NEW YORK — Jazz Chisholm Jr. carries himself like a man who never doubts a thing, from the parking garage to the batter’s box. For weeks, he admits, that swagger has been an act.
A night earlier, he had told reporters he had “sucked all season.” His numbers said the same. His swing looked lost. And the Yankees, without their biggest bats, kept losing with him.
Then two teammates pulled him aside. What they told him had nothing to do with mechanics.
It had everything to do with what happened Monday night.
Chisholm hit two home runs and drove in five runs in an 8-5 win over the Pirates at Yankee Stadium, snapping out of a season-long slump on the very night the Yankees needed his bat most. What turned him loose had less to do with his swing than with a few words from a teammate who has not played in six weeks.
Two swings flip a wild early game
The result was Chisholm’s 10th career multihomer game, and his third home run in two nights. Both blasts came off Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft.
The Yankees jumped ahead 4-0 in the first. Ben Rice drew a one-out walk, then raced home from first when a Paul Goldschmidt grounder glanced off third baseman Nick Gonzales and left fielder Bryan Reynolds spiked his throw into the grass on the same play. A Cody Bellinger single put two on, and Chisholm followed with a three-run drive to right.
The lead did not hold. Ryan Weathers could not protect it, and the Pirates surged in front with three runs in the second and two more in the third, capped by rookie Esmerlyn Valdez’s 431-foot, two-run homer, his 13th of the season.
Chisholm answered in the third. After a seven-pitch battle, he wrapped a 2-2 slider around the right-field foul pole into the second deck for a go-ahead, two-run shot. Jose Caballero’s two-run double later in the inning pushed it to 8-5.
The bullpen closes the door again
The Yankees scored all eight runs in the first three innings, then went quiet. Pirates reliever Wilber Dotel retired nine of the 10 batters he faced with five strikeouts, and only a Ben Rice single kept him from perfection. New York’s bullpen made sure it did not matter.
Angel Chivilli, Brent Headrick, Tim Hill and Fernando Cruz combined for scoreless relief behind Weathers, allowing two hits. Chivilli picked up the win, and Cruz recorded the final four outs for his second save.
The defense chipped in, too. Jasson Dominguez made a strong catch in the outfield, and Tim Hill escaped the eighth by inducing a double play, a Caballero-to-Chisholm turn that stranded a Pirates threat.
Headrick lowered his ERA to 1.43, among the best marks for any reliever in the majors. The unit entered the night leading the majors with a 2.54 ERA since June 2, a stretch of dominance that has kept the Yankees afloat through the offense’s slump.
Manager Aaron Boone framed Chisholm’s night as a reminder of what the infielder can be when he stops squeezing the bat too tight.
“When he gets it rolling, he’s capable of big things, and obviously that was a big night for him and for us tonight,” Boone said.
Caballero sparks late fireworks
Jose Caballero did more than drive in runs. His habit of milking the pitch clock, waiting until the last moment to look toward the mound, irritated Pirates reliever and former Yankee Dennis Santana.
After Caballero tapped into a double play in the eighth, Santana barked at him, and both dugouts emptied before order was restored. Caballero was unbothered afterward, and made clear he sees the tactic as fair game.
“If you [as a pitcher] get frustrated, I’m winning,” Caballero said.
Boone waved off the dust-up as harmless competitiveness between two clubs playing with an edge.
“Boys will be boys,” Boone said.
A slumping star hears from the ones he trusts
Chisholm has spent the season pressing, trying to fill the power vacuum left by injured stars Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. He said he had been trying to do too much, and it showed.
Then Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe stepped in. Judge has not swung a bat in a game in six weeks, but he and Volpe pulled Chisholm aside to deliver a private pep talk, and Chisholm pointed to it afterward as the reason he broke loose.
He described the message his teammates delivered when they saw him sagging. It was about belief, not swing paths.
“Sometimes they’ve seen me dragging a little bit lately. They just were like, ‘Bro, let’s not forget who you are. You’re the greatest in the world. You are Jazz Chisholm,’” Chisholm said.
He admitted the encouragement filled a gap he had not wanted to acknowledge. Confidence, he said, is his best tool.
“I always think I have confidence, but I just feel like I didn’t fully believe in myself at a point in time,” Chisholm said.
He also drew a line between himself and the captain he has been trying to replace in the lineup.
“I’m not the same kind of player as Judge. I feel like I was trying to overdo it, trying to hit a five-run home run with nobody on base,” Chisholm said.
A needed win in a tightening race
The victory, before a crowd of 42,348, was just the second time in a month the Yankees had scored more than five runs. They had managed the feat only once in their previous 27 games, all without Judge and Stanton.
New York improved to 56-44 and has won six of eight. The Yankees remain 1.5 games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East, unable to gain ground as the Rays and surging Red Sox keep winning.
Chisholm, a free agent after the season, is hitting .228 with a .726 OPS and 16 home runs. He made clear he views the slump as fixable, and the timing as still on his side.
“There’s a lot that can happen in 2 1/2 months, especially on a baseball field. For me, I feel like there’s more than enough time to just flip the whole season around,” Chisholm said.
The Yankees continue the series Tuesday, with Will Warren set to face Pittsburgh’s Bubba Chandler. Judge’s return date remains unknown. His voice, it turns out, is already back in the room.
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