Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm, Luke Weaver willing to say what others won’t

NEW YORK — This was no team meeting or even an impromptu rah-rah speech, just a short and sweet message that Aaron Boone thought Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and the boys needed to hear.
Before the Yankees’ first World Series elimination game since 2003 when Boone was their third baseman and on fans’ good side for hitting a pennant-winning homer that beat the Red Sox, Boone the manager 21 years later gave his players final instructions for Tuesday night’s live-or-die Game 4:
“Let’s go win a game!”
The Yankees then went out and took the first couple punches. Mookie Betts with one out in the Dodgers first off rookie Luis Gil, Freddie Freeman followed by making it a record six World Series games in a row with a homer — two in 2021 and four this year — and it was 2-0 Dodgers.
Then it was pretty much all Yankees. Anthony Volpe hit a grand slam, Austin Wells hit one into the right field second deck, Gleyber Torres went yard with two on, five Yankees relievers combined for five shutout innings.
Finally, the Yankees got off the schneid with an 11-4 victory that prevented the Dodgers from sweeping.
This win also was a first giant leap to shocking the world.
That’s what Boone said he hoped the Yankees could pull off after they dropped Game 3 on Monday night to go down 3-nothing in a best-of-seven.
The Yankees knew what that meant. They knew everybody considered them dead men walking because nobody ever lost the first three World Series and then won the next four. But they all know the Yankees were up 3-0 on the Red Sox in 2004 and lost.
Some year, it’s probably going to happen in the World Series.
How about this year? Come Wednesday night, the Yankees will send their ace out to pitch, and if they win again with Gerrit Cole starting, it’ll be back to Los Angeles for a Game 6 on Friday and maybe a Game 7 of Saturday.
Can the Yankees shock the world?
That was one Yankee who really is embracing this next-been-accomplished mission.
“I think we can shock the world,” third baseman Jazz Chisholm said. “I think the one thing about us is we love history and we love to make history. So for us, we’re out there trying to make history.
“We know it’s never been done, a 3-0 comeback, but we feel like we’re the team that can do it.”
A few minutes later, Judge was asked if he feels the same as Chisholm.
“No,” Judge said with a smile. “We have to focus on win another game. That’s it. We’ll look up at the end and see what happens. That’s what got us to this point.
“We weren’t looking at the end of the year in May. We weren’t looking at the end of the year in June. We were focused on what we could do that day, so we’ll keep it at that.”
Soto took Judge’s side.
“I feel like this team right here is special, but at the end of the day we’re not trying to come back from 3-0,” Soto said. “We trying to go 1-0 every day. That’s the mindset.”
That’s the mindset for most Yankees, including left fielder Alex Verdugo, who drove in the first of five runs in the ninth with an 11-pitch at-bat that resulted in an RBI fielder’s choice.
“We have our backs against the wall,” Verdugo said. “Go out and play like it’s your last game. You never know if you’re going to be back in the World Series or not. This is a privilege and a blessing, so you go out there and lay it all out there. At the end, we win, we lose. at least we can cross that box that we gave a hundred percent.”
And maybe four in a row to make history and get the Yankees’ championship No. 28.
“Why not?” closer Luke Weaver said. “I’m not one to predict the future, but stories have to be told,
I’d be willing to give you some material to write one. Sound good?”
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Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected].