With Friday’s Game 1 loss of the World Series still fresh in their minds, the Yankees must now try their best to forget the game that slipped through their fingers in the 10th inning and switch gears for Game 2.
But despite the tough loss, third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. remains confident that his team will pull out the series in the end because of the adversity they’ve faced this year.
“I think we’ve been doing it all year,” he said. “I feel like ain’t nothing has changed between us in our clubhouse. We still feel like we’ve got this in the bag. [It’s] not cocky, but we feel confident in ourselves to go out there and win four games.”
It’s the mindset required in the Fall Classic, especially after a gut-punch loss like the one New York suffered on Friday thanks to Freddie Freeman‘s walk-off grand slam off Nestor Cortes — the first of its kind in World Series history.
Before that, Game 1 had a little bit of everything: Great pitching, head’s up baserunning, good defense, bad defense and a whole lot of drama.
“We’re enjoying the moment just as much as them,” Chisholm said. “After that loss I don’t feel like the clubhouse was quiet. We were talking amongst each other and saying like ‘hey that was a fun baseball game. Let’s go do it again tomorrow, but let’s come out on top tomorrow’. So it’s amazing.”
Chisholm had a big hand in New York entering the bottom of the 10th with a 3-2 lead — three outs away from stealing Game 1 in Los Angeles — by going 2-for-5 with a run scored and two steals. Both of his stolen bases came in the top of the 10th inning where he manufactured and scored the go-ahead run on Anthony Volpe‘s groundout.
The 26-year-old, who finished the season with 40 steals, had 18 stolen bases in just 46 games with the Yanks and brings them a spark on the base paths.
“I feel like I’m in scoring position from when I’m on first base,” the third baseman said. “… Just being able to keep on going and reading the ball and reading the play, keeping everybody on their feet and making sure everybody’s awake out there.”
Chisholm, acquired from the Miami Marlins at the trade deadline to be New York’s third baseman, is back at third on Saturday and is batting fifth as manager Aaron Boone goes with the exact same lineup as Game 1.
Boone, Chisholm and the rest of the Yankees hope Game 2 ends a little differently.
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