Austin Romine didn’t need to look at the radar gun reading on the scoreboard Thursday night to know Aroldis Chapman’s velocity was down again.
Instead of triple digits, Chapman was throwing from 94-96 mph while issuing walks to Robinson Chirinos and Willie Calhoun.
“You can definitely tell when it’s down five [mph],’’ Romine said before the Yankees lost 12-7 to the Rangers in The Bronx on Friday. “It didn’t have the normal heat.”
Still, Romine did glance to see just how hard — or not — Chapman was throwing. And even though the catcher knows Chapman’s stuff is not where it typically is, he doesn’t have any answers.
“You’d have to ask him or Larry,’’ Romine said of pitching coach Larry Rothschild. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
The bad news for the Yankees is that Chapman and Rothschild lack answers, as well.
“He was more focused on throwing strikes than anything in [Thursday’s] game,’’ Rothschild said. “I think he was guiding the ball a little bit.”
The positive takeaway is that unlike his previous outing in Boston, when he blew a three-run lead in the bottom of the ninth in what turned into a fifth straight loss, Chapman was able to go to his breaking pitches and get a groundout and two strikeouts to finish the win over the Rangers.
“He went to his slider, which was good, but we need to get him back to where he’s throwing the ball the way he’s capable of,’’ Rothschild said.
Chapman, who did not pitch Friday, and Rothschild say there are no mechanical issues to correct and the lefty insisted again on Friday that he is fine physically after dealing with left knee tendinitis around the All-Star break and body soreness last week.
According to Fangraphs and Brooks Baseball, Chapman’s velocity is lower at this point of the season than in any year since 2011. His fastball is averaging 98 mph this month. It’s usually closer to — or over — 100 mph in the August heat.
“My knee is not bothering me,’’ Chapman said through an interpreter. “For speed to fluctuate like that is normal.”
As for his lack of command, Chapman said: “There’s nothing I can point to exactly for why it hasn’t been there. It doesn’t mean it’s not gonna be there.”
Maybe, but it’s enough that it has caught the eye of the Yankees. And his overall numbers have dropped.
In his first 41 outings, Chapman allowed just six runs (all earned) and 36 baserunners in 40 innings. He has allowed 13 baserunners, as well as six runs (five earned) in just five innings over his previous six appearances.
“It’s strange,’’ Romine said. [Thursday] night, you just get into emergency-mode really quickly and try to figure out how to get through it. We could both see the slider was working, so it’s good he has that to go to.”
But they’d still like to get him back to being the dominant pitcher they have seen at times this season.
“The mechanics I see are the same,’’ Romine said. “He looks the same. I saw nothing different. The ball just wasn’t coming out at 100.”
Rothschild remains confident Chapman will right himself.
“I think he could pop any time,’’ the pitching coach said. “I would expect it’s not really far off.Like everybody else who goes through things, he’s no different. We just have to get him back.”
