Aroldis Chapman suffered another implosion on Friday night, but Aaron Boone is not only maintaining hope that the lefty reliever can find his way back, but he believes Chapman is already closer to that point than he was earlier in the season.
“He comes in, first eight pitches are strikes, the velo is there,” Boone said. “[Cedric] Mullins hits not a terrible pitch…first guy gets on, but yeah, I’m encouraged by it because he’s got his fastball back to some degree. Now we just have to keep building some successes and get the confidence back to where he’s that guy out there. That’s what we’re working to do.
“This is a different guy right now than it was two months ago.”
In the control department, Chapman doesn’t look much different than he did back in May, before his IL stint. Chapman threw two wild pitches and surrendered a walk before allowing a three-run home run to Anthony Santander, making it four times in his last eight outings since returning from the IL that Chapman has allowed at least one earned run.
But Boone isn’t giving up on Chapman, and after losing Michael King to a reported elbow fracture, he may feel he has no choice but to keep trotting Chapman out and hoping he can find his early 2021 form.
“It's obviously tough right now for him,” Boone said. “He's going through a tough time and grinding, but from what we've seen the last three weeks, it's in there. We've just got to pull it out.”
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