The victory gives the Indians a three games to one lead and just need to win one more game to bring Cleveland its first baseball world championship since 1948.
Corey Kluber got the win after allowing just one run in the first over six innings of work.
Andrew Miller and Dan Otero mopped up in relief,
The wood was paced by Jason Kipnis,who drilled three hits with the biggest being the three run homer in the seventh inning that crushed the hopes of the Wrigley fans,who were then pretty despondent during Vince Vaughn's Take me out to the ball game" rendition.
Carlos Santana smacked a solo shot in the second to start the scoring for Cleveland.
Santana also finished with three hits for the evening.
The Indians can become world champions with a win in game five Sunday with Trevor Bauer starting for Cleveland against Jon Lester for the Cubs in the final game in Chicago this year...
Smoke Signals
1) Corey Kluber allowed a run in the first on two hits that just happened to fall in front of outfielders and was almost untouched thereafter.
Kluber got six innings of work in off short rest and now is off to get whatever rest he can get before a possible start in game seven-which hopefully won't be needed...
2) Andrew Miller is human as he allowed a solo homer to Dexter Fowler in the eighth,but otherwise continued his tremendous run as it was the only hit that he allowed in his two innings pitched.
Miller's two strikeouts set the record for postseason strikeouts by relievers.
I'm not saying that Miller's feat is not a easy one,but records come easier now in the bloated postseason.
3) Jason Kipnis and his bat came alive with three hits and became the answer to a trivia question-Kipnis is now the first second baseman in history to homer in the ALDS,ALCS and the World Series,
4) The biggest play of the game might have came in the second inning.
Corey Kluber fouled off pitch after pitch from John Lackey until a slow dribbler froze Kris Bryant,who threw the ball away which allowed Lonnie Chisenhall to score.
The Cubs had intentionally walked Tyler Naquin to face Kluber and the two run second took away any momentum the Cubs felt from scoring the first inning run off Kluber.
5) Terry Francona continues to push the right buttons as he had a tough decision to make in the non-DH park.
Rajai Davis had good numbers against John Lackey,so he wanted to use him,but he had a choice between Carlos Santana and Mike Napoli,neither of which had hit well vs Lackey.
Francona chose Santana,who homered off Lackey in his first at bat among his three hits in the game.
6) The Indians are keeping the Cubs from making contact in this series and that's a huge factor for the team that led the league in walks this season.
Cleveland has whiffed the Cubs 17 of 37 times with runners in scoring position,so the Cubs are not even able to move runners up in those situations...
7) It's Trevor Bauer next,who started the only Cleveland loss in the series and Bauer is maddeningly inconsistent and even more so with the uncertainty of his injured finger.
Can Bauer put enough together to end this series against Jon Lester?
I'm not sure,but he'll need to pitch well enough to keep the team in the game and hope for the best.
8) Cleveland will need to take advantage in the running game against Lester,who has a huge flaw in holding runners.
If the Indians (most steals in baseball) can move up against Lester at will,they have a very good chance of pulling this off.
It'll be interesting to see if Terry Francona loads his lineup with a little more speed to perhaps deal with the issue from Lester....
9) I've said before that the Cleveland sports fan is the best in the country,but the Indians selling such a massive amount of tickets to fans watching the game on the Progressive Field scoreboard shows such.
That on the heels of the Cavaliers selling out the Q last year on the road against the Warriors and I'm telling you that there is no other market that would do such numbers...
10) One game away.
I was all prepared to do a podcast on the Indians last night,but decided against it-66 years of history riding on one more win-I can wait...
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