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Jazz Chisholm Jr. has never been one to hide his feelings, which is why it was obvious he was upset about not being in the lineup for Game 1 of the wild-card series Tuesday despite trying to say the right things.
But when it came down to it, his manager had a simple message before Chisholm got back in the lineup for Game 2.
“I don’t need him to put a happy face on it right now,” Aaron Boone said Wednesday afternoon. “I need him to go play his tail off, which I know he’s going to do. Hopefully can help us, do his thing and impact us winning a game.”
Chisholm created a bit of a stir Tuesday night, after a 3-1 loss to the Red Sox, by spending most of his two-minute scrum with his back turned to reporters while answering questions about not being in the lineup to start the game.
The Yankees were facing dominant lefty Garrett Crochet and wanted to stack their lineup with as many right-handed bats as possible, which meant Amed Rosario starting at second base over Chisholm – and not at third base, because the Yankees wanted superior defense there with Max Fried on the mound.
Coming off a 30-30 regular season, the dynamic left-handed hitting Chisholm – normally the most loquacious player in the clubhouse – said the Yankees “got to do whatever we got to do to win,” but he was not convincing in his words, his dissatisfaction dripping through them.
“Obviously he’s not the most vanilla guy,” Boone said. “He’s going to wear his emotions on his sleeve sometimes. Not the way I would go about it.”
While Chisholm claimed he was informed of the lineup decision in a Monday night text message from Boone, the manager said the two spoke in his office on Monday, when he explained to Chisholm that he was considering not having him in the lineup against Crochet.
“Look, not every guy’s going to love every decision that I have to make, and that’s OK,” Boone said. “I try to help them understand it. We spoke about it. I think he understood.”
