Chapman shows his value to two clubs in one day
CHICAGO — Oh, Aroldis Chapman closed things out Friday, all right. No more wondering whether Joe Maddon pushed his luck last fall with his prized rental.
No more carping about the Yankees spending big to bring back the athletic lefty even when they’re not all in.
Can you get multiple saves from one appearance?
I’m embellishing a tad; one game ccan prove only so much. Yet when Chapman secured another dramatic Yankees victory, 3-2 over the Cubs at a bitterly windy Wrigley Field, on the very same day he received his 2016 Cubs World Series ring, he sure bolstered the case of those who have believed in him.
“It was very exciting,” Chapman said through an interpreter. “First time back here, and to have a chance to help the team win was very nice.”
First time back, the Cubs greeted Chapman very warmly, as well they should have. About 20 minutes before first pitch, they displayed video highlights of his brief Cubs tenure that culminated in the franchise’s first championship since 1908. The team’s executive chairman Tom Ricketts, president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, general manager Jed Hoyer and manager Joe Maddon stood at home plate and welcomed him with hugs and that nice piece of jewelry.
Not surprisingly, the highlight package didn’t include the stunning, two-run, eighth-inning homer that an exhausted Chapman gave up to Cleveland’s Rajai Davis in Game 7 of last year’s Fall Classic, tying the game at 6-6. Even after the Cubs prevailed in extra innings, Maddon drew considerable grief for leaning so heavily on Chapman, throwing him 2 2/3 innings in Game 5 and then 1 ¹/3 innings in Game 6; Chapman took the mound for the ninth inning of the latter contest with his team owning a comfortable, 9-2 advantage. When Chapman returned to the Yankees as a free agent, he admitted his displeasure with Maddon’s usage of him.
Maddon’s obvious problem was he didn’t trust anyone else in his bullpen, including Hector Rondon, the team’s closer before Epstein acquired Chapman from the Yankees in July. As fate would have it, with Chapman’s replacement, Wade Davis, unavailable Friday after pitching the three prior days, Maddon handed a 2-0, ninth-inning lead to … Rondon, who let two men get on and moved one strike away from a victory before serving up a game-winning, three-run homer to Brett Gardner.
“We were short in the bullpen this afternoon. That was his game,” Maddon said of Rendon. “It was an unfortunate choice of where he threw that pitch [a low slider]. That’s probably the only pitch that Gardner could have hit out, and we gave it to him.”
Enter Chapman. The Yankees, after buying low on Chapman in December 2015 and getting a great package (topped by Gleyber Torres) from the Cubs last summer, bought high on him last December, committing $86 million over five years. It sent a mixed message. Were the Yankees, set to give their youngsters time to figure it out, overspending on a superfluous item?
Instead, so far, the 18-9 Yankees have enjoyed their best-case scenario, leading the American League East while developing, and they have the game’s best closer to lock down a tight, tense game like this one. Chapman saw his first batter, Addison Russell, reach second base when Chase Headley couldn’t glove a grounder. The Cubs didn’t even try to bunt Russell to third with their next hitter, Jason Heyward.
“I challenge anyone in this room to go up there and attempt, especially if you’re left on left, to bunt a baseball against him,” Maddon said in his postgame news conference.
Heyward struck out looking. Willson Contreras grounded out to Headley, keeping Russell at second. And Javier Baez whiffed on three pitches, looking at two nasty changeups before foul-tipping a 100-mph fastball into Gary Sanchez’s glove, setting off another Yankees celebration.
Game saved. Cases closed. It’s good to be Aroldis Chapman nowadays, and it’s good, too, for those who hitch their wagon to him. kdavidoff@nypost.com