Texas Rangers Reliever Aroldis Chapman Allows First Homer Since 2022 to Astros

Minute Maid Park has been a house of horrors for Texas Rangers reliever Aroldis Chapman, and Monday was no exception.

© Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports

Texas Rangers reliever Aroldis Chapman gave up his first home run in more than a year when he allowed a three-run shot to Houston Astros outfielder Chas McCormick in the seventh inning of Monday’s game at Minute Maid Park.

The home run — which gave McCormick a career-high six RBI — tied the game at 9-9.

The last home run Chapman allowed was on July 22 of last season when he was with the New York Yankees.

Since joining the Rangers on June 30, Chapman has been dominant. In his first seven games with the Rangers he pitched seven innings, going 1-0 with one save, 0,00 ERA, 12 strikeouts and no walks allowed. He had given up three hits and only one extra-base hit, as batters were hitting .125 against him.

The seventh inning started with Chapman striking out one of the Astros’ best hitters, third baseman Alex Bregman, on three pitches.

Then Chapman ran into control issues.

He walked Kyle Tucker, followed by a walk of Jose Abreu.

Then came McCormick. He connected on Chapman’s first pitch, a 97.4-mph fastball, and sent it into left field for the game-tying home run. The Rangers had it reviewed to make sure it cleared the yellow line indicating a home run in that area of the park, and it was just over the line.

Déjà vu. pic.twitter.com/rN62n7jJuW

— Houston Astros (@astros) July 25, 2023

From there, Yainer Diaz reached first base on an error by Rangers shortstop Ezequiel Duran, which put the lead run on base. But Chapman was able to get Jeremy Peña to fly out and Corey Julks to strike out and end the inning to preserve the tie.

Minute Maid Park has not been a friendly park for Chapman. While he entered the seventh inning with 30 strikeouts in the park, he also had an ERA better than 6.00.

McCormick inflated that on Monday.

---

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.

Catch up with Inside the Rangers on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram.