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Aroldis Chapman's uniquely marvelous Major League Baseball career stands at what could be its last crucial inflection point.
As of Friday, the trade deadline was exactly one month away, and Chapman had been struggling for the Boston Red Sox of late.
He entered the game in the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Angels, looking to nail down the save and become the all-time strikeout leader for relief pitchers.
Against the very first batter he saw, LA's Denzer Guzman, Chapman did just that.
His 1,364th puchout put him one ahead of the legendary Hoyt Wilhelm atop the all-time reliever leaderboard.
Now, to some degree, the real work begins.
Chapman needs more clean innings to re-establish top-tier value Chapman may have set the record, but he still didn't look dominant in Friday night's victory.
He allowed back-to-back singles to Jorge Soler and Vaughn Grissom right after punching out Guzman, enabling the Angels to bring the tying run to the plate in a game Boston should have had well in hand.
Fortunately, the powerful Jo Adell grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to end the threat, give Chapman his 17th save of the season, and allow the Red Sox to climb back within 10 games of .500.
But their seller destiny at the trade deadline still seems fairly assured, and Chapman could be the ultimate prize of the reliever market.
There's no mistaking how dominant the totality of Chapman's two years in Boston have been.
However, he allowed earned runs in three of five outings to end June, taking his season ERA from 0.44 to 2.19.
On the whole, he's still putting together an excellent campaign, but there's a difference between trading for a very solid closer and an elite one.
The fact that Chapman will be under team control for next season if he throws 14 1/3 more innings by season's end is a big plus in the Red Sox's favor.
But a couple more blow-up outings could really tank his stock, and that's the last thing Boston needs.
It doesn't help that he's clearly been laboring through a hamstring problem, as there's been a noticeable dip in his command over the last month or so.
The next month will be a telling one on all fronts for the Red Sox.
Chapman is one very prominent testament to that fact, but there are other's we'll be tracking as well.
Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living.
A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey.
He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic.
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