Cleared to return to game action six weeks after suffering facial fractures from a line drive to the head, Reds left-hander Aroldis Chapman made a minor-league rehab appearance yesterday at Single-A.
And he was clocked at 101 miles per hour on multiple pitches.
Chapman struck out two of the three (completely overmatched) hitters he faced in a 1-2-3 inning and afterward told Andy Call of MLB.com that he felt “normal … like I have always been, the way I felt before the accident. There is no fear, no hesitation with me.”
He was throwing so hard that the Single-A ballpark’s scoreboard wasn’t prepared for it:
The fastest pitches actually read “01” because the scoreboard display contains only two digits. A Dayton team spokesman said no pitcher had ever reached triple digits at Fifth Third Field.
There’s no official timetable set for his return, but Chapman said that “two or three more [appearances in the minors is exactly what I need.”
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