CLEVELAND — These Indians are not going to roll over for America’s darlings. Believeland is on a roll.
Corey Kluber made like Bob Gibson on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the World Series, striking out eight Cubs over the first three innings, a World Series record, and pitching six shutout innings to lead the surprising Indians to a 6-0 victory over the Cubbies at Progressive Field.
The previous mark of seven K’s was shared by Gibson, Randy Johnson and Orlando Hernandez.
First blood is huge. The winner of the first game of the World Series has won 12 of the last 13 World Series and 17 of the last 19.
The Indians also got two home runs from catcher Roberto Perez to seal the deal.
Kluber is known to his teammates as Klubot because of his robot-like demeanor and precision on the mound. And, just to be clear, that’s Klubot with a capital K.
He was the epitome of being locked in Tuesday night as he struck out nine, did not walk a batter and allowed only four hits.
“He prepares so well, that’s why here late in October the needle on the gas tank doesn’t point towards empty,” said Indians manager Terry Francona, now 9-0 in World Series games.
The Indians struck out 15 Cubs, tied for the second most in a World Series game.
The Indians also received a breathtaking performance from ex-Yankee Andrew Miller, who worked two scoreless innings, though he wasn’t as dominant as he has been throughout this postseason.
Still locked in a 3-0 game in the seventh, he escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam, getting a fly out to short center by pinch-hitter Wilson Contreras, and strikeouts of Addison Russell and David Ross off his killer slider.
He ended the eighth with runners on first and third by striking out Kyle Schwarber, who walked off Miller in the seventh and also doubled in his first game since suffering a major knee injury in April.
The Indians have not won a World Series since 1948. The Cubs, as the world knows, have not won since 1908.
The good start for the Indians means the world, Miller said, as the Indians have started all three postseason series with a win.
“We’ve had the good fortune at playing at home,’’ Miller said. “We can thank Corey for that, he won the All-Star Game. He set the tone, the fans set the tone. You got to ride this home-field advantage as much as you can, but we got a long ways to go. It’s nice to get the first one.’’
As they have been doing all postseason, the Indians jumped to an early lead, scoring two runs in the first, the rally starting against Jon Lester after two outs.
Francisco Lindor singled, stole second against Lester, who was troubled by the yips with men on base. After two walks, Jose Ramirez hit a dribbler to third that scored Lindor. Brandon Guyer, who has perfected the the art of being hit by a pitch, did just that to drive in the second run.
This was the kind of start the Tribe needed to counter the Cubs powerful lineup. Remember, last year in the NLCS, the Mets pitching shut down the Cubs.
Perez, who hit .183 in the regular season .174 in the first two rounds of the playoffs, hit a solo shot in the fourth and blew the game open with a three-run shot in the eighth — his third homer of the playoffs, matching his total in 153 regular-season at-bats.
Kluber started the night getting both Dexter Fowler and Kris Bryant on called third strikes.
Kluber was quick to credit Perez for calling a great game.
“He did an unbelievable job,’’ said Kluber, who could come back on short rest. “The only time they got hits was when I didn’t execute a pitch.’’
The Indians will go with Trevor Bauer in Game 2 Wednesday night here against Jake Arrieta. Bauer said he is “fascinated’’ by Kluber’s two-seamer.
“A pitch I started throwing mostly by studying his, and figuring out exactly why it moves and all the science behind it,’’ Bauer said. “Sometimes it moves a lot and it’s really fun to see the reactions to it.’’
Most of the night, the Cubs walked away from home plate in disbelief.