Green had a rare hiccup, and Kahnle’s stumble was forgivable, but Chapman’s latest untidy inning was the most disturbing, if for no other reason than the fact that the Yankees gave him a five-year, $86 million free-agent contract with the expectation he would be a rock-solid closer.
While Chapman has had a difficult season, he has been dreadful this month, giving up at least one run in each of his last four appearances – the longest such skid of his career. It likely would have been five had left fielder Brett Gardner not leapt at the wall to steal away an extra-base hit at Cleveland on Aug. 5.
“You can’t get frustrated,” said Chapman, who was held out of the last two games with a tight hamstring. “Definitely the last couple outings haven’t been what I wanted them to be. I’m going through a tough moment right now. You’ve just got to work hard and get out of it.”
Chapman’s bad inning was compounded by his poor comportment. Rafael Devers, who hit a 102.8-miles-per-hour fastball into the left-field bullpen off Chapman last weekend at Yankee Stadium, began the eighth with a line single. Chapman followed by walking Christian Vazquez, after which the…
