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Cubs' bats wake up to even World Series

Ezra Shaw / Getty Images Sport / Getty

CLEVELAND - After getting shut out in their first World Series game since 1945, the Chicago Cubs stressed it was no time to panic.

Their at-bats were good, the Cubs insisted. The balanced lineup that propelled them to a National League championship and the best record in the majors was just a swing away.

Three swings, as it turned out.

The first by Kris Bryant with one out in the first inning Wednesday night, a sharp single to center field off Cleveland Indians starter Trevor Bauer that gave the Chicago dugout and the sea of blue-clad fans scattered throughout Progressive Field a needed jolt.

The second came seven pitches later, a double to right from Anthony Rizzo that sent Bryant racing home with the Cubs' first World Series run in 71 years.

The third was in the fifth, a triple to right by Ben Zobrist that gave starter Jake Arrieta all the cushion he needed in a 5-1 victory that tied the Fall Classic at one game apiece heading back to Wrigley Field on Friday.

Perhaps it's only fitting the outburst was started by three players who represent the various stages of Chicago's renaissance under general manger Theo Epstein.

Rizzo, the team's longest-tenured position player, endured 101 losses in his first season with the Cubs in 2012, a six-month bout of misery that led to Chicago taking Bryant with the second pick in the 2013 amateur draft. Bryant's arrival in the majors last spring helped propel Chicago to 97 wins and a spot in the NLCS, leading Zobrist - fresh off a championship with the Royals in 2015 - to sign with the Cubs last winter.

There the three were in the heart of the order Wednesday, scoring four of Chicago's five runs to move the Cubs within three wins of the franchise's first World Series title in 108 years.

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