Baseball: Cubs Find Slugging Form As Elusive Title One Win Away

CLEVELAND, Nov 2 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 02nd Nov, 2016 ) : One win shy of their first World Series title since 1908, the Chicago Cubs have found their top batting form at just the right time.

The Cubs, whose title drought is the longest in American sports history, pounded out 13 hits in defeating host Cleveland 9-3 Tuesday to level Major League Baseball's best-of-seven final at 3-3 and force a winner-take-all showdown Wednesday.

"We're going to come to the clubhouse with a lot of confidence and a lot of energy," Cubs shortstop Addison Russell said. "Game seven -- it's a kid's dream." Entering the Cubs' biggest game in more than a century, Russell said players are not thinking about failures by past lineups even as long-suffering supporters, already rewarded with their first World Series appearance since 1945, dream of an end to their epic run of futility.

"I don't even think we're really thinking about that. We just want to have that sound mind. We're going to give it all we have," Russell said. The Cubs were hitting only .210 for the Series after five games.

Kris Bryant was 2-for-17 while Russell and Anthony Rizzo were a lackluster 4-for-19 with the bat. But on Tuesday, Russell hit a grand slam, becoming at 22 the second-youngest in World Series history to blast a homer with the bases loaded, and a two-run double, matching a one-game Series record by driving six runs across the plate.

"He has been the catalyst for us. Tonight he certainly was," Bryant said of Russell. "He's just not pressing as much.

Any person playing this game that's 22 probably has some nerves going into a post-season that really matters to us.

But he got those out early. Now it's solid at-bat after solid at-bat." Bryant went 4-for-5 with a home run while Rizzo was 3-for-5 with a homer. They became the first 3-4 hitters in any lineup in World Series history to combine for seven hits in a game.

Now there's only one goal remaining. And the Cubs could become the first team since 1985 to rally from a 3-2 deficit to win the title, the first since 1979 to do so by winning the last two games on the road.

"Anybody who plays this game grows up dreaming of winning a World Series," Bryant said. "We get to play game seven. That's pretty special. It's nice to build off these last two games with momentum.

The offense is pretty special and our pitching was unbelievable." Scoring early enabled the Cubs to seize command from the start, something they failed to do in their Series defeats. "Early on you are forced to deliver when the game is on the line," Russell said.

"You learn to control those feelings so you are able to see the ball. Made some pretty good swings. Definitely the confidence is up for tomorrow." Russell dressed for Halloween as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, relaxing on the eve of game six.

"Halloween is my favorite holiday. It's my nerd holiday. I go all out," he said. "To have my friends and family there to vent off them and take off a little bit of pressure, that was awesome."