Jake Rill
NEW YORK — Jazz Chisholm Jr. played a key role in the New York Yankees’ 9-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 3 of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night. Chisholm hit a go-ahead solo home run in the fifth inning, flipping his bat toward the first-base dugout as the ball traveled into the right-field seats.
The game was marked by a comeback from the Yankees, who overcame a five-run deficit after Aaron Judge tied the score with a three-run homer off the left-field foul pole in the fourth inning. Chisholm’s home run gave New York its first lead of the series.
First baseman Ben Rice commented on Chisholm’s performance: “Smoked it. Smoked it. He’s always a candidate to have a big swing for us, so more of the same from him.”
Judge’s home run shifted momentum for New York, but Chisholm ensured that effort would not be wasted. Reflecting on his mindset during the game, Chisholm said: “Honestly, all I was thinking is that, ‘We’ve got to win this game.’ That’s all that was really going through my head the whole game.
“This is what we live for. Like we always said, we’re not giving up until it’s the 27th out and our season’s over. And it’s not over yet.”
Earlier in the third inning, Toronto extended its lead to 6-1 after Daulton Varsho singled to left field and Davis Schneider scored from second base when Cody Bellinger failed to make a sliding catch and Chisholm was late throwing home. On that play, Chisholm said: “Belli catches that, that’s a double play. And anyway, I’d say the runner got a little bit lucky on that type of play, because Bellinger normally makes that play a lot.”
Chisholm later responded with his bat. His solo shot came off Louis Varland’s fastball at 99.4 mph and traveled an estimated 409 feet with an exit velocity of 109.3 mph.
Manager Aaron Boone praised Chisholm: “That’s putting a really good swing on a heater there, and that’s what Jazz is capable of. He changes the game in a lot of different ways.”
During regular season play, Chisholm recorded 31 home runs and 31 stolen bases—joining Bobby Bonds and Alfonso Soriano as members of New York’s “30-30 club.”
Judge also expressed confidence in his teammate: “He was having good at-bats all game,” Judge said. “I don’t think he had a hit yet, but I was just talking to him, ‘Hey man, you’re having great at-bats. Stay right there, stay aggressive.’”
In previous postseason action against Boston last week during Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series, Chisholm scored from first base on an eighth-inning single by Austin Wells—a key moment in another elimination-game victory for New York.
The Yankees now have three wins while facing elimination this postseason and will need another victory Wednesday night to force Game 5 against Toronto.
Chisholm emphasized team resilience: “Baseball is a hard game,” he said. “So if you’re thinking about being discouraged, you would be discouraged every day. So for us, we just keep on riding the wave and trusting our teammates that someone’s going to pick us up — and that’s what we did today.
“We just made sure that nobody tried to do extra, nobody tried to be the hero today. And that’s how we won this game.”
