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Cleveland’s Corey Kluber was dominant in Game 1 of the World Series as he led the Indians to a shutout win Tuesday night at Progressive Field.
The ace right-hander made World Series history as the first pitcher to strike out eight in three innings. He broke the previous record of seven held by Bob Gibson, Orlando Hernandez and Randy Johnson.
Kluber cruised through a 13-pitch, one-two-three first inning as Anthony Rizzo was the only Cubs hitter to put the ball into play with a pop out to Jose Ramirez. After allowing Zobrist’s leadoff double in the second, Kluber struck out the next eight batters.
In this order he struck out: Dexter Fowler, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Javier Baez, Chris Coghlan, Addison Russell, and then, Dexter Fowler and Kris Bryant again. Kluber finished the night with nine strikeouts, no walks, and six shutout innings.
Entering the game, he was 2-1 with a 0.98 ERA in his first postseason. The Indians are rumored to be counting on Kluber to start on short rest for Game 4.
Historically, the winner of Game 1 goes on to take the whole series 64.1 percent of the time.