Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. left Thursday’s 8-4 victory over the Houston Astros after sustaining contusions to both knees on separate plays. Despite the injuries, Chisholm expressed hope that he would return to the lineup for Friday’s game against Toronto, which leads the AL East.
Chisholm injured his right knee in the second inning while fielding a grounder from Ramón Urías. In the following inning, his left knee collided with Jose Altuve’s helmet as Chisholm tagged Altuve out during a stolen base attempt.
“The first one, I just landed on my knee kind of hard,” Chisholm said. “The ball got up on me kind of quick. The umpire was kind of blocking my vision, so I couldn’t really see it. [I] got down to my knee, banged my knee pretty hard.
“The second one, Altuve slid into second base, got the other one, so I was just like, ‘go get ‘em checked, make sure they’re all right.’”
After striking out in his fourth-inning at-bat against Cristian Javier, Chisholm was replaced by José Caballero in the bottom half of the inning. He said he wanted to ensure there were no tears or ligament damage and began icing his knees immediately after leaving the game.
“I feel like they’re pretty good,” he added. “I feel like tomorrow they’re going to feel a lot better.”
Chisholm is hitting .242/.339/.499 this season with 28 home runs, 78 RBIs and 26 stolen bases. He is seeking to become only the fourth player in Yankees history to achieve a 30/30 season—a milestone previously reached by Alfonso Soriano in 2002 and 2003 and Bobby Bonds in 1975.
