CLEVELAND — Corey Kluber smiled, which if you know even a little bit about the Cleveland Indians stoic ace is the rough equivalent of a Haley’s comet sighting, a Thomas Pynchon book tour or a Cleveland professional sports championship. But yes, there it was, a smile in the Indians bullpen before World Series Game 1 Tuesday night just after he threw his last warmup pitch to batterymate Roberto Perez.
“When you can make the ball move like that,” Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway said, “you should smile. Yes, I saw it. I could tell right away. You could definitely tell the movement he had today from the bullpen.