Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I was briefly considering going to the Red Sox-Yankees game tonight but tickets shot up 60% in the hour I spent thinking about it.
In today’s SI:AM:
🎷 Jazz saves Yankees
💸 Big Ten’s latest money grab
👋 What’s with all the blocks?
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Jazz to the rescue
All Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. could do for most of Tuesday’s Game 1 loss to the Red Sox was sit back and watch.
Chisholm, who had hit a career-high 31 homers in the regular season, was left out of the starting lineup in favor of trade deadline acquisition Amed Rosario because Boston was starting lefty Garrett Crochet. Chisholm did enter the game as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning and came to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, but he flied out to right.
After Game 1, a dejected Chisholm declined to face the media—literally. When reporters approached him at his locker, he kept his back turned to them and gave only brief answers. Chisholm might not have expounded on his feelings, but the implication was clear: He wasn’t happy with being left out of the lineup.
Chisholm got his chance at redemption in Game 2, though, taking his usual spot at second and in the middle of the batting order. While Chisholm failed to record a hit, he made a pair of plays that were critical to saving his team’s season.
In the top of the seventh, with the score tied 3–3, the Red Sox had runners on first and second with Masataka Yoshida at the plate. It was Yoshida who played hero for Boston the night before, driving in two runs with a single off of Luke Weaver on a sharp liner up the middle. This time, Yoshida hit the ball to an almost identical spot, but Chisholm was able to make a diving stop to save a run. His throw to first wasn’t in time to retire Yoshida, but Fernando Cruz got Trevor Story to fly out to end the inning.
Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s diving stop ended up saving a run 👀#Postseason pic.twitter.com/2oVTlLD8kw
— MLB (@MLB) October 2, 2025
“For me, you know what’s going on,” Chisholm said of his clutch defensive play. “You see a ground ball, you gotta stop it. You have to keep it in the infield. You have to stop that run from scoring. I felt at that point it would have been a really crucial run. I was doing what I could to keep the ball in the infield. Not trying to make the play at first base but keep it in the infield.”
Chisholm’s biggest moment came in the bottom of the eighth when he worked a two-out walk against Garrett Whitlock. The next batter, Austin Wells, worked the count to 3–2, which, with two outs in the inning, gave Chisholm a running start from first. So when Wells ripped a single down the first-base line, Chisholm hustled and scored all the way from first, sliding in just ahead of the tag to give the Yankees a 4–3 lead.
Most runners wouldn’t be able to score on a hit like that, but Chisholm really turned on the jets. His speed isn’t usually anything special (55th percentile sprint speed, according to Statcast), but he ran from first to home in 9.16 seconds, the third-fastest time for a runner scoring from first in the postseason since Statcast began tracking such metrics in 2015.
Chisholm said after the game that he quickly got over the disappointment of being left out of the lineup on Tuesday by whupping someone in the MLB The Show video game. He also insisted he didn’t harbor any ill will toward manager Aaron Boone.
Chisholm’s contributions helped the Yankees stave off elimination for at least one day. Thursday night’s game in the Bronx will be winner-take-all—one of three decisive Game 3s on the docket after the Guardians and Padres also evened their series. New York and Boston will both send rookie starting pitchers to the mound: Cam Schlittler for the Yankees and Connelly Early for the Red Sox. Early is a lefty, but Boone said Chisholm won’t be on the bench this time. After what he did on Wednesday, how could he be?
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Stephanie Apstein has more on how Jazz Chisholm Jr. rebounded from the disappointment of being left out of the lineup to power the Yankees to a season-saving win.
- Tom Verducci breaks down how two fundamental mistakes cost the Red Sox a golden chance in Game 2 against the Yankees.
- Matt Verderame unveils SI’s first quarterly NFL All-Pro picks, mixing in some familiar stars with a few surprising names.
- Conor Orr talks to legendary coach Mike Westhoff, the “Godfather of Special Teams,” about the three reasons behind the NFL’s blocked kick epidemic.
- SI’s men’s college basketball preseason Top 25 countdown continues with No. 22—a perennial contender with defensive toughness but offensive question marks.
- Pat Forde unpacks why the Big Ten’s pursuit of a $2 billion private capital deal is a bad idea for the conference’s future.
- Albert Breer explains why Cleveland’s quarterback decision is about Dillon Gabriel’s proven experience—not the perception surrounding Shedeur Sanders.
The top five…
… moments from the second day of the MLB playoffs:
5. The Padres’ game-ending double play to force a Game 3.
4. Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s nasty curveball to Elly De La Cruz to escape a bases-loaded jam.
3. Ben Rice’s homer on the first pitch he saw in his postseason career. Rice is the sixth player since 2000 to homer on the first playoff pitch he saw.
2. Yankees reliever Fernando Cruz’s emotional reaction to escaping a jam in the seventh.
1. Mason Miller’s perfect 104 mph fastball right on the corner for a strikeout.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Yankees Survive Thanks to Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s Defense and Baserunning.
