Aroldis Chapman turned in a scoreless outing for the fourth time in his last five appearances on Wednesday night, furthering the belief that the lefty has moved past his horrific stretch of inefficiency that followed a historically dominant start to the season.
But a symptom of his brutal cold stretch did flare up again during his inning of work on Wednesday, as his previously broken fingernail once again gave Chapman issues, prompting a visit to the mound by manager Aaron Boone and the training staff.
“The nail again became an issue for him,” Boone said. “Obviously he was able to grind through it and finished off Miller really strong there. so another strong outing for Chappie.”
Chapman, pitching in back-to-back days for the first time since June 19-20, looked like he had lost his fastball command again to start Wednesday’s outing, walking leadoff hitter Rhys Hoskins to put the go-ahead run on first. Chapman rebounded to retire Gregorius before picking off Hoskins, and after a mound visit to check on the visibly uncomfortable Chapman, the lefty struck out Brad Miller to end the top of the ninth.
Chapman was able to survive his nail issue, which was prevalent earlier in the season just as he began a terrible stretch that led to him losing his spot as the consistent closer, but Boone is confident that it won’t be an issue that continues to bother Chapman.
The Yankees better hope not, as Chapman returning to form is vital to the team’s chances of making a comeback in the AL East.
“Usually it’s something that pops up a little randomly and we take care of it pretty well,” Boone said. “I expect that to be the case again, but we’ll just see and continue to monitor it.”
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