Victory comes in many different forms. Sometimes it scores wearing nothing but socks, with cleats strewn along the basepaths. Or maybe by a wheezing 37-year-old suddenly asked to sprint 270 feet on a humid summer afternoon.
Or even standing there oblivious, as the baseball rolls free, with an entire dugout of Yankees — along with the Stadium crowd of 45,571 — yelling to spin around and touch the plate.
Sunday’s brunch matinee featured a number of wild events, the bulk of them engineered by Jazz Chisholm Jr., always the most entertaining guy in pinstripes. The Yankees managed to string enough together for a 4-2 comeback win over the Orioles that easily could have gone the other way.
This one just felt bigger after a brutal stretch that included a six-game losing streak, Aaron Judge’s lingering regression — he’s hitting .189 with two homers, two RBIs and 20 strikeouts in his last 11 games — and Sunday morning’s gut punch to the rotation as Ryan Yarbrough landed on the injured list with an oblique strain.
Sure, it’s only late June, but the aggravation was piling up, between getting swept last weekend at Fenway Park, three straight shutouts and an AWOL offense that didn’t really show up until the eighth inning. Dropping consecutive series to the Angels and Orioles at home was not how they wanted to shove off to Cincinnati, where they’ll hand the baseball to rookie Allan Winans, making his Yankees debut in Monday’s opener.
“Everybody goes through a rough stretch, man,” said Chisholm, who then referred to a Derek Jeter graduation speech recently watched by his teammates. “He says eventually you’re going to fail. It’s just how you bounce back.”
On Sunday, Chisholm was the shoeless hero, scampering home in socks after a second-inning collision up the third-base line that knocked out Orioles catcher Maverick Handley (and put in former Yankee Gary Sanchez). His two-run double with one out in the eighth also turned a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead, thanks to Paul Goldschmidt, in a rare pinch-running role, chugging around from first base on Chisholm’s 106-mph rocket off the Yankees’ bullpen wall.
And just because it’s Chisholm, he wasn’t done, hustling to score on DJ LeMahieu’s grounder to shortstop, a play botched by Sanchez when he tried to make the tag before catching the ball and didn’t glove it.
Chisholm never got to the plate with his headfirst slide — Sanchez had it walled off by his left shin guard — and upon popping up, he immediately began chatting with umpire Jansen Visconti, who had called him out.
Chisholm had a good case — it was an illegal block — but he was the only person in the building making an argument. Everyone else was watching the ball roll on the ground. Finally, Chisholm, prompted most prominently by Austin Wells, disengaged from Visconti, toed the plate and ultimately got the safe call for the insurance run.
“He had dirt all over his face when I walked out there to get him,” Aaron Boone said. “Looked like glitter on his face. Yeah, we were all screaming.”
As for Goldschmidt, he probably could have used an oxygen mask. With Giancarlo Stanton’s return now cutting into his playing time, along with the five other Yankees directly impacted, the former MVP didn’t start for a second straight day as Ben Rice got the nod at first base. Still, Goldschmidt figured he’d be called on late, just not in the manner Boone had in mind after Stanton’s eighth-inning single put runners at first and second with one out.
“I mean, pinch running, that might have been the first time I’ve ever done it,” Goldschmidt said (and it was). “I was preparing to potentially hit or play defense. But I was loose and ready to go.”
He also got a little lucky. Third-base coach Luis Rojas already had seen one mishap when Judge didn’t try to tag up and score the tying run on an obvious sacrifice fly chance in the sixth, when the Yankees put runners on second and third with none out but didn’t score. Later, in the eighth, when Goldschmidt came sprinting around third, it appeared to be a very risky send.
“I was a little nervous,” Boone said.
But the throw was a few feet up the first-base line, and by the time Sanchez swung around, Goldschmidt barely got his foot in ahead of the tag. Sitting for the first few hours let him save up some energy for the game-winning dash.
“It just embodies who Goldy is,” Boone said. “That’s a guy in his late 30s, probably going to the Hall of Fame, probably going to the All-Star Game this year, isn’t playing for the second day in a row and the guy’s ready to go in and do that. That’s freaking humility, and that’s who he is, and I’m so appreciative of that.”
The Yankees also were thankful that Will Warren was able to shake off a bumpy two-run first inning to stick around into the seventh, allowing the bullpen to take it home from there (stranding four runners). Winans has been superb for Triple-A Scranton (7-0, 0.90 ERA), but Warren’s length now gives Boone some backup for Monday.
As for the rest of the Yankees, they appreciated the chance to catch their breath after a frantic Sunday all-around.
“I feel like any time we step on the field, wearing this uniform, we could come back from anything,” Chisholm said.
On Sunday, the Yankees did so in ways never seen before.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball’s Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
