Jazz Chisholm had danced a little too far off second base, rather inexplicably. That’s something you might be able to get away with in the middle of May in Miami, in front of 4,705 people at loanDepot Park, second game of a four-game series with the Rockies.
It is not something you should ever dare to do in the middle of October in The Bronx, in front of 47,054 people at Yankee Stadium, sixth inning of the second game of the American League Championship Series against the Guardians.
The Yankees led, but there was palpable tension in the frosty air now. Cleveland had spotted the Yankees a 3-0 lead because Brayan Rocchio had an ill-timed Luis Castillo moment wrestling with a pop fly, and because Alex Verdugo’s autumnal renaissance had continued.
But the Guardians had snuck back to 3-2 and chased Gerrit Cole in the fifth, and the Yankees were lucky it wasn’t more for all the basepath traffic Cole allowed. Cleveland was determined to keep the Yankees stuck on 3. Good Jazz had led off the inning with a double in front of a walk to Anthony Volpe. Bad Jazz had gotten picked off.
Now here came Anthony Rizzo.
Monday, the Yankees had grabbed Game 1 of this ALCS by the lapels when one of the two players on the roster who owns a World Series ring — Juan Soto, 2019 Nats — had drilled a ball through a stiff, swirling wind for an early 1-0 lead. Now, up stepped Rizzo, the only other Bomber with a bauble, earned in 2016 with the Cubs.
Back then, Rizzo was a top-of-the-order stalwart for Chicago, the clean-up man on the team that shattered a 108-year skid. Now he hits eighth, part of the three-man crew at the bottom of the lineup, flanked by Anthony Volpe at 7 and Verdugo at 9.
“We know our role down at the bottom,” Rizzo would say. “Get it to the next guy, that’s the mentality. It could easily be the top of the order but our top is so potent.”
Seven-eight-nine went 5-for-10 Tuesday. They were all in the thick of the Yankees’ second-inning rally, Rizzo drilling a base hit off Guardians starter Tanner Bibee that set the Yankees up at the corners in what became a two-run inning thanks in part to Verdugo’s double (which helped send Tanner buh-bye).
But now, with Chisholm hanging his head as he trotted back to the bench, the momentum shifted to the other dugout. There was actually a murmur of nervousness hanging over the Stadium.
And then, in a flash, that restlessness became a roar.
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Rizzo smoked a line drive off Cleveland lefty Erik Sabrowski that ticked off Josh Naylor’s glove at first and spun behind him. When right fielder Will Brennan couldn’t field it cleanly, Volpe came careening around third to score the Yankees’ fourth run.
A sense of order was restored. The Yankees would go on to win 6-3, and Aaron Judge’s power was finally coaxed out of mothballs later as he sent an all-is-well blast soaring over the right-center field wall in the seventh. By then, the murmuring had been muted. The swagger had returned both to the dugout and the grandstand.
The Yankees would fly to Cleveland in complete command of the series, needing only two out of three there — something they’ve done against all five members of the AL Central in their sleep for years — to make it back to the World Series for the first time in 15 years.
“We’re coming in prepared,” Rizzo said. “Not satisfied. We know the Guardians are a good club. Being up two games doesn’t mean anything to us.”
But playing in these games means everything to Rizzo, who is 35 now, who knows he has far more yesterdays in his rearview mirror than he has tomorrows in front of him. He’d fought hard to come back in just 16 days from a pair of fractured fingers on his right hand, lobbied harder to be included among the Yankees’ 26-man roster.
He convinced Aaron Boone. Boone planted him eighth in the order, all that pedigree lurking just before they turn the lineup over. So far, it couldn’t possibly have gone better.
“Rizz was great,” Boone said. “He hit the same bullet he hit last night to get things started and then had a really good at-bat off the lefty to get us another tack-on run.”
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Rizzo, for a second straight night, looked alternately relieved and elated.
“This is what you train for,” Rizzo said. “This is what you play for. To be on the bench, it’s more stressful than playing. It’s really hard to control your emotions on the bench than it is when you play.”
He’ll play, all right. In truth, Boone might want to toy with the idea of flipping Rizzo and Austin Wells, elevate him to his old familiar No. 4 slot. Rizzo could do that. He’s done that, and in the most historic moments. But he also sounds fine staying where he is, down in the lower third with the other grinders.
“I can’t do too much or my hand will fall off,” he said.
Odds are, even if it did, he’d find a way back in the lineup. This is what you play for, after all.
