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 a 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.