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Yankees' Aaron Boone on Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s Game 1 comments: 'Not every guy's gonna love every decision'

Gary Phillips, New York Daily News on

Published in Baseball

NEW YORK — Jazz Chisholm Jr. made it known he wasn’t thrilled about not starting Game 1 of the wild-card series after the Yankees lost to the Red Sox, 3-1, on Tuesday, as the second baseman turned his back to reporters for the majority of his postgame scrum.

“I mean, I guess,” Chisholm said when asked if he was surprised. “Yeah.”

While Chisholm was mild mannered with his answers, his body language was noticeable, as he aimlessly rummaged through the hangers and shirts in his locker as he took questions despite already being in his street clothes. Boone said that he saw the clips of Chisholm that made the rounds on social media, but he wasn’t necessarily upset with the 27-year-old, who returned to the starting lineup on Wednesday with the Yankees facing the right-handed Brayan Bello in a do-or-die Game 2.

“Not every guy’s gonna love every decision that I have to make, and that’s OK,” Boone said. “I try and help him understand it. We spoke about it. I think he understood. Obviously, he’s a guy that’s not the most vanilla guy. He’s going to wear his emotions on his sleeve sometimes. So not the way I would go about it, but I don’t need him to put a happy face on right now. I need him to go play his tail off, which I know he’s going to do, and hopefully he can help us do his thing and impact us winning the game.”

Boone went with the righty-swinging Amed Rosario over the left-handed Chisholm, fresh off a 30-30 season, at second base in Game 1 because Rosario entered the evening 6 for 9 with a home run against Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet, a southpaw. However, Rosario went 0 for 3 on Tuesday, and Crochet allowed one earned run — an Anthony Volpe homer — walked none and struck out 11 over 7 2/3 innings and 117 pitches.

Boone went with several other righties over lefties in Game 1, picking José Caballero instead of Ryan McMahon at third base and Paul Goldschmidt over Ben Rice at first.

Chisholm, who had a 126 wRC+, an .813 OPS overall and a respectable .733 OPS against lefties this season, said he found out about the decision to start Rosario via a Monday night text message from Boone. The skipper said that he and Chisholm talked about the possibility in Boone’s office “when I was considering it and thinking about.”

Asked if he agreed with Boone’s decision, Chisholm replied, “I agree that we could do whatever we could do to win. You feel me?”

 

He offered a similar response when asked how he initially took the news that he wouldn’t start.

Boone had hoped to get Chisholm into Game 1 on the early side, but only if the Yankees chased Crochet from the contest. That didn’t happen.

Boone ultimately brought Chisholm in for defense with the Yankees already losing, 2-1, in the top of the eighth inning even though he knew an at-bat against another tough lefty, Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman, potentially loomed. Rosario also had strong numbers against Chapman (3 for 7 with 2 HR), but Chisholm ultimately hit against the fireballer in the ninth.

Chisholm flew out to right against Chapman with the bases loaded for the second out of the inning.

Boone said not keeping Rosario in was the thing he regretted most from Tuesday’s game, though he was also criticized for pulling Max Fried at 102 pitches; bringing in Luke Weaver to face Ceddanne Rafaela, who had strong numbers against the righty; and for not having Jasson Domínguez pinch run for Paul Goldschmidt in the ninth.

“Should I have kept Rosario in?” Boone said. “That was the one thing, knowing we’re down at that point.”


©2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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