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"Sports Quote of the Day"
“People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don't know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.” ~ George Allen, Jr., Former Football Coach in the NFL and USFL. Also A Member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Addison Russell (Photo/csnchicago.com)
Trending: Big third period pushes Blackhawks past Flames. (See the hockey section for Blackhawks updates and NHL news).
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Trending: The official schedule for the 2016 World Series
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By Tony Andracki
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
It wasn't quite "we will see you tomorrow night," but Addison Russell delivered a similar moment for the Cubs franchise in Game 6 Tuesday night.
Kirby Puckett's blast clinched a walk-off victory in Game 6 for the Minnesota Twins back in 1991 when Jack Buck made the iconic call.
Russell's was just a third-inning homer, but it had the same effect with another Buck generation (Joe, Jack's son) on the FOX game broadcast.
Russell delivered the knockout blow to the Indians, a grand slam to give the Cubs a seven-run lead as they forced a Game 7 with a 9-3 victory in front of a raucous crowd at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
The grand slam was the first in Cubs World Series history and Russell's six RBI tied for most in a World Series game in baseball history.
The last World Series grand slam came when Russell was just 11 years old — Paul Konerko's shot in 2005 during the White Sox championship run.
Kris Bryant got things started with a two-out homer off Josh Tomlin on an 0-2 pitch in the first inning.
Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist followed with singles and then the Indians outfielders let Russell's liner drop, plating Rizzo and causing a collision at home plate where Zobrist jarred the ball loose for another two-out tally.
Kyle Schwarber led off the third with a walk and after Bryant flew out, Rizzo and Zobrist singled again to load the bases and setting the stage for Russell's heroics.
Russell may have the biggest hits of the postseason for the Cubs, as his emergence in Games 4 and 5 in Los Angeles changed that entire National League Championship Series around.
"Yeah, I feel like that was the hit of the night there. Anytime you get four runs on one swing, and to go up, I think it was 7-0, that was huge," Bryant said. "He's had a lot of big home runs this postseason. That might have been the biggest.
"So just watching him, he's unbelievable, man. He's 22 years old, Gold Glove, hitting homers in the World Series. He's a pretty special player."
Rizzo added on with a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to increase the lead.
Jake Arrieta was near-dominant again, allowing just two runs (both scored by Chicagoland native Jason Kipnis) in 5.2 innings with nine strikeouts.
Aroldis Chapman used 20 pitches to record four outs in the seventh and eighth innings before Pedro Strop and Travis Wood combined to nail down the final three outs.
The Cubs took Monday off to recharge after a stressful, pressure-packed weekend in Wrigleyville.
"I think it helped for today," Rizzo said. "Having that day off was nice for us to be able to dissect how we just won that game."
The Cubs hoped getting to Cleveland would take the pressure, anxiety and weight of the fanbase off them and put it squarely on the Indians fans.
For one day at least, it appeared as if that worked, as the Cubs scored almost as many runs Tuesday night as they pushed across in the first five games of the World Series (10). They hammered out 13 hits and three walks against six Indians pitchers, only going down in order in two of the nine offensive innings.
"It’s just the way baseball is," Schwarber said. "You’re feeling sexy about yourself. You’re feeling confident in yourself.
"When you come to the field and you got a couple knocks under your belt or a homer under your belt, you feel sexy about yourself."
The Cubs and Indians now square off in what is probably the most highly-anticipated baseball game in American history — two teams with the longest active championship droughts (108 and 68 years, respectively) playing a winner-take-all Game 7 featuring what may be the game's two Cy Young winters (Kyle Hendricks vs. Corey Kluber).
It doesn't get much better than that.
"There's no tomorrow after tomorrow," Rizzo said. "It's an elimination game. You lose, you go home. You win, you're a hero. Thats' just the way it is."
Ben Zobrist delivers a highlight moment as Cubs force Game 7 against Indians.
By JJ Stankevitz
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Ben Zobrist wasn’t the kid intently watching the biggest baseball games of his childhood in Eureka, Ill., expecting to one day be on a World Series stage. Instead, he was the kid who’d watch a bit of a game, then go out in the yard and try to imitate what he briefly saw on TV.
So then would the kid from Illinois have watched the first inning of Game 6 of the 2016 World Series, found a friend and tried to barrel through him as Zobrist did to Cleveland Indians catcher Roberto Perez Tuesday night?
“No, no, no,” Zobrist laughed. “(I) wouldn’t have thought about doing that.”
When Indians right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall and center fielder Tyler Naquin misplayed a routine Addison Russell two-out fly ball into a hit, Zobrist — who was standing on first base — dashed 270 feet around the bases toward home plate. Jason Kipnis’ relay throw short-hopped Perez, who couldn’t cleanly come up with the ball.
Zobrist said he was thinking he’d try to slide up until the last second. The throw got to home plate just as he did, but Perez was in his way, so his plans quickly changed.
“Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about going over the catcher,” Zobrist said. “I was going to go straight in, slide in, but he was kind of right in the way and I went down as if I was going to slide and there was nowhere else to go. Just tried to take my momentum through him for a little bit.”
Zobrist scored the Cubs’ third run of the first inning, which set the tone for a 9-3 win that forced a historic Game 7 Wednesday night at Progressive Field. The usually even-keeled Zobrist let out a burst of emotion after he scored, emphatically high-fiving Anthony Rizzo in a moment that felt like a running back celebrating a critical goal-line touchdown in a football game.
Not only did Zobrist’s clobbering of Perez deliver the Cubs a much-needed cushion, it was a play that helped fire up a team that on Tuesday didn’t look like it was playing with the weight of 108 years of history on its shoulders. And it’s a play that’ll be on every highlight reel if the Cubs pull this thing off and win the World Series Wednesday night in Cleveland.
“There’s no doubt that I was not going to be timid at all going into the plate there,” Zobrist said. “Every run, every situation like that counts, and I’m not trying to protect anything. Knees or body or anything, you do what you gotta do to get to home plate in that situation.”
The under-the-radar catch that may have helped save the Cubs’ season.
By Dan Hayes
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Jason Heyward gave Jake Arrieta a much-needed opportunity to exhale on Tuesday night with an extremely difficult catch early in Game 6 of the World Series.
Even though the Cubs held a large lead, Heyward’s diving catch to rob Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez in the bottom of the fourth inning may very well have saved the season given the way the game was trending. Heyward quickly covered a ton of ground for the grab and Arrieta eventually escaped his messiest inning of the night. The Cubs ultimately routed the Cleveland Indians 9-3 in front of 38,116 at Progressive Field and the teams are set to meet again at 7 p.m. CST on Wednesday night in Game 7.
“That definitely kept momentum away from them, which was definitely there for the taking,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “Great play. Again, I've seen that all year out of this guy.
Everybody, we're always talking about offense, and you hear me talk a lot about defense. A lot of our wins and you talk about run differential and all that. A lot of it is attributable to great defense, and there's a lot of times you get a bump in a positive way from a great defensive play.”
The Cubs grabbed control of Tuesday’s contest with several big hits off the bat of Addison Russell. Yet the shortstop’s third-inning grand slam didn’t prevent a sellout crowd from staying loud and engaged as the Indians attempted to close out the Series and end a 68-year title drought.
By the time Mike Napoli singled with one out in the fourth off Arrieta to drive in Jason Kipnis, whose leadoff double was Cleveland’s first hit, Progressive Field was rocking. But Heyward, whose offensive struggles this season have been discussed ad nausea, temporarily quelled the crowd and restored order with a nifty snag.
Ahead 2-0 in the count, Ramirez ripped Arrieta’s sinker to right for a low line drive, which brought the crowd even more to life. Heyward had different ideas, however, got a good break on the ball and raced in to make the second out of the inning. Arrieta needed the brief respite as he’d go on to hit Lonnie Chisenhall and walk Coco Crisp to load the bases before striking out Tyler Naquin to end the inning.
“I knew from looking at it experience-wise I had a chance to get there,” Heyward said. “It’s a tough play. I’ve got to get to the spot. It was hit hard and it was a sinking line drive. A lot of times you make a play and think to yourself, ‘Sometimes this is easy.’”
The play was anything but simple.
According to MLB.com’s Statcast, the ball left Ramirez’s bat at 98 mph and stayed in the air for a total of 2.9 seconds. In making the play, Heyward also covered 35 feet.
Given all those factors, Heyward converted a play that is only made about 34 percent of the time, according to Statcast.
Still, center fielder Dexter Fowler isn’t surprised by the right fielder’s play-making ability.
“I don’t know if you know, but that dude has a lot of gloves out there, a lot of Gold ones,” Fowler said.
Heyward also has a big arm and he had a chance to display it in the ninth inning. Indians catcher Roberto Perez challenged Heyward on an RBI single to right field and lost as he was thrown out stretching it into a double. While the perfect throw earned Heyward kudos from his infielders and his manager, the game was already out of reach.
Maddon was more impressed by Heyward’s fourth-inning catch, one that could have the Cubs in line to end a 108-year World Series championship drought.
“That was a really big moment in tonight's game,” Maddon said.
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Big third period pushes Blackhawks past Flames.
Even though the Cubs held a large lead, Heyward’s diving catch to rob Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez in the bottom of the fourth inning may very well have saved the season given the way the game was trending. Heyward quickly covered a ton of ground for the grab and Arrieta eventually escaped his messiest inning of the night. The Cubs ultimately routed the Cleveland Indians 9-3 in front of 38,116 at Progressive Field and the teams are set to meet again at 7 p.m. CST on Wednesday night in Game 7.
“That definitely kept momentum away from them, which was definitely there for the taking,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “Great play. Again, I've seen that all year out of this guy.
Everybody, we're always talking about offense, and you hear me talk a lot about defense. A lot of our wins and you talk about run differential and all that. A lot of it is attributable to great defense, and there's a lot of times you get a bump in a positive way from a great defensive play.”
The Cubs grabbed control of Tuesday’s contest with several big hits off the bat of Addison Russell. Yet the shortstop’s third-inning grand slam didn’t prevent a sellout crowd from staying loud and engaged as the Indians attempted to close out the Series and end a 68-year title drought.
By the time Mike Napoli singled with one out in the fourth off Arrieta to drive in Jason Kipnis, whose leadoff double was Cleveland’s first hit, Progressive Field was rocking. But Heyward, whose offensive struggles this season have been discussed ad nausea, temporarily quelled the crowd and restored order with a nifty snag.
Ahead 2-0 in the count, Ramirez ripped Arrieta’s sinker to right for a low line drive, which brought the crowd even more to life. Heyward had different ideas, however, got a good break on the ball and raced in to make the second out of the inning. Arrieta needed the brief respite as he’d go on to hit Lonnie Chisenhall and walk Coco Crisp to load the bases before striking out Tyler Naquin to end the inning.
“I knew from looking at it experience-wise I had a chance to get there,” Heyward said. “It’s a tough play. I’ve got to get to the spot. It was hit hard and it was a sinking line drive. A lot of times you make a play and think to yourself, ‘Sometimes this is easy.’”
The play was anything but simple.
According to MLB.com’s Statcast, the ball left Ramirez’s bat at 98 mph and stayed in the air for a total of 2.9 seconds. In making the play, Heyward also covered 35 feet.
Given all those factors, Heyward converted a play that is only made about 34 percent of the time, according to Statcast.
Still, center fielder Dexter Fowler isn’t surprised by the right fielder’s play-making ability.
“I don’t know if you know, but that dude has a lot of gloves out there, a lot of Gold ones,” Fowler said.
Heyward also has a big arm and he had a chance to display it in the ninth inning. Indians catcher Roberto Perez challenged Heyward on an RBI single to right field and lost as he was thrown out stretching it into a double. While the perfect throw earned Heyward kudos from his infielders and his manager, the game was already out of reach.
Maddon was more impressed by Heyward’s fourth-inning catch, one that could have the Cubs in line to end a 108-year World Series championship drought.
“That was a really big moment in tonight's game,” Maddon said.
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Big third period pushes Blackhawks past Flames.
By Tracey Myers
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
The Blackhawks’ first two periods against Calgary on Tuesday were pretty forgettable.
On a night when the Cubs were creating offensive fireworks in Cleveland, the Blackhawks weren’t mustering much on the United Center ice. That is, until the third period. Then, they did a whole lot with a little.
Artem Anisimov had the game-winning goal and an assist and Corey Crawford was stellar in stopping 33 of 34 shots as the Blackhawks beat the Flames 5-1. The Blackhawks have now won four of their last five and have collected points in seven of their last eight games.
Despite some rough points this season, and another slow start on Tuesday, the Blackhawks are tied with the Minnesota Wild with a Central Division-leading 13 points. Anisimov is now on a career-high, eight-game point streak (seven goals, six assists)
“There are some positive signs in there,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “The penalty killing is getting better, a couple lines getting better and a little bit more balance in our rotation. I still think we need to keep getting better.”
Sure, but the Blackhawks are nevertheless collecting points. And once they got the lead on Anisimov’s goal, a beautiful tape-to-tape pass from Kane that Anisimov pushed past Brian Elliott, the Blackhawks didn’t relinquish it. They scored four goals on seven shots in that third period, including a dazzling one by Tyler Motte in which the rookie bulldozed his way to his third of the season.
“[Brent Seabrook] made a great play in the corner getting the puck up the wing, [Nick Schmaltz] made a better play chipping it by their d-man,” Motte said. “The bench was yelling, ‘speed,’ so I just tried to take it wide, happened to get the puck on the weak side of the net there and slide one in.”
And Crawford was once again the reason the Blackhawks were in a close game. Crawford saw 26 of those 34 shots through the first two periods. The Flames were clogging things up in front of him, leading to deflections and bounces that Crawford was nevertheless able to corral.
“Early they were getting pucks and traffic and tips and a couple of them hit me in the head there,” Crawford said. “But I think it’s just a matter of being on top and our guys are on the side there to clear rebounds and get rid of anything else.”
The Blackhawks didn’t play their best game on Tuesday but they still won. Credit Crawford for keeping them in there with his early work. Credit the Blackhawks for taking advantage of the opportunities they got late, when the Flames were trying to get back into the game. The outings aren’t always pretty, but getting points nonetheless.
“Today we find a way to win the game,” Anisimov said. “Obviously we played not great. But the PK is working, the power play was working today. Just clicking, you know? Just stay together.”
Refreshed Marian Hossa off to great start: 'Seems like he's getting better with age'.
By Tracey Myers
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Little Zoja Hossa grabbed her father Marian’s nose as he was honored for his 500th career goal, stealing the pregame ceremony spotlight the way her dad does pucks from opposing players.
“I wasn’t sure, because John (McDonough, Blackhawks president) had a great speech, and I didn’t know the camera was on us,” Hossa said after the game. “The kids made a pretty funny moment.”
It was a great opening to a great night for Hossa, who’s gotten off to a very nice start to this season. Hossa has seven points (three goals, four assists) through his first eight games and looks rejuvenated, especially since jumping onto the second line with Artemi Panarin and Artem Anisimov.
“I think he's really strong on the puck like usual,” Patrick Kane said. “You know, maybe he's just getting some more bounces. He's been playing that way for a long time, so it seems like he's finally getting some bounces and being able to put up some numbers. Yeah, great start for him. I think with Hoss, we're kind of familiar with it where he's going to play the same all the time. When he scores like he has been or produces like he has been, it's huge for our team.”
The Blackhawks have always appreciated what Hossa’s brought. If there’s ever a time he frustrates them, it’s when they have to face him in battle drills during practices.
“Sucks,” Brent Seabrook said to laughs. “I went against him last time we did it. It’s like you’re going against two guys the way he’s able to use his stick. You gotta deal with his body, his feet and you think you’re in good position to poke the puck away and he smacks your stick away.”
His game overall has been strong. Hossa has said several times that, as disappointing as it was that the Blackhawks lost in the first round last season, the long summer was beneficial to him physically. That, and he hit the ground running with the World Cup of Hockey, where he was a big part of Team Europe’s surprising run to the final.
“World Cup was great because I played every night and plenty more minutes, so I got in good shape,” Hossa said. “And coming to Chicago, I had a good opportunity right now playing with the two skilled Russian players. The last two games have been fun and good thing we start winning.”
After a long offseason Hossa looks refreshed and energetic. Last season, there were questions as to how much he had left in his career. Judging from his start, he’s definitely not done yet.
“He’s such an accomplished player,” Seabrook said. “What he’s been able to do in his career has been amazing to watch from afar and to play with him and see it firsthand. Nice to see him get that recognition last night and see how he was able to produce, play well. Seems like he’s getting better with age.”
Corey Crawford, Blackhawks blank Kings. (Sunday afternoon's game, 10/30/2016).
By Tracey Myers
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
The Blackhawks have done some good things and have gotten points in this early season. The complete game, however, has eluded them.
They got as close as they have all year to that on Sunday night.
Corey Crawford stopped all 32 shots he saw for his first shutout of the season and Jonathan Toews scored his first goal of the season as the Blackhawks beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-0 at the United Center.
Marian Hossa, who was honored prior to the game for his 500th career goal, recorded a goal and an assist. Toews added an assist. Artem Anisimov scored his sixth goal of the season and is now on a career-best, seven-game point streak. The Blackhawks have now won three of their last four games, and Sunday got the familiar parts of their game working again. Puck possession, a successful penalty kill (2-for-2) and more balance on the lines, it was all there.
“This was, so far, more complete in what we gave up in all areas of our game were solid,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “We had a really good rotation of our lines, our [defense] moving and skating and the puck way more. Much better, more representative of how we need to play.”
Toews’ goal, a power-play effort which proved to be the game-winner, was a weight off the captain’s shoulders.
“Oh, for sure,” he said. “You know the No. 1 thing too was getting the chances. It felt like we had a lot of shots. Nothing to show for 5-on-5 with [Patrick Kane] and Panik, Richard. We’re playing better there and you know it’s only improving. I think it’s just about the chances. It’s nice to feel comfortable shooting that puck finally, getting through traffic, seeing one go in and hopefully we’ll keep going and getting that confidence that comes with it.”
Crawford, who has played rather well all season, recorded the 20th shutout of his career. He was busier at the end, stopping 13 third-period shots from the Kings.
“I felt great,” Crawford said. “I thought that was our best game defensively. We didn’t give up too many chances inside, for scoring chances. Our [defensemen] were awesome moving the puck, getting in the play. Our PK was solid. That was nice to see we were getting some confidence on that, so that was a good game for us.”
Indeed, the Blackhawks’ confidence may have been as shaken as their puck possession game and penalty kill. There were glimpses in their game against New Jersey on Friday that they were starting to find their way, and they built off that tonight against the Kings. Sure, it’s one game, a small sample size. But for 60 minutes on Sunday the Blackhawks looked like the Blackhawks.
“It was important for us in tonight’s game, in a lot of ways, knowing the conference and the standings,” Quenneville said. “Every day [the standings] are so bunched up that you have to take advantage of home ice and take advantage of a team that played a game the night before.”
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