Jazz Chisholm Jr. never said he was upset about the decision to keep him out of the Yankees’ lineup to start Game 1 of the wild-card series Tuesday night.
He didn’t have to.
His body language said it all, as Chisholm conducted a brief interview with reporters, spent mostly with his back towards the cameras as he rummaged through the hangers in his locker, as if he was searching for answers to the questions coming his way.
“We got to do whatever we got to do to win, right?” the typically talkative Chisholm said after a 3-1 loss to the Red Sox. “That’s how I look at it.”
Chisholm did not sound convincing or thrilled by the decision, in which Aaron Boone started the right-handed hitting Amed Rosario at second base against tough left-hander Garrett Crochet, against whom he was 6-for-9 in his career.
Rosario, who went 0-for-3 against Crochet before Chisholm replaced him in the top of the eighth, could have started at third base, except Boone wanted a superior defender there with ground-ball machine Max Fried on the mound, so he started José Caballero (who went 0-for-3 on the night, with his first two at-bats coming against Crochet) at the hot corner.
“It’s always tough watching when your team’s down,” said Chisholm, who flied out with the bases loaded in the ninth inning against Aroldis Chapman, too shallow for Paul Goldschmidt to tag up from third.
Boone had said before the game that he would not hesitate to use Chisholm early off the bench, except Crochet went on cruise control as he mowed down Yankees hitters of both-handedness. Chisholm, on the heels of a 30-30 season, hit .248 with a .733 OPS against lefties this year.
The left-handed hitting Ben Rice was on the bench, too, and never came off of it as Goldschmidt started at first and went 2-for-4 (Austin Wells, who caught Fried like he had for 27 of his 32 starts during the regular season, went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts).
Chisholm said Boone texted him on Monday night to let him know he would not be in the lineup, which he indicated was a surprise.
“I guess, yeah,” said Chisholm, who, like Rice, is expected to return to the lineup on Wednesday against Red Sox righty Brayan Bello.
“It’s a little conversation, not much. But just move forward after it.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
