MLB playoffs 2025: Yankees force winnertakeall Game 3 vs. Red Sox with Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s dash home Jake MintzOctober 2, 2025 at 6:10 AM 0 NEW YORK — Before Jazz Chisholm Jr.
- - MLB playoffs 2025: Yankees force winner-take-all Game 3 vs. Red Sox with Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s dash home
Jake MintzOctober 2, 2025 at 6:10 AM
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NEW YORK — Before Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s right hand swiped across home plate to score the winning run on Wednesday, Aaron Judge was already vaulting his enormous frame up and over the dugout railing.
The Yankees captain swished his right arm through the air in jubilation, clapped his hands together, then pointed toward the hero of the moment, catcher Austin Wells, and hollered an emphatic "Let's go, baby!"
Wells' timely knock and Chisholm's ensuing mad dash sent Judge — and all of Yankee Stadium behind him — into a familiar October pandemonium. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth and Chisholm on first, Wells stroked a full-count changeup fair by a hair down the right-field line. The yard rocked and rattled as the speedy Bahamian flew around the bases. The place exploded with glee when he slid in just ahead of the tag to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead they wouldn't relinquish.
And for those 9.16 seconds — the time it took Chisholm to go from first to home — Judge, the man on whose sturdy shoulders all this rests, acted no different than the 46,500 other pinstripe die-hards packed into the stands.
He just happened to have a slightly better view of the action.
"I'm a fan of all these guys in this room, you know," Judge admitted after the game. "So when they come up with a big moment like that, I'm their biggest supporter, biggest fan."
For Chisholm, the unfettered joy of wild-card Game 2 stood in stark contrast to his frustrating experience the night before. With the Yankees facing Boston's ace left-hander Garrett Crochet, manager Aaron Boone opted to sit Chisholm in favor of right-handed-hitting infielder Amed Rosario to capitalize on the platoon advantage. That decision came despite Chisholm, who this year became just the third Yankee ever to rip 30 homers and steal 30 bags in a season, getting starts in 26 of the team's previous 27 games against left-handed starters. On Tuesday, Rosario went 0-for-3.
And when the media inquired about his night off following the Yankees' 3-1 loss in Game 1, Chisholm was visibly displeased, turning his back on reporters and offering only an "I guess" when asked if he was surprised to not start. His attitude in that moment fueled speculation that he and Boone might be embroiled in a deeper disagreement, but both parties insisted multiple times on Wednesday that such was not the case.
"Jazz and I are good," Boone said. "No concerns that he was going to go out there and get it done. He loves to play. He feels a responsibility to us, his teammates. And, you know, he and I have always been good, despite what you may think happened yesterday."
For his part, Chisholm said he got over the frustrating night and the loss by playing "MLB The Show."
Whatever he did, it seemed to work. And on Wednesday, Chisholm's game-winning sprint was made possible only by his running hard the entire play. With the count full, Chisholm was going on the pitch, and he appeared to be hoofing it full-gas the entire time. That enabled him to arrive at home just ahead of a 98.4-mph throw from Red Sox right fielder Nate Eaton.
That play proved to be the difference in what was yet another fabulously played game between the game's most notorious rivals. New York opened the scoring on a Ben Rice two-run tank in the first inning. Boston punched back via Trevor Story's two-RBI single in the top of the third. Then, with two on and one out in the bottom of that frame, Red Sox manager Alex Cora changed the tenor of the evening by pulling starter Brayan Bello earlier than anybody could've expected.
"It was a tough lineup. A lot of lefties," the veteran skipper explained afterward. "The at-bats were getting better with the lefties, and we had a bunch of [lefties] in the bullpen. Felt like, at that point, kind of like we have to do this."
That unleashed Boston's bullpen carousel, which kept New York's lineup at bay for the middle innings, besides a clutch RBI single from Judge in the fifth. Boston returned the favor almost immediately when Story started the sixth with a solo blast off Yankees starter Carlos Rodón, who was pulled after he walked the first two hitters in the seventh. In came boisterous righty reliever Fernando Cruz, who escaped the jam, going full Vesuvius on his way back to the dugout.
Fernando Cruz is all @Yankees fans right now!#Postseason pic.twitter.com/clwLSNXoNo
— MLB (@MLB) October 2, 2025
That all set up Wells' game-winning single, Chisholm's fleet-footed scamper and Judge's inspired reaction. And now the focus turns toward a winner-take-all Game 3 on Thursday.
Both the Yankees and Red Sox will send rookie starters to the mound tomorrow. It'll be righty Cam Schlittler for New York and southpaw Connelly Early for Boston. Both are sure to be on a short leash at the first sight of real trouble. So expect a cavalcade of relievers on Thursday. The first two games of this series have been delightfully crisp, wonderfully tense, a nostalgic callback to the Yanks-Sox playoff games of yesteryear, save for the violence.
And the stakes entering Game 3 are massive. Both these clubs have legitimate World Series aspirations. Boone has repeatedly referred to this Yankees team as the most talented he has ever managed. Any team that employs Garrett Crochet has a shot.
But somebody's season is ending tomorrow. That means that no matter how things play out in Game 3, it'll be theater.
That's exactly how it should be for Red Sox vs. Yankees.
Source: "AOL Sports"
Source: VoXi MAG
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