Aroldis Chapman hears the boos, and hears the criticism of his performance over the last four weeks – and on Monday, while the Yankees were off before a series in Seattle, he took to Instagram to defend himself:
“For all those people that criticize my bad moments, I will tell them that I do not know how my story ends, but in its pages you will never read, ‘I gave up.’ So I will move on. I still have many wars to win and many mouths to shut up.”
Chapman wrote that in both English and Spanish on his Instagram page (and posted just the English text on Twitter), sending a message to the doubters that he will continue to work hard to snap out of a month-long funk that has jacked his ERA up more than four full runs and given Aaron Boone pause to consider removing him as closer.
After a scoreless inning against Boston on June 6, Chapman had a 0.39 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 23 innings. Since then, though, in his last nine outings, Chapman has lasted just 5 2/3 innings, struck out just six, and allowed 14 earned runs – a 22.24 ERA – with a 1.546 WHIP.
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The timing is especially poor given that it coincides with MLB’s crackdown on pitchers using sticky substances, and his last two meltdowns also have poor timing – especially the last one on Sunday, when he allowed a solo home run, a hit batter, and a walk (with all three runs scoring) to blow Game 1 against the Mets, less than an hour before he was named an American League All-Star.
Entering the Seattle series, Chapman has a 4.71 ERA, and while Boone said “we may not have that luxury” about moving the lefty down to lower leverage situations due to the amount of pitches Chad Green and Jonathan Loaisiga – whose ERAs are 2.28 and 2.20, respectively – threw Sunday, his role is precarious at best.
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