The trophies, the gear, the champagne and the glory were all at Wrigley Sunday night for the team that continues to shock the world. Now, it was just a matter of if it would come out onto the playing field Sunday night at Wrigley or would be heading on a plane to Cleveland today. The series was in favor of Cleveland 3-1 Sunday night and a win for Cleveland meant just over five months they would be celebrating another title for their city. Chicago was on thin ice. Expectations have been huge for the Cubs this year and losing all three games at home just wouldn’t do. Sunday night was the night to prove that Chicago is tough and will never go down without a fight. Sunday night was the night that Cubs fans hoped would be the beginning of a historic comeback.

Terry Francona, the manager of the Indians, has been working a three man rotation in the World Series , meaning that all of his pitchers are on short rest. However, for the Cubs Joe Maddon has been working a four man rotation giving the Cubs pitchers one more day of rest than the Indians. Game five featured Jon Lester for the Cubs, whose last start was in game one. On the opposing side was Trevor Bauer who is still healing from a drone injury on his right pinky. He pitched game two of the World Series and got lit up by the Cubs’ bats in an eventual game two loss. Going into Sunday’s game, both pitchers were looking for redemption, but only one would receive the pleasure he deserved.

After a combined five strikeout inning in the first between Bauer and Lester the scoring opened up for the Indians in the second. Wrigley was going nuts after a phenomenal catch by Anthony Rizzo which tipped off of David Ross’s glove. About a minute after the catch, however, Wrigley became quiet again. Jon Lester threw a meatball over the center of the plate which Jose Ramirez bombed out to left field. Off the bat you knew right away it was going to be a home run. When Ramirez was triumphantly rounding the bases the guy who caught the ball in left chucked it back onto the playing field, a tradition at Wrigley that has lasted forever.

Wrigley was quiet for a while until the bats were woken up for the first time in a while. At the beginning of the fourth inning, right when legendary Hall of Fame pitcher and Fox broadcaster John Smoltz was saying the Cubs needed to score in the fourth, potential MVP Kris Bryant hit a line drive solo home run to left center field to even the game up at one. Once one bat gets heated for the Cubs, they all get hot and that was proven after Bryant’s home run. The next batter, Anthony Rizzo, hit a double to right field on a rope. After Ben Zobrist advanced Rizzo to third on a single Addison Russell hit another rare infield single to score Rizzo from third and give the Cubs their first lead of the night. They still didn’t stop in the fourth. With one out in the inning the Cubs got the bases loaded for David Ross who was playing his final game at Wrigley field and possibly his career. On a 2-2 count, Ross hit a sac fly to left field that scored Ben Zobrist from third. This run became the most important run of the game.

The Indians began knocking on the door in the sixth. To begin with, Rajai Davis, who is supremely fast, got on first to begin the inning with a single. With Lester pitching he was easily able to steal second putting the Indians in a scoring position. Later in the first half of the sixth, the Indians most dangerous threat, Francisco Lindor, singled into left which scored Davis to cut the lead to just one. The pressure began to mount for the Cubs knowing that there was more than a third left of the game left to play.

The big story of Sunday’s game was Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman. Joe Maddon made one of the boldest decisions of the World Series by putting him in the bottom top of the seventh. To finish the game Chapman would need to go 2 ⅔, the longest of his career. Aroldis Chapman coasted through the seventh easily not even seeming to worry about the runners on. He got his total down to two innings. Chapman had to go through all nine of the Indians hitters, each one of them he made look foolish. After Chapman had a rare batting appearance in the bottom of the eighth inning he was instructed to close out the game in the ninth. He could not have seemed more cool and collected. The 6’5″ closer had a 1-2-3 inning to earn the Cubs their first World Series victory at home since October 8th of 1945 by the finals score of 3-2. He went 2 ⅔ as expected, had four strikeouts and only allowed on hit. Nonetheless, the Cubs won one of their most gritty victories of the season.

So the magic number is two. Step one of three has been completed. The Cubs will be heading to Cleveland today in search of a game six and game seven victory. It is still the same do or die situation for the Cubs, but last night the Cubs proved that they could handle it. Game six will occur Tuesday night at 7:00. Pitching for the Cubs will be Jake Arrieta, who won game two and had a no hitter going into the fifth inning at Progressive Field. The projected starter for the Indians will be Josh Tomlin who helped shutout the Cubs on Friday night. He will look to close the World Series out in game six. If the Cubs want to force a game seven the bats will need to show up to the party early. Tomlin has had a bumpy road this year and if the Cubs can get to him early they should have a better chance at prevailing in game six. After every World Series game tune into The Forest Scout the following morning to get the Cubs complete post game wrap-up. The magic number is at two for the Cubs. The only question now is if they can get two before the Indians can get one.