CLEVELAND _ Terry Francona had a hard night of sleep prior to Game 7. He woke up during a nightmare someone was breaking his ribs.
Turns out, the Cubs broke his heart instead.
The chain finally snapped on this gritty team of overachievers. A roster low on star power and payroll (and healthy bodies) finally caved in November, when Corey Kluber and Andrew Miller had the misfortune of proving mortal on the same night. When this bullpen that carried the Indians to Game 7 of the World Series finally gave it all away.
Baseball has no clock, yet time caught up with a batch of arms that dragged and dragged this franchise until they couldn't drag it any farther. First Kluber, then Miller and finally Bryan Shaw. Three pitchers who combined to allow just two runs in 21 innings through the first six games in this series combined to allow eight runs in 7 1/3 innings Wednesday.
They didn't go easy because they never go easy. Rajai Davis swung Thor's hammer four outs from defeat to tie the game at 6 and set up one of the most thrilling finishes in World Series history. Two teams that have lost for 176 years couldn't figure out how to win. Extra innings begat driving rains on a 70-degree day in November. All that was missing was hail and locusts.
The Indians lost Game 7 of the World Series to the Chicago Cubs, 8-7, because talent and money won out. Now those jokes about blowing a 3-1 lead Clevelanders have reveled in for months have to be put away for the winter. But what this Indians team accomplished remains nothing short of extraordinary.
Francona squeezed more success out of this group than could feasibly be expected. From Michael Brantley to Danny Salazar to Carlos Carrasco and Yan Gomes, the injuries piled up nearly as fast as the wins. Nothing was expected of this team and yet glory was still nearly delivered.
Facing this Cubs lineup three times in nine days _ twice on short rest _ was too much. Everybody has a breaking point. Even Klubot. This was the first time in a career spanning 145 appearances he failed to strike out a batter, a sure sign he wasn't fooling anyone after he spent October fooling everyone.
Miller was banged around Progressive Field for four hits Wednesday. No one has gotten four hits off him when he was relieving since 2011.
Davis' home run off an equally gassed Aroldis Chapman in the eighth made this one ultimately hurt a little worse. When it was 6-3 to start the eighth and defeat seemed inevitable, this one didn't feel as crushing as Edgar Renteria's flare in 1997 or Greg Maddux's dominance in 1995.
Then J.R. Smith took his shirt off Wednesday during the seventh-inning stretch, Davis homered and suddenly this all seemed possible _ even inevitable. Experiencing two thrilling Game 7s within five months in this town is rare and should be cherished. Yes, it hurts. Losing always does. But the championship the Cavaliers delivered in June is still nourishing a city that starved for 52 years.
That won't help Francona or Kluber or Miller or Jason Kipnis or Mike Napoli or Francisco Lindor or anyone else who watched the Cubs dance on the infield Wednesday night. Their hope lies in the contracts and stability within this franchise.
Napoli is the only key player from this team who will be a free agent, and hopefully the deepest of postseason runs generated enough money to bring him back. It's hard not to look at these playoffs and think back to last summer and LeBron James dragging the Cavs to within one win of a championship while Kyrie Irving was on crutches and Kevin Love's arm was in a sling.
This time it was Kluber and Miller dragging the Indians deeper and deeper through October and into November before finally they were too exhausted to keep pulling. Imagine how different this series would've looked with Brantley in the outfield and Carrasco on the mound, or even Salazar allowed to do more than just mop up lopsided losses.
Sure, the jokes about blowing a 3-1 lead will be thrown back harder than Miller's fastballs. But this isn't the Warriors' collapse, that 73-win juggernaut of stars and swagger. This was an Indians team built on guts and attitude and a determination to say yes when the world said no.
Regardless of what led to this moment, the Indians had their ace on the mound for a Game 7 at home with their two closers fully rested. It was the ideal scenario. The Cubs simply played better, and for that 108 years of misery ended on a field in Cleveland.
The ingredients are there for an empire to rise now in Chicago. With unlimited funds and a nucleus of twentysomethings just entering their primes, this may not be the last time these teams meet here.
"Our pitching and our core players are locked up, which I think bodes well for us, but so much happens that you just don't know," Francona said. "(The Cubs) don't have anything that should keep them out, but things happen. You hope you're deep enough where you can overcome some things. But as long as you have pitching, you seem like you always have a chance."
The Indians have pitching. They've had it all year, right up until the final couple of days when they didn't. But they'll have it next year, too.
This loss hurts. They all do. But a fan base still wiping away the champagne from June doesn't have to wipe many tears away today. They can see things differently now.
