Faster than you can say " Aroldis Chapman(notes)," the Cincinnati Reds have an eight-game lead in the NL Central. Chapman prefers to let his fastball do the talking, and Wednesday it was clocked at 103 mph.
The Reds responded to their phenom's latest batch of blazing pitches by rallying for six runs in the seventh inning to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-1. Chapman was perfect for the second consecutive night in an inning of work and was credited nfl jerseys
with the victory.
Held to two hits by Brewers starter Chris Narveson(notes), the Reds fed off Chapman.
"He changed the energy in the ballpark," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "We weren't dead. [Narveson] just made us look dead. When you're dealing like that, he can make you look like you have no life."
After getting Lorenzo Cain(notes) to ground sharply to third baseman Scott Rolen(notes), Chapman struck out Alcides Escobar(notes) on an 89 mph breaking ball following a fastball that registered 102 on the outfield radar gun.
He used the same pattern to also get Jonathan Lucroy(notes)—his first victim in his Tuesday debut—to end the inning. He hit 103 on the radar gun before Milwaukee's rookie catcher swung through an 88 mph breaking ball.
"He comes in and pitches an inning, and it energized the Seahawks jersey
crowd—everybody," Brewers manager Ken Macha said.
Chapman threw 11 pitches, nine of them strikes, leaving him with 19 in two nights.
"It's been a big two days for him," Baker said.
He told the New York Times he hadn't seen anything like the hype surrounding Chapman since "Fernandomania," which struck baseball when rookie Fernando Valenzuela pitched for the Dodgers in 1981. Baker was Valenzuela's teammate that year.
Chapman is drawing raves around the league.
"You don't see this stuff outside of 49ers jersey
Syd Finch,'' Wayne Krivsky, former Reds GM, told SI.com. "I think we got a little phenomenon going on here.''
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