Jazz Chisholm Jr. went from not starting for the New York Yankees in their American League Wild Card Series Game 1 loss to the Boston Red Sox to calling his shot and being the hero of Game 2’s dramatic 4-3 win.
Chisholm faced a red-hot Garrett Whitlock with two outs and nobody on base in the eighth inning and worked a walk before coming around to score on Austin Wells’ game-winning hit.
To hear him tell it, he let Red Sox first baseman Nathaniel Lowe know he was going to score on a hit before it even happened.
“I told the first baseman any ball hit to his left or right I was gonna score,” Chisholm said after the game. “That’s all that was going through my mind. If he hits the ball in any corner, any gap, I’m scoring no matter what.”
He turned on the jets coming around third and slid headfirst into home in a memorable moment that gave the Yankees an opportunity to advance in Thursday’s decisive Game 3.
And he will also be in the lineup, as manager Aaron Boone told reporters following the win:
Chisholm played impressive defense as well and was the main story of the game, but the Yankees also received a key two-run homer from Ben Rice in the first inning and an RBI single from Aaron Judge in the fifth.
That allowed them to survive an impressive game from Trevor Story, which included a solo homer in the sixth and a two-run single in the third.
Chisholm provided the Yankees with some energy they were missing in the first game and will be back on the field Thursday as the two rivals compete for the opportunity to face the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL Division Series.