Chap’s back off IL, rusty in first action
Aroldis Chapman was back from the injured list Wednesday night. But is the Yankees closer really back? Chapman struggled in the ninth inning to shake off the rust after missing 11 games with elbow inflammation.
Chapman gave up a one-out home run to Hunter Renfroe and a two-out single to J.D. Martinez before Aaron Boone had to come out and replace him. Lucas Luetge had to come in to finish off the 5-2 win over the Red Sox.
Chapman’s velocity was sitting around 99 miles an hour on the fastball, but he struggled with the command. He threw 20 pitches, 11 for strikes.
“He was just struggling to find the delivery, fin his release point a little bit,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “His stuff was a little bit down and obviously, getting up over 20 pitches there, I just thought it was a little bit uneven for him, obviously.”
After pitching to a 0.39 ERA with 43 strikeouts and 11 walks in his first 23 appearances this season — over 23.1 innings pitched, Chapman gave up 14 earned runs in his next 11 appearances, which also dates back to the beginning of MLB’s crackdown on the sticky substances pitchers use for better grips and spin rates. He’s walked 12 and struck out nine and gotten through just 6.2 innings in those 11 appearances.
Since July 6, however, the 33-yearold lefty has allowed just one earned run over 11 innings in 11 appearances. He’s struck out 19 and walked eight.
A better sign was the 1-2-3, 17-pitch eighth inning that Zack Britton pitched. After telling Boone he wasn’t pitching well enough to close games while Chapman was out, Britton’s velocity and the heavy downward movement was back.
“I mean that was Zack Britton,” Boone said. “That was really encouraging to see the stuff was really good. You saw him 94-95 miles an hour, but throwing it where he wanted to and you could even see it from the side you know, that ball was just diving on him. They extended the inning a little bit on him because they just kept chopping foul balls but he kept pounding the strike zone which was encouraging…... And he had that good bowling ball action. That was Zack Britton out there tonight.”
NO NEWS IS…
The Yankees sent the results of the MRI on Luis Severino’s right shoulder to Dr. Neal Elattrache on Tuesday, but had no update.
“Other than it’s arrived there,” Boone said of the MRI getting to Los Angeles. “But hopefully this time tomorrow, I’ll have an update for you on that.” Severino was shut down when he sad he “didn’t feel right” after warming up for a minor league rehab start for Scranton last week. The 27-year-old was just ramping back up his rehab from March 2020 Tommy John surgery after suffering a groin injury in a rehab start in June.
KLUBER PROGRESSING
Boone was pleased with Corey Kluber’s second minor league rehab start. The right-hander, who has been on the injured list since May 27 with a strained muscle in his right shoulder, allowed three earned runs on two hits Tuesday with Triple-A. He walked three and struck out four. He gave up a home run to Red Sox prospect Jeter Downs and hit a batter.
“I watched it this afternoon, I thought he threw the ball really well actually, I thought it was good. I thought the shapes on the pitches were strong. He threw 56 pitches so another uptick for him. He’s here today. Today feels good and a normal day after,” Boone said. “I thought his his first outing, where the line wasn’t very good, I thought the stuff was okay actually and I thought it was even better this time out.”
Boone said that Kluber will have another minor league rehab start to build up in five days. It is likely he will have at least one more after that to build up to at least 85 pitches, which would put him ready to return around the beginning of September, which is when GM Brian Cashman had targeted.