Jazz Chisholm Jr. always plays with his heart on his sleeve every single night. Sometimes that spills over, like he was ejected for arguing a bad call in April, later admitting, “I lost my emotions. I lost my cool.” Or sometimes this leads to some defensive misplays, like being doubled off first base. But on Sunday night, that raw fire, influenced by a deeply tragic reason, channeled into something truly powerful.

The Yankees entered the Sunday game after losing three straight games to Boston and trailing behind them with 69-60 and a Wild Card spot. Chisholm himself was struggling with one RBI in the series opener, 6-3, and went hitless in the next two 1–0 pitchers’ duels, and a 12–1 rout. And yesterday,  he lost someone that changed every perspective from the core.

In the Sunday game, with the team’s back against the wall, added with that personal loss, Chisholm stepped to the plate with a runner on and crushed a 372-foot two-run home run in the bottom of the second inning. But the celebration was different this time. As the popular X account Talkin’ Yanks posted the video, noting, “Jazz was emotional in the dugout after his homer and Judge comforted him.” The tweet added, “He had posted on Instagram last night about losing someone close to him.”

At the post-game interview, Chisolm said his best friend died yesterday, and he further said today was “like a different type of a day” to him as he also recorded his 100th career home run and his second of the game at the bottom of the eighth.

The night concluded with a 7-2 victory for New York, powered by his four RBIs. Trent Grisham also went 2-for-3 with 2 home runs and a walk. Last night’s only run scorer, Giancarlo Stanton, also went 2-for-3 with 1 double and 2 runs. And with that, they were finally able to stop the sweep.

But the captain’s embrace in the dugout was a glimpse into a genuine bond that goes far beyond the baseball diamond.

The Judge and Jazz bromance

Aaron Judge has been more than a teammate to Jazz as he has called Judge a “big brother” and even once said, “We all tell him every day ‘we want to be you when we grow up.'” And there were multiple occasions where Judge was seen mentoring Jazz like an elder brother.

Judge was seen coaching a struggling Chisholm during a timeout in the 2025 Home Run Derby. And last year July, Chisholm playfully borrowed Judge’s famously heavy bat and smashed his second home run of the game with it. Judge jokingly said he deserved “half a homer” for the assist.

And Chisholm even invented a new stat, “HR+SB,” to challenge Judge. Judge embraced the friendly competition and told Chisholm,  “I was going to catch him in stolen bases this year.”

Coming back to the game, the recent win will improve the Yankees’ record to 70-60. And it will push the Red Sox down to 71-60. The Yankees now sit just a half-game behind Boston in the AL Wild Card race. And trailing just one game behind the division race. The two teams will have another chance for a final three-game series starting on September 12th.

But the question of the hour remains: Can this emotional win be the spark the Yankees need to overtake Boston? And secure their spot in the postseason?