NEW YORK — Jazz Chisholm Jr. had struck out three times Sunday and looked nothing like the player the Yankees need him to be. So he went searching for a fix, and he found it in an unexpected place. He walked over to the bag belonging to an injured teammate, pulled out a bat that was not his own, and changed the game.
What happened next gave the Yankees a win, blew open a tight game, and quietly stamped Chisholm’s name into the franchise record book in a way no one before him had managed.
A borrowed bat with a painful past
The bat belonged to Aaron Judge, sidelined with a fractured rib. For Chisholm, swinging the captain’s lumber carries real risk, not just symbolism. He has learned that the hard way.
Judge’s bat is heavier than his own, measuring 35 inches and roughly 33 ounces, compared to Chisholm’s lighter 34-inch, 31-ounce model. The last time Chisholm swung Judge’s bat in a regular-season game, he strained his oblique. He tried it again this spring and said he nearly ripped the oblique a second time because he attacked it as hard as he does his own. This time, he vowed to stay under control.
That mindset was the difference. After whiffing in his first three trips, Chisholm grabbed Judge’s bat for the eighth inning and reminded himself to ease off the throttle.
“I feel like when I pick up his bat, I know I can’t swing as hard as I can, or else I’ll tear an oblique like last year,” Chisholm said. “But I feel like it just helps me to go out there and control the barrel and just try to touch the ball instead of trying to hit it so hard.”
The swing that broke the game open
Here is the moment it all paid off. With the Yankees clinging to a slim lead in the eighth, Red Sox lefty Joe La Sorsa threw Chisholm a first-pitch sinker on the inside edge. Chisholm did not try to crush it. He simply put a controlled swing on it.
The result was a three-run home run, his eighth of the season, that turned a one-run game into a 6-1 victory. It was the exclamation point on a five-run rally and gave the Yankees breathing room they had lacked all afternoon against Boston. Chisholm explained that the switch was born of pure frustration with how he had felt earlier.
“I was swinging and missing when I thought I was hitting the ball, so I was just seeing if the bat would change things,” Chisholm said. “Sometimes you need a little bit more weight and a little bit less on your swing.”
Manager Aaron Boone, watching his second baseman raid a teammate’s gear for a third career home run with Judge’s bat, could only smile about the routine.
“I like when he does that,” Boone said with a grin.
A record no Yankee had ever reached
Lost in the fun of the borrowed bat was the historic milestone the swing helped secure. Chisholm has now done something faster than any player in the long history of the Yankees.
He reached 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases as a Yankee in just 237 games for the Yankees, the fewest ever to hit both marks in pinstripes. The names he passed underline the feat. Rickey Henderson needed 280 games, Alfonso Soriano took 301, and Alex Rodriguez required 325. For a player who has heard plenty of criticism this season, joining that company, and topping it, is a striking reminder of his rare blend of power and speed.
That combination is exactly why the Yankees value him so highly, and why his name now tops a Yankees list of speed-and-power greats. A second baseman who can deliver 30 homers and 30 steals, hitting in the lower third of the order, gives the lineup a dimension few teams can match, especially with Judge out.
A timely sign of life for Chisholm
The home run also fit a broader uptick for Chisholm, who has slowly climbed out of a dreadful start. He entered Sunday hitting .234 with a .702 OPS and a 98 wRC+, well short of the standard he set as a 30-30 player last year. But the recent trend is encouraging.
Over his last 17 games before Sunday, Chisholm had hit .308 with an .893 OPS and a 148 wRC+. The Yankees need that version of him with their three-time MVP shelved, and Chisholm knows the responsibility now falls on the supporting cast.
He spoke about what Judge means to the room and why everyone must step up.
“He means a lot to our team, especially because he’s our captain, and he leads us every day,” Chisholm said. “So I feel like everybody just feels like they gotta find a way to contribute as best as they could in his absence.”
On Sunday, Chisholm contributed by borrowing the bat of the very man the Yankees are missing most. The result was a victory, a piece of franchise history, and a hint that the two-time All-Star may finally be rounding into the player the Yankees have been waiting for.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
