From Henry Palattella:
It didn’t take long for the “overrated” chants to rain down on Jazz Chisholm Jr. when he stepped up to the plate in the fifth inning of the Yankees’ game against the Guardians on Tuesday night.
The chants came early and often from a raucous “tarps off” section that had formed in the upper deck down Progressive Field’s third-base line.
And in that instance, the tarps off folks won, as Chisholm struck out on a fastball from Slade Cecconi — a pitch that he admitted he overswung on because he was trying to hit it out.
But little did those fans know that the chant would help unlock Chisholm, who retreated back to the Yankees’ dugout and decided he would use Aaron Judge’s slightly heavier bat during his next at-bat.
“I swung above a high fastball, that never happens,” Chisholm said.
And that bat helped Chisholm get his lick back three innings later with a towering Statcast-projected 360-foot go-ahead home run off Guardians reliever Tim Herrin that helped push the Yankees to a 3-2 win.
I get why they’re framing the win around Jazz’s go-ahead home run, and that’s not unfair (once again, the prime spot for Jazz late in the game is when he comes up with no one in scoring position. Then he’ll occasionally draw a walk, get a hit or hit a solo shot. He DID hit a three-run home run the other day, but that was after the Yankees had already scored two runs, and the Red Sox had brought in a shitty reliever making his Red Sox debut who Jazz had already hit a home run off of before), but I think Fernando Cruz has got to be the featured image.
After Jake Bird pitched like shit again (the hit is the hit, but you can’t walk the #9 hitter with one out and the tying run on first base, moving the tying run to scoring position), Cruz came in against the top of the lineup, and got two HUGE outs, and then pitched the ninth, as well, for a save. Ruocco talked about how dominant Cruz was, but I don’t think you can walk a guy and still say you made a “dominant” relief appearance. But hey, he was still excellent.
And he’s BEEN excellent lately. He hasn’t lost his command in a long time, and that is the reason why he has trouble (I know he had a walk in this one, but obviously there are “walks” and there are “I don’t know where the ball is going.” I’m talking about the latter when I say he occasionally loses his command). It’s been a while since that’s happened. Cruz with command is possibly the best Yankee relief pitcher on the team (I’d probably still go Bednar, but it’s close).
In other news, Spencer Jones hit his first home run, AND got a single. I just don’t see how you send Spencer Jones down when Dominguez is activated. I think you have to demote Volpe. Let Volpe play second base in the minors.
Gerrit Cole was frustrating in this one, but he wasn’t TERRIBLE, either, and he hit 100 MPH on one pitch, which was awesome to see. Paul Blackburn pitched well.
The Yankees REALLY need some length from Carlos Rodon in the finale of this series.
About the Author
Did my random spin game, and landed on the Mets, and here’s the ten I came up with who played for both the Mets and Yankees.
1 Robin Ventura
2 John Olerud
3 Darryl Strawberry
4 Rickey Henderson
5 Clay Holmes
6 Devin Williams
7 Luke Weaver
8 Rico Garcia
9 Luis Torrens
10 Curtis Granderson
Obviously, there have been a lot more (Lee Mazzilli, Jesse Orosco, Willie Randolph, David Cone, Dwight Gooden), but those were the first ten that I thought of.
Would be fun to play that game where you try to populate an entire lineup. The all-Yankees-and-Mets team would be pretty stacked:
1) Rickey Henderson LF
2) Juan Soto RF
3) Yogi Berra C
4) Gary Sheffield DH
5) Carlos Beltran CF
6) Robinson Cano SS (he played shortstop one time, in early 2013)
7) John Olerud 1B
8) Robin Ventura 3B
9) Willie Randolph 2B
SP David Cone, Dwight Gooden, Orlando Hernandez, Luis Severino, Al Leiter
RP Dellin Betances, Mike Stanton
Bench: Darryl Strawberry, Curtis Granderson, Bobby Abreu, Dave Kingman
And of course David Robertson as another reliever.
Clearly, they mean “overrated – by himself.” Just as clearly, they’re Captain-Obvious-level right.
I get that they’re facing a lefty today, but Jones sitting, and Volpe playing shortstop again might be my supervillain origin story.
DH P. Goldschmidt R
1B Ben Rice L
LF C. Bellinger L
3B Amed Rosario R
CF T. Grisham L
RF J. Caballero R
2B J. Chisholm L
SS A. Volpe R
C Ali Sanchez R
So frustrating. Something, thy name is Boone.
The lefty masher lineup
P Goldschmidt (R) DH
B Rice (L) 1B
C Bellinger (L) LF
A Rosario (R) 3B
T Grisham (L) CF
%J Caballero (R) RF
J Chisholm Jr. (L) 2B
A Volpe (R) SS
A Sánchez (R) CE3
It’s just BAFFLING to not even let Jones TRY against a lefty.
His second game he started against Kyle Harrison. He’s 0-5 with 3 Ks. Overall he’s 213/664 against LHPs this year.
if volpe goes down and learns to hit (i think he’ll be fine at 2b) it frees them up in the future.
cabby isn’t fa eligible and you can give jazz a qualifying offer if you don’t want to chase the market right now.
volpe needs an approach at the plate. i’m not sure if he can be coached into that, but he isn’t learning it on the fly here.
I imagine the plan is to let Grisham and Jazz go no matter what.
If Volpe hasn’t learned to hit after 3+ seasons I doubt he ever will.