CLEVELAND (AP) - The Latest on the World Series (all times Eastern):
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11:12 p.m.
Aroldis Chapman got the final four outs and the Chicago Cubs have completed a 5-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians that tied the World Series at one game apiece.
Game 3 is Friday night, when the Series returns to Wrigley Field in Chicago for the first time since 1945.
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10:55 p.m.
Rain began to fall in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the Chicago Cubs leading the Cleveland Indians 5-1 in Game 2.
As the game approached the four-hour mark on a cool night with a first-pitch temperature of 43 degrees, the teams played on. Fans exposed to the rain stood at Progressive Field, where a sellout crowd of 38,172 was on hand.
Under baseball’s rules, postseason games cannot be rain-shortened and must be played to the end at the same ballpark where they started, even if weather causes a suspension and play must be completed at a later date.
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10:30 p.m.
Heading into the eighth inning, the Chicago Cubs still lead the Cleveland Indians 5-1 in Game 2.
Throwing a heavy dose of curveballs, Cubs lefty reliever Mike Montgomery struck out three right-handed batters in the seventh. He fanned the first two, then gave up a single and a walk before whiffing Carlos Santana to end the inning.
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9:55 p.m.
The Cleveland Indians have finally broken through for a hit against Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta in Game 2.
Jason Kipnis, who grew up a huge Cubs fan outside Chicago, laced a clean line drive up the middle and hustled to second for a double with one out in the sixth inning, the Indians’ first hit of the night.
Kipnis moved to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch. Mike Napoli followed with a sharp single to left field.
That was it for Arrieta as the Cubs went to the bullpen, bringing in left-hander Mike Montgomery. Arrieta struck out six and walked three in 5 2/3 innings. He threw 98 pitches.
Montgomery retired Jose Ramirez to end the inning and keep the Cubs in front 5-1 as they tried to even the Series at one game apiece.
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9:35 p.m.
Chicago Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta hasn’t allowed a hit to the Cleveland Indians through five innings in Game 2.
Arrieta has walked three, but the closest a Cleveland batter has come to a hit are a pair of fly balls to the warning track.
Arrieta, who tossed a no-hitter in each of the past two seasons, has struck out six and thrown 79 pitches.
The only no-hitter in World Series history was Don Larsen’s perfect game for the New York Yankees in 1956 against the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5.
Arrieta’s teammates have given him plenty of breathing room by staking him to a 5-0 lead.
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9:15 p.m.
The Chicago Cubs have opened a 5-0 lead over the Cleveland Indians in the fifth inning of Game 2.
Anthony Rizzo drew a 10-pitch walk from Zack McAllister and scored when Ben Zobrist followed with a one-out triple into the right-field corner.
Indians right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall slipped while chasing the ball, allowing Rizzo to score pretty easily. It was Zobrist’s fifth hit in seven Series at-bats.
Kyle Schwarber singled off Bryan Shaw through a drawn-in infield for his second RBI single of the game. After an error by second baseman Jason Kipnis, the Cubs added another run when Shaw walked Addison Russell with the bases loaded.
With the Cubs looking to even the Series at a game apiece, starter Jake Arrieta has not allowed a hit through four innings.
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8:35 p.m.
Who says Cleveland pitcher Trevor Bauer doesn’t have a sense of humor?
Bauer tweeted a picture before Game 2 that featured a small drone sent to him by a Chicago Cubs fan.
Bauer infamously cut the pinkie on his right (pitching) hand while tinkering with a drone before the AL Championship Series. The Indians pushed back his start to Game 3 in Toronto, but Bauer was removed in the first inning when his stitched-up finger started dripping blood.
His pinkie appeared to be in much better shape Wednesday night. And while Bauer has grown tired of talking about the mishap, he seems to be OK with some good-natured ribbing from fans.
The drone came with a note that read, “Hi Trevor, Go Cubs Go.”
Bauer’s finger made it through three innings without bleeding, but the Cubs took a 2-0 lead as they tried to even the Series at a game apiece.
The right-hander was lifted with two outs in the fourth. He threw 87 pitches and gave up six hits.
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8:15 p.m.
The Chicago Cubs have extended their lead to 2-0 over the Cleveland Indians in Game 2 on Kyle Schwarber’s RBI single in the third inning.
Anthony Rizzo walked with two outs and went to second on Ben Zobrist’s single before Schwarber singled on a 3-0 pitch from Indians starter Trevor Bauer.
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7:30 p.m.
The Chicago Cubs have scored their first World Series run in 71 years.
Anthony Rizzo doubled home Kris Bryant with one out in the first inning to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead over Cleveland and starting pitcher Trevor Bauer in Game 2 on Wednesday night. It’s the first run the Cubs have scored in the Fall Classic since the eighth inning of a 9-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers in Game 7 of the 1945 World Series.
After getting beat 6-0 in Game 1, the Cubs wasted little time getting to Bauer. The right-hander needed 29 pitches to get through the first inning, though the right pinkie he hurt while working on a drone this month wasn’t bleeding. Bauer had to leave his previous start during the AL playoffs in the first inning because the wound opened.
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7:15 p.m.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred plans to meet with Indians owner Paul Dolan following the World Series to discuss the team’s continued use of the controversial Chief Wahoo logo.
The smiling, red-faced symbol has stirred strong opinions for years. Manfred said he understands “that particular logo is offensive to some people, and all of us at Major League Baseball understand why.”
Manfred also appreciates the segment of fans who are attached to Chief Wahoo, which still appears on some of the Indians’ caps and sleeves of game jerseys.
The Indians dropped Chief Wahoo as their primary logo three years ago, replacing it with a block “C’’, but that isn’t enough for some groups who want it abolished completely.
Manfred said he and Dolan agreed to put off discussion until after the Series.
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6:55 p.m.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred anticipates the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians have about four hours to get in Game 2 of the World Series.
“The forecast for tonight is that we should have a very playable window,” he said. “The additional hour, as a result of moving up the game time, should be helpful. It looks like rain that could be problematic will be 11 o’clockish, OK, to give us obviously a long window between 7:08 and then. We’re hopeful that we can get the whole game in. Obviously, we do everything we can to avoid an interrupted game, but we’re hopeful we’ll be able to play this one without interruption.”
Manfred said Fox executives cooperated in the decision to move up the game, originally scheduled for 8:08 p.m.
“Once we knew we had that flexibility from our broadcast partner, we spoke to both teams,” he said. “We talked to both clubs. Everybody thought given what the forecast looked like then, and in fact, still looks like tonight, that it was best to go with 7:08. We thought it was important that the clubs both know when they left the ballpark last night what time we’d be going today. We also thought it was important for fans that were in the ballpark that we could notify them of the game change while they were still in the stadium, and for our television audience that we could announce a change in the time of the game during last night’s broadcast.”
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6:15 p.m.
In presenting a Hank Aaron Award to David Ortiz, Hammerin’ Hank remembered the last time he saw the retiring Boston slugger, during a vacation in the Bahamas.
“’Hey, can you please sign this ball for my grandson?’” Ortiz recalled the Hall of Famer asking him.
“I always have people come and ask me for autographs, and some of the people I just - ’OK, yeah, that’s fine,’” Ortiz said. “But while I’m signing it, I’m looking at him and I’m like, ’Why don’t you sign one for me?’”
Ortiz was dressed snazilly in a dark suit, dark shirt, dark tie, dark overcoat and mirror-blue sunglasses.
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5:55 p.m.
The Chicago Cubs are a boon for baseball’s television ratings, drawing the highest rating on Fox for a World Series opener since 2009.
Cleveland’s 6-0 win over the Cubs on Tuesday night drew an 11.9 rating and a 19 share on Fox, averaging 19.4 million viewers. The audience was up 30 percent from the 14.9 million average for last year’s opener, Kansas City’s 14-inning win over the New York Mets, and the most since Philadelphia’s victory over the New York Yankees in 2009 averaged 19.5 million.
Fox said Wednesday that including Spanish-language coverage on Fox Deportes and digital viewers on Fox Sports Go, this year’s opener was seen by 19.79 million, the most for a Game 1 since 23.2 million tuned in to see Boston beat St. Louis in 2004.
The rating is the percentage of television homes tuned to a telecast, and the share in the percentage watching among those households with TVs on at the time.
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4:55 p.m.
Major League Baseball is hoping it can play Game 2 of the World Series on Wednesday night despite the rain in the Cleveland forecast.
MLB senior vice president Peter Woodfork says baseball officials are prepared to have the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians play through light rain.
“If it’s light and … we don’t think it’s going to get any heavier, I think we’d be apt to play in that,” he said about 2 1/2 hours before the scheduled 7:08 p.m. start. “The field’s in good condition. The tarp’s been on. The outfield can take a lot of water.”
Woodfork says Commissioner Rob Manfred will examine the situation at about 6:15 p.m., in time to notify teams whether to have their starting pitchers start to warm up.
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4:40 p.m.
ESPN baseball analyst Jessica Mendoza is looking forward to the Game 2 pitching matchup between Cleveland’s Trevor Bauer and Chicago’s Jake Arrieta.
She calls Bauer “a wild card” after lasting one inning in his last outing because of a bloody finger, which he had sliced while fixing a drone.
Arrieta went 18-8 with a 3.10 ERA during the regular season but struggled to a 5.01 ERA in his final four starts. Mendoza expects the 2015 Cy Young Award winner to have better command of his fastball, which she says will set up the “slider-cutter pitch that breaks on that same path where hitters can’t tell the difference.”
Mendoza is in Cleveland giving World Series updates for “Baseball Tonight.” She wrapped up her first full season announcing for “Sunday Night Baseball.”
Last fall, Mendoza became the first woman to call a nationally televised postseason game.
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4:05 p.m.
The Chicago Cubs are going to see a whole lot of Cleveland ace Corey Kluber.
Indians manager Terry Francona says Kluber is “all set” to start Game 4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Saturday on three days’ rest.
Kluber tossed six shutout innings in Cleveland’s 6-0 victory in Game 1 on Tuesday night. Francona removed Kluber after 88 pitches, and the bullpen kept the Cubs in check the rest of the way.
Kluber is 3-1 in the postseason and lowered his ERA to a sparkling 0.74 while scattering four hits and striking out nine without issuing a walk.
Starting Kluber in Game 4 opens the possibility of Kluber getting the nod on short rest again if the Series goes the full seven games.
The Cubs already have said John Lackey will start Game 4.
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3:45 p.m.
If you know the whereabouts of the Cubs’ offense, please contact the Cleveland Police Department.
After the hometown Indians blanked the Chicago Cubs 6-0 in the World Series opener Tuesday night, Cleveland police hit the Cubs and their fans hard with this tweet : “Missing persons report filed for @Cubs offense. #RallyTogether #gooseegg #GoTribe @Indians.”
Chicago’s men in blue countered with this post : “Shake it off! Tomorrow is game 2! @Cubs CPD supports you! #FlyTheW.”
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3:30 p.m.
Indians manager Terry Francona more than tweaked his lineup for Game 2 of the World Series.
Switch-hitting designated hitter Carlos Santana, who batted fifth in the opener, will lead off against Cubs right-hander Jake Arrieta. Also, Tyler Naquin will replace Rajai Davis in center field and Coco Crisp will play in left instead of Brandon Guyer.
Francona likes Santana at the top of the order because of his patience at the plate. He walked 99 times during the regular season. Santana also hit 34 home runs and has set the tone with several homers to open games.
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2:40 p.m.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon made a pair of lineup changes for Game 2. Jorge Soler replaced Chris Coghlan in right field, and Willson Contreras was the catcher instead of David Ross.
Jason Heyward, the right fielder with the $184 million, eight-year contract, remains on the bench. He is 2 for 28 in the postseason.
Center fielder Dexter Fowler will lead off, followed by third baseman Kris Bryant, first baseman Anthony Rizzo, left fielder Ben Zobrist, designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, second baseman Javier Baez, Contreras, Soler and shortstop Addison Russell. Jake Arrieta was scheduled to pitch.
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2:25 p.m.
The tarp is covering the infield at Progressive Field, five hours before the scheduled 7:08 p.m. start of Game 2 between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians.
A light drizzle began around noon Wednesday, and the chance of rain was 40-50 percent for each hour through 8 p.m.
Cleveland won Tuesday night’s opener 6-0.
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12:30 p.m.
Even if one team has a big late-inning lead, there could be a daylong wait to finish Game 2 of the World Series if it rains at Progressive Field.
While regular-season games can be shortened because of bad weather as long as the losing team has completed at least five innings, a rules change approved in 2009 mandates that all postseason games and regular-season tiebreakers must be played to conclusion at the ballpark where they began.
Thursday is a scheduled off day before the Series resumes Friday at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, which last hosted the Series in 1945.
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12:10 p.m.
The Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians are hoping to beat the rain forecast for Wednesday night and get in Game 2 of the World Series.
It was overcast and dry at noon following the Indians’ 6-0 victory in the opener Tuesday night, but wet weather was forecast for the evening.
Major League Baseball moved up the start of the game by an hour to 7:08 p.m., when Accuweather forecast a 48-degree temperature, a little rain and winds of 10-20 mph. Accuweather said that if rain tracks to the north, there will be a spot shower or two during the game, but if rain remains over the area, it could be steady and cause delays.
Meteorologist Ryan Adamson says in a statement: “Game 2 of the World Series looks rather dry to start, but possibly wet to finish, depending on how long the game goes.”
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