CHICAGO -- All Friday, a celebration rioted through Chicago. They turned Wrigleyville into a raucous party scene early that morning and did not stop until the final, brutal moment that evening. Fans dressed in blue ponied up money they could not afford to watch their team in its first World Series in 71 years. A sense of surety, of utter confidence and joy, extended from Wrigley Field in every direction.

Then, with Javier Baez whiffing on the Cubs' final strike and final out in Game 3 of their World Series matchup against the Cleveland Indians -- and stranding runners at second and third in a 1-0 loss -- Chicago shifted from unmitigated happiness to deep hangover.

Chicago's ebullient Friday gave way to this fact when it wakes Saturday: To destroy that 108-year-old World Series drought, its team is going to have to do it against Corey Kluber, the Indians ace who has been nothing short of an unstoppable force this postseason.

Still, Game 3 game was a thing of beauty on a day that saw Chicago at its best and happiest, hosting a World Series game. On a perfect October night, at a place worthy of this kind of baseball game, and with the wind whipping out, Cleveland pitcher Josh Tomlin improbably threw a gem that bested Cubs co-ace Kyle Hendricks.

Tomlin entered the game a likely victim of the Cubs' potent offense and, particularly, their home turf with its wind blowing out. A rout seemed inevitable. While Hendricks boasted a 1.32 ERA at Wrigley, Tomlin had given up almost as many home runs as any pitcher in baseball.

Advantage: Cubs.

Only, this is the World Series. And October can create a strange kind of alchemy in the teams that make it here, and in the men who surprisingly can make its biggest marks.

While Hendricks grinded, going just 4 1/3 innings but working around six hits and several jams to keep the Indian scoreless, Tomlin cruised over a similar period of time. He gave up just two hits and no runs in 4 2/3 innings and handed the ball to Andrew Miller early. The Indians didn't look back, despite the Cubs threatening late, including that tantalizing, awesome bottom of the ninth.

You could feel the air go out of Wrigley with that final out, and see the faces that held elation all day turn from surety to ... not panic, this team has cured its fans of that at least, but to a hardened, grim resolution: Beat Kluber, or bust.

For the Cubs players, this is not new. They, like Cleveland, are here in the World Series for a reason. Both have clubhouses that don't panic, managers amply able to pull every last lever, and players with a cold-blooded belief they are better than all comers. The Indians showed it Friday night in taking a 2-1 series lead in a game that was clearly, at least on paper, an ideal situation for Chicago.

The Cubs have shown it before, too, both after the game in their insouciance with the loss and in the days that have preceded this one.

To keep it going -- to forge ahead, as they have all year -- they will have to beat Kluber, who has been almost untouchable. Over 24 1/3 innings these playoffs, he has surrendered just two earned runs and struck out 29. His stuff, to put it plainly, has been nasty and unfair.

Fail to beat him in Game 4 Saturday, when he goes on short rest, and the Cubs fall into a 3-1 hole that, clearly, would be far from ideal.

And yet.

They were down 2-1 to the Dodgers in the NLCS and methodically won three straight. And in doing so, they mowed down another ridiculously talented pitcher in Clayton Kershaw.

In fact, this postseason, a theme has emerged: The Cubs face an all-timer in the playoffs, and then ... they absolutely destroy him. Sometimes on a first viewing, sometimes on a second, but in each series that has led to to this one that fact has played out.

Will the third time be the charm?

Against Kershaw in Game 2 of the NLCS, the Cubs barely stood a chance. Kershaw unleashed seven glittering innings, striking out six, walking just one, allowing no runs and leading his Dodgers to the win.

Then came Game 5 and, like Kluber Saturday, Kershaw took the mound on short rest and with a shot to shut the Cubs down again. Nope. They bloodied him for four earned runs in five innings, including a pair of homers by the then-brutally slumping Addison Russell and Anthony Rizzo.

The same was true in the divisional series against the burgeoning legend of Madison Bumgarner as the greatest postseason pitcher in baseball history.

Bumgarner took the mound in Game 3 for the Giants, and the Cubs simply owned him. He made it just five innings, gave up three earned runs and surrendered that air of invincibility. Yes, the Cubs lost that game, but the main point remains true: Unhittable, historically great pitchers have tended this postseason to look very, very ordinary when facing this Cubs in must-win games.

So Chicago had its party all day Friday, and the city drank deeply of that rare taste of a World Series at Wrigley Field.

The party's over.

Now comes the fight.