How Yankees feel about Aroldis Chapman pitching with left knee tendinitis

Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman has been dealing with a knee issue for a few weeks.

NEW YORK — A month-long run of dominance by Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman was in jeopardy of ending in the ninth inning of Friday night’s Subway Series game at Citi Field.

A hit batter and infield single put two on with nobody out and Mets No. 3 hitter Michael Conforto due up representing the tying run.

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It was time for a mound visit … a surprising one from Yankees athletic trainer Steve Donohue, not pitching coach Larry Rothschild.

Turns out Chapman secretly has been dealing with left knee tendinitis for a few weeks and the Yankees wanted to check on their flame-throwing star lefty.

Chapman talked his way into staying in, then retired three batters in a row to close out a 4-1 win over the Mets, albeit two of them on well-hit balls.

The Yankees played down the issue after the game.

“He’s got a little tendinitis that he deals with on and off,” manager Aaron Boone said in his post-game presser. “It doesn’t affect him throwing. Some nights it’s a little harder to move around for him is all. It’s not a big deal.”

It looked like a potential big deal when Chapman slowly walked from his locker to the trainer’s room with a limp and his left knee wrapped after he addressed the media.

“I’ve been working very hard with the trainers,” Chapman said. “I’ve been doing a lot of exercises and work on it to get better. That’s the plan right now.”

The plan may not be working. When Chapman was asked if this is the worst his knee had felt, he answered, “I want to say maybe yes, but at the end of the day it didn’t get in the way of me doing my job. I was able to pitch fine.”

Chapman’s been pitching better than fine all season.

After a mediocre 2017 by his standards, the four-time All-Star has been tremendous so far this year with a 2-0 record, 1.35 ERA, 16 saves in 17 chances and 46 strikeouts over 26 2/3 innings in 27 outings.

Since May 8, he’s allowed one run in 11 2/3 innings over 12 games while going 1-0 with nine saves in nine chances.

But this knee issue, which is a first for him, either could go away with treatment or perhaps linger on and develop into something serious.

“It’s hard for me to tell the future, but what I can tell you is I’ve been pitching with it,” Chapman said. “I pitched tonight, so I don’t think it’s going to stop me from pitching.”

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.