Jazz Chisholm Jr. continues to strike the right note with the Yankees.
With two more home runs in Saturday’s doubleheader, the newly acquired Chisholm became the first Yankee ever to hit seven homers in his first 12 games with the team.
“He’s brought an energy and kind of a different joy into the room that’s really blended in well with our guys,” manager Aaron Boone said before Sunday’s series finale against the Rangers. “I’m really enjoying getting to know him and watching him play and seeing what makes him tick.”
Chisholm’s eighth-inning solo shot in Saturday’s second game — a 9-4 loss to the Texas Rangers — gave him 20 home runs this season, setting a new career high.
His 61 RBI and 25 stolen bases through 113 games with the Yankees and Miami Marlins also marked career bests for the five-year veteran, with nearly two months remaining to pad those stats.
“There’s no denying the talent,” Boone said. “Hopefully he’s just scratching the surface from a career standpoint with what he can be, because I think we’re all seeing here, for the first couple of weeks, it’s a pretty dynamic skillset.”
The lefty-swinging Chisholm, 26, represented this year’s biggest trade-deadline acquisition by the Yankees, who sent three prospects, including power-hitting catcher Agustin Ramirez, back to Miami.
His arrival commanded extra attention, considering ESPN reported a few days before the trade that Yankees had concerns over how Chisholm’s personality would fit with the team.
“I’ve been really pleased with how he’s come in,” Boone said Sunday. “I didn’t know him before. We inquired a lot, asked around a lot about him, ultimately to allow us to make the deal and bring him in.”
Chisholm debuted with Miami as a middle infielder in 2020 but mostly played center field for the Marlins the past two seasons. With the Yankees, he has primarily played third base, a position he didn’t have any MLB experience at previously.
His defense at third has graded well thus far, and the Yankees have said he’s passed the eye test as well. However, confusion on a play at third in Saturday’s loss led to Chisholm attempting an unsuccessful tag out — rather than making a force out — during a five-run sixth inning by the Rangers.
Chisholm got off to a red-hot start with the Yankees, slugging four home runs — all in Philadelphia — in his first three games. He went 2-for-17 without a homer in his first four games at Yankee Stadium, later acknowledging the short porch in right field tempted him into trying to pull the ball too much.
He entered Sunday with a home run in three consecutive games and as one of only three Yankees in the last 12 years to go deep in both games of a doubleheader.
Chisholm says he’s worked closely with the Yankees’ hitting coaches and is able to apply their adjustments “right away” — as he did in both games of Saturday’s doubleheader.
“We went down after my strikeout [in the first game], and then we went in the cage and we worked on a couple things, and then came back and hit a homer,” Chisholm said Saturday. “And then even the second game, struck out twice, went down, adjusted, worked on some things and then hit a homer again.”
Chisholm is one of only five players with at least 20 home runs and 25 stolen bases this season. The others — Elly De La Cruz, Shohei Ohtani, José Ramírez and Bobby Witt Jr. — were each All-Stars.
STANTON’S SHOT
Immediately before Chisholm’s second home run Saturday, Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run shot.
That 451-foot no-doubter marked Stanton’s first home run in eight games and 30 at-bats since returning from a hamstring strain that sidelined him for more than a month.
Stanton is hitting .233 since rejoining the Yankees’ lineup, which is not far off from his .246 mark through 66 games before the injury.
The 34-year-old, who did not play in any minor-league rehab games before returning, has struggled in recent years when coming back from injuries.
That includes 2022, when he hit .140 with four home runs over his first 100 at-bats after returning from a late-season Achilles issue, and last year, when he hit .145 with three homers in June after coming back from a hamstring strain.
“I think he’s in a good place physically, and I think the experience of having gone through it has put him in a good spot, but I’ve been pleased with the at-bat quality really from [the] jump,” Boone said Sunday. “[Facing] Zack Wheeler and the Phillies that first game [on July 29], I felt like he looked like he’d been playing.”
PITCHING PLANS
After two rainouts and a pair of doubleheaders disrupted their rotation last week, the Yankees announced their pitching plans for the beginning of their upcoming road trip.
Luis Gil (12-5, 3.06 ERA) is expected to pitch in Monday’s series opener in Chicago, while the White Sox are set to send left-hander Ky Bush (0-1, 6.75 ERA) to the mound.
On Tuesday, the Yankees are scheduled to start Nestor Cortes (5-10, 4.42 ERA). Right-hander Jonathan Cannon (2-5, 3.91 ERA) is in line to start for Chicago.
The Yankees have not announced a starter for Wednesday’s series finale, and no one in the current rotation would be able to pitch on normal rest. Will Warren started the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Angels and could be an option to be recalled.
Right-hander Davis Martin (0-1, 3.65 ERA) is set to start Wednesday for the White Sox.
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