In case you didn’t know, Aroldis Chapman is still a star.
Manny Machado probably knew it. But he got a close-up reminder of it during Wednesday’s game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Diego Padres.
With two men on and two outs in the eighth inning of a game in which Chapman’s Pirates led 6-5, Machado was faced with a 1-2 count against Pittsburgh’s veteran reliever. Chapman didn’t try to fool Machado with his next pitch. He leaned back and threw the ball as hard as he could. Machado didn’t stand a chance.
The ball crossed the plate at 104.7 mph and landed in the inside corner. Machado stood there helplessly, shaking his head. He then looked up with a smile and made eye contact with Chapman in a gesture that might as well have been a tip of the hat. Chapman smiled back.
Each player then returned to his respective dugout. The inning and the Padres scoring threat were over, but the Padres won 9-8 in 10 innings.
The pitch wasn’t just jaw-dropping. It was also one for the record books. According to MLB researcher Sarah Langs, the pitch tied Los Angeles Angels flamethrower Ben Joyce for the fastest pitch to produce a strikeout since the start of the pitch-tracking era in 2008.
Joyce set that record just three days earlier by beating JD Martinez to secure the victory over the New York Mets.
Joyce is 23 years old. Chapman is 36 and in his 15th MLB season. His strikeout pitch of Machado wasn’t his fastest of the season. In fact, it was his fastest of the at-bat.
One pitch earlier, Chapman threw a 105.1 mph offering to Machado. It missed low for a ball, so it didn’t generate quite the same reaction.
However, he did tie his own record for fastest pitch of the Statcast era, tying a velocity of 105.1 mph against the Padres during his rookie season in 2010 with the Cincinnati Reds.
Where these rank in the all-time record book can never be verified. Some believe Nolan Ryan and Bob Feller reached 107 mph at their peak. However, the technology used to achieve these figures is unreliable and the speeds have not been verified.
Regardless, Chapman throws ridiculously hard. He’s not the dominant closer he was in his All-Star prime. But he’s still a force to be reckoned with when he’s on top of his game.
