NEW YORK – Jazz Chisholm Jr. was flying.
One day after collecting bench splinters because Aaron Boone opted not to start him in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card series against the Red Sox, Chisholm sprinted from first to home on an Austin Wells single to score the Yankees’s winning run in Game 2.
Once closer David Bednar tossed a perfect ninth inning to earn his first career postseason save, the Yankees won, 4-3, on Wednesday to even up the series at one game apiece.
The winner of Thursday night’s rubber match in the Bronx will advance to the ALDS against the Toronto Blue Jays.
“We always put everything out there on the line, especially in the playoffs,” Chisholm said. “We want to win every game. There’s no space. You don’t want to give any team an edge. Obviously a must-win.”
Wells’ clutch eighth-inning single down the right-field line was only possible after Chisholm worked a critical seven-pitch walk against right-hander Garrett Whitlock.
Just like he doesn’t hide his emotions, Chisholm doesn’t conceal his intentions on the field, either.
Lack of confidence has never been an issue for the Yankees’ candid second baseman. After working the walk, Chisholm told Red Sox first baseman Nathaniel Lowe that if Wells hit a ball in the gap, and it trickled into right field, he was going to score from first no matter what.
The relay throw home from right field was close, but late. Chisholm was safe, and as he tried to catch his breath, Yankee Stadium became a party. Players spilled out of the home dugout and onto the field, no one more fired up than Aaron Judge. “Let’s go baby!” the Yankees captain shouted as he pumped his arms and gave kudos to Wells at first base.
“I’m a fan of all these guys in this room,” Judge said. “So when they come up with a big hit like that, I’m their biggest fan, their biggest supporter.”
All Chisholm wanted was a chance.
That’s part of why he was disappointed on Tuesday night, after the Yankees lost Game 1 to the Red Sox to fall behind in the Wild Card series. Boone omitted Chisholm from the starting lineup in favor of infielder Amed Rosario, who has better numbers against left-handed pitchers. With Red Sox southpaw Garrett Crochet on the mound in Game 1, the Yankees manager decided that starting Rosario gave the team a better chance to win.
Chisholm, who this season became just the third Yankee in franchise history to produce a 30-30 season, was still upset after the team’s 3-2 loss on Tuesday. As reporters asked him questions at his locker, Chisholm turned his back to the media while responding.
“Every player is not going to agree with every decision that I make,” Boone said before Game 2. “He is a guy that wears his emotions on his sleeve … but I don’t need him to put a happy face on. I need him to go out and play his butt off for us tonight. That’s what I expect to happen.”
‘Kind of a cheat code’
By the time Chisholm walked into Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, he was over it. What did he do to feel better?
“I played ‘MLB The Present’ and I mercy-ruled somebody,” Chisholm stated. “That’s how I get my stress off.”
Chisholm’s personally-made staff, referred to as the New York Aliens, had Ken Griffey Jr., Jimmy Rollins, and himself within the lineup, profitable by a ultimate rating of 12-1.
“It’s type of a cheat code,” he stated. “We’re taking part in on-line. Having enjoyable.”
Chisholm added there was no in poor health will between him and the supervisor after Tuesday’s benching.
“There’s by no means an issue between me and Aaron Boone,” Chisholm stated. “And we at all times have disagreements. On the finish of the day, I at all times stand with Boonie as a result of he at all times understands the place I come from. He is aware of I’m a passionate participant. He is aware of I put on my emotions on my sleeve, and he is aware of that I’m right here to compete.”
Chisholm was hardly the one high-energy participant that helped the Yankees win when their backs had been up towards the wall.
Proper-handed reliever Fernando Cruz went ballistic after stranding his inherited runners to flee the seventh inning unscathed, retaining the sport tied at 3-3. For a Yankees staff that appeared to be taking part in tense all night time — it was, in any case, a win-or-go-home recreation — Cruz’s unhinged shouts of “VAMOS!” had been precisely what the dugout wanted to get fired up.
“I felt like I may see each vein coming out of his head,” stated first baseman Ben Rice, who put the Yankees on the board with a two-run house run within the first inning. “However that is what you get from him. That is the depth you get, and we’re actually fortunate to have him.”
Deesha Thosar covers Main League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports activities. She beforehand coated the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Each day Information. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Lengthy Island and now lives in Queens. Observe her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
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