Schwarber doesn’t skip a beat in impressive return

CLEVELAND — Kyle Schwarber estimated that he saw about 1,300 pitches from the pitching machine while working out in Arizona. He set it to the nastiest setting available, to try to retrain his eyes to seeing Major League pitching. Of course, there is no setting that can replicate the two-seamer of Corey Kluber or the dominant slider from Andrew Miller.

And yet Schwarber doubled against Kluber in the fourth inning of the Cubs’ 6-0 loss in Game 1 of the World Series at Progressive Field on Tuesday night. Schwarber, who did not have a hit in five regular-season plate appearances, became the first position player to have zero hits in the regular season and then get a hit in the World Series. Then, he worked a walk against Miller in the seventh inning, after Miller had walked just one left-handed hitter between the regular season and postseason.

• Game 2: Tonight, 7 ET game time on FOX (6 ET pregame show on FS1)

“He didn’t show any rust, did he?” Miller said. “You hope that somebody like that is either having to cheat for balls or guess or do something. But his first at-bat was really good. Fortunately, I was able to execute some pitches the second time, but I don’t think we can write him off as somebody’s who’s rusty or not ready to play.”

Game Date Time (air time/game time) Matchup TV Gm 1 Oct. 25   CLE 6, CHC 0 Gm 2 Oct. 26 7 p.m. (6 p.m. pregame show on FS1) CHC @ CLE FOX Gm 3 Oct. 28 7:30 p.m./8 p.m. CLE @ CHC FOX Gm 4 Oct. 29 …

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