Cubs Beat Indians, Force Game 7 in World Series

The Chicago Cubs once again fended off elimination on Tuesday night as they beat the Cleveland Indians and forced a winner-take-all Game 7 on Wednesday night.

Kris Bryant hit a home run, and Addison Russell hit a grand slam as the Cubs once again stayed alive in their quest to end their championship drought.

After two quick outs, the Cubs struck first off of Josh Tomlin. Kris Bryant did the honors as he launched a home run, his second in two games, to put the Cubs ahead 1-0.

After Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist reached base with singles, the Cubs took advantage of a monumental miscue to score two more runs. Addison Russell lofted a fly ball to right-center field, Tyler Naquin and Lonnie Chisenhall miscommunicated and let the ball drop to allow both runs to score and stake the Cubs to an improbable 3-0 lead.

With a big lead early, Jake Arrieta came into the game and pitched well in the first two innings. In total, the hurler totalled four strikeouts, including two against Mike Napoli and Jose Ramirez to keep the Cubs comfortably in front.

That lead wsa extended even further in the fourth inning as the Cubs chased Tomlin. With the bases loaded and one out, Addison Russell cracked a deep home run to center field for a grand slam and a 7-0 Cubs lead.

The Indians got on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning, and naturally it was the Chicago-area native Jason Kipnis that got the rally started. He cracked a lead-off double into the gap, and then he scored on an RBI single by Mike Napoli to make it a 7-1 game.

Arrieta allowed two more baserunners in the inning with a walk and a hit by pitch, but he got out of the bases loaded jam. He managed to strike out Naquin to get out of the frame with the Cubs still ahead by six runs.

Arrieta continued on the mound into the fifth inning, and although he got the first two outs with relative ease, he surrendered another run as Kipnis hammered a home run over the left field wall. He did get Francisco Lindor to ground out however to keep the Cubs in front.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Indians got two runners on base, but the Cubs managed to pitch their way out of trouble again. This time is was Aroldis Chapman who pitched out of the jam, getting Lindor out on a groundout to squelch the rally and leave the Cubs' lead at five runs.

That score held until the top of the ninth inning when Rizzo extended Chicago's lead. After Bryant got a one-out single in the frame, Rizzo blasted a deep home run to right field to make it a 9-2 game.

The Indians did add another run in the ninth inning, but it wasn't enough as the Cubs forced a winner-take-all game on Wednesday night.

Game 7 will feature Kyle Hendricks and Corey Kluber dueling on the mound, and it will start at 7 p.m on Fox.

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