ANAHEIM, Calif. – After doing what his manager told him to do and stealing two bases in the eighth inning of a six-run game Sunday, Jazz Chisholm Jr. woke up Monday morning in the center of a controversy.
The Yankees second baseman was labeled by Red Sox broadcaster Will Flemming as a “bush league player” who “plays the game the wrong way.” Fleming indicated that Chisholm was out of line because the Red Sox had elected not to hold him on at first base — which is the very development that led Aaron Boone to tell Chisholm to take off.
Fleming later added that the Red Sox should throw at Austin Wells, who was at the plate when Chisholm took off, and that pitcher Jovani Moran should start a fight with Chisholm, as retaliation for the steals.
“Lost for words,” Chisholm said Monday at Angel Stadium. “I did not expect that when I woke up. But people show you who they are.”
Flemming spoke with Boone on Monday to offer his apology and also posted one to social media, saying he “crossed a line.” Chisholm said he had not heard from Flemming and did not care to.
“The unwritten rules, they’re called unwritten rules because you’re not really breaking any rules,” Chisholm said. “You’ve seen teams — actually them, last year, do the same thing, where they were pouring on runs and we didn’t have nothing to say or do about it. That’s just showing how unprofessional he is. That’s all it is.”
While Boone said he accepted and appreciated Flemming’s apology, he stood behind his decision to tell Chisholm to run. As first reported by Yankees play-by-play man Michael Kay on his radio show Monday, Boone had initially told Chisholm not to run after he walked with no outs in the bottom of the eighth with, at the time, a 7-1 lead. But once the Red Sox had first baseman Nick Sogard not hold Chisholm on at first, Boone changed course and told him to run.
In between, Boone yelled over to Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy in the visiting dugout, telling him that he couldn’t have it both ways — and to either hold Chisholm on or he’d be running.
When the Red Sox did not budge, Chisholm got the green light to run in what became a nine-run inning.
“It was important to know that this came from me,” Boone said. “I was not planning on running with that lead, had they played it straight. I was pretty animated and vocal with their dugout, just as far as, if they weren’t going to play it straight, I wasn’t just going to sit back. Absolutely not. I don’t think they were going to not take their at-bats in the ninth inning. So I kind of object to some people saying, ‘Well that’s waving the white flag.’ So they weren’t going to try to score in the ninth?
“Look, I’m an old-school baseball guy, I’ve been around doing this forever. I respect some of the unwritten rules, I really do. I think they’ve evolved and changed though some. At the end of the day, I got to do what’s right for my team and try not to get so caught up in what the other team’s doing. I felt like we did the right thing.”
At stake for the winner of Sunday’s game was the season series, meaning home-field advantage in the playoffs should the Yankees and Red Sox end the regular season tied. Plus, the Yankees bullpen had been on fumes of late, and tacking on runs gave Boone a better chance of not using David Bednar if the Red Sox started to threaten in the ninth, which was important for his availability in their next series that began Monday against the Angels.
While Boone took a measured tone on Flemming, the broadcaster’s comments irked Aaron Judge.
“[Flemming] needs to stay out of that and not be telling people to throw at players and injure players,” Judge said. “That’s not what this game’s about. A situation like that, that game determines home-field advantage in the playoffs. It’s a six-run game. They put a couple guys on and hit a big homer, all of a sudden, we’re getting our bullpen guys up in a tight spot. In a situation like that where they’re not holding on Jazz, if you’re not going to hold him on, what’s going on here? Conceding, not conceding? It’s a six-run game, still a close ballgame.
“Not too happy hearing broadcasters talking about trying to injure and hurt a player. He needs to clean that up.”
