Games one and two of the World Series were not close enough to feel the palpable excitement of the World Series. In game one, the Indians handedly beat the Cubs and it was vice versa in game two. Chicagoans believed that momentum from game two would be a key reason why the Cubs would have an advantage in the World Series by the end of Friday night while Indians fans begged to differ. Before Friday night, Wrigley lived up to its expectations. Fans began showing up at Wrigley as early as 5:00 AM while the majority of us were still sleeping. The last time the Cubs played a World Series game at home was October 6th of 1945, so naturally, fans had an excuse to be outside Wrigley so early, drinking beers at local bars around 7:00 AM.

No matter the outcome, Friday night would be historic. The seats were packed 45 minutes prior to the game anticipating a memorable day at Wrigley and singing “Go Cubs Go” come the conclusion of the top half of the ninth inning, but things don’t always go as planned.

The pitching matchup for game three featured Kyle Hendricks, who was coming off a dominant victory last Saturday night which eventually clinched the Cubs’ World Series birth. Hendricks has allowed three runs this postseason and maintains a 1.31 ERA. His opponent has stayed quiet throughout the season, but has shown up in some very big games this postseason. Josh Tomlin, mullet and all, was 2-0 this postseason, had a 1.76 ERA and, just like Hendricks, only allowed three runs this postseason. With that being said, the matchup didn’t seem like it would shape out to be a blowout for either team.

In the first, the Cubs were threatened early by the Indians. To start off, the Indians got men on first and third with one out, but then they blew their scoring opportunity. Francisco Lindor who was on first leaned far enough off the bag that he didn’t have the time to retreat. Hendricks picked Lindor off at first giving the Cubs two outs, which was later followed by a strikeout that got the Cubs out of the first. This wasn’t the only time that the Indians had a scoring opportunity in tonight’s game. In fact, there were quite a few.

Come the fifth inning it almost seemed like it was inevitable that the Indians would score. With one out in the fifth and the bases loaded, Joe Maddon turned to Justin Grimm to try and get by the fifth. The batter he had to face was the best that the Indians had to offer, Francisco Lindor. Lindor has been raking this postseason–especially when runners have been in scoring position. All he was instructed to do was give the Indians the lead in any way possible: a sac fly, a soft grounder that the Cubs wouldn’t able to turn a double play on, a base hit, anything. Grimm denied his chance of putting the Indians in front of the Cubs as Lindor hit a routine grounder to second for a tailor-made double play. Baez to Russell, Russell to Rizzo, bang bang, Inning over the Cubs keep the game scoreless.

In the seventh, the young Carl Edwards continued to pitch for the Cubbies after coming in in the sixth. Quickly, the Indians began to attack. To start the inning, Roberto Perez singled to right field. Following the single Perez advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. The Indians were doing what they do best, small ball. On a wild pitch, Perez advanced over to third. Yet again the Cubs were in trouble. This time the Indians prevailed as pinch hitter Coco Crisp hit a blooper to right field, which dropped as a single. Perez easily scored from third giving the Indians the first and only run of the game.

The Indians pitching could not have stepped up more for Terry Francona. Josh Tomlin went 4 ⅔ allowing no runs. Following Tomlin’s shutout, Andrew Miller came in and threw stuff that no MLB player could touch. Later in the game he passed the torch to Bryan Shaw who has struggled in the past, but came up clutch in a big moment for the Tribe. Finally, the Indians had gotten to their closer, Cody Allen, with a 1-0 lead. His job was to end game one.

The leadoff man in the ninth was potential MVP Anthony Rizzo. The first pitch Rizzo saw was hit out to left field, giving the Cubs a leadoff baserunner. Later in the bottom half of the ninth, Wilson Contreras grounded out, which advanced Chris Coghlan, who was running for Rizzo, to second. With two outs it was up to Jason Heyward. Heyward didn’t have an impressive regular season and his postseason numbers have been egregious. He is 2 for 30 this postseason with a .067 batting average, but one swing had the potential of turning his season around. Heyward took a whack at a 1-1 pitch and sent it to first baseman Mike Napoli who botched the ball. Napoli couldn’t recover from his fielding error in time and Heyward reached safely at first. Also, Chris Coughlan advanced to third on the play, which meant any hit out of the infield would result in a run. The batter was Javier Baez, who has been Mr. Clutch this postseason. The first pitch he received was a meatball that he put all of his strength into. The ball was popped up behind the backstop and into the crowd. Four pitches later after a strong effort from Baez, the Cleveland Indians were celebrating a much deserved game three victory after a Javier Baez strikeout. They are now only two games away from being World Series champions.

It was one of those days. The opposing team’s pitching staff was terrific and the Cubs just could not manufacture the runs required to win playoff baseball games. The Cubs couldn’t manage to score early resulting in innings that had the same exact outcome throughout the game. The great thing about baseball is that you don’t have to wait another three days for the next game. Game four is tomorrow night and if the Cubs want to have a reasonable shot at winning the World Series, tomorrow’s game is a must win. They will be facing Corey Kluber, who they were shutout by in game one of the World Series. But hey, we all saw what happened to the Dodgers’ ace when the Cubs faced him a second time. John Lackey, who is a postseason veteran will be pitching tomorrow for the Cubs. Lackey will only be able to give up a run or less if the Cubs want to be flying the W tomorrow night. Saturday night’s game is the biggest of the series so make sure to tune into The Forest Scout Sunday morning for the complete post game wrap up. With the Indians having won game three it makes it official that the Cubs don’t have a chance at winning the World Series at home, don’t lose your hope, Cubs fans. This series isn’t over until it’s over and this team is the best built team to make a postseason comeback.