Chisholm's Two-Homer Night Rescues Yankees After Pittsburgh Stole the Lead
Jazz Chisholm Jr. went 2-for-4 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI as the Yankees beat the Pirates 8-5 on July 20. The story of the night was a game that swung leads three times before Chisholm slammed the door shut with a 376-foot shot to right.
New York jumped out fast and ugly. In the first, a throwing error by left fielder Reynolds allowed Rice to score on a fielder's choice, and then Chisholm Jr. unloaded a 377-foot blast to right center that scored Goldschmidt and Bellinger, pushing the Yankees to a 4-0 lead before Pittsburgh had even settled in. It looked like a blowout in the making — but Ryan Weathers had other ideas, and not in a good way.
Weathers couldn't hold it. Pittsburgh came storming back in the second: Triolo laced a ground rule double that scored O'Hearn and Ozuna, then Gonzales singled to center to score Triolo, cutting the deficit to 4-3. The Pirates didn't stop there. In the third, Esmerlyn Valdez launched a 436-foot home run to right center — the longest ball of the night — scoring Reynolds and giving Pittsburgh a 5-4 lead. Weathers finished with 4.2 innings pitched, 7 hits, and 5 earned runs allowed. The Yankees had coughed up a four-run lead and were now trailing on their own turf.
That's when Chisholm took over. With the Yankees down 5-4, he homered to right for 376 feet, scoring Bellinger and flipping the lead back to New York at 6-5. That swing moved the home win probability from 44% to 66% — a 22-point lurch that effectively ended Pittsburgh's night. Caballero kept the foot on the gas immediately after, ripping a ground rule double that scored Domínguez and McMahon to make it 8-5. Fernando Cruz and Brent Headrick combined for 2.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen — Cruz striking out three across 1.1 frames, Headrick adding two more punchouts in a clean final inning — and that was that. Wilber Dotel's outing for Pittsburgh looks like a cruel footnote: 3.0 innings, 1 hit, 0 earned runs, 5 strikeouts — a gem that his offense briefly rewarded before the bullpen situation unraveled. Final: NYY 8, PIT 5.