BOSTON – Jazz Chisholm Jr. was standing in the batter’s box for the first pitch of Sunday’s game against the Red Sox, having successfully lobbied to serve as the Yankees’ leadoff hitter. He wasn’t around to see the last one.
Chisholm was ejected by first-base umpire Todd Tichenor after being rung up on a called third strike that ended the sixth inning, extending Sonny Gray’s no-hit bid as Boston handed the Yanks a 5-4, 10-inning loss at Fenway Park.
“I never like our guys getting tossed,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Every once in a while, a guy does get tossed. I certainly don’t want him out of the game.”
Jarren Duran won the game with a walk-off single in the 10th, facing Fernando Cruz. Chisholm exited the visiting clubhouse before reporters were admitted.
Chisholm was upset that home-plate umpire Adam Hamari did not ask for help from third-base umpire Clint Vondrak in evaluating a checked swing, as Chisholm was ruled to have offered at Gray’s inning-ending curveball.
Boone emerged from the third-base dugout to intercept Chisholm, but as Boone spoke to Hamari, Chisholm removed his batting helmet and spiked it into the dirt behind home plate. That prompted Tichenor to eject Chisholm.
“I was trying to keep him in the game in that situation, obviously trying to distract a little bit,” Boone said. “They gave him a little bit of rope out there, arguing his case. The helmet going in a certain direction probably cost him. … You’ve got to try and rein it in there.”
Boone said he thought the check swing call was “at least borderline.”
“You’d always like a check in that situation,” Boone said.
Anthony Volpe entered the game to replace Chisholm, taking over at shortstop as José Caballero moved to second base. Volpe wound up playing a part in the Yankees’ game-tying rally, working a ninth-inning walk against Aroldis Chapman and coming around to score the game-tying run.
Speaking on NBC’s broadcast, former Yankee Anthony Rizzo was critical of Chisholm’s actions, saying he “has to be smarter there” and that it “shows a little bit of immaturity.”
“The team’s scuffling, they need him in the lineup, and now he puts Volpe in a tough position coming in completely cold,” Rizzo said.
Chisholm has had an eventful recent stretch, most notably taking the field with a green apple-flavored Blow Pop in his mouth during a June 22 game against the Tigers in Detroit, which drew criticism from Boone.
But Chisholm reclaimed the storyline the next day, when he homered and showed off the Yankees’ dugout candy stash for television cameras, prompting Boone to refer to him as “the lollipop kid.”