Lackey pitches for Chicago.Not since they dropped Game 7 against Detroit in 1945 had the Cubs hosted a World Series game. The last time they won one? T

CHICAGO -- Jake Arrieta almost certainly wont win a second straight NL Cy Young Award. He likely wont be the No. 1 or 2 postseason pitcher for the loaded Chicago Cubs, either.Arrieta showed Friday he can still dominate. And he figures its because hes stopped trying so hard.Arrieta struck out 10 in seven innings and the Cubs beat the sloppy St. Louis Cardinals 5-0 for their 98th victory, the most since they last played in the World Series in 1945. Chicago clinched home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs.A lot of the time more effort creates some inconsistencies in my delivery, Arrieta said. Trying to do more than I have to. I had several outs today where I took my foot off the gas and I was at 60-70 percent and got nice, easy groundballs to second base or shortstop.Manager Joe Maddon said Arrieta looked familiar when he struck out the side on 11 pitches in the first inning, a reference to his 22-win 2015 season that included a 1.77 ERA. Arrieta said competitiveness and stubbornness have been the reasons his walks, hits and runs are up from a year ago.Weve been hyper-critical of him all year based on what he did last year, Maddon said. But to his credit, I think hes handled that very well.With veteran Miguel Montero back catching him, Arrieta (18-7) allowed five hits and walked one. Anthony Rizzo had three hits and Ben Zobrist drove in two runs as the Cubs tied a team record with their 56th home win.Chicago scored four runs in the first inning off Mike Leake (9-11) and dropped the Cardinals 1 1/2 games behind the Mets and a half-game behind the Giants for the two NL wild-card berths.Pedro Strop came off the disabled list to work the eighth, and Travis Wood and Carl Edwards Jr. finished the five-hitter.Rizzo, Zobrist and Chris Coghlan drove in runs in the first off Leake, who lasted 3 1/3 innings and is winless in four starts since recovering from shingles.I couldnt locate early. I was slightly erratic, Leake said. I just started out on the wrong foot.Leake allowed another run on one of two wild pitches. Cardinals gaffes included Kolten Wong face-planting into the turf chasing Rizzos first-inning double and Matt Adams getting picked off first.Leake gave up five runs, seven hits and three walks. Manager Mike Matheny used six relievers.The Cardinals are hoping to return to Wrigley Field in two weeks. But that requires earning one of the two wild-card berths and then winning the single-elimination game for a spot in the division series.Zobrists fourth-inning groundout added another run for Chicago (98-55), which has won four straight.The Cubs have so much depth as they seek their first World Series title since 1908 that Arrieta is likely the No. 3 playoff starter behind Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks.But Arrieta feels if he can control his effort, hell be at his best come October.I dont give up many hits, Arrieta said. So if I can keep guys off base via the walk, Im going to be in a pretty good spot.TRAINERS ROOMCardinals: LF Matt Holliday (broken right thumb) took batting practice off RHP Mike Mayers before the game. He blistered a couple balls, Matheny said. It was exciting to see. Holliday will likely have another BP session before hes activated. ... SS Aledmys Diaz (arm fatigue) was out of the lineup.Cubs: Strop (knee, groin) worked around a leadoff walk in his first appearance since Aug. 10. Once he settled in and the slider became his pitch again, he felt at home, Maddon said.GROOMSMAN STRIKES OUTArrieta and Cardinals 2B Matt Carpenter were college teammates at TCU. Arrieta was Carpenters wedding groomsman. Yet Carpenter cant solve his friend. He went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts, leaving him 0 for 24 in the regular season against Arrieta.CARDINALS ROTATIONLHP Jaime Garcia will take the Cardinals rotation spot of struggling RHP Luke Weaver on Monday vs. Cincinnati.ROSS RECOGNIZEDCubs chairman Tom Ricketts presented retiring C David Ross with the No. 3 from the Wrigley Field manual scoreboard before the game.UP NEXTRHP Jason Hammel (15-9, 3.56 ERA), contending for the final Cubs postseason rotation spot, faces rookie RHP Alex Reyes (3-1, 1.08) on Saturday. Jordan Retro 11 Cheap . LeBron James and Chris Bosh didnt need any more. Williams scored 11 points in 10 minutes, Alan Anderson scored 17 points, and the Brooklyn Nets finished the exhibition season with a 108-87 win over the Miami Heat on Friday night. Air Jordan 11 Uk Sale . He said Tuesday thats a big reason why he is now the new coach of the Tennessee Titans. 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Zvonareva, who won the tournament in 2009 and 10, couldnt handle her opponents big groundstrokes in only her third event back after 17 months out with a shoulder injury. Zvonareva made her comeback in January in Shenzhen and played in the Australian Open but lost her first matches at both tournaments. CHICAGO -- Cody Allen, Andrew Miller and the Cleveland Indians crashed a Wrigley Field party 71 years in the making.Leave it to that sensational bullpen to silence the Chicago Cubs and their revved-up fans.Allen escaped a ninth-inning jam and the Indians set a major league record with their fifth shutout this postseason, holding off the Cubs 1-0 Friday night for a 2-1 lead in the World Series.As fun of a game as it was to be a part of, that was agonizing because we used so many guys, Indians manager Terry Francona said.Pinch-hitter Coco Crisp delivered an RBI single in the seventh off Carl Edwards Jr. And that was all Cleveland needed to win the first Series game at Wrigley since 1945.The crowd began forming beyond the ivy-covered walls in the early morning, all pumped for the big day. And fans, some who paid thousands of dollars to pack the seats and nearby rooftops, were roaring after a two-out error by first baseman Mike Napoli helped Chicago put runners on second and third in the ninth.Allen quieted the neighborhood ballpark, striking out co-NL Championship Series MVP Javier Baez to end it.We know were going to have our hands full to beat these guys, and tonight was a good example, Francona said. I mean, that was as close a ballgame as youre ever going to find, and we found a way to manage to win that game.Indians starter Josh Tomlin went 4 2/3 innings with his dad Jerry watching from the stands in a wheelchair just two months after circulatory malformation left him paralyzed from the chest down. Miller, Bryan Shaw and Allen took over.The Cubs have been blanked four times in the last eight games this postseason. Their first 1-0 loss in the World Series since Babe Ruth and the Boston Red Sox beat them in 1918 came on a night when the wind was blowing out.I actually told Miller we were going to win 1-0 tonight, Napoli said. Everything you saw on the TV was the wind was blowing out and theres going to be a bunch of runs scored. ... I turned to him and was like, `Were going to win 1-0 tonight.Cleveland now has a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead with ace Corey Kluber starting Game 4 on short rest Saturday and coming off a dominant performance in the opener. John Lackey pitches for Chicago.Not since they dropped Game 7 against Detroit in 1945 had the Cubs hosted a World Series game. The last time they won one? That was two days earlier when they beat the Tigers in 12 innings.Decades of disappointment and curses gave way to a major league-leading 103 wins and hope for the Cubs that their first championship since 1908 is on the way.But just as they did against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, they will have to rally from a 2-1 deficit if they are finally going to win it all.We have seen good pitching, manager Joe Maddon said. The one component of our team thats going to blossom over the next couple years is the offensive side. I think what youre seeing on defense and arm strengths and baserunning abilities, thats going to be pretty much static. But the part thats going to keep getting better is what were doing at the plate. So this is a great experience for us.Miller got the final out for Tomlin in the fifth, stranding a runner at second. The ALCS MVP then struck out Dexter Fowler, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo in the sixth.Shaw worked the seventh aand exited after Fowler singled with two out in the eighth.dddddddddddd. Allen fanned Bryant to end the inning.Rizzo opened the ninth with a single and took second on a one-out grounder. Jason Heyward followed with a grounder that Napoli misplayed, but at least the big guy kept the ball in front of him and kept the tying run from scoring.Heyward stole second without a throw before Allen fanned Baez for this sixth save this postseason.Two more wins and the Indians will claim the first championship since 1948. The Cubs still need three more for the first crown in 108 years.Its just good chemistry over here and our guys kept their poise, Crisp said. Our pitching did a great job, their pitching did a great job over there and thats what type of series this is going to be, it seems like.It was quite a scene in and around the ballpark, one generations of long-suffering Cubs fans had never witnessed.They started flooding the streets surrounding Wrigley hours before the gates opened. By mid-afternoon, the blocks outside the 102-year-old ballpark were a sea of blue.Fans carried W signs and took selfies near the famed marquee and statues of the late Harry Caray, Ernie Banks and Ron Santo, cherished figures in Cubs lore who would have loved nothing more than to be part of this.There were red roses near the feet of all three. There were also four green apples on Carays statue -- three on top of the base and one in his left hand -- in a fitting tribute. After all, the famed broadcaster promised after the final game in 1991: Sure as God made green apples, someday, the Chicago Cubs are going to be in the World Series -- and maybe sooner than we think.But this just wasnt Chicagos night.The Cubs Kyle Hendricks, dominant in the clinching NLCS victory over Los Angeles, exited with the bases loaded in the fifth after he hit Chicago-area product Jason Kipnis.Justin Grimm then got Francisco Lindor to ground into 4-6-3 double play and gave a huge pump of the right fist as the crowd roared.LINING UPFrancona took a risk and had Carlos Santana start in left field with no designated hitter because he wanted to keep the switch-hitting slugger in the lineup.Santana has played catcher, third and first base in his career. But he had only played one other time in left -- and that was for four innings in 2012.This made Santana the first player since 1931 to get his first career start at a position in a World Series game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.MURRAY ON THE MICActor and comedian Bill Murray led the crowd in a rousing version of Take Me Out To The Ball Game during the seventh-inning stretch.Murray, a huge Cubs fan, reminded the crowd of 41,703 that it was the last chance to buy beer, and then said they were there to win games rather than drink. He then sang Take Me Out To The Ball Game as the cartoon character Daffy Duck.UP NEXTIndians: Kluber (3-1, 0.74 ERA) will be working on three days rest after pitching the Indians to a 6-0 win in Game 1. The 2014 AL Cy Young Award winner has thrown scoreless ball in three of his four starts this postseason.Cubs: Lackey (0-0, 5.63) has not pitched since Game 4 of the NLCS and will be going on nine days rest. ' ' '