BALTIMORE — On Thursday night, Aroldis Chapman walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and needed Michael King to save him out of the Yankees bullpen. About 24 hours later, Aaron Boone c…
BALTIMORE — On Thursday night, Aroldis Chapman walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and needed Michael King to save him out of the Yankees bullpen.
Chapman nearly did for Clarke Schmidt what King had for him the night before, but after getting within a strike of escaping the jam, he threw four straight balls to walk in a run asAfter striking out Cedric Mullins on a slider for the second out, Chapman’s final pitch in a full count to Ramon Urias was a slider that came in just above the strike zone. His 1-2 pitch was a 97 mph fastball that might have clipped part of the zone but was called a ball low by home plate umpire Tom Hallion.
“But at the end, I lost the batter,” Chapman said through an interpreter. “Looking at it, I feel like the pitches were close, could have gone either way. There was one that was down and away, a borderline pitch. The last one, I thought it was a little high.”