Jazz Chisholm Jr. has been having a rough year. That’s not really up for debate. But Sunday night? He looked like a different hitter entirely.
Facing the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the second game of a day-night doubleheader, Chisholm stepped in with one out in the eighth inning and nobody on. The Yankees were clinging to a 1-1 tie. Then he got a fastball around the thighs from Evan Phillips and sent it 402 feet to deep left-center. Exit velocity was 105.3 mph, launch angle 33 degrees. No doubt about it.
That solo shot gave New York a 2-1 win and, more importantly, kept them from getting swept at home by a team that’s been owning them all weekend. The Dodgers had taken the first two games. Sunday’s nightcap was their last chance to salvage something.
Chisholm’s numbers have been ugly
Let’s be real. Chisholm entered Sunday with a .695 OPS, which would be the worst full-season mark of his career since his brief cup of coffee in 2020. Aaron Judge has been out too, so the Yankees offense hasn’t looked like itself. They’ve been grinding for runs, and Chisholm’s struggles have been a big part of that.
But he still carries himself like he’s the best player on the field. That’s not arrogance necessarily. It’s just who he is.
“I feel like we match up against any team in the league,” Chisholm told Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News. “I feel like we beat ourselves a lot, and I feel like that stuff, we’re gonna clean up as it goes.”
He’s not wrong about the self-inflicted wounds either. The Yankees have been sloppy at times. But when your second baseman can launch a baseball like that against a pitcher of Phillips’s caliber, you can afford to be a little optimistic.
The division race is getting real
New York is stuck in a nasty fight with the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. And now the Boston Red Sox have gotten hot too. They’re sitting above .500 and making things complicated. The margin for error keeps shrinking.
That’s why Sunday’s win mattered beyond just avoiding a sweep. It gave the Yankees a moment to breathe. And for Chisholm, it gave him a reminder that he can still do this. His contact quality has dipped this year, so seeing him absolutely mash a fastball like that is a legitimately good sign.
The Yankees need him to keep doing it. Because if he doesn’t, the Rays and Red Sox aren’t going to wait around.
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