The Bronx got the full rollercoaster on Monday night. A pitching-staff scare, a blown early lead, a Jazz Chisholm Jr. explosion, and a benches-clearing standoff to close it out. The Yankees walked away with an 8-5 win over the Pirates, but not before everyone in the building had a heart attack or two.
It started clean enough, with Pittsburgh flashing some leather early. The Pirates infield made a slick play up the middle in the first inning that had Barstool cameras zooming in.
A leaping Pirates infield play in the first inning drew praise before things got chippy later.
That defensive competence didn't last. Jazz Chisholm Jr. turned Braxton Ashcraft's curveball into a three-run shot to stake New York to an early lead, part of what would become a 5-RBI, two-homer night, his 10th career multi-homer game. It came after Pittsburgh had already booted a routine Paul Goldschmidt grounder, the kind of mess that made 'stellar defense' captions read as pure sarcasm by the time the inning was over.
Chisholm's first homer of the night put the Yankees on the board early.
Then Ryan Weathers happened. The lead ballooned to 4-0 before Weathers coughed most of it right back, and Pittsburgh erased it with a 431-foot, 106.6 mph bomb that flipped the score to 5-4 Pirates by the third inning. It was the kind of start that had Barstool's own account joking Weathers had said 'oh, 4-run lead? No thank you' before it happened.
The Pirates answered with a 431-foot blast that wiped out New York's 4-0 cushion.
That's where Chisholm bailed everyone out. He came back off Ashcraft's slider for a two-run homer that put the Yankees back on top, his 16th of the season and second of the night, part of a night that pushed his RBI total to 5. New York eventually pulled away to an 8-5 final, with the bullpen cleaning up after Weathers' rough outing, exactly the kind of night Eric Hubbs summed up afterward: offense carried by Jazz, bullpen bailing out a shaky start, just trying to survive to the trade deadline with Boston and Tampa Bay both winning that night too.
Chisholm's second homer, a two-run shot, put the Yankees back on top for good.
The game still had one more gear left. In the eighth inning, Jose Caballero grounded into an inning-ending double play against Pirates reliever Dennis Santana, who got heated and started barking at Caballero on the field. Both benches and bullpens emptied as Santana had to be held back by teammates before order was restored, no punches, no ejections, just a few tense minutes of two rosters standing nose to nose in the Bronx.
Dennis Santana had to be restrained as both benches emptied in the eighth inning.
None of it changed the final score, but it capped a night that had everything: a defensive botch, a near-blown lead, a Chisholm masterclass, and a scrap to close the book. With the Red Sox and Rays both winning the same night, the Yankees needed every bit of it, and if Weathers keeps pitching like this, nights like Monday are going to keep needing a Jazz Chisholm rescue to survive.