Cubs rout Indians to send World Series to deciding Game 7

CLEVELAND – The sixth game of the World Series wasn’t yet an hour old, and already it had arrived at two separate moments on which it might pivot. Two on, two out in the first. One out, bases loaded in the third. Both times, Addison Russell of the Chicago Cubs stepped to the plate and dug in.

There will be a seventh and final game of this World Series between these two franchises, whose karma has been mostly catastrophic. Wednesday night, over the final nine innings of the year – or maybe more – one hex will be broken, the other will continue. That happy bit of history will occur because in those two moments, Russell took a pair of swings that pushed across six runs – including an absolutely crippling grand slam – and the Cubs rolled to a 9-3 victory that equaled this World Series at three games apiece.

It should be noted that Russell tied the record for most RBIs in a World Series game. But that is so secondary.

“We’ve been doing this all year – been breaking records, been putting in new history in history books,” Russell said. “You wouldn’t be able to tell that just from us group of guys.”

Let’s make sure we have our facts and figures straight about what’s at stake on Wednesday night, when Cleveland’s Corey Kluber and Chicago’s Kyle Hendricks take the mound.

And all that’s riding on their right arms, in one game: the happiness of a fan base whose fathers can’t remember the last title, mostly.

The Indians’ championship would break a 68-year drought. The Cubs’ futility stretches back another Roosevelt, to the presidency of Teddy, and the fall of 1908.

“Of course – of course – we want to be the group that breaks the string,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “It’s just correct and apt that we’d go seven games.”

Cleveland right-hander Josh Tomlin pitched Tuesday night on three days’ rest. Kris Bryant unloaded on an 0-2 curveball in the first to get the Cubs on the board. Two singles later, up came Russell, relaxed.

“He’s just not pressing as much,” said Bryant, who had four hits.

With two down and runners at the corners, he got a 1-1 cutter from Tomlin that he could handle, and sent it to right-center where it dropped between Lonnie Chisenhall and Tyler Naquin when they hesitated.

“Off the bat,” Russell said, “I thought it was going to be kind of a routine play.”

But it landed on the grass and Ben Zobrist lowered a shoulder and scored the Cubs’ third run of the inning by barreling over Indians catcher Roberto Perez.

After Zobrist’s infield hit in the third, Russell hit his grand slam off reliever Dan Otero, who had just entered the game.

Later, Maddon made the curious decision to stick with his closer, Aroldis Chapman, not just for the final out of the seventh but for the eighth with a five-run lead.

“The meaty part of their batting order,” Maddon said, “if you don’t get through that, there is no tomorrow.”

But then, even after Anthony Rizzo’s two-run homer in the ninth made it a seven-run lead, Maddon sent Chapman back out then pulled him after he walked the first batter.