Chapman perfect again vs. Phillies

TAMPA — Aroldis Chapman threw the final Yankees pitch in each of their last two playoff runs — both decided by a home run he gave up.

The closer won’t be able to pitch for redemption until October rolls around again, but he’s trying to use the last two postseason finishes to his advantage.

“For me, you have to take that experience from it and use it as motivation,” Chapman said Friday through an interpreter. “Especially when things don’t work the way you want, for me, you go through the experience, you learn from it, and you use it as fuel.”

Chapman tossed his third perfect inning of spring training Friday in a 4-1 loss to the Phillies at George M. Steinbrenner Field. While his splitter has generated the most attention early in camp, his fastball ranged from 95-98 mph on Friday, which didn’t go unnoticed by Aaron Boone.

“He looks really good to me, probably better than in most years,” the manager said. “I feel like usually at this time we’re talking about his lack of velocity, his velocity being down. But he’s been pretty consistent in that 96-98 [range], there’s been outings where he’s touched 100 . ... I really like where Chappy’s at right now.”

➤ Saturday was scheduled to be Domingo German’s normal turn through the rotation, but the Yankees are pushing him back to Monday, which Boone said was “by design.”

“Had that laid out ahead of time,” Boone said. “Nothing to read into or anything there, he’s fine.”

Michael King will start Saturday against the Orioles.

➤ Kyle Higashioka is on track to start Sunday’s game against the Blue Jays, catching Gerrit Cole, after being scratched from Tuesday’s lineup with soreness in his side. Boone had originally targeted him for Saturday, but wanted Gary Sanchez to get back-to-back starts coming out of Thursday’s off-day.