There is a chance Aroldis Chapman, one of the elite closers of his time in baseball and as hard throwing of a closer as the Yankees have ever had, might find postseason redemption this season. It would mean getting the last out of the 2021 World Series for his team. It also means he has some wait ahead of him, after doing something no elite closer has ever done in baseball, which is give up season-ending home runs in consecutive seasons.

The first one was to Jose Altuve in Game 6 of the 2019 American League Championship Series, bottom of the ninth, after DJ LeMahieu tied the game in the top half, when the Yankees were that close to being eliminated. Chapman had the ball. Chapman threw Altuve a slider (one the Astros second baseman may or may not have known was coming) which ended up becoming a bomb to left, as Joe Buck yelled in the moment, “Altuve has just sent the Astros to the World Series!”

Last October, it was the bottom of the eighth in Game 5 of the AL Division Series between the Yankees and Rays. It was Chapman against Tampa Bay's Mike Brosseau in a 1-1 game, the same Brosseau whom Chapman had buzzed earlier in the season with a 100 mph fastball. On a 3-2 count, Brosseau hit a ball which skied above Brett Gardner in left and over the Spectrum sign at The Trop, as the Yankees were sent home again due to a home run ball delivered by Chapman. It ended up being the Rays who eventually headed to the World Series.

This is what Chapman said afterward:

"These situations fall on me. I am the closer. I am the one who is going to finish the game, [whether] winning or losing it. These things will happen to me in my career.”

Well, yeah, but now it had happened to Chapman in back-to-back Octobers. Of course, it made people recall Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, when he was on the mound and looking to close out the Cubs’ first Series title in 108 years by getting them out of the eighth and into the ninth with at least the 6-4 lead they already enjoyed. Then, Rajai Davis tied that one with a two-run homer down the left-field line. While the Cubs finally did win in extra innings, somebody else had the ball.

But it is Altuve and Brosseau who are freshest in the minds of Yankees fans. Two straight seasons. Two home run balls. The old Indians closer, Jose Mesa, had two straight Octobers somewhat like this. He gave up a 12th inning home run to Robbie Alomar in the AL Division Series against the Orioles in 1996, in Game 4, that turned out to be a game-winner for the Orioles and a season-ender for the Indians. The next season, with a chance to close out what would have been the Tribe's first World Series title since '48 in Game 7, Mesa gave up a game-tying sacrifice fly to Craig Counsell in the ninth. Charles Nagy was on the mound when the Marlins beat the Indians to win the Series in the 11th.

Perhaps Chapman gets baseball redemption this October. Or not. Ralph Terry, who started 23 games for the Yankees in 1960, gave up the most famous World Series home run in team history to Bill Mazeroski of the Pirates in the ninth inning of Game 7 at Forbes Field. The image of Yogi Berra – in left field that day – watching the ball go over his head and over the wall was burned into the memories of Yankees fans of the time.

But what is forgotten -- and far too often -- is Terry not only came back from that, but returned in the 1962 World Series to pitch a 1-0 complete game against the Giants in Game 7. He was still out there to get Willie McCovey to line the ball into Bobby Richardson’s glove with Matty Alou on third and Willie Mays on second.

Terry pitching that way, two years after Mazeroski, would have been like Scott Norwood of the Buffalo Bills coming back to kick a game-winning field goal in another Super Bowl after sending one wide right against the football Giants in Super Bowl XXV.

Maybe Chapman will get his chance, a World Series ninth inning like Terry enjoyed in 1962. Maybe not. Maybe it will be a starter who gets the last out of the Series, the way Charlie Morton did for the Astros in 2017 or Chris Sale did for the Red Sox in ’18 -- and Jose Urias did for the Dodgers last October.

"Some end results, at least here and with the Cubs, you can point to,’’ Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. “I know when given the opportunity with victory at hand, I feel extremely comfortable -- and Aaron Boone does, as well -- with [Chapman]. He’s typically converting those -- and I have full confidence in Aroldis Chapman. Certainly, I’m hopeful many times next October, if we’re fortunate to qualify [for the postseason] -- we’re in the situation to hand him the ball.”

We’re the same as Cashman ... and Chapman. We’ll wait. And then we’ll see.