{"id":2485,"date":"2016-11-03T06:05:19","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T12:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cuchicago.edu\/spectator\/?p=2485"},"modified":"2016-11-03T06:05:19","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T12:05:19","slug":"it-might-be-it-could-be-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=2485","title":{"rendered":"IT MIGHT BE, IT COULD BE, IT IS!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Hasko<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>
Image courtesy of Fox News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fox Sports commentator Joe Buck referred to the night as \u201c176 years of combined frustration.\u201d Fortunately for the Chicago Cubs, the 108 years they were responsible for has come to an end with an absolute classic 8-7 game 7 World Series win over the Cleveland Indians. At the conclusion of a title drought that has spanned over a century, game 7 delivered an absolute thriller that will go down as one of the greatest baseball games of all time.<\/p>\n

The Cubs jumped out of the gate with a leadoff homerun from Dexter Fowler who took a Corey Kluber pitch to dead center at Cleveland\u2019s Progressive Field. With Kyle Hendricks on the hill for Chicago, the score would stay 1-0 until the bottom of the 3rd<\/sup> inning when Cleveland would tie the score at 1-1 following a Carlos Santana base knock down the right field line to score Coco Crisp.\u00a0 The Cubbies would not waste any time with their response as the next half inning saw the addition of two more runs featuring a sacrifice fly to score Kris Bryant from third followed by a Wilson Contreras double to center field that would bring in Ben Zobrist to make it 3-1 Cubs. The Cubs would continue to build on their fourth-inning momentum as they get back on the scoreboard beginning with a solo-homerun from Javier Baez in the top of the fifth. The inning would also see Anthony Rizzo drive in Kris Bryant with a two-out single to right field. Cleveland would not roll over, however, as they would respond with two runs of their own on a Jon Lester wild pitch that would score two Cleveland baserunners.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>
Image courtesy of Fox News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps the most magical moment of the game would come in the next half inning. David Ross, who before the world series announced that he would be retiring after the conclusion of the 2016 season, hit a solo homerun in his final game in the big leagues. The 39-year-old catcher, who entered the game to catch for Jon Lester in relief, became the oldest player to smash a homerun in a World Series.<\/p>\n

The score wouldn\u2019t change again until the bottom of the 8th<\/sup> inning where any early Cub\u2019s celebrations would come to a screeching halt. Aroldis Chapman, the Cubs closer known best for the velocity of his fastball that regularly eclipses triple digits on the radar gun, would give up three runs to even the game at 6-6 heading into the 9th<\/sup> inning with a two-out double followed by a Rajai Davis 2-run laser that landed just over the left field wall.<\/p>\n

A scoreless 9th<\/sup> inning would mean extra innings, but not before heavy rain would result in a 17-minute rain delay. The Cubs used the delay as an opportunity to regroup and put up two runs in the top of the 10th<\/sup> to take an 8-6 lead.<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be fitting to end the game without a bit of last minute drama as Cleveland cut the lead to a single run before finally being shut down by Mike Montgomery who would earn his first ever major league save. Aroldis Chapman would be credited with the win, and Bryan Shaw would take the loss on the stat sheet for Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Referring to a player-only meeting during the rain delay that sparked the tenth-inning rally, Chicago outfielder Jason Heyward said after the game, \u201cI just had to remind them who they were.\u201d Who are they? The Chicago Cubs \u2013 Your 2016 World Series Champions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Hasko Fox Sports commentator Joe Buck referred to the night as \u201c176 years of combined frustration.\u201d Fortunately for the Chicago Cubs, the 108 years they were responsible for has come to an end with an absolute classic 8-7 game 7 World Series win over the Cleveland Indians. At the conclusion of a title […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":2486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[212,742],"class_list":["post-2485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-cubs","tag-world-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}