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 Show’ and I mercy-ruled someone,” Chisholm said. “That’s how I get my stress off.”
Chisholm’s personally-made team, called the New York Aliens, had Ken Griffey Jr., Jimmy Rollins, and himself in the lineup, winning by a final score of 12-1.
“It’s kind of a cheat code,” he said. “We’re playing online. Having fun.”
Chisholm added there was no ill will between him and the manager after Tuesday’s benching.
“There is never a problem between me and Aaron Boone,” Chisholm said. “And we always have disagreements. At the end of the day, I always stand with Boonie because he always understands where I come from. He knows I’m a passionate player. He knows I wear my feelings on my sleeve, and he knows that I’m here to compete.”
Chisholm was hardly the only high-energy player that helped the Yankees win when their backs were up against the wall.
Right-handed reliever Fernando Cruz went ballistic after stranding his inherited runners to escape the seventh inning unscathed, keeping the game tied at 3-3. For a Yankees team that seemed to be playing tense all night — it was, after all, a win-or-go-home game — Cruz’s unhinged shouts of “VAMOS!” were exactly what the dugout needed to get fired up.
“I felt like I could see every vein popping out of his head,” said first baseman Ben Rice, who put the Yankees on the board with a two-run home run in the first inning. “But that’s what you get from him. That’s the intensity you get, and we are really lucky to have him.”
Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
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