Marcelo Mayer Gushes Over Aroldis Chapman After Red Sox’s Opening Day Win

The Boston Red Sox kicked off the 2026 marketing campaign with a 3-0 shutout victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Marcelo Mayer offered a spark for the Sox off the bench on this one, however after the sport, he opted to spotlight his veteran teammate Aroldis Chapman, who got here on within the ninth inning and shut the door on his former workforce.

Chapman broke into the majors again in 2010 as a flamethrowing lefty who took the league by storm. Now in his seventeenth 12 months within the league, Chapman has reinvented himself, and he’s recent off arguably the very best season of his profession in 2025. Chapman picked up proper the place he left off on Thursday afternoon, and he earned some high praise from Mayer within the course of.

“He’s the hardest worker I’ve ever seen, and it’s not even close,” Mayer mentioned of Chapman in a post-game interview with Jon Morosi of MLB Network. “He was in the league when I was a little kid in elementary school, and to see that he still loves it and still gets after it the way that he does, it’s super motivating and inspirational.”

Last season, Chapman posted a minuscule 1.17 ERA over 61.1 innings pitched, whereas additionally racking up 32 saves for Boston. He’s already acquired his first save of the season within the books, as he effortlessly retired three Reds batters on the backside of the ninth on simply 11 pitches.

While Chapman remains to be going robust, Mayer is seeking to set up himself within the majors, and he made fairly an impression on this recreation, as he picked up hits in each of his at-bats after pinch-hitting for Isiah Kiner-Falefa halfway by way of this contest. Boston will get the time off on Friday earlier than returning to motion on Saturday for the second matchup of this collection.

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