Do you trust Maddon? Many don’t

CHICAGO — If momentum in baseball is tomorrow’s starting pitcher, trust is the closer — strong and powerful until it suddenly isn’t, the element every championship team needs, not fully appreciated until it’s gone.

The Cubs possess an abundance of trust this year, their supply more plentiful than pitching, which more than anything explains why players inside the clubhouse remain insulated from the anxiety so easy to find outside it.

There was team leader Anthony Rizzo the other day gently chiding reporters at his locker by reminding them the Cubs still were in first place despite the sweep by the Brewers. There was ace Jon Lester late Wednesday expressing similar disbelief at the local overreaction to the Cubs’ early September scuffles.

“It’s unbelievable,” Lester said at the podium.

It isn’t really. It’s sports, and the passion with which fans and media live with the ups and dread the downs gives Chicago a flavor not found in every city. Getting swept by the Brewers didn’t mean the Cubs would miss the playoffs any more than the Cubs’ recent six-game winning streak suggested they would return to the World Series, but what fun those sports debates produced at a time we all could use a little diversion.

What matters most is that the Cubs’ approach stays consistent amid so much inconsistent play, and that starts with Manager Joe Maddon, who answered every question about so many second-guessed decisions with one simple response.

“Trust your players,” Maddon said. “A lot of times, the answer (to struggles) is to be patient.”

Patience can be the enemy of every columnist and talk-show host but a manager’s best friend. Patience is more stabilizing than polarizing, the one thing everybody agrees we all need more of, like sleep. Patience is why the Cubs remain a likely playoff qualifier and a legitimate World Series contender nobody should discount because of an uneven regular season.

Exactly one year after the Cubs clinched the NL Central, they will welcome the Cardinals to Wrigley Field today, guaranteed of nothing but uncertainty in their final 16 games.

Without saying it in so many words, Maddon respects the Cardinals and Brewers but believes everything will work out if the Cubs pitch and hit like they have proved capable. He indeed trusts his players, sometimes to a fault.

Do you still trust Maddon? A 2016 World Series title should make the reply an emphatic yes, but, oddly, it isn’t for many Cubs fans increasingly skeptical of Maddon’s handling of the lineups and bullpen. It’s standing-room only in the doubters section.

Maddon’s insistence on trusting players sometimes comes across as stubbornness, such as when he stuck with Kyle Schwarber too long in the leadoff spot. Maintaining faith in Schwarber the hitter — not necessarily as a leadoff man — deserves praise now. Schwarber responded to a weekend benching with quality atbats against the Mets.

Whether this disappointing season will make Schwarber more available in a trade over the winter is a discussion for another day. Getting the slugger ready for the fall is the only priority. After an unsatisfying summer, at least you can say Schwarber is trending upward.

Same goes for starting pitcher Jose Quintana, who has benefited from the belief the Cubs continued to show in him through some uncharacteristic inconsistency. And for Ben Zobrist, the struggling World Series MVP whose postseason experience makes his subpar season moot.

In a typically unorthodox move — That’s Cub too — 22-year-old rookie right-hander Jen-Ho Tseng got the call Thursday night against the Mets with the Cubs clinging to their division lead. Maddon compared Tseng’s ascension in the middle of a pennant race to David Price’s with the 2008 Rays, except Tseng isn’t a power pitcher, a former No. 1 draft pick or a projected ace. Nonetheless, Tseng arrived as the Cubs’ minor-league pitcher of the year and, not insignificantly, with the endorsement of Cubs officials Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer.

“I trust the people making these decisions,” Maddon said.

Of course he does. Now is no time for the Cubs to stop trusting what they know.