If the skies hadn’t opened again Friday night in the Bronx and the Yankees weren’t rained out for the second day in a row, Aaron Boone had decided there would be no big change in the backend of his bullpen.
If the Yankees took a lead into the ninth and it was a save situation, Boone was going to sic his sick closer on the Mets. As bad as Aroldis Chapman’s been over the last three weeks, especially in his last two outings, he was going to get another shot even though his fastball command has been horrific of late.
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That’ll be the plan on Saturday, too, if the forecasted showers allow for the start of this Subway Series.
“If we have a chance to close out a game, I expect (Chapman) to be out there,” Boone said. “I do think there’s been a couple outings in the last several where he’s still been a little out of line delivery wise and that led to a couple balls and trying to find it out there in the fire.”
For now, ‘a little out of line delivery wise’ and a lot of out of line stats wise isn’t enough for Chad Green, Jonathan Loaisiga or someone else to temporarily fill in at closer.
Is this the right way to deal with Chapman, or could be a couple outings with less pressure be beneficial?
“That’s a great question,” Yankees reliever Darren O’Day said. “The save is a big stat in baseball and sometimes as a middle reliever/high-leverage guy, it’s like the seventh-, eighth-inning job is a little bit harder than the closer because the closer always has the clean inning and never has to come into a tight situation with guys on base.
“But where closers earn their money, and they get paid significantly more, is when they blow saves or they struggle. All that attention is on them. It really is a challenge. I’ve been there where (Chapman) is before. I haven’t done that in New York, but it is a challenge. It really tests your mental skills and your fortitude.
“It’s funny because we’ve all been throwing baseballs for pretty much our entire life — childhood, adolescence, adulthood — but sometimes that skill escapes you.”
It’s escaped Chapman, who has allowed 11 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings over his last eight outings after pitching to an 0.39 ERA with 43 strikeouts in 18 innings over his first 23 games.
On Wednesday night, Chapman started the ninth inning with the Yankees up 8-4 on the Los Angeles Angels, then walked the bases and allowed a game-tying grand slam. The Angels scored three more runs in the ninth off Lucas Luetge and went on to win 11-8.
Chapman blew a save in his previous outing a week earlier, allowing two ninth-inning runs facing the Kansas City Royals.
“You have to kind of go back and start from the beginning and figure out what made you good,” O’Day said. “And talk to people around you that have seen you excel and really believe in yourself.”
O’Day has no doubt Chapman will rebound soon in a big way.
“I have full confidence Aroldis is going to be back to himself here” he said. “I was talking to a friend, a player on another team about a month ago, and I said, ‘I think Aroldis Chapman might be throwing the best assortment of pitches, the best stuff I’ve ever seen in my life.’
“If you go back to 30 years ago, nobody’s throwing stuff like that. So quite possibly this could be the best stuff ever thrown in the game of baseball, and that was just a month ago. So it’s there and it’s going to come back. There’s no question. He’s a big part of our team, and I think very soon it’ll be an eight-inning ballgame for us again.”
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