NEWS: Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman turns back the clock in Wild Card Game 1

Aroldis Chapman’s performance in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card series between the Yankees and the Red Sox in the Bronx this week was a remarkable sight to behold.

The Boston closer, enjoying one of the best seasons of his long and well-traveled career, somehow wriggled out of a no-out, based-loaded hole in the bottom of the ninth inning with a vintage display of triple-digit heat.

With the Red Sox up 3-1, what looked like another classic choke and comeback in the long and bitter history between the AL East rivals instead turned into a tough loss for the Bombers.

Chapman — at 37 years old — made quick work of dangerous hitters Giancarlo Stanton, Jazz Chisholm and Trent Grisham (strikeout, pop-up, strikeout) with 100-mph cheese that harkened back to his heyday as the lights-out, late-inning weapon known as The Cuban Missile who once threw a near-106 mph heater, the fastest on record.

The inning was the perfect capper to his 2025 season. In his first year as a closer since 2021 with the Yankees — when he was reviled by New York fans who can’t forget, never mind forgive, his serving up a game-winning hanging slider to the Astros’ Jose Altuve in the 2019 ALCS — Chapman had 32 saves in 34 games and a minuscule 1.17 ERA this year.

Unfortunately for Boston, the Yankees came back to win the next two games of an intense best-of-three series and are headed to the ALDS to face the Blue Jays, while the Red Sox, and Chapman, go home.

But for one marvelous inning, baseball fans got a chance to appreciate one of the best closers ever pitching like he was in his prime.