NEW YORK — The left-handed swing uncorked by Jazz Chisholm Jr. was so smooth that as the ball began to laser toward the right-field seats at Yankee Stadium, his backswing featured a bat flip toward the first-base dugout in a continuous motion.
The Bronx went crazy. The Yankees went crazy.
Chisholm — one of the most exciting players in MLB, who possesses one of the most thrilling skill sets — is developing a reputation for having a flair for the dramatic. The 27-year-old had more of it Tuesday night, when New York needed it most.
After a thrilling comeback to erase a five-run Blue Jays lead in Game 3 of the American League Division Series — highlighted by Aaron Judge’s game-tying three-run home run off the left-field foul pole in the fourth inning — Chisholm helped lift the Yankees to a season-saving 9-6 victory with a go-ahead solo homer in the fifth.
Should anybody be surprised?
“Smoked it. Smoked it,” first baseman Ben Rice said of Chisholm’s homer. “He’s always a candidate to have a big swing for us, so more of the same from him.”
Judge’s home run will dominate the headlines, and rightfully so. The Yankees’ captain came through with a marquee postseason moment, changing the momentum of the ALDS.
But Chisholm ensured Judge’s heroics wouldn’t be for naught with a big swing — and that big bat flip, which he later graded a 10 — of his own.
Much like Judge and everybody else in New York’s dugout, Chisholm wasn’t ready to go home.
“Honestly,” Chisholm said, “all I was thinking is that, ‘We’ve got to win this game.’ That’s all that was really going through my head the whole game.
“This is what we live for. Like we always said, we’re not giving up until it’s the 27th out and our season’s over. And it’s not over yet.”
For the first 2 1/2 innings, it was starting to feel like it could soon be over for the Bronx Bombers, especially as Toronto put up four runs in the top of the third to push its lead to 6-1. That rally featured a single by Daulton Varsho to left, where Cody Bellinger was unsuccessful in trying to make a sliding catch.
Bellinger threw the ball to Chisholm at second. Then Chisholm was late throwing home, unaware that Davis Schneider — who initially held up and slid while approaching third, unsure whether Bellinger would complete the grab — was dashing home to score and make it 3-1. The FS1 broadcast camera then showed Chisholm yawning shortly afterward.
Chisholm was mostly surprised to not see the ball land in Bellinger’s glove on the play.
“Belli catches that, that’s a double play,” Chisholm said. “And anyway, I’d say the runner got a little bit lucky on that type of play, because Bellinger normally makes that play a lot.”
Any mental error by Chisholm there was a footnote soon after, as he gave the Yankees their first lead of the ALDS.
Chisholm’s tiebreaking one-out solo drive in the fifth came on a 1-1, 99.4 mph fastball from right-hander Louis Varland that caught too much of the plate. Chisholm connected and jolted it a Statcast-projected 409 feet, with an exit velocity of 109.3 mph and a launch angle of 24 degrees.
“That’s putting a really good swing on a heater there, and that’s what Jazz is capable of,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He changes the game in a lot of different ways.”
That’s been evident all year with Chisholm, who had 31 home runs and 31 stolen bases in the regular season to join Bobby Bonds and Alfonso Soriano in the Yankees’ exclusive 30-30 club.
Judge was confident Chisholm (who was previously 3-for-17 this postseason) would deliver.
“He was having good at-bats all game,” Judge said. “I don’t think he had a hit yet, but I was just talking to him, ‘Hey man, you’re having great at-bats. Stay right there, stay aggressive.’”
Chisholm’s aggressiveness on the field is never an issue. In Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series vs. Boston last Wednesday, Chisholm scored from first on an eighth-inning single by Austin Wells that lifted New York to a 4-3 win in its first elimination game of the postseason.
Now up to three wins while facing elimination, the Yankees need another on Wednesday in Game 4 to force a winner-take-all Game 5 in Toronto on Friday.
Chisholm is ready to try to help the Yanks save their season again, as he won’t let anybody in their clubhouse feel down about a series deficit. It sure worked Tuesday night.
“Baseball is a hard game,” Chisholm said. “So if you’re thinking about being discouraged, you would be discouraged every day. So for us, we just keep on riding the wave and trusting our teammates that someone’s going to pick us up — and that’s what we did today.
“We just made sure that nobody tried to do extra, nobody tried to be the hero today. And that’s how we won this game.”
