The New York Yankees had a fitting celebration planned for Jazz Chisholm after they won Game 4 of the ALDS and advanced in the playoffs with a 3-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium.
Players gathered around him and sarcastically showered him with boos the same way Royals fans did throughout each of their home games in this series. The only difference was they also sprayed him with champagne until he said his eyes felt like they were on fire as rap music blared from a nearby speaker inside the team’s locker room.
Chisholm loved every second of it, though. It was fun to feel like a hero after getting treated like a villain for back-to-back games.
Hearing boos for 18 straight innings made this victory even sweeter for him.
“It made it way better,” he said.
But he hopes there are no hard feelings between him and Kansas City fans.
“I respect the fans because they got their team’s back,” Chisholm said. “I respect the Royals fans just as much as anybody else out there because they did their thing and they came out to cheer on their team.”
Kansas City fans booed Chisholm louder than ever on Thursday because he had two embarrassing moments in Game 4 of the ALDS.
In the second inning, he was convinced he had earned a walk, so much so that he dropped his bat and began walking toward first base before the umpire signaled a strike and called the New York third baseman back to the plate.
Kansas City fans, as they have done throughout both of their home games in the series, booed Chisholm mercilessly before that at bat and erupted with cheers when he had to step back into the batter’s box with a 3-1 count.
Royals pitcher Michael Wacha took advantage of the situation by getting Chisholm to swing at his next two pitches, which were thrown outside of the zone, for a strikeout. Chisholm saw seven pitches that could have been called balls during that trip to the plate, but he failed to get on base.
The home fans rejoiced.
But Chisholm said he was unfazed.
“I love the noise,” he said. “I don’t want to block out the noise. I want to hear it. It was all good for me.”
Later, Chisholm successfully got on base via a walk in the sixth inning and Kansas City fans groaned as he jogged to first. Things were not looking good for the Royals at that moment. The Yankees were leading 3-0 and had two runners on base with Giancarlo Stanton at second. There was only one out.
Kansas City needed a big play on defense to get out of the inning and stay in the game.
And that is exactly what the Royals got when Anthony Volpe lined out to Kansas City first baseman Yuli Gurriel and Chisholm was left stranded between first and second. Gurriel instinctively went to make the tag for a double play, but Chisholm wouldn’t play along. So Gurriel humorously backpedaled his way to first base for the final out of the inning as Chisholm looked on in frustration.
It was the type of highlight play that quickly circulated on social media for its perfect execution. The fans at Kauffman Stadium loved watching it live because it gave them one more reason to jeer Chisholm.
But he wasn’t done for the night. Chisholm helped instigate a stadium-wide “Yankees suck” chant when he began talking trash after a physical tag at second base in the bottom of the sixth inning and both benches emptied.
Chisholm has been Public Enemy No. 1 in the eyes of Kansas City fans ever since he said the Royals “got lucky” during their Game 2 victory in this series and expressed supreme confidence that the Yankees would advance to the ALCS.
His prediction came true. The Yankees closed out the ALDS on Thursday and sent the Royals home for the season. He also took his treatment from the fans as a compliment by insisting that opposing teams don’t boo bums.
In that sense, he got the last laugh on the Royals in this series. But not until after he left the boo birds with plenty to scream about.
Local News
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