CHICAGO -- Bryan Shaw found himself in a position he likely didn’t expect to be in during the fifth inning of Cleveland’s 4-0 win over Chicago on Monday.

Indians starter Aaron Civale had been cruising through most of the first five innings, working around three hits and two walks to keep the Cubs scoreless at Wrigley Field. It seemed like Civale was on his way to his Major League-leading 11th win of the season, but with one strike to go in the bottom of the fifth, he began motioning for the trainers to come to the mound.

Replays appeared to show Civale looking down at his throwing hand after a 2-2 pitch inside. After a quick conversation on the mound, Civale walked into the dugout, ending his night with what the team called a third-finger injury.

“I thought maybe it was a blister or a broken fingernail or something, but he said the tip of his finger was bothering him, so we didn't mess around with that,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said. “We just got him out of there."

So that brought Shaw in from the bullpen -- much earlier than anticipated -- with a full count, two outs and a runner at third. It was a spot where Francona said he had plenty of confidence in Shaw to make the pitch to escape.

Shaw had been in a bit of a rough patch in recent outings. Over his past three appearances, he gave up six of his 11 total earned runs this year, and his ERA more than doubled from 1.73 to 3.54 over that stretch.

Still, Shaw spent most of the season as one of the top relievers on the Indians’ staff, and on the first pitch he threw, he induced an easy grounder from Chicago second baseman Eric Sogard to escape the inning unscathed. He allowed a leadoff single to Cubs pinch-hitter Rafael Ortega in the bottom of the sixth, but he then struck out two straight batters before getting another inning-ending groundball.

“[Coming in with a] 3-2 count is not an easy thing to do, [but he] flipped the breaking ball for an out, and then came out and got them again,” Francona said. “He's been doing that with us for a while. That was very important.”

After the sixth, Shaw turned things over to the rest of the bullpen. Coming into Monday, the Indians held a 28-1 record when leading after seven innings, and the ‘pen was asked to hold a lead provided by homers from Bobby Bradley and Josh Naylor.

“Once we saw the trainers come out and kind of check on him, we just kind of sat down there,” reliever Nick Wittgren said, “and the thought was, 'Hey, let's keep it here. Let's do what we do, get to work, and whoever it is, let's get out there and do it.'”

Wittgren got Cleveland past the seventh, finishing off Sogard with an outside, full-count changeup after a two-out double to Chicago right fielder Jason Heyward put runners on second and third. Emmanuel Clase and James Karinchak then worked scoreless eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to take the series opener of the two-game set in Chicago.

“After Civ's situation, the bullpen came in and it was just kind of like a regular day for them," Naylor said. “They just came in and did business. That's what our bullpen does. They're just all about business. Gotta give the credit to them. We won because of them.”

It was an important performance for Cleveland’s bullpen to come through in a generally unusual situation. With Civale’s injury now adding onto the already depleted rotation -- fellow starters Shane Bieber and Zach Plesac are on the injured list -- lockdown efforts from the ‘pen will have to be the norm as the Indians continue to assess their starting pitching situation.

“I think we'll spend our energy trying to figure it out,” Francona said. “That's gonna be hard enough, so rather than feel sorry for ourselves, we'll just try to figure it out the best we can. I'm gonna go start figuring it out right now.”