Aroldis Chapman takes step forward in mop-up duty in loss to Red Sox
Aroldis Chapman was spooked. The Yankees closer, who has been struggling for the last month, mopped up with a scoreless ninth in the Bombers’ 4-0 loss to the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Despite two balls to the warning track and having to work around a walk, it was the only highlight for the Yankees Friday night.
“Better. Glad he was able to get in there,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I thought he recognized and made some little adjustments within the outing. When he missed with a pitch it wasn’t snowballing on him. I felt like he could feel some things as far as making some adjustments within the game, within a batter, which I thought was encouraging.
“For the most part, he is throwing strikes. So I thought a good step for him and and hopefully one he can build on.”
After pitching to a 0.39 ERA with 43 strikeouts and 11 walks in his first 23 appearances this season, Chapman has given up 14 earned runs in his last 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 10 and gotten through just 7.2 innings in those 11 appearances.
Boone has worked around Chapman the last two weeks, but knows the Yankees won’t be able to dig themselves out of the hole they dug in the first half of the season without a dominant closer. He still believes that can be Chapman.
“This is something I’ve tried to reiterate to Chappy as well. For as great as his career has been, he’s not far removed from probably the best version of Aroldis Chapman that I’ve seen in the first couple months of the season,” Boone said. “So I do think it’s a matter of getting out there and finding his delivery early, maybe executing a couple pitches, and I think it can really snowball and take off from there,” Boone said. “Hopefully, we can get that outing sooner rather than later.”
ANOTHER HIT
As if the Yankees hadn’t been hit hard enough by the COVID-10 outbreak, slugger Luke Voit was placed on the injured list Friday night with a bone bruise on his surgically-repaired left knee. Voit had a partially torn meniscus repaired in that knee back in spring training and began the season on the injured list.
“He had some swelling over the weekend and then had that drained, but there was still some lingering pain,” Boone said. “He was diagnosed with the bone bruise. He’ll probably get some kind of PRP potentially tonight and then hopefully a few days of rest and then hopefully get going from there.”
Voit, who was the 2020 home run champ with 22 homers, has played just 29 games this season so he hasn’t really had to push the knee. Still, Boone said it was not too concerning.
“This is not something that is overly common necessarily, but it’s something that can happen,” Boone said. “And I don’t think they’re overly concerned that it’s a recurring or structural thing. I think he’s just dealing with a bone bruise.”
Voit was held out of the first 34 games of the season by the knee surgery and then he suffered a strained oblique and missed 23 games. In the 29 games he has played, he has struggled to get going, hitting .241/.328/.370 with three homers and 11 RBI.
ANDUJAR HURTING
Miguel Andujar, who has been on the injured list since July 10 with a strained left wrist, had a cortisone shot on Friday.
“So he’ll (do) nothing for the next couple of days, but I don’t feel like he’s too far off,” Boone said of the third baseman who has been converted to an outfielder.
Andujar, who is hitting .253/.284/.383 with an 83 OPS+, would be eligible to come off the IL on Saturday.
FIGURING OUT FRAZIER
There is still no timeline for the return of Clint Frazier, who left the June 30 game against the Angels with dizziness. The outfielder was initially listed with vertigo, but after numerous tests that and other serious medical conditions have been ruled out. That includes any connection to the 2018 concussion that plagued him for two years.
“Clint is still going through some testing, kind of really focusing in on some vision stuff, with how his eyes move, and then how that affects his vision,” Boone said. “I know they’re playing around with contacts ... So, really kind of narrowing it down to some of the vision things and things that go on mechanically with his eyes.”
Frazier was struggling when he was healthy. After being named the starting left fielder last winter, he was hitting .186/.317/.317 with a 77 OPS+. He had five home runs and 65 strikeouts in 183 at-bats. He ranked among the lowest percentiles in strikeout percentage and whiff rate. He also was in the bottom rankings defensively in Outs Above Average and outfield jump.
He twice lost his starting job this season. First he was supplanted by Brett Gardner and then when Aaron Hicks suffered a season-ending wrist injury and the veteran had to move to center field, Frazier lost his spot to Andujar, a converted infielder.
