The Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians will clash in Game 2 of the 2016 World Series on Wednesday night, with the Cubs looking to level things up again after the Indians claimed Game 1 on Tuesday night. Tonight's big game has a scheduled start time of 7.08 p.m. ET and takes place from Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio. The game can be watched on TV on the Fox network, or watched online through live stream via the link below.
The Cubs will be sending out Jake Arrieta to the mound as their starting pitcher tonight. He is coming into the game on full rest, having not pitched a game since Game 3 of the NLCS.
Meanwhile, the Indians have chosen Trevor Bauer as the man they want to see carry them to a 2-0 lead in this series. He recently suffered a right finger injury, which forced him to leave the field in Game 3 of the ALCS after just two third of an inning. However, he is back and fully fit, and will be hoping to help Cleveland move a step closer to ending their decades-long World Series title drought.
Tonight's game has been moved up one hour to 7.08 p.m. ET due to the threat of inclement weather, which will probably suit the Cubs just fine, as they will have one less hour to be mulling over how bad they were in Game 1. For the Indians too, they are likely to have few complaints, as they will want to keep the momentum from Tuesday night's 6-0 win in their sails.
Chicago will not be panicking yet mind you. Fans will remember that they were 2-1 down in their best of seven series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, and they managed to turn that series around.
Manager Joe Maddon has also indicated that there will be no panic stations just yet, saying following the Game 1 loss: "I have no concerns. I thought we were ready to play. Our guys looked really good. They were great in the dugout today. It's the first game. I'm fine. We're fine."
The Indians will be comforted knowing that if Bauer does have any relapse of his finger injury today they can more easily turn to their bull pen as Thursday will be an off day. However, at the same time, their relief ace pitcher, Miller, did come out and throw 46 pitches in Game 1, and so they will want to be cautious about using him.
Pitching coach Mickey Callaway has said about Miller: "Obviously we'll watch him play catch and things like that. I have a feeling he's going to tell us he's good to go. We'll have to be smart about how we use him, probably. But you don't rule anything out in the postseason. This is what guys do. You've seen it with [Madison] Bumgarner or [Clayton] Kershaw. I suspect he'll be available if we need him."
For the Cubs today, the only focus will be on winning the game and getting back to 1-1, and they won't care how they achieve that aim. They will know falling to 0-2 would be hugely detrimental to their World Series ambitions and even though they wouldn't be out of things by any means, they will know that only 13 of the 79 teams to have ever fallen to 0-2 in a World Series have managed to come back to win.
Tonight's World Series 2016 Game 2 between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians has a scheduled start time of 7.08 p.m. ET and can be watched on TV on the Fox network or online through live stream by clicking here.
