Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s two-run double keys three-run eighth inning as Yankees defeat Orioles

More than a century ago, “Shoeless Joe’’ Jackson roamed Major League Baseball’s diamonds. On Sunday we were introduced to “Shoeless Jazz,’’ and the Yankees are all the better for it.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. scored the club’s first run on a bizarre second-inning play involving a collision with Baltimore catcher Maverick Handley that left him in stocking feet and carrying his spikes back to the dugout. And there he was in the spotlight again in a three-run rally in the eighth that erased a one-run deficit and sent the Yankees to a 4-2 win before 45,571 at the Stadium.

Chisholm delivered a clutch double that drove in Ben Rice from third and pinch runner Paul Goldschmidt from first — on a bang-bang slide at the plate — and then scored an insurance run, dashing home from third and scoring when Orioles catcher Gary Sanchez didn’t glove the throw on DJ LeMahieu’s grounder to short.

Asked if the moniker “Shoeless Jazz’’ now applies after he lost both shoes on the second-inning play, Chisholm said, “Is that how Shoeless Joe got his name? He ran out of his shoes?”

When told Jackson played in the early 20th century, Chisholm said: “Oh, so he wasn’t wearing shoes.”

The Yankees (45-32) have bounced back from a six-game losing streak by winning three of their last four and now lead the Rays by 2 1/2 games in the AL East.

Baltimore handed a 2-1 lead to setup man Bryan Baker in the eighth, and singles by Rice and Giancarlo Stanton put runners at the corners with one out. Chisholm drove a 3-and-0 fastball off the wall of the Yankees’ bullpen to bring in the tying and go-ahead runs.

“[On] the 3-0 swing, I’m not trying to do too much, just trying to drive in the runner [on third],” Chisholm said. “We’re down one run bottom of the eighth [and] you’re trying to either go into the top of the ninth tied or winning. So 3-0 count and he hadn’t thrown me a fastball the whole at-bat.”

Goldschmidt, 37, who had pinch run for Stanton, got his foot to the plate just before Sanchez’s tag. “I didn’t know where the ball was . . . and the first time I really saw how close it was going to be was my read of the catcher going for the ball,” he said.  “I just tried to get to home as quickly as possible.”

Chisholm, who took third on the throw home, said he was “surprised” to see Goldschmidt score from first but also recounted that, when he was a Diamondbacks minor-leaguer, the organization always used Goldschmidt as the example of efficient baserunning overcoming a lack of great speed.

With the infield in, Chisholm broke for the plate on LeMahieu’s grounder to shortstop Gunnar Henderson. He made the play and the throw, but Sanchez — who entered when Handley was injured in the second-inning collision — didn’t handle it. Plate umpire Jansen Visconti initially called Chisholm out, and he was about to argue that Sanchez had illegally blocked the plate before teammates pointed to the loose ball and told him to touch home.

Of seemingly being in the middle of all the key action in the win, Chisholm said, “That’s what I live for, you know?”

The Yankees trailed 2-0 in the second when Chisholm ended up shoeless. After his two-out double to right, LeMahieu followed with a single to left. Chisholm rounded third, lost a shoe heading home and encountered Handley about 25 feet up the third-base line, where the throw from outfielder Colton Cowser had taken him.

Chisholm and Handley collided at high speed as the catcher gloved the throw and quickly tried to apply the tag. The force spun Handley around and knocked the ball loose, and Chisholm got to the plate — now shoeless — to score. “He ran right out of his shoes,” Aaron Boone said. “It doesn’t surprise me.”

Both players appeared shaken up. Visconti had to remind Chisholm to pick up his spikes as he started to head toward the dugout. Chisholm played on, but Handley was replaced.

“I’ve run out of one [shoe], but not both — never both,” Chisholm said. “I think it’s because I was so sweaty. My socks were wet. It just slipped straight out [of the first shoe] . . . The second shoe came off with the impact, I think . . . I’ve never had someone knock my shoes off . . . It was quite a surprise. I watched it a couple times and laughed at it, too.”

The story is better that way, but replays suggested he lost the second shoe changing directions to dive for the plate.

“Jazz is a spark all the way around,” said starter Will Warren, who allowed two runs in 6 1⁄3 innings. “Today we were calling him Barry Sanders with those two collisions at the plate . . . He can do it all. He’s so toolsy: he’s got the speed, can hit, can field. He can do it all [and] it’s nice to have him in our lineup.”

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.