Major League Baseball

The Latest: Indians blank Cubs 1-0 for 2-1 World Series lead

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 8:42 p.m. ET

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CHICAGO (AP) The Latest on Game 3 of the World Series at Wrigley Field on Friday night (all times Central):

10:41 p.m.

Cody Allen struck out Javier Baez with two runners in scoring position for the final out, and the Cleveland Indians held on to beat the Chicago Cubs 1-0 for a 2-1 lead in the World Series.

It was the first Series game at Wrigley Field in Chicago since 1945.

Cleveland pitched its fifth shutout of this postseason.

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10:20 p.m.

Indians closer Cody Allen has struck out Kris Bryant with a runner on, and Cleveland has a 1-0 lead over the Chicago Cubs heading into the ninth inning of Game 3.

Bryan Shaw got five outs for the Indians, riding the latest stingy performance by their stellar bullpen.

Allen is 5 for 5 in save chances this postseason. He has tossed nine scoreless innings with 16 strikeouts and three walks.

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9:55

Bryan Shaw has worked a scoreless seventh inning out of the bullpen to preserve Cleveland's 1-0 lead over the Chicago Cubs in Game 3.

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9:50 p.m.

Actor 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 also said he was going to sing ''Take Me Out To The Ball Game'' as the cartoon character Daffy Duck.

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9:45 p.m.

Cleveland has broken through in the seventh inning of Game 3, taking a 1-0 lead on an RBI single by pinch-hitter Coco Crisp off reliever Carl Edwards Jr.

Roberto Perez, the light-hitting catcher who homered twice in Game 1, got things started with a leadoff single. Pinch-runner Michael Martinez advanced on Tyler Naquin's sacrifice and went to third on a wild pitch.

After a walk to Rajai Davis, Crisp batted for reliever Andrew Miller and singled to right field. The Indians might have had a good chance for more, but Davis was thrown out at third by Jorge Soler.

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9:20 p.m.

Featuring that wicked slider, Indians reliever Andrew Miller has struck out the top three batters in Chicago's lineup during a perfect sixth inning. Game 3 is still scoreless.

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9:05 p.m.

Andrew Miller is on for the Indians after replacing starter Josh Tomlin with a runner on second and two outs in the fifth inning.

The left-hander retired pinch-hitter Miguel Montero on a line drive to right field.

Both starting pitchers are out of the game.

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8:55 p.m.

The Cubs escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fifth when reliever Justin Grimm got Francisco Lindor to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Grimm entered after Kyle Hendricks plunked Jason Kipnis with a pitch. The right-hander went after Lindor with breaking balls and got ahead 0-2. The count ran full before Lindor grounded a curve to second base.

Grimm gave a huge fist pump and shouted along with first baseman Anthony Rizzo at a roaring Wrigley Field after the Cubs turned two to keep Game 3 scoreless.

Hendricks gave up six hits and struck out six in 4 1/3 innings. He gave Grimm a big hug back in the dugout.

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8:30 p.m.

Indians starter Josh Tomlin has allowed only one hit through four innings, and Game 3 is still scoreless.

Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks threw a called third strike past Roberto Perez with runners at the corners to end the top of the fourth.

Hendricks made a fine defensive play earlier in the inning to prevent Cleveland from scoring. Runners were at first and second when Chicago tried to turn a 3-6-1 double play. The relay to first bounced in the dirt as Hendricks was running over to cover the bag, but he picked it clean.

That kept Francisco Lindor at third base. Lindor, who has singled twice, is 5 for 9 in the Series (.556).

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8:25 p.m.

The Cubs honored former Buffalo Bills coach and World War II veteran Marv Levy during Game 3 as part of their military appreciation program.

The 91-year-old Levy was greeted with loud cheers when he was introduced during the fourth inning.

Levy, a Chicago native, coached the Bills to four straight Super Bowls from 1991-94. He was on furlough from the Army Air Corps when he attended the previous World Series game at Wrigley Field in 1945.

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8 p.m.

Three innings in the books and Game 3 between the Indians and Cubs remains scoreless.

Cleveland had an excellent opportunity to jump ahead in the first inning after Jason Kipnis reached on a one-out infield single and went to third on Francisco Lindor's single to left-center.

Chicago starter Kyle Hendricks, however, picked off Lindor at first base. Lindor initially was called safe, but the ruling was overturned after a replay challenge by the Cubs.

Mike Napoli struck out to end the inning.

Both starting pitchers in control on a windy night at Wrigley Field, hosting its first World Series game since 1945.

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7:15 p.m.

Game 3 between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians is underway.

Carlos Santana swung and missed at a cutter from Kyle Hendricks on the first pitch of the night and struck out swinging on four pitches.

The Cubs and Indians split the first two games in Cleveland. This is the first World Series game at Wrigley Field since Hall of Fame slugger Hank Greenberg helped the Detroit Tigers to a 9-3 victory in Game 7 on October 10, 1945.

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7 p.m.

Jerry Tomlin made it to the World Series to see his only son pitch.

Two months after nearly losing his life to a spinal condition that has left him partially paralyzed, Tomlin sat behind home plate in a wheelchair as Josh Tomlin started for the Cleveland Indians against the Chicago Cubs.

A moment he'll never forget.

''It's hard to put into words,'' said the elder Tomlin, wearing an Indians cap and sweatshirt. ''I didn't know what I was going to say when I got here and I still don't. The way everything planned out and the way people helped me to get here, man, it's definitely a dream come true. There was no way I was going to miss this.''

When Josh was growing up in Whitehouse, Texas, he and his dad - like so many fathers and sons - would pretend they were playing in the World Series. And for it to be happening, on the night the Cubs were hosting their first Series game since 1945, was almost beyond the 57-year-old's wildest imagination.

''How could you plan it out or write it out any better than what it is?'' he said. ''To be here for this historic thing they're having here and to be the first World Series here and my first World Series and my son to be here, I don't know, man, it's just hard to explain.''

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6 p.m.

Indians manager Terry Francona is admittedly biased, but he would like to see the designated hitter used in both World Series ballparks.

After playing all season with a DH - except for interleague road games - the Indians won't have one during their three games at Wrigley Field.

Francona said the rules ''are what they are'' but he believes American League teams are penalized by the inability to use their best lineups.

''I don't think it makes it a bad game,'' he said before Game 3. ''I just don't necessarily agree with this. I just think you set your team up the way you set it up and then you get to the most important games and you're doing something different.''

On top of not having their best hitters in the lineup, Cleveland's pitchers will have to hit - something they've barely done all season.

''It's a disadvantage,'' Francona said. ''It doesn't mean you can't win.''

For the record, Cleveland starter Josh Tomlin takes a lofty .500 career batting average into Game 3. And it's legit - 6 for 12, including 2 for 5 this year with a double.

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3 p.m.

Jorge Soler is the starting right fielder for the Chicago Cubs for Game 3, and Carlos Santana is in left for the Cleveland Indians .

The Cubs tried to get Kyle Schwarber medically cleared to play left, but doctors said no on Thursday. That meant Ben Zobrist stayed in left instead of moving to right, and manager Joe Maddon decided on Soler for right.

Chicago also had rookie Willson Contreras at catcher, batting fifth. Soler was in the sixth slot, followed by second baseman Javier Baez, shortstop Addison Russell and pitcher Kyle Hendricks.

Santana, Cleveland's usual designated hitter, was playing his second career game in left. He also played four innings at the position in 2012.

Santana also was in the leadoff spot. Rookie Tyler Naquin got the start in center, batting eighth, and Lonnie Chisenhall was in right, batting sixth.

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2:15 p.m.

Those notorious, game-changing winds are beginning to whip at Wrigley Field.

After a fairly calm morning in Chicago, the wind is picking up and heavy gusts of 40 mph are expected during Game 3, which could send some routine fly balls to left field into the bleachers - or on to Waveland Avenue - for home runs.

Hey, this is the Windy City.

The flags bearing the retired jersey numbers of Cubs greats Ernie Banks, Ron Santos and Ferguson Jenkins, were flapping in a stiff breeze atop the left-field foul pole as members of the grounds crew prepared the infield as a dozen pigeons circled the pitching mound.

The wind has always been a factor at Wrigley, turning pitching duels into high-scoring affairs or knocking down balls that might otherwise be over the wall.

It could be a problem for the Indians, who are expected to start designated hitter Carlos Santana in left. He's only played four innings there in his career.

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1:20 p.m.

After waiting 71 years to witness a World Series game, Chicago Cubs fans can hardly contain themselves.

More than six hours before the first pitch of Game 3, thousands of fans - many of them wearing jerseys with names like Banks, Sandberg and Rizzo on their backs - were already in the streets ringing Wrigley Field on Friday as the Cubs prepared to play the Cleveland Indians.

It's the first Series game at the fabled ballpark since 1945, and many Chicagoans skipped work to begin a weekend of baseball they'll never forget.

There was a long line outside Murphy's Bleachers, the renowned tavern on the corner of Sheffield and Waveland Avenues. Vendors worked the crowd, one of them peddling a T-shirt that said, ''I Ain't Afraid of No Goat.''

Generations of Cubs fans believed their team was denied a trip to the Series partly because of ''The Curse of the Billy Goat,'' which began when a Chicago tavern owner supposedly put a hex on the team after it refused to let his pet goat, Murphy, into Wrigley Field during the `45 Series.

The Cubs haven't won the World Series since 1908. It's only been a 68-year drought for the Indians, who last won it all in 1948.