With their backs against the wall and facing an entire winter of unanswerable “what if” questions, the Cubs pulled off a victory in Game 5 of the 2016 World Series.

But you already knew that.

What you might not have remembered is how tense the contest was. If it wasn’t for the most stressful game in the franchise’s history a couple nights later (Game 7, which is coming up Tuesday night on Marquee Sports Network), Game 5 might’ve gone down as the biggest nail-biter of the Fall Classic.

The Cubs actually trailed early as José Ramírez hit a homer off Jon Lester in the 2nd inning. The offense waited until the bottom of the 4th inning to respond when Kris Bryant led off the frame with a solo shot off Trevor Bauer.

Bryant’s blast to left-center — his first dinger since Game 3 of the NLDS — woke up his teammates. Prior to that moment, 5 of the first 10 Cubs hitters struck out against Bauer and only 1 reached base (Addison Russell’s 1-out single in the 2nd).

Following Bryant’s homer, the Cubs put together 3 straight hits — an Anthony Rizzo double, a Ben Zobrist single and a Russell single to plate Rizzo. Three batters later, David Ross hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Zobrist and stake the Cubs to a 3-1 lead.

Lester made that hold up through 6 hard-fought innings. The Indians’ only other tally came in the 6th when Francisco Lindor’s 2-out single drove in the pesky Rajai Davis.

Carl Edwards Jr. came on to record just 1 out, turning the ball over to closer Aroldis Chapman, who threw 42 pitches over the final 2.2 innings of the game. 

Davis certainly helped make things interesting in the top of the 8th when he singled off Chapman, then proceeded to steal second and third base, standing 90 feet away as the tying run with Lindor up. But Chapman got Cleveland’s star shortstop to strike out looking and the Cubs were on their way to their historic comeback.

Here’s how the two teams lined up that night for the Game 4 of the 2016 World Series at Wrigley Field:

Indians

Rajai Davis – CF
Jason Kipnis – 2B
Francisco Lindor – SS
Mike Napoli – 1B
Carlos Santana – LF
José Ramírez – 3B
Brandon Guyer – RF
Roberto Pérez – C
Trevor Bauer – P 

Cubs

Dexter Fowler – CF
Kris Bryant – 3B
Anthony Rizzo – 1B
Ben Zobrist – LF
Addison Russell – SS
Jason Heyward – RF
Javy Báez – 2B
David Ross – C
Jon Lester – P

Fun Facts:

• Of his 42 pitches, Chapman threw 35 fastballs. Twenty five of those were clocked at least 100 mph.
• Through the first 5 games of the World Series, Chapman pitched 5 scoreless innings, allowing only 1 hit (the Davis single).
• More than 67,000 fans showed up at Progressive Field in Cleveland to watch the game on the scoreboard.
• Bauer — coming off his infamous drone injury — lost both of his starts in the World Series, giving up 5 runs in 7.2 innings over the pair of outings.