Yankees News, 7/7: What’s going on with Aroldis Chapman? Yanks blast Mariners in win

aroldis chapman, yankees
aroldis chapman, yankees

The New York Yankees took on the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday evening at 10 PM, facing off against a familiar face, Justus Sheffield. Sheffield was sent to the Mariners in the Giancarlo Stanton trade, and unfortunately, he has been one of the most inefficient starting pitchers this season. Hosting a blasphemous 6.48 ERA, Sheffield was knocked out of the game after just 1.2 innings, picking up his eighth loss of the season.

The Yankees plastered him with five hits and six earned runs in less than two innings, taking it no lighter on the bullpen, which gave up a resounding 13 total hits and six runs.

Bombers got back on track for one evening, posting a season-high 18 hits and recording 12 runs against a +.500 team. This was the performance we needed to see from a Yankees team that has been struggling as of late, winning one game over three against the New York Mets this past weekend. Starting pitcher Jameson Taillon had a great outing, allowing four hits and just one run over 7.0 innings. He struck out nine batters in the process, easily his best performance of the year.

Despite one outlier against the Angels, two of Taillon’s last three games have seen him last 6+ innings and give up only one run. He’s seemingly getting more comfortable this season, and the Yankees need him to reach his potential if they want to make a run at the postseason.

The Yankees don’t know what’s going on with Aroldis Chapman:

One player who has struggled immensely to find his velocity is Aroldis Chapman, the team star closer. Chapman’s velocity is down tremendously after the MLB cracked down on the use of sticky substances to help improve spin rate.

The team is desperately trying to get Chapman back into form.

“It could be closing or it could be in a different situation,’’ Boone said. “We want to get him locked back in.”

“It’s as simple as getting him unlocked from a delivery standpoint,’’ Boone said. “Once we get that going, we’re not that far removed from the best Aroldis Chapman we’ve ever seen.”

Based on the sudden change of his efficiency right when the MLB banned spider attack, this is undoubtedly a curious situation. Unless he can return the form and prove he is just experiencing an anomaly, that could be a bigger conversation to have in a few weeks.