World Series opener battle of ace hurlers

CLEVELAND – Who wrecks the hex? Who can reverse the curse?

The Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians will send their postseason aces into Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday with an eye toward winning their first championship in three generations ... or much, much longer.

You know the history by now.

Cleveland has not won a World Series since 1948. The Indians came up short in their three most recent appearances, the last in 1997, when Edgar Renteria’s walk-off single in the 11th inning of Game 7 gave the Florida Marlins the title.

The Cubs have not been in the Series since 1945 and have not won it since 1908. Numerologists suggest this might be the year. There are 108 stitches on a baseball. Wrigley Field sits on Chicago’s planned development lot 108. The Cubs win the Series in the movie “Back to the Future II,” which has a running length of 108 minutes.

And on and on.

Not that the teams are focused on the history.

“After you’ve actually done it, that’s when you really dwell on that particular thought,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “In the meantime, I promise you, our guys are going to be in the present tense. I think we all have a tremendous amount of respect for history and what’s happened before us or not happened before us. But, you know, you go in that room right now, they’re very young. Really not impacted by a lot of the lore, I don’t think.”

Cubs left-hander Jon Lester and Cleveland right-hander Corey Kluber have been the two best starting pitchers in the postseason while lifting the Great Lakes neighbors this far. Each will make his fourth start of the postseason, his third in a Game 1.

Lester is 2-0 with three quality starts, an 0.86 ERA and an 0.76 WHIP in 21 innings in the playoffs this year. He threw eight shutout innings in a 1-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants in the first game of the National League Division Series, gave up one run in six innings of a no-decision in the 8-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first game of the NL Championship Series and gave up one run in seven innings in an 8-4 victory in Game 5 of the NLCS.

“You know, there will be nerves and there will be adrenaline and all that stuff when I go out there to throw the first pitch and kind of get the ball rolling,” Lester said, “but once you get into the game, I feel like then you’re able to go back to your game plan.”

Kluber’s postseason ERA, 0.98, trails only Lester among pitchers who have made more than one playoff start this month. He won both of his previous Game 1 starts, throwing seven shutout innings in a 6-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox in the ALDS.