With the Yankees currently 10.5 games back of the Boston Red Sox in the AL East standings, the teams begins an important six game stretch to close out the first half on Tuesday night in Seattle.
So, as the Yankees begin a three-game set with the Mariners on Tuesday night, Aaron Boone was asked a straightforward question: Who would be the closer if a save situation arises?
“Could be anyone,” Boone replied. “Could be [Aroldis Chapman}. I would use him in that scenario, but Chappy could be in a lot of situations tonight as we kind of work through, as you might imagine, staying away from a couple of guys tonight. It could be Chappy, but he could also be there in an earlier situation as well. I do want to get him back out there and kind of get him working through this, and that may be in a closing situation tonight.”
Chapman, of course, has struggled mightily of late. In his last three outings, the once dominant closer has allowed nine earned runs in just 1.1 innings, while walking six hitters and striking out two in that span.
But Boone believes that Chapman is not far off from returning to his dominant form. He just needs to get his mechanics right.
“There are some things we’re doing with him, as I’ve touched on, as far as getting him off the mound a little bit more, doing some things in his catch play that are a little bit different. I do think it’s as simple as just getting him unlocked from a delivery standpoint, and I feel like once he gets going with that, we’re not very far removed from probably the best Aroldis Chapman we’ve ever seen in the first couple months of the season, which is saying a lot considering the career he’s had.
“So, I don’t feel like it’s far off. Obviously, it’s been a struggle the last several weeks for him, but I do feel like once he gets clicking delivery-wise, his confidence and the results will follow quickly.”
Boone and the rest of the Yankees are hopeful that those results appear sooner rather than later, as the Yankees must find away out of their recent funk before falling too far back in the standings.
“We understand the importance of these games and obviously the hole that we dug for ourselves here in the first half of the season,” Boone said. “This is a very important week for us and hopefully we can get it off on a good note tonight.
“We’ve got to go right our ship.”