Aaron Boone and Aroldis Chapman had a clear disagreement back on Wednesday, when they decided to pitch to Carlos Santana after a mound visit, only to have Boone change his mind by the time he got back to the dugout, loading the bases to set up a game-tying walk in an eventual 6-5 Yankee win.
A furious Chapman slammed his glove down in frustration when he got back to the dugout, but he and Boone talked through the decision after the walk-off victory, and Boone told Carton & Roberts on Friday that the blown save is his burden to shoulder.
“Ultimately, that’s on me,” Boone said. “Doing back to the dugout, I just didn’t want Santana beating me, that was the rationale. Really taking a hard look at it and sleeping on it, we probably should have gone after him.”
Still, Chapman did surrender a walk right after Santana to force in a run, and in his last seven outings, his season ERA has inflated from 0.39 to 2.54. But Boone wouldn’t call it a slump for his lefty closer.
“I don’t really see it that way, honestly,” Boone said. “He hasn’t been quite as dominant, necessarily. But take out the Minnesota outing. That was an outing where he clearly struggled and didn’t have much, and they got to him.”
Chapman didn’t record an out in that outing against the Twins, surrendering two home runs in a blown save and giving up another run in his next outing, though that was in extra innings with a runner already on second. Still, he has walked at least one batter in his last three outings and has an ERA of 11.81 in his last seven appearances.
“The stuff has been there, he’s gotten big outs,” Boone said. “Even look at the other night. He goes strikeout, base hit ground ball up the middle, strikeout, bloop to right, and then I walk Santana, and a walk and a check swing later, and its’ like ‘oh, Aroldis is struggling’ when really, stuff wise, he’s been good.”
The stuff certainly wasn’t there against the Twins, as his average fastball velocity in that outing was 96.5 mph, tied for the lowest of his season so far. His last two outings have been among his lowest of the season so far as well, though Boone attributes the velocity drop in his recent starts, which include Sunday against the A’s and Wednesday against the Royals, to be due to a fingernail issue.
“He had a cracked nail,” Boone said. “He was dealing with a nail issue. That was one of the outings too where he was pitching through some soreness where his nail had cracked on him, so that was effecting his command on the first two hitters, and obviously he got the ground ball for the triple play.”
The numbers haven’t been the same for Chapman, but Boone is confident his closer is not nearly as far off from his early season self as others might think.
“I feel like he’s in a good spot,” Boone said. “I think you have to look at the outings sometimes and what’s happening in the outing and make judgments on the stuff and not always a consecutive result.”
Follow WFAN on Social Media
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch
