September 24, 2010: Reds’ Aroldis Chapman tops 105 mph for fastest pitch ever recorded

Between 2008, when PitchF/X systems began measuring pitch speeds in every major-league ballpark, and the end of the 2023 season, nearly 11 million pitches were thrown in regular-season games.1 Roughly 0.2 percent of those (21,712) traveled at speeds of 100 mph or more. Only 10 – fewer than 1 in 1 million – touched 105 mph. The first of those, thrown by Cincinnati Reds southpaw reliever Aroldis Chapman at San Diego’s Petco Park in 2010, the year after he defected from his native Cuba, was the fastest one ever recorded.2

It was March 2009 that the recently turned 21-year-old Chapman caught the attention of the baseball world with his performance in the second World Baseball Classic. A starting pitcher for Cuba’s national team, he touched 102 mph in a second-round loss to Japan, a contest held, coincidentally, at Petco Park.3 While in the Netherlands for a July 2009 tournament with the Cuban team, Chapman defected, walking out of his hotel and into a waiting car.4

Once Chapman secured provisional residency in the nation of Andorra, he became eligible to be signed by a major-league team. Courted by a bevy of clubs, he signed a six-year, $30.25 million guaranteed deal with the Reds in January 2010.5 One of Chapman’s representatives pointed to the Spanish-speaking ability of manager Dusty Baker and his new pitching coach, Bryan Price,  as a factor in Chapman’s choosing Cincinnati.6

Ten of Chapman’s 85 pitches in his professional debut game with Triple-A Louisville measured 99 mph or higher, prompting the Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader to call him The Cuban Missile.7 Converted into a closer, Chapman went 9-6 with 125 strikeouts in 95⅔ innings. Cincinnati called him up on August 31, making him eligible for the playoffs as the Reds pursued their first National League Central Division crown since 1995.8

Chapman’s debut with Cincinnati was an imposing one. He retired all three batters he faced, on eight pitches, in an 8-4 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. The first, catcher Jonathan Lucroy, went down swinging on four pitches – a 98 mph fastball, an 86 mph slider, a 102 mph fastball, and an 86 mph slider.9 The sliders may have been the most impressive. Prior to his signing, scouts had questioned “the quality and command of [Chapman’s] secondary pitches.”10

Over his first three weeks with Cincinnati, Chapman made 10 appearances, all in relief, with three of the last four as a setup man for closer Francisco Cordero. Over 8⅓ innings he’d fanned 11, maintained a WHIP of 1.2 and threw more 100-plus mph pitches than any other NL hurler would all season (56).

The Reds’ magic number to win the NL Central Division crown was down to three as they arrived at Petco Park on September 24, making their last stop on a three-city, nine game road trip. The Padres were in a dogfight on two fronts – with the San Francisco Giants, whom they trailed by a half game for the NL West title, and with the Atlanta Braves for the lone NL wild card should they fail to win the West.

A Friday night crowd of 35,310 was on hand to see 6-foot-10 Chris Young make his second start for San Diego after missing five months with a strained right shoulder, facing Reds ace Bronson Arroyo, looking for his 17th win.11

The Reds jumped in front on a one-out solo homer to left field in the second inning by Drew Stubbs, a career-high 21st for the season. An RBI single by Miguel Tejada, just over the head of Cincinnati third baseman Scott Rolen, tied the score in the fourth, with Will Venable scoring from second after he’d collected his team-leading 28th stolen base. San Diego pushed another run across in the fifth when rookie Mike Baxter, hitting for Young, brought Tony Gwynn Jr. in with a sacrifice fly to register the first RBI of his career.12

Cincinnati took back the lead in its next turn at bat, on RBI singles by Ramón Hernández and pinch-hitter Miguel Cairo, each off a different Padres reliever. Up 3-2, Baker handed the game over to his bullpen. Rookie Logan Ondrusek worked a scoreless sixth and after retiring the first batter in the seventh gave way to 20-year-veteran left-hander Arthur Rhodes. Rhodes surrendered a single to Chase Headley, walked pinch-hitter Nick Hundley, then got Venable to ground into a force play at second.

With the 2006 World Series MVP David Eckstein coming up, Baker brought in his right-handed set-up man, Nick Masset. Eckstein drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases. The next batter, Tejada, worked the count full before singling to left. The hit brought two runs in and Chapman into the game.

With two out and two on, Chapman struck out lefty Adrián González on three four-seam fastballs, each faster than the one before.13 The last registered 103 mph. Gonzalez swung at all three but didn’t come close to hitting one. “It was the kind of thing that makes the hair stand up on your arms,” marveled radio announcer and former Reds closer Jeff Brantley.14

After Chapman stopped the bleeding in the seventh, San Diego set-up man extraordinaire Mike Adams mowed down Cincinnati’s number five, six, and seven batters in order in the eighth.15 Well rested coming into the game, with three days off and only one appearance in the past week, Chapman came out for another inning.

Fed a steady diet of fastballs, San Diego’s first batter, Ryan Ludwick, flied out to center field. Up next was Gwynn Jr., son of arguably the best hitter since Ted Williams, Tony Gwynn Sr. Chapman got a called strike on his first pitch, a four-seamer delivered to the top of the strike zone at 103 mph. The next pitch, a ball up and away, registered 104 mph on the Petco Park scoreboard. Gwynn fouled off the next two pitches, the first a 103 mph fastball and the second 1 mph faster.

Ahead in the count 1-and-2, Chapman’s next pitch was thigh high and well inside. Gwynn took the pitch, then turned as if to see whether catcher Ryan Hanigan caught it. “I didn’t see it until the ball was behind me,” Gwynn said afterward. “I was trying not to look at the radar reading because I’d be intimidated.”16 The scoreboard flashed 105 mph, and the crowd rumbled. San Diego sportscaster Dick Enberg told his TV audience, “Never seen anything like it.” “I’ve watched Nolan Ryan throw a few no-hitters,” the longtime voice of the American League Angels added. “Even the men in the dugout – oohing and ahhing.”17

PitchFX measured Chapman’s fifth pitch to Gwynn Jr. at 105.1 mph, making it the fastest pitch ever recorded, eclipsing a 104.8 mph heater thrown by Detroit Tigers reliever Joel Zumaya during the opening game of the 2006 American League Championship Series.18

Two pitches later, Gwynn Jr. went down looking at the 11th straight fastball that Chapman threw in the inning. No doubt amped, Chapman walked the next batter, Yorvit Torrealba, on four pitches, the last one 104 mph but high and outside. A seven-pitch battle with Headley ended with the Padres third baseman grounding to third, ending the inning and Chapman’s outing. Four outs on 25 pitches, all four-seam fastballs, all delivered at no less than 100 mph.  

Cincinnati put the tying run on first leading off the ninth, but could do no more against Padres closer Heath Bell, who earned his 44th save. Batting for Chapman with a runner on first and nobody out, Joey Votto, the eventual NL Most Valuable Player, struck out, ending a modest 10-game hitting streak.

Asked if this was the hardest he’d seen Chapman throw, Baker replied, “By a big degree.”19 “That’s as live an arm as I’ve ever seen,” said Padres manager Bud Black. “I’ve never seen 105, or 104, or 103.”20 The Reds having fallen, Chapman’s record-setting pitch went unmentioned until the very last sentence of the next day’s Cincinnati Enquirer game summary.21

Proving that baseball can be a humbling sport for both players and those who evaluate them, the next day Chapman took his first major-league loss when San Diego’s Chris Denorfia pulled a fastball that escaped PitchF/X notice down the third-base line for a walk-off double.

Cincinnati captured the NL Central title a few days later but was swept in the Division Series by the Philadelphia Phillies. The Padres finished two games back of the Giants and one behind the Braves, failing to secure a berth in the 2010 playoffs.

After Major League Baseball adopted the Statcast system in 2017, a method that measures pitch speed as a ball leaves a pitcher’s hand, speeds previously measured by PitchF/X at a fixed distance from home plate were revised. That correction added 0.7 mph to Chapman’s record-setting pitch to Tony Gwynn Jr., which is now acknowledged as a 105.8 mph blur.22

Acknowledgments 

This article was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Aroldis Chapman, Trading Card Database.

Sources 

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, Stathead.com, BaseballSavant.com, and Baseball-Almanac.com websites, including box scores listed at the links below:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN201009240.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2010/B09240SDN2010.htm

Notes

1 Created and operated by Sportvision, PitchF/X was a system of cameras that tracked the trajectory of pitches and software utilized to determine pitch position, velocity, and acceleration. In 2017 Major League Baseball transitioned from PitchF/X to Statcast, which relies on a combination of cameras and radar technology to track not only pitches but batted balls, bat swings and player movement as well. Mike Fast, “What the Heck is PITCHf/x,” The Hardball Times, 2010: 1.

2 According to BaseballSavant.com, seven of the other nine pitches that topped 105 mph also came out of Chapman’s left hand, with two thrown by St. Louis Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks.

3 Dylan Hernandez, “Looking Abroad,” Los Angeles Times, August 9, 2009: C15.

4 Jorge Arangure Jr., “Top Cuban Prospect Defects,” ESPN, July 2, 2009, https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=4302422.

5 John Erardi, “Chapman Signing Gives Team Credibility,” Cincinnati Enquirer, January 12, 2010: C1.

6 John Fay, “Scouts’ Opinion Was Unanimous,” Cincinnati Enquirer, January 12, 2010: C5.

7 John Clay, “Bad Behavior Gets a Pass When You’re a Winner,” Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader, April 14, 2010: C1. A catchy nickname applied by the US press to Cuban athletes across multiple sports (the author found examples in the sports of boxing, cycling, and college football), at least two other major leaguers were previously tagged with the Cuban Missile moniker before Chapman. Both were Chicago White Sox: Dayán Viciedo, who defected in May 2008, and Alexei Ramirez, American League Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2008. Doug Segrest, “Mr. Cuban Missile Crisis,” Birmingham (Alabama) News, April 30, 2009: 1C; “‘Cuban Missile’ Blasts Chisox into Playoff,” Asbury Park (New Jersey) Press, September 30, 2008: C2.

8 Giving Bats fans something to remember him by, in Chapman’s last inning on the mound for Louisville, he threw a fastball that was clocked at 105 mph. Josh Cook, “Castillo Hits the Clutch for Bats,” Louisville Courier-Journal (Indiana Edition), August 28, 2010: C1.

9 John Fay, “Division Lead now 7 Games for Reds,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 1, 2010: C1.

10 Peter Abraham, “Young Pitching Prospect Chapman Visits the Sox,” Boston Globe, October 29, 2009: C9.

11 R.B. Fallstrom, “Padres Win on Ninth-Inning Homer,” San Luis Obispo (California) Tribune, September 19, 2010: S5.

12 Baxter is best known for a play he made on defense as a member of the New York Mets. His catch of Yadier Molina’s seventh-inning line drive while crashing into an outfield wall at Citi Field on June 1, 2012, preserved a no-hitter for Johan Santana, the first in Mets franchise history. On that play, Baxter suffered injuries to his shoulder, sternum, and rib cage that kept him out of action for nearly two months.

13 Steve Henson, “Chapman Throws Fastest Pitch Ever Recorded,” Yahoo Sports, September 25, 2010, https://sports.yahoo.com/sh-redspadres092410.html.

14 John Fay, “Chapman’s Endgame: Starting,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 26, 2010: C9.

15 Appearing in 70 games for San Diego during the 2010 season, Adams recorded 37 holds. Only four times did he enter a game before the eighth inning.

16 “Chapman Throws Fastest Pitch Ever Recorded.”

17 Excerpt from Cox Communications Channel 4 telecast of September 24, 2010, games between Cincinnati and San Diego. “Chapman Rings Up Gwynn,” MLB.com, 0:41, accessed June 4, 2024, https://www.mlb.com/video/chapman-rings-up-gwynn-c12420025.

18 “The Fastest Pitcher in Baseball History,” Baseball-Almanac, https://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/fastest-pitcher-in-baseball.shtml, accessed May 27, 2024; “Who’s Who of All-Time Hardest Throwers,” Ottawa (Ontario) Citizen, April 13, 2008: D5.

19 “Chapman Throws Fastest Pitch Ever Recorded.”

20 “Chapman’s Fastball Becomes Quick Sensation,” Macon (Georgia) Telegraph, September 26, 2010: A1.

21 John Fay, “Erratic Bullpen Coughs Up Late Lead,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 25, 2010: D1.

22 J.J. Cooper, “The Measure of a Fastball Has Changed Over the Years,” Baseball America, August 5, 2020, https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/the-measure-of-a-fastball-has-changed-over-the-years/.