One night, Aroldis Chapman is finishing off hitters with his slider. The next, it’s his 100-plus-mph fastball.
The two pitches are becoming interchangeable, making the fireballing left-handed closer virtually unhittable.
“You think of ‘Chappy,’ you think of the 100-plus-mph fastball, but there’s been many a game where his slider has been a really effective pitch for him, to both lefties and righties,” manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday before Chapman worked a perfect ninth to close out an 8-5 Yankees win over the Braves in the Bronx. “To give hitters something else to think about legitimately I think has really allowed him to be incredibly consistent this year with his performance.”
On Monday night, Chapman hit 103 mph five times, and yet struck out the side with his slider. On Tuesday, pitching for the third straight day for the first time this year, he fanned the Braves’ two best hitters, Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis, by mixing up the two pitches. He followed up an 89-mph slider with a 103-mph fastball to get Freeman and put away Markakis with a 3-2 slider after working him mostly with heat.
Chapman is throwing his breaking ball more this year: 23.3 percent of the time, compared to 19.7 percent last year and 15.7 percent the season before, according to FanGraphs.com. He also is striking out a larger percentage of the hitters he’s facing with the slider: 66.7 percent this year, considerably up from the previous two seasons.
In the midst of his best season, Chapman’s minuscule 1.43 ERA would be a career best and he’s on pace to register his most strikeouts ever, with 65 in 37 ²/₃ innings. He has walked just 15 hitters and has 24 saves in 25 chances.
His heat is what strikes fear in opposing hitters, the ability to throw his fastball by just about anybody. It energizes his teammates, too.
“We are used to it but it is still really fun to see,” Sonny Gray said. “Nine out of 10 times we are winning or tied and everyone is on the top step and he comes in 103, 104.’’
But the use of the slider has increased his effectiveness. Following up 104-mph fastballs with sharp 92-mph sliders he can control has taken Chapman to another level. You can’t guess against triple digits.
“He’s been terrific and I think part of that has been the use of that slider,” Boone said.
— Additional reporting by George A. King III
