CHICAGO — Aroldis Chapman got eight outs in the longest relief appearance of his career and the Chicago Cubs held off Cleveland 3-2 Sunday night, cutting the Indians’ lead in the World Series to 3-2.
The Cubs won a Series game at Wrigley Field for the first time since in 1945. They’ll try to extend their season in Game 6 at Cleveland on Tuesday night when Chicago right-hander Jake Arrieta faces Josh Tomlin.
Kris Bryant’s homer sparked a three-run burst in the fourth inning that gave Jon Lester and the Cubs the lead.
Carl Edwards Jr. relieved Lester to begin the seventh with a 3-2 edge. With a runner on second and one out, Chapman was called in.
The hard-throwing closer hadn’t pitched in the seventh inning since 2012. Chapman escaped the jam, then shut down the Indians for a save.
Chapman relieved Edwards with one out and struck out Jose Ramirez swinging at a 100 mph fastball. Chapman hit Brandon Guyer in the leg with his next pitch before retiring Roberto Perez on a groundout to second, delighting the towel-waving crowd at Wrigley Field.
Chapman hadn’t pitched in the seventh inning since 2012. His career high is 21/3 innings.
Edwards gave up a leadoff single to Mike Napoli, who went to second on a passed ball, before getting Carlos Santana on a fly to left.
Lester, a 19-game winner, struck out five without a walk in six innings. He gave up a solo homer to Ramirez in the second and an RBI single with two outs in the sixth to Francisco Lindor.
Jose Ramirez homered for Cleveland. Losing pitcher Trevor Bauer went four innings.
Bauer was sailing along with a 1-0 lead before the Cubs broke out with three runs in the fourth, starting with Kris Bryant’s leadoff homer.
Bryant lined a 1-1 fastball from Bauer just beyond the left-field wall for his second postseason homer – and first since Game 3 of the NL Division Series against San Francisco.
Fans were still dancing and shaking the upper deck when Anthony Rizzo lined the next pitch off the ivy in right for a double. He moved up on a single by Ben Zobrist and came around on Addison Russell’s infield single to third.
The retiring David Ross, playing his final home game, added a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
Bauer gave up six hits and struck out seven without a walk.
Francisco Lindor hit an RBI single with two outs in the sixth to trim Cleveland’s deficit to 3-2. Rajai Davis singled off Lester with one and stole second. He scored on Lindor’s line drive.
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