'That's disgusting!': Chapman unleashes cartoonish-looking splitter

Aroldis Chapman knows a thing or two about throwing a nasty pitch, mostly via his high-octane fastball. Every now and then, though, the left-hander reminds us that he has a few other tricks up his sleeve, too.

Chapman, 38, struck out the side to notch his 35th save and secure a pivotal 1-0 Red Sox victory over the Guardians on Wednesday night at Fenway Park. He also used a devilish splitter to produce one of the nastiest pitches you’ll see this year.

The bottom completely dropped out of the splitter that Chapman threw in an 0-2 count to Guardians outfielder Angel Martínez, inducing a swing and miss for strike three. The pitch killed plenty of spin with just 1,095 rpms, which led to some particularly cartoonish movement, including 30 inches of vertical drop and 11 inches of horizontal break.

Chapman uses his splitter sparingly, throwing it just 12% of the time as the fourth offering in his four-pitch mix. But it’s been really good when he has used it, holding the opposition to a .138 batting average with a 36.2% whiff rate, entering Wednesday’s game.

Martínez was not the only Guardians hitter fooled by the pitch on Wednesday. Chapman actually recorded all three strikeouts with the splitter, fanning outfielder Jo Adell to begin the inning and infielder Angel Genao to close the game. It was the first time in Chapman’s career that he recorded three strikeouts with his splitter in the same game.

Wednesday marked Chapman’s first appearance since Sept. 13, as he worked through a lat issue over the last 10 days. He has a 1.92 ERA with 71 strikeouts in 51 2/3 innings.