CLEVELAND — There it was, when Addison Russell deposited that ball 434 feet away in the stands for a grand slam and when Kris Bryant got his second, third and then fourth hits of the night.

There it was, when Anthony Rizzo singled and leaned into first-base coach Brandon Hyde and pretended he was landing jabs to the stomach and when the Chicago Cubs nearly scored as many runs in Game 6 as they had the entire World Series.

There it was, the Cubs had found their punch.

This was Rizzo’s doing — and not just because of the two-run homer he hit in the ninth inning that officially put the game out of reach for the Cleveland Indians — it was Rizzo’s doing because he turned this Cubs team into a “Rocky”-inspired group of bashers who had found their offensive mojo at the most opportune time. At the last possible team, really. At do-or-die time.

“Going the Distance,” that’s the mantra the Cubs adopted after falling to a 3-1 deficit. And that’s just what the Cubs have done now, beating the Indians 9-3 on Tuesday night to force a decisive World Series Game 7.

There would be no knockout here. Not on Tuesday night, which the Cubs entered with their backs to the wall. This fight, after some sneaky hooks by the Indians early in the series and some potent body blows by the Cubs the past few days, is going to the very last round.

“It was a good reminder,” said Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber. “That’s the position that we’re in right now, just trying to fight and claw to get our way to Game 7 and we did.”

It was Rizzo, who before Game 5 at Wrigley put every “Rocky” movie on in the clubhouse at the same time. It was Rizzo who changed his walk-up music for Game 5 to “Going the Distance,” Bill Conti’s sure-to-hype-you-up song from the original “Rocky.” And it was Rizzo who two hours before Game 6, had the “Rocky” songs pumping through the visitor’s clubhouse at Progressive Field.

Imagine that. The 103-win Cubs, the best in baseball in the regular season, the World Series favorite, had to adopt the underdog persona to get one game away from a championship. Whatever works, right?

The punches came on the field when Rizzo singled in the first inning — shadowboxing on the bases to celebrate, something he started in Game 5. Then Ben Zobrist singled too and he looked at Rizzo and threw some air punches. Moments later, they had both scored when the Indians outfielders couldn’t handle a fly ball by Russell. That made the score 3-0 right out the gate.

The Cubs landed an uppercut in the third. Schwarber walked, Rizzo singled (and delivered those punches to his first-base coach), Zobrist singled again, which sent Indians starter Josh Tomlin to the showers. Up came Russell with the bases juiced and new pitcher Dan Otero in the game throwing sinkers. Russell took the first two and the third one — 89 mph right across the middle — he clobbered. It was 7-0.

“He was patient enough to get a pitch that he could work with,” said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. “That’s what we’re talking about with our young hitters. As they gain more experience, they’ll be able to do those kind of things.”

Credit to the Indians, they got back up. They’re resilient like that. They scored in the fourth and fifth — on a Mike Napoli single and Jason Kipnis homer, respectively — to make it 7-2. The Indians kept threatening until Maddon had to go to his bullpen and beckon closer Aroldis Chapman to get the final out of the seventh.

As the Progressive Field crowd started to believe a comeback might be possible, it was Rizzo once again, the man with the “Rocky” spirit running through his veins, whose two-run homer punched the spirit right out of Indians fans. They’ll curse the middle of the Cubs order in Cleveland after this one, because it just couldn’t be stopped, with Bryant, Rizzo and Zobrist, the No. 3-5 hitters, going 9-for-14

“We looked more normal,” said Maddon, whose team had the third-most runs in MLB this season but scored just 10 total in the first five games of the series. “We hit our home runs. Like I said before, I think the weather could possibly help us out. I think it actually did. I just know our hitters felt better about everything.”

Give credit to Cubs manager Maddon for assembling a potent lineup to face Tomlin, who the Cubs had seen in Game 3 and couldn’t hit. There was no Schwarber then and Tuesday night he was hitting second, right there, ready to instill fear from the jump. Even though Schwarber grounded out in his first at-bat, the Cubs did score first, which has been their biggest goal in this series. That happened when Bryant homered — one of his four hits in the game — on a first-inning hanging 0-2 curveball from Tomlin.

“Put the pressure on the pitchers early,” Rizzo said. “That’s what we try to do.”

Four hits in the first, three more in the third — that plan worked. Rizzo was still probably humming “Rocky” songs to himself by the time the Indians dipped into the bullpen.

So you know what that means: More “Rocky” stuff on Wednesday for Game 7.

“No doubt,” Rizzo said. “Save the best for last tomorrow.”

Asked if he’s already thinking about what form that will take, Rizzo answered in the affirmative.

“I have to be,” he said. “I have to top today.”

If the Cubs can take a cue from Rizzo and top Game 6 — with the three homers, 13 hits nine runs — that’s should be enough punch to KO 108 years of unfortunate franchise history and finally bring a championship back to the North Side.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz