Joe Girardi's hope was to stay away from Aroldis Chapman on Monday night because the closer had appeared in two of the club's last three games.
But that's the only reason.
The Yankees manager made clear, as he did Sunday night after Chapman blew the save in a 3-2 loss, he plans on making no changes in the back end of his bullpen.
"He's our closer," Girardi said. "I have a ton of belief in him."
Chapman entered Monday 4-2 with a 3.48 ERA with 15 saves this season, including back-to-back appearances Friday and Sunday in which he allowed a combined three runs and four walks.
But lost a bit in some of the hysteria surrounding those outings was that in his previous 13 games before Friday night, Chapman, while clearly not as dominant this season as in years past, still had a 1.42 ERA with 15 strikeouts and six walks in 12 2/3 innings.
"You look at all the guys in the bullpen in the last month, six weeks, have you seen only one guy struggle?" Girardi said. "They've all had their struggles at some point ... we have a lot of quality arms down there. They're not going to be perfect."
