A day after Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s costly bobble and subsequent confusion over baseball’s force play punctuated another Yankees loss, manager Aaron Boone defended his All-Star second baseman.
“He’s not confused,” Boone told reporters on Sunday. “I think that’s his kind of default answer when he’s got [reporters] in front of him.”
Boone continued: “He’s not a dumb guy. It’s just sometimes how you present yourself in certain situations, and coupled with he’s off to a little bit of a slow start.”
The moment in question occurred in the bottom of the 10th inning of Saturday’s Yankees-Rays game. Tampa Bay first baseman Jonathan Aranda came to the plate with the bases loaded in a 4-4 game, with the potential run looming just 90 feet away in the form of Chandler Simpson, one of baseball’s fastest players. The Yankees implemented a five-man infield in hopes of turning a double play on a ground ball or getting a forceout at home.
Sure enough, Aranda chopped a bouncing ball slowly toward Chisholm, whose bobble resulted in Simpson scoring the winning run. After the game, Chisholm talked through his thought process with reporters, wondering whether he should have attempted to tag Yandy Díaz -- the runner from first base -- and then throw to first base, or instead throw to first base before tagging the runner.
"I don’t know what the rule is,” Chisholm said after the game.
“It turns out to be a tough play,” Boone said on Sunday. “Watching it back, there might have been a chance, if he gets it cleanly, he gets the tag off. It’s hard to know how exactly Díaz reacts in the moment. Once it chops like that, you know it’s obviously going to be a tough one to turn the normal 4-6-3.”
The Yankees entered Monday night’s game against the Angels looking to snap a five-game losing streak, which included a three-game sweep over the weekend in St. Petersburg against Tampa Bay. A year after posting a 30-30 season, Chisholm is hitting just .179 with a .501 OPS through 15 games. He’s otherwise been strong at second base, recording +2 outs above average, which ranks in the 96th percentile of MLB heading into play on Monday.