If you had to guess how Aroldis Chapman was doing based off of the reactions of New York Yankee fans, you would guess he has an ERA of infinity and is on his way out of baseball. But the closer has an ERA of 0.00 in all reality heading into April 16th's game against the Orioles. Chapman has thrown 3.1 innings pitched to open the season and has recorded 1 save as well. On the other hand, he has walked four and struck out just six. But his past couple outings have resulted in panic from the Yankees' faithful.
Chapman walked the bases loaded and reliever Michael King was called on to bail him out on Thursday. On Friday against the Orioles, Chapman was called on with the bases loaded and one out. It was his turn to bail a teammate out of trouble. After striking out the first batter, Chapman got two quick strikes on the second hitter with two outs. But then the wheels fell off and the Yankees' flame throwing lefty delivered four straight balls which led to a walk-off walk for Baltimore.
Aroldis Chapman walks in the winning run and the Orioles walk it off against the Yankees! pic.twitter.com/FE5j4RYyaT
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 16, 2022
Yankees manager Aaron Boone commented on his decision to turn to Aroldis Chapman for a second straight high leverage situation.
“I thought Chappy threw the ball really well. Coming in, we’re up against it there obviously. But he does great with Mullins. I thought he threw the ball really well tonight. His misses at the end just missed on some tough pitches. But no, I think we were up against it there and had to go there.”
It should be noted that a couple of pitches against the final batter were extremely close and could have been called strikes. Aaron Boone continued his thoughts on turning to Chapman on Friday after Thursday's difficult performance.
“I’m not even thinking about last night at all. This is a brand new game here and a brand new opportunity. You’re trying to execute and unfortunately things didn’t work out the way we wanted.”
The Yankees will aim to rebound on Saturday in Baltimore.
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