CLEVELAND — Cleveland started the night with an N.B.A. celebration, and finished it with a victory in Game 1 of the World Series.
An hour after the Cavaliers raised a banner to celebrate their title across the street, the Indians got to Jon Lester for two runs in the bottom of the first, and then rode Corey Kluber and the unexpected offensive heroics of Roberto Perez to an easy 6-0 win over the Chicago Cubs.
The fast start for the Cleveland offense was backed up by a dominant effort by Kluber, the ace right-hander, who recorded strikeouts on 8 of his first 9 outs.
Showing a conservative approach with the pitcher they hope can start Games 1, 4 and 7, Terry Francona removed Kluber after he had faced one batter in the 7th inning. Kluber finished the day having allowed 4 hits to go with 9 strikeouts and no walks, looking absolutely unhittable for much of the game.
No matter how well Kluber was pitching, it was no surprise that Terry Francona turned to ace reliever Andrew Miller. Just as the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays found out in the playoffs, Cleveland is more than happy to go to Miller early and often. He made things more dramatic than he had in the early rounds, working around 2 hits and 2 walks, but he bridged the gap to closer Cody Allen who shut the door on the Cubs.
Francicso Lindor continued to be a bright spot for the Cleveland offense, going 3 for 4 with a stolen base, but the night belonged to Perez, who had a solo homer off Lester in the fourth inning and a 3-run blast off Hector Rondon in the 8th. The light-hitting catcher batted just .183 this season but has now matched his regular season home run total in the postseason, with two tonight and one in the division series against Boston. He is just the 53rd player to hit two home runs in a World Series game.
Because of the rain anticipated Wednesday night, Major League Baseball has made the unusual decision to move things up an hour for Game 2, with the first pitch expected shortly after 7 p.m. Eastern. Jake Arrieta of the Cubs is expected to face Trevor Bauer of the Indians.
Brandon Guyer got a two-out walk and Lonnie Chisenhall moved him over to second with a single at which point Joe Maddon once again went to his bullpen, with Hector Rondon becoming Chicago’s fifth pitcher of the game. The move backfired as Perez, who had homered in the fourth inning against Jon Lester, went deep again for a 3-run blast to make it 6-0. The light-hitting catcher now has three postseason home runs to match the three he hit during the regular season. Cody Allen will now come in for the ninth to try to close out the win for Cleveland.
David Waldstein: Roberto Perez in his first World Series game: two home runs, four runs batted in. Perez crushed that hanging slider and if anything, the wind was blowing in, according to the flags. The Cleveland pitchers love talking about what a great job Perez does behind the plate. He’s doing some good work standing next to it, too.
Indians have scored five of their runs with two outs.
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