Aroldis Chapman fends off Rays for 21st save

Chapman made quick work of the Rays on Friday, needing just 13 pitches to retire the side in order to hand the Red Sox their 11th win in a row. Friday’s save marks the second year in a row in which Chapman has recorded 20 or more saves, and now gives him 387 for his career. He’s now just four saves away from passing Dennis Eckersley on the all-time saves list.

The Red Sox used Aroldis Chapman in a tie game in the ninth, and he got the win after the team scored in the top of the 10th. Whitlock then retired Jorge Polanco, Brett Baty and Bo Bichette in order. He has a 2.18 ERA and a 37/6 K/BB in 33 innings this season. Whitlock is likely one of the pitchers the Red Sox will consider moving if they opt to sell at the deadline, but a nine-game winning streak to end the first half has made it more likely that most everyone is going to stick around.

Braden Montgomery nearly had a hit on a fly to left-center, but Ceddanne Rafaela ran it down and made a diving catch. Chapman threw just nine pitches, eight of them strikes. After a shaky June in which he was dealing with a hamstring issues, he’s 3-for-3 saving games this month.

Chapman gave up a solo shot to Zach Neto while pitching with a three-run lead. He struck out two of the other three batters he faced. Chapman, who was picked for his ninth All-Star team on Saturday, has a 2.36 ERA and a 35/12 K/BB through 26 2/3 innings.

Chapman allowed a couple of singles with one out, but Jo Adell then grounded into a double play to end the game. It was his first appearance since he gave up two runs and blew a save Sunday against the Yankees. He threw only 13 pitches, so he should be good to go again on Saturday.

Whitlock got the call to protect a three-run lead in the final frame with Aroldis Chapman unavailable after pitching three of the previous four games, including back-to-back outings against the Yankees over the weekend. He struck out Dylan Crews and got pinch-hitter Daylen Lile to pop out before giving up a two-out single to a red-hot Luis García Jr. He prevented things from getting interesting by whiffing pinch-hitter Jorbit Vivas to extinguish any hopes of a Washington comeback.

We thought Chapman might have this one off after 23 pitches on Thursday and 20 pitches on Saturday, but manager Chad Tracy trotted him back out to try to complete a four-game sweep. Chapman went on to give up a single and a walk before getting Ben Rice to fly to right. Unfortunately, Wilyer Abreu had eyes on throwing out the runner tagging up from second and made a horrible throw that allowed one run to score and put the tying run on third. Paul Goldschmidt then hit a little chopper to tie the game. Chapman looked fine, even while losing a couple of strikes because the Red Sox were out of challenges. He’ll definitely get Monday off now, so Garrett Whitlock might get a save chance.

Chapman today had his best stuff since hurting his hamstring last month, averaging 99.8 mph with his fastball. That’s 3.2 mph better than his season average. Cody Bellinger did manage to work an 11-pitch walk against him, which might be enough to take him out of commission for Sunday. It’d be three appearances in four days for the 38-year-old, so the Red Sox could stay away and rely on Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten instead.

With his fastball down about 1.5 mph from his season average, Chapman walked Anthony Volpe and gave up a couple of rather soft singles before making a nice play on Ben Rice’s tapper down the first base line to record the final out. Chapman hasn’t been 100 percent since hurting his hamstring last month, but he dealt with quite a bit of back luck in giving up four runs over his previous two appearances. The save tonight was his 15th in 16 tries this season.

Chapman has lost back-to-back games. The last one was mostly bad luck in a tie game against the Blue Jays. He didn’t have any luck tonight, either, but it was more the defense coming up a little short on a couple of hits and a bunt single on a sacrifice attempt on which Willson Contreras vacated first base and second baseman Andruw Monasterio was late to cover. Chapman allowed just one hard-hit ball, which was a Hunter Goodman single. Still, his ERA more than doubled from 0.83 to 2.08, and he gave up four hits in an outing for the first time with the Red Sox and the fifth time in his 886 career appearances.