HOUSTON — Lance McCullers Jr. hung a changeup in the fourth inning Friday night. Jazz Chisholm Jr. did not miss it.
The ball left the bat at 106.5 mph. It landed 393 feet away in right field, less than five seconds after contact. Chisholm watched it go. Then he let everyone in Daikin Park know exactly what it meant.
He shouted. He thumped his chest. He rounded the bases like a man who had been holding something back for weeks and finally let it all out.
Because he had been. For 23 games, the Yankees’ second baseman had gone without a home run. His OPS was under .500 at one point. His walk year was getting off to the worst possible start.
That version of Chisholm is gone now. At least for the moment. The Yankees need more from this.
A homer built on two days of adjustments
The fourth-inning blast was not random. Chisholm had been working on his swing for two days. On Thursday in Boston, he backed off the plate and closed his stance. The tweaks were suggested by the Yankees’ hitting coaches, who made similar recommendations when Chisholm hit a rough patch last season.
He went 2-for-4 Thursday, hit his first homer of 2026 around the Pesky Pole, and handled three tough lefties. Friday, he carried those same adjustments to Houston.
After the game, he explained what the changes actually feel like in the box.
“It just makes me feel like I have a little bit more space to work on different pitches in different parts of the plate,” Chisholm said. “And make the outside still feel like the outside, but the inside feel a little bit more middle.”
He went back to film too. He found the same flaw from last season showing up again.
“I really looked at my video last year, and it’s kind of the same,” he said. “It wasn’t as closed off, but you gotta start somewhere.”
The homer and what it looked like off the bat
Chisholm led off the fourth with nobody on. McCullers threw the changeup. Chisholm pulled it with authority. Exit velocity of 106.5 mph. Distance of 393 feet. Solo home run. Yankees led 5-1.
As he came out of the batter’s box, Chisholm looked toward the Yankees dugout. He pointed. He shouted. He pounded his chest as he made his way around the bases. It was not a subtle reaction. It was a player announcing to his teammates, his coaches, and his doubters that he is back.
He already homered the night before in Boston, ending that 23-game drought. But that one, a 333-foot shot barely around the Pesky Pole, was the kind of homer a hitter muscled out of a slump. This one was different. This one was 393 feet pulled at 106.5 mph. This was a locked-in swing.
For the full game, Chisholm went 3-for-4 with four RBIs, a walk, and three runs scored. He drove in two with a single in the first inning off McCullers. He added another RBI single in the seventh against reliever Colton Gordon. He reached base five times in five plate appearances before his strikeout in the ninth.
‘I feel like me again’
After the 12-4 Yankees win, reporters asked Chisholm the obvious question. What does it feel like to have the bat going after that kind of start?
He did not need long to answer.
“I feel like me again,” Chisholm said. “It feels good to know that you could go up there and when you swing the bat, you know you’re gonna make contact and hit it off the barrel.”
Hear what adjustments Jazz Chisholm Jr. says he made that helped him hit his first home run in 2026 👀🔊 pic.twitter.com/wfSlzVqJ0f
Chisholm was asked what two straight homers meant after 23 games without one. He stayed measured.
“It’s just still early,” he said. “Season just started. We’re not even a full month in. I think we’re going to be just fine. Feeling good. Starting to feel good at the right time.”
The only moment that cost him Friday came in the ninth inning. Chisholm struck out, then challenged the call. The replay on the Daikin Park jumbotron showed the pitch was almost dead center of the zone. His teammates erupted with laughter. Chisholm could only laugh along.
Chisholm owned it without hesitation.
“I gotta do something for the team worth at least $1,000 after that,” he said with a grin, noting it was a self-imposed Kangaroo Court fine. He said he had already paid one similar fine earlier this season.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone had called Thursday’s performance Chisholm’s best day at the plate all season. Friday was better. And the Yankees were happy to have him back.
A Yankees broadcast analyst described what Chisholm brings beyond statistics.
“There’s a certain energy that you need among your teammates. There are flat points during a season. You need these kind of personalities. Guys like Jazz keep the life, keep the energy.”
Chisholm put it in his own words after the win.
“It makes it feel way much better going up there yourself, when your whole team is out there and everybody believes that every time someone goes in the box, everybody’s going to get a hit,” he said. “We always say hitting is contagious. When everybody’s doing it, you can’t get enough of it.”
He finished at .213 with a .637 OPS. The Yankees need those numbers to climb. But the swing behind a 106.5 mph homer does not belong to a player still searching.
Chisholm’s chest-thumping run around the bases in the fourth inning said everything. The Yankees’ second baseman knows it too.
