CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Indians ran out of pitching early in Game 7 of the World Series. What they didn't run out of was the thing that allowed them to reach the absolute final game of the season in the first place.
"We fought all year, we fought all game, we just came up a little short," said second baseman Jason Kipnis.
If there was a tombstone for Game 7 of the 112th World Series, from the Indians perspective, that would look good in marble.
The Indians lost Game 7 to the Cubs in 10 innings, 8-7, at Progressive Field in a game that started Wednesday night and ended Thursday morning. Corey Kluber, making his third start in the series, gave up a homer to Dexter Fowler on his third pitch of the game. Kluber was at the wall and about to hit it.
Kluber is ground ball, strikeout pitcher. In four innings Wednesday, he had no strikeouts, one ground ball out and 10 fly ball outs. Eventually one of those fly balls had to go a little farther than the last one and clear the fence.
It happened to Kluber twice as the Cubs started and ended his appearance with homers. After Javier Baez homered off Kluber to start the fifth, the Cubs held a 5-1 lead and their fans, who packed Progressive Field, were out-cheering Indians fans.
But the Indians kept pushing.
In the fifth, Carlos Santana and Kipnis scored on a Jon Lester wild pitch to cut the lead to 5-3. Santana scored from third and Kipnis from second, on a headfirst, dirt-hugging slide.
"The first step was to make sure Santana was going," said Kipnis. "When he went, I saw that the pitch kind of knocked Ross (catcher David Ross) onto his back leg going the other way so he had no momentum carrying him to the ball.
"I got a good jump on it and was going full speed. I was thinking of scoring right away and Sarbie (third base coach Mike Sarbaugh) had his arm waving so we were on the same page. We got two good runs right there."
The problem was Andrew Miller, who relieved after Baez's homer, was as cooked as Kluber. Miller had already pitched 17 innings in the postseason and allowed just one run. The Cubs reached him for two runs on four hits in 2 1/3 innings.
Miller said fatigue had nothing to do with his performance.
"I felt pretty good," he said. "I felt like my command was there. My fastball velocity was there. I didn't necessarily spin it as well as I wanted today, but you have to be able to work around that. It can happen in May."
Still, the Indians had asked for so much their three-man rotation and bullpen during their 15-game surge to Game 7 that something had to give. Remember Carlos Carrasco never pitched an inning in the postseason because of a broken right hand and Danny Salazar was limited to two relief appearances in the World Series after missing the ALDS and ALCS with a right forearm problem.
By the eighth inning, the game seemed over. The Indians were down, 6-3. They were four outs away from elimination by a Cubs team that on Saturday night was looking at a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-seven series. But Jose Ramirez, the guy with the flaming orange hair, beat out an infield single. Out went Jon Lester; in came closer Aroldis Chapman and his 100 mph fastball.
Brandon Guyer, who hit .333 (6-for-18) in the postseason, doubled Ramirez home to make it 6-4. Then came Rajai Davis with the at-bat of his career. He was choked up so far it looked like he was trying to hit the ball with the bottom half of the bat instead of the barrel.
"A long swing doesn't work against that guy," said Davis. "He throws too hard. I choked up because I was trying to be quick to the ball."
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Through seven pitches Davis – who came into the at bat with just three hits in the entire postseason – worked the count even at 2-2. Then he yanked a ball to left field that cleared the 19-foot wall at the home run plaza. The score was tied and all those Cubs fans who had tried to out-cheer the Indians fans at their own park, finally heard what Cleveland sounds like.
They've been playing baseball at Progressive Field since 1994 and there's never been a sound like that in the ballpark. Coming two days after Halloween, it sounded like a delirious shriek, like 38,000 voices awakening from a cold-sweat nightmare that has been reoccurring annually since the Indians won their last World Series in 1948.
Davis said he felt the volume of the shriek in his heart. He said it lifted him above the bases as he circled them, watching his teammates leap out of the dugout and the heads of the Cubs players drop in disbelief.
This from someone whose first name means victorious king. Davis' mother told him his first name came to her in a dream before he was born. Could it be any better than that?
The Indians, a team with 11 walk-off wins during the season, needed one more run to finish it. To celebrate a season that no one saw coming.
A season in which they overcame injuries to Michael Brantley, Carrasco and Salazar; where manager Terry Francona and pitching coach Mickey Callaway maneuvered through the postseason with two and a half starters – Trevor Bauer was never the same after one of his drones gashed the little finger on his right hand – and a bullpen that had no quit in it.
But it didn't happen. Chapman recovered quickly, retiring Santana, Kipnis and Francisco Lindor in order in the ninth to squash any thought of a walk-off win in regulation.
"It was incredible," said Miller. "What a swing by Rajai. What an at-bat. What Guyer did, what everybody did at the end of the game – it exemplifies this team and it's just unfortunate that we didn't have quite enough.
"The Cubs are a good team. They're world champions. The people who watched this game saw that it's 25 guys who can contribute and help us win games. We just made it so close."
The 10th inning started after a 17-minute rain delay that certainly killed any momentum Davis and the Indians had generated. Bryan Shaw, who escaped danger in the ninth thanks to Javier Baez striking out on a fouled third-strike squeeze bunt attempt and a great play by Lindor with the go-ahead run at third, came out for the 10th and quickly gave up two runs on a double by World Series MVP Ben Zobrist and Miguel Montero's single. Bauer, who started Games 2 and 5, relieved with the bases loaded and struck out Jason Heyward and retired Baez on fly ball to center to end the inning.
It was Bauer's best moment of a checkered postseason and the Indians still had something to give.
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Mike Napoli, who hasn't hit much of anything since Sept. 1, struck out against Carl Edwards to start the 10th. Ramirez grounded out, but Guyer walked, took second on defensive indifference and scored on a Davis single to make it 8-7.
But just as Kluber, Miller, Shaw and Cody Allen had been stretched to the limit on the mound, the Indians' bench was empty. Francona had no choice but to send utility man Michael Martinez to the plate. Martinez entered the game in the middle of the ninth in right field when the Cubs put the go-ahead run at third.
Martinez grounded out to third to end it. He jogged slowly off the field as the Cubs began to celebrate their first World Series title since 1908. A sad ending, true, but fitting from the Indians' point of view.
Like so many other players on their roster, Martinez was asked to do not one, not two, but several tasks. He's a switch-hitter who can play all the infield and outfield positions. It's not surprising because that's how the Indians built an edge into this roster that produced 104 total victories, a division title and AL pennant.
From Francona to the coaching staff, from Chris Antonetti and the front office, they asked a lot from their players and they delivered. It just wasn't enough.
"They tried until there was nothing left," said Francona.