Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. came ready to play in Sunday's 4-2 win against the Baltimore Orioles, hitting a game-winning two-run double in the eighth inning with the score tied and accounted for all four New York runs.
Chisholm ended the day 2-for-4 with two doubles, two RBI and two runs scored. He also showed off his wheels and aggressiveness in New York's three-run eighth inning, scoring on a chopper to the drawn in infield by sliding into home thanks to an error by Gary Sanchez. After initially being called out as the ball beat Chisholm, home plate umpire Jansen Visconti quickly reversed the call.
"I mean, that’s what I live for," Chisholm said of coming through in the big moment and making things happen. "That’s how I grew up playing baseball in high school, little league — that’s how I played, and I feel like there’s no need to change."
On the go-ahead double, Chisholm attacked a 3-0 fastball with runners on first and third after getting the green light with New York needing a spark offensively. The plan worked as Chisholm blasted one 384 feet high off the right-center field wall, just barely missing a three-run bomb.
Despite the aggressiveness in the at-bat, the third baseman wasn't trying to do too much in that situation as a fly ball would've gotten the job done.
"I was just trying to drive in the run," he said. "You know, we’re down one run in the bottom of the eighth — we’re either trying to go into the top of the ninth tied or winning — so 3-0 count, he hadn’t thrown me a fastball the whole at bat, I’m only looking for one pitch. I’ve been seeing pitches really well out of the hand and I saw it out of the hand and I just tried to hit a fly ball to center field, honestly."
He's not kidding about seeing the ball well right now as the 27-year-old is batting .358 over his past 15 games. During that time, he's driven in 10 runs and scored seven, putting him right in the action.
Entering the eighth inning down 2-1, Chisholm had all the confidence in the world that the Yankees would be able to break out and find a way to win the game.
"For me, ever since I’ve gotten here, we have a lot of comeback games," he said. "It was ridiculous last year, how many times we came back. So I feel like, any time I step on the field wearing this uniform with the guys that come on the field with me, we can come back from anything. We came back from nine one time and I was like, ‘Yeah, we can do anything.’"
Sunday's win meant a series victory for New York, which has now won three out of its past four games following a six-game skid that included three straight shutout losses. Since then, the Yanks have scored 23 runs and look to be back on track at 45-32 and a 2.5-game lead on the Tampa Bay Rays.
"Everybody goes through a rough stretch," Chisholm said. "We all do it."
Read the full article here