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CLEVELAND -- Before the sixth game of World Series on Tuesday, the one in which the Chicago Cubs thumped the Cleveland Indians 9-3 to force their biggest game in, oh, 71 years, Joe Maddon was his typically affable self. Unbidden during his pregame news conference, Maddon darted off on one of his signature tangents. "I think there should be two forms of Twitter," Maddon said. "There should be the positive form of Twitter and the negative form, and you have to choose one. And if you choose to be on negative Twitter, then you're not welcome on positive Twitter. Ever." Sure enough, positive and negative Twitter became things over the subsequent few hours, at least in hashtag form. And the negative version to which Maddon wants to banish the cynics caught fire in the seventh inning when, with two outs and the Cubs up 7-2, he summoned closer Aroldis Chapman to face Cleveland's red-hot Francisco Lindor with two runners on base. "I mean, seventh inning there because they came up, the middle of the batting order was coming up -- Lindor, Napoli, Ramirez possibly -- all that stuff," Maddon said. "So I thought the game could have been lost right there if we did not take care of it properly." The leverage index on the situation was low-ish, but it was the closest thing to a pressure situation the Cubs faced after Jake Arrieta struck out Tyler Naquin with the bases loaded to end the fourth. When you lead by five, six or seven runs, there just isn't going to be a truly high-leverage spot. "I was just going to watch him," Maddon said. "That was part of the gig before the game to put him in a pertinent moment. Then if we were able to sustain a good lead, then get him out on the back side, just like it ended up being. I think five runs -- listen, I've been at this ballpark when we were up by seven or nine and they came back at the last. Cleveland has this tendency and this tradition, so I don't want that to happen." Chapman got Lindor on two pitches, then came out in the eighth and faced just three batters. He was at 15 pitches at that point, and Maddon was going to ride him to the finish. But then Anthony Rizzo pounded a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to make it a seven-run game. No one was ready in the pen, though Pedro Strop rushed to get warm. So Chapman faced one more batter, hit the 20-pitch mark, and Strop relieved him.  "There was a threat that we would score more runs, which we did, and just did not have enough time to get Stroppy warmed up after the two-run home run by Rizzo," Maddon said. "I think he ended up with 20 pitches, so don't think that was much more impactful than [15]."
If this were the regular season, or even earlier in the playoffs, we might start unfurling red flags about how Maddon has lost faith in his middle relief. He seems to trust lefty Mike Montgomery, who threw again in Game 6, but was removed for Chapman when the first whiff of danger arose. Here's the thing: All that matters now is a little thing called Game 7. Wednesday. The biggest game most of the young Cubs have played in their lives. The time to assess Maddon, if you want to do that, is the offseason. Just make sure you pick the right Twitter to do so. In any event, it's all about how Chapman's surprising Game 6 outing will affect a possible, or even likely, Game 7 appearance. Chapman says he is ready. "One hundred percent," Chapman said through Cubs translator Mateo Moreno. "Last game? Of course, yes. I'm ready for whatever he asks me. I don't recall [throwing so many pitches]. It's only mental. It's the seventh game, the reason they brought me here." Chapman threw 42 pitches in Game 5, only the third time he has ever thrown that many in a game. Even though Monday was an off-day, there were still a lot of questions about just how much Chapman would be able pitch in Game 6. But Chapman said he felt great. "Very good, thank god," Chapman said. "I felt strong. I felt healthy. I had to get an out in the seventh and I got to the next inning." The question about middle relief is, to borrow Maddon's favorite word, pertinent. Maddon has employed no real pattern to his use of bullpen arms beyond getting as much mileage as possible out of Chapman, and utilizing Montgomery in long middle relief situations. With Kyle Hendricks starting Game 7, Maddon surely hopes that the latter scenario won't present itself. Besides, because it's a winner-take-all situation, both teams will have their entire staffs on the ready. For the Cubs, that includes No. 1 starter Jon Lester. "Definitely he could be used in relief," Maddon said. "Regarding closing, we'll see how the game plays out. But Jon will be available tomorrow." And if you ask Game 6 starter Jake Arrieta, who threw 102 pitches over 5 innings, he'll be available, too. "I'll definitely be available tomorrow if outs are needed," Arrieta said. "Last game of the year, Game 7 of the World Series, everybody's available pretty much tomorrow." That we're-all-in-it-together approach extends to Chapman as well, despite some perceived hesitancy about pitching before the ninth inning that is based on some comments he made earlier this season. But on Wednesday, he will be ready, whatever the role, whatever the assignment. "The whole thing right now is just to win tomorrow," Chapman said. "It doesn't matter what my thinking is, whatever it is. We just have to win. It doesn't matter, the attention, the pressure, the press. It doesn't matter."
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