NEW YORK – Both the clock and the scoreboard announced it was getting late as Jazz Chisholm Jr. stood in the batter’s box on Sunday, a soggy afternoon having flipped to evening right around when the Yankees’ bullpen faltered, spoiling their chances of completing a sweep.
And yet Chisholm said he needed to stay locked in, understanding the expectations in his dugout – find a way to get on base, fight to keep the line moving. Chisholm did that, ripping a two-run double up the gap in right-center field. It altered the final score, but not the outcome, in a 7-6 loss to the Marlins.
“We don’t think the game is over until the last out, until the umpire calls the last out or the last strike,” Chisholm said. “So for us, we always go out there battling until the last minute.”
After grinding through a slog of three hours and 49 minutes on Saturday – the longest nine-inning game since the pitch clock was instituted in 2023 – the Yanks busied themselves during a rain delay of three hours and 35 minutes, only to see the bullpen cough up a lead.
Jake Bird surrendered Graham Pauley’s pinch-hit two-run double in the eighth inning, the right-hander also issuing a walk and hitting a batter in his first rough outing of the year following four scoreless appearances. Xavier Edwards added a two-run single off Ryan Yarbrough, extending Miami’s advantage.
“I gave them freebies,” Bird said. “You should never, ever give freebies. That’s not big league baseball. It’s not good.”
Anthony Bender struck out pinch-hitter J.C. Escarra to end it, stranding two men aboard. As Giancarlo Stanton remarked on Saturday, “If there’s outs on the board, we’ve got a chance.” Even on a night when the product was admittedly not sharp, they still had that.
“Our lefties put some tough at-bats on Bender there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s good to see Jazz do that. Hopefully that’s something that gets him rolling.”
Chisholm’s knock moved him to 7-for-36 (.194) this season, one night after Boone spoke to him about playing back on Otto Lopez’s ninth-inning grounder that went for an infield hit. It was the first batter David Bednar faced in a 33-pitch save that left him unavailable on Sunday.
“We all know how I play baseball, how we play baseball,” Chisholm said. “The guy caught me with my head down. He did a good play. I do it to other teams all the time. I feel like, someone caught me – it’s no big deal to me. If I was him, I would do it, too.”
Ben Rice continued to swing a hot bat, launching his third home run in four games, a three-run shot in the first inning off Pete Fairbanks.
The Marlins plugged in Fairbanks as their opener, hoping for the right-hander to make a quick exit with his wife, Lydia, scheduled to give birth to the couple’s fourth child on Monday. Rice got the jump instead, launching a blast into the second deck in right field.
Rice has reached base safely in each of his eight games this season, including multiple times on base in each of his last five. Rice worked three walks on Sunday, and he had company – the Yanks worked Marlins pitching for 30 free passes over the weekend, setting a franchise record for a three-game series.
After beginning his season with 13 1/3 scoreless innings, Max Fried had to grind through 6 2/3. Lopez notched a run-scoring single and Edwards stroked a run-scoring double off Fried, who was charged with three runs on five hits and three walks.
“I didn’t do a good enough job, especially when the offense comes back,” Fried said. “I gave up one in the first, and then Ben hits the home run in the first. I ended up giving up three, which cuts down the lead. There were some things that definitely could have been avoided.”
The third run scored when shortstop José Caballero made a high throw to first base on Heriberto Hernández’s sixth-inning grounder. Rice’s improving scoops at first base have saved errors for Caballero, as well as third baseman Ryan McMahon, in the early going.
“Usually, he’s so good at getting rid of it,” Boone said of Caballero. “He’s got that ability to have a quick release with it. He’s thrown a few balls that haven’t been the most accurate. Ben has picked him up a few times, but we trust him.”