Kris Bryant shakes off struggles to keep Cubs in World Series

CHICAGO — Kris Bryant’s stats for the World Series are still ugly, hardly the kind of numbers befitting the NL MVP. 

But there’s one at-bat that is pure beauty, exactly what you’d expect from the MVP. 

Bryant salvaged the Chicago Cubs’ first World Series appearance in 71 years Sunday night with just his second hit in six games, a solo home run that sparked a three-run fourth inning. That was all the offense the Cubs needed, their 3-2 victory staving off elimination for at least one more game – and giving them their first World Series win in Chicago since 1945. 

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“To tie the game up — we’re down there 1-0 in an elimination game,” Anthony Rizzo said. “So to tie the game up was the biggest run of the game.”

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Of the entire postseason, really. 

The Cubs were headed for the off-season unless they beat Cleveland on Sunday night, and the outlook wasn’t promising when Jose Ramirez hit a two-out homer in the bottom of the second inning. The Indians had yet to lose in the postseason after taking a lead, and their pitchers had blanked the Cubs in two of the first four games. 

“It was nice to kind of have a big inning there, get us going a little bit,” Bryant said. “I feel like our at-bats after that inning were just as good. So that’s a good sign for us.”

Make no mistake, the odds are still very much against the Cubs winning their first World Series in more than a century. Only six teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit, and the last two games will be played in Cleveland. No team has blown a 3-1 lead at home since the Baltimore Orioles lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979. 

But the Cubs have shown all postseason that their momentum can switch with one pitch.

“That’s the kind of thing that could get him rolling,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “There is no question about that.” 

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Bryant is hardly the only Cubs hitter who’s gone MIA at the plate. Javier Baez, Addison Russell, Dexter Fowler, Willson Contreras — they’re all sputtering like a car in the Chicago winter. Together, the five are a combined 14-for-91. 

For those not so good with the math and who don’t have a calculator handy, that works out to a woeful .184. 

But Bryant’s struggles are the most glaring. He is all but assured of adding the NL MVP to last year’s Rookie of the Year honors after a season in which he had 39 homers and had 102 RBI. He was dazzling in the first two rounds of the postseason, hitting .333 and driving in six runs. 

Once the World Series began, however, Bryant suddenly looked every bit of his 24 years, getting just one hit in the first five games. 

While he had some decent at-bats – he’s drawn a walk in all but one game – too often he looked as if he was pressing, maybe trying to live up to his soon-to-be MVP status. 

“They come at him hard,” Maddon said. 

A pair of errors in Game 4 — in the same inning, no less — couldn’t have helped his mindset. 

But the best players find a way to deliver in the biggest moments and, on this night at least, that’s exactly what Bryant did. 

He was called out on strikes in the first inning — though when the strike zone was expanded to include someone’s shoulders, I don’t know. The next time around, however, he drilled a 1-1 pitch from Trevor Bauer into the left-field stands to tie the game at 1. 

“There was a lot of emotion when they scored the first run of the game, too. The air went out of the stadium a little bit,” Ben Zobrist said. “You could tell there was a little hanging of the head. We had to answer back, to get them in the game. 

“When KB hit that home run, it breathed life back into the stadium,” Zobrist added. “Once we had that rally, you could feel the energy in the stadium skyrocket.” 

Rizzo followed Bryant with a double off the wall, and Zobrist and Russell singled. It was the first time in this Series the Cubs had had four consecutive hits. After Jason Heyward struck out and Baez bunted, David Ross drove Zobrist in with a sac fly. 

“It kind of let us relax a little bit,” Ross said. “We do a lot better when we get the lead.”

Bryant didn’t do much else at the plate the rest of the night, drawing a walk in his next at-bat and then getting called out on strikes in the seventh. 

But a rally has to start somewhere. Thanks to Bryant, the Cubs got the chance to try and continue theirs in Cleveland. 

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.

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