Joe Maddon on usage of Aroldis Chapman: 'Would I do it differently? No.'

AfterAroldis Chapman said Cubs manager Joe Maddon misused him during the playoffs, Maddon on Friday defended his usage of the closer during the team's World Series run.

Chapman admitted he never voiced his concerns to his manager, but stated he had a specific problem that he was sent out in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the World Series, despite a seven-run Chicago lead.

The Cubs won the World Series, overcoming a two-run game-tying homer allowed by Chapman in the eighth inning of Game 7. Chapman said he was "tired" from his usage.

"Personally, I don't agree with the way he used me, but he is the manager and he has the strategy," Chapman said during a conference call to officially announce his new five-year, $86 million deal as the Yankees' closer. "My job is to be ready, to be ready to pitch, however that is, however many innings that is, I need to be ready for that. I need to go in and do my job."

Chapman didn't think he should have gone out to the mound in the ninth inning of Game 6 with the Cubs up seven runs. Chapman had pitched in the seventh and eighth, throwing a total of 20 pitches. He faced one batter in the ninth.

Maddon defended his moves later Friday.

"Would I do it differently? No," Maddon told the New York Post. "There is no Game 7 without winning Game 6. And there is no Game 8 if you don't win Game 7. That's why you do what you have to do.

"I appreciate what he said. If he feels that way, he did not tell me about that at the moment or after the moment," Maddon continued. "At the end of the day, man, we would not have won without him, and I appreciate everything he did. But I promise everything we did do, we did with his consent by talking to him prior to the game."

Maddon did admit having one regret in Game 6. Chapman entered the game in the seventh inning with the Cubs leading 7-2. After pitching a scoreless eighth, he then stayed in to start the ninth despiteAnthony Rizzobelting a two-run homer to open the lead up to 9-2.

"The part I screwed up with I didn't have someone warming up in the ninth once Rizzo hit the home run," Maddon told the Post. "But there is no next game, there is no tomorrow and you are not going to lose that game in a very weird way by not utilizing your best reliever.

"Every game I put him in, I talked to him and his interpreter to make sure that he was OK because this season he did not like pitching multiple innings so we stopped doing it. So I talked to him about if we did that in the playoffs, how would he feel about that and he said he was fine with that."

Information from ESPN's Andrew Marchand was used in this report.