Yankees' Jazz Chisholm Jr. left seeing red after late ejection in team's extra-inning loss in Cincinnati
Yankees starting pitcher Carlos Rodón delivers during the first inning of a game against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday in Cincinnati. Credit: AP
CINCINNATI — The Yankees were feeling the heat on a humid 91-degree night at Great American Ball Park on Tuesday as they fell to the Reds in 11 innings, 5-4, on Gavin Lux’s walk-off single off Mark Leiter Jr.
Yankees starter Carlos Rodon had to exit after six shutout innings and 88 pitches because he said he was “huffin’ and puffin’” and “gassed.”
Jonathan Loaisiga had to call the trainers out to the mound to remove him after he gave up a three-run lead in the seventh because he felt “tired” following an illness.
The AL East race is heating up as Leiter — in his second inning of work after throwing 27 pitches on Monday — allowed the tying and winning runs to score without getting an out in the 11th. The Yankees, who have lost nine of 12, lead the second-place Rays by one game.
But the most hot-under-the-collar Yankee was Jazz Chisholm Jr., who was ejected before the bottom of the ninth by plate umpire Mark Wegner for appearing to gripe about a called strike on a low 2-and-0 pitch during Chisholm’s at-bat in the top of the inning.
After he was tossed, Chisholm had to be held back by manager Aaron Boone, who placed himself between Chisholm and the umpire.
Chisholm, who struck out, said he had cooled off as he warmed up at third base for the bottom of the ninth.
“Like any player, you’re going to talk to yourself, you’re going to cool yourself down. You’re going to be upset, going to be frustrated,” he said. “I was never looking at him, and when I looked and realized that he was looking at me, I looked at him, and I said, ‘Why are you looking at me?’ And that’s when I got tossed.
“I didn’t get tossed for saying nothing crazy. I didn’t get tossed for saying, ‘Oh, that was a bad pitch.’ I got a toss for saying, ‘Why are you looking at me?’ I don’t think that’s a good reason to toss anybody.”
Chisholm’s ejection isn’t why the Yankees lost, even though his absence led to Boone using catcher J.C. Escarra for the final two innings at third base after pinch hitting for Oswald Peraza, who had moved over from second to third following the ejection.
Chisholm did admit he said “you don’t have to help him” to Wegner after he struck out. But he said a dugout conversation with Aaron Judge – “Cap,” as Chisholm calls the Yankees captain — convinced him to drop it.
“I got in the dugout. I was frustrated,” Chisholm said. “It sucks because me and Cap, literally [were] just talking. I have the utmost respect for Cap. I sat down with Cap. He was talking and [I was] like, ‘You’re my captain. You’re basically one of the closest people I have on this team. We talk damn near every day, even off the field.’
“We talked about it so at the end of the day, I’m never gonna go out there and disrespect what you just told me to do. You just told me, ‘Hey, you’re gonna get another at-bat tonight. Let that one go and go change the game for us.’
“Normally, everybody knows how I am. If I’m gonna go at an umpire, I’m gonna go at an umpire. I’m not gonna hide it. None of that. So if I wanted to say something to him, I would have said it. Nobody’s gonna stop me from saying something to the umpire if I want to. I’m a grown man.
“For me not even to say nothing to you, and me to ask you why you’re looking at me and you toss me, I feel like there’s a problem. I feel like it’s getting ridiculous.”
The same could be said for the Yankees’ record in extra-inning games (1-6, 0-5 on the road), and their performance with runners in scoring position (1-for-9 after going 1-for-12 in Monday’s 6-1 loss to the Reds).
The Yankees led 3-0 after six innings thanks to Ben Rice’s fourth-inning home run off Reds rookie Chase Burns and Anthony Volpe’s two-run triple that skipped past a diving centerfielder TJ Friedl later in the inning.
Burns, the second pick in last year’s draft, struck out the first five batters he faced in his big-league debut.
Rodon “was done,” Boone said, so Loaisiga came in to start the seventh. But the righthander allowed Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s three-run double to tie the game before he had to depart because of illness- and heat-related fatigue.
The Yankees took a 4-3 lead in the 11th when a wild pitch by Connor Phillips scored ghost runner Judge.
But the Reds tied it in the bottom half on an RBI single by Spencer Speer and won it on a bases-loaded, no-out, bloop single to center by Lux against a five-man infield.
Stroman hit hard. Marcus Stroman (knee) allowed 10 hits and five runs in 3 2/3 innings against Erie in his third rehab start for Double-A Somerset. Stroman, who has been out since April 12, walked two and struck out one in a 65-pitch outing. The Yankees have a rotation opening, but it is not clear that Stroman will be deemed ready to fill it. Allan Winans, who was charged with four runs in 4 1/3 inning against the Reds on Monday in his Yankees debut, is still on the roster.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
More Yankees headlines
