seven Fall Classic and spoiled an opening night party for the Cubs, who hosted their first World Series game since 1945.
The game ended in frustrating fashion for Chicago, with runners left on second and third in the ninth inning when Javier Baez struck out on a high fastball from closer Cody Allen.
Photo: AFP
It was the second shutout loss of the series for the Cubs.
“To live that moment of getting the last out and feeling the emotions of getting a win ... that’s a special feeling,” Allen said.
Andrew Miller, who relieved starter Josh Tomlin in the fifth, was credited with the win as four Cleveland pitchers combined on a five-hitter.
Chicago reliever Carl Edwards Jr, one of six pitchers used by the Cubs, took the loss.
The Indians’ victory jettisoned any chance the Cubs had of clinching the World Series title at home, with only the next two games to be played in Chicago.
With the wind blowing out toward Wrigley Field’s reachable, ivy-covered outfield walls, offensive fireworks were anticipated, but it was the pitchers that held sway along with bench player Crisp, who ruined the fun for a packed house of nearly 42,000.
“We needed something, anything, just to put a run across,” Cleveland skipper Terry Francona said. “And our [pitching] staff made it hold up, which was a remarkable effort.”
Cubs manager Joe Maddon said he was surprised by the low-scoring contest.
“Just speaks to the quality of the pitching,” Maddon said. “The bullpens did magnificent jobs. It’s rare that you see those conditions and it’s a 1-0 baseball game.”
Roars rolled through the old stadium in the opening innings, but as the game wore on a worried stillness set in.
Tomlin, spotting his pitches with pinpoint accuracy, kept the Cubs off balance and off the bases, while Chicago starter Kyle Hendricks escaped jam after jam.
Three times in the first five innings Cleveland put a baserunner on third, but could not advance him the last 90 feet.
In the fifth, the Cubs escaped a bases-loaded, one-out threat when Justin Grimm had Francisco Lindor ground into a double-play and the crowd erupted with cheers.
However, the bubble burst in the seventh.
Roberto Perez led off with a single, was bunted over to second base by Tyler Naquin and Rajai Davis followed with a walk.
That set the stage for Crisp, who stepped to the plate to hit for reliever Miller and singled to right to score pinch-runner Michael Martinez and silence the Wrigley Field crowd with the game’s only run.
“’Cleveland against the world’, that’s kind of been the motto,” Crisp said. “Coming here and seeing all the blue in the stands and all the blue that was at our ballpark, you know the support for the Cubs is worldwide. Coming in here and getting the victory tonight is big for us.”
Game 4 of Major League Baseball’s championship series was scheduled for yesterday with Indians ace Corey Kluber, the Game 1 winner, expected to start against Chicago’s John Lackey.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier