5 reasons Cubs-Indians was the best World Series ever

2. The comebacks

Aroldis Chapman gave up two home runs in 58 innings during the regular season while facing 222 batters. Rajai Davis had not homered in more than two months and was batting .121 in the 2016 postseason prior to stepping to the plate in the eighth inning of Game 7. Outside of Bill Mazeroski in 1960, there has been no unlikelier home-run hero in Game 7 of a World Series.

Chapman threw Davis the only pitch he could have possibly hit for a home run — a fastball down and in. The result was a screaming line drive that barely cleared the wall in left field. Davis hit the first game-tying home run in the eighth inning or later in a World Series Game 7.

As a whole, the games in this World Series left something to be desired except for Game 7. The comeback narrative, however, may be one of the best in World Series history. Down 3-1, the Cubs had been completely stymied for the first four games of the series, having been shutout twice and scoring only two runs in their third loss. The young offense looked completely lost, flailing away repeatedly at curveballs in the dirt.

Games 5 and 6 were somewhat uneventful, but the massive change in approach at the plate that the Cubs managed to make so rapidly is unheard of. All the pent-up frustrations and stress suddenly lifted to allow the sixth 3-1 comeback in World Series history to take place.

Game 7 of this series will go down as a top-five World Series game in baseball history, not only for the comeback, but in the shocking way in which the Indians erased a 5-1 deficit. Scoring two runs on a wild pitch? Unheard of. A closer with a 105-mph fastball giving up a home run to a hitter batting close to .100 for the postseason? Epic. It will be a long time before a better Game 7 is played in the World Series.