NEW YORK – A five out save and the final strike being the fastest heater recorded this season is a telltale sign that the New York Yankees’ closer is back. The Yankees secured the first win in their highly anticipated three game set against the Minnesota Twins 2-1 Monday night.
Aroldis Chapman is arguably the most valuable piece in the Yankees’ bullpen, and he just wasn’t himself in the month of August. But September has proven to be vastly different for the Cuban flamethrower. Chapman has thrown six scoreless innings for the Yankees and recorded 12 strikeouts over that period of time.
.@AChapman_105 is heating up for the stretch run.
His 103.6 mph pitch to end tonight’s @Yankees win is 2017’s fastest strikeout pitch! pic.twitter.com/Y0z5n5PVTs
— #Statcast (@statcast) September 19, 2017
Early on, it was Aaron Judge who gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead with his solo home run in the first inning off of Ervin Santana. Judge is now just three RBIs away from 100 and is sitting at 44 HRs on the year.
But the Twins capitalized on a mistake by Judge in the top half of the fifth inning and scored a run on a fielder’s choice.
Todd Frazier put the Yankees ahead with a sac-fly in the bottom of the sixth inning and the Yankees bullpen did not falter from there.
David Robertson, Dellin Betances and Chapman did not allow a hit in their 3.1 innings of work and combined to strikeout four Twins’ hitters.
With the victory, the Yankees moved to five games ahead of the Twins for the first place wild card spot, but more importantly, their closer is back to being the shutdown man that everyone is used to seeing.
