Red flag? Aroldis Chapman, Yankees react to his wild implosion

Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman faced five Mets batters and retired none Saturday at Yankee Stadium.

NEW YORK — Even though Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman still uses a translator for interviews, the Cuban-born fireballer understands a lot of English.

Chapman smiled Saturday listening to the media inquisition coming his way after his worst outing as a Yankee, then he kept repeating himself answering in Spanish while trying to simplify a ninth-inning meltdown in which he had no idea where his pitches were going.

“Just a bad day,” Chapman said after a 7-6 Yankees survival over the Mets in which the day was saved by Chasen Shreve, the bullpen’s other lefty.

Entering in the ninth with the Yankees leading 7-3, Chapman faced five batters and retired none allowing a walk, infield single, two more walks and then a hit batter before being pulled for Shreve after 19 pitches, just three of them strikes.

Chapman smiled hearing questions because he figured people were thinking he must be hurt, and he was right.

He swears he’s fine even though he’d been bothered by left knee tendinitis since mid-May and a recent flare-up led to him not being available to pitch in last Tuesday’s All-Star Game.

Chapman swears his arm is fine, too, even though his velocity was slightly down against the Mets from 99-103 mph to 96-97 mph.

“It doesn’t concern me at all,” Chapman said “I feel good. It was just a bad outing. That’s all.”

As for his knee, Chapman says not pitching for a week helped.

“The good thing is that I’m feeling better from the knee,” he said. “Little by little, it’s getting better and getting better. So we’ll keep working on it.”

His outing was a piece of work that was way out of character for Chapman, who entered with a 3-0 record, 1.35 ERA and 26 saves in 27 chances over 36 games.

Chapman was off right from the start, as he walked leadoff hitter Kevin Plawecki. After Amed Rosario reached on an infield single, Ty Kelly walked on four pitches to load the bases, then Jose Reyes walked on four pitches to force in a run.

“Sometimes he comes out there and walks a guy, then he pulls it back in,” catcher Austin Romine said. “That happened real quick. I’m thinking I’m just trying to steal a strike back there for him and get it going in the right direction, but it just wasn’t the case.”

After the walk to Reyes, Chapman fell behind Brandon Nimmo 2-0 before hitting the Mets outfielder with the next pitch to bring another run that made it a 7-5 game.

That’s when manager Aaron Boone pulled Chapman, who hadn’t thrown a strike in his last 11 pitches, for Shreve, the Yankees’ sixth pitcher of the day.

Shreve’s had his own struggles this season, a lot of them actually, but he bailed out Chapman and the Yankees. First, Shreve induced Devin Mesoraco to hit a double-play groundball to second base that brought in a run and then he ended the game by retiring Wilmer Flores on a weak comebacker with the tying run on third.

“Excellent job by Shreve,” Chapman said. “He came in to solve that problem and he did the job.”

Meantime, the Yankees say they’re not worried at all about Chapman.

“I think it was week down, coming into a non-save situation,” Boone said. ‘So I just think it’s one of those hiccups that happen over the course of the year, but we’ll certainly check with him and monitor him closely.”

Chapman’s had a few similar outings during his time with the Cincinnati Reds. In July 2014, he faced five batters and didn’t retire any. In August 2014, he faced four batters and walked them all. And during a two-game stretch in May 2011, he faced eight batters, retired one and walked the rest.

It happened again Saturday.

“I couldn’t make the adjustments during the game,” Chapman said. “I couldn’t throw strikes. Just a bad day.”

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