Aroldis Chapman eats ’18′ Cuban pastries filled with cream cheese and guava, blows save

What does it take for Aroldis Chapman of the Cincinnati Reds to blow a save for a second consecutive appearance?

How about Chapman being bloated from binging on "18," he said, of the yummiest Cuban pastries anyone could stuff in their face Sunday before the Reds faced the Phillies? And it was one of the Phillies announcers, also a Cuban expatriate, who sabotaged Chapman by bringing him the goodies!

That's the story Phillies' Spanish-language broadcaster Rickie Ricardo told the 94-FM WIP morning show Monday. Friends with Ricardso since he came to the U.S., Chapman had asked him to pick up two boxes (100 total) of flaky Cuban pastries filled with cream cheese and guava from a place down in Union City, N.J. — described by Ricardo as a "Cuban stronghold." Two or three of these things would clog your arteries and send you into a food coma. Only, Chapman didn't stop at two or three, Ricardo said:

“Could you imagine cream cheese and guava on a baked pastry? Well Chapman asked me for a box of 100, two boxes of 50. When I saw him on Sunday morning before the game, he was in the clubhouse, he had just eaten about 18 of them. He couldn’t breathe! I looked at my partner, I said, ‘he’s ripe for the taking today.”

The "Ripe Guava," or the "Flaky Pastry," is now the Philadelphia nickname for Chapman, who had come in with a 2.41 ERA with 30 strikeouts in 18 1/3 innings.

Chapman, who can hit 100 mph on the radar gun with no problem, and not only while driving, was in the 95 mph neighborhood as the Phillies rallied for 3-2 victory at Citizens Bank Park. That 5 mph could mean a lot. It's up to the rocket scientists to formulate an equation as to how much each pastry cost Chapman from his 100 mph heater.

Big BLS H/N: Deadspin

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