Jazz Chisholm Jr. Has Every Right To Be Pissed Off About Being On The Bench For Game 1 Against The Red Sox

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The Yankees blew Game 1 of their Wild Card series against the Red Sox on Tuesday night. You can read about that as a whole here. Why they lost can be chalked up to a few things including Luke Weaver not getting his job done out of the pen, awful use of the bench by Boone, as well as shitting down their leg in the 9th with the bases loaded and nobody out. 

A storyline going into the game, however, was the lineup/defensive configuration. With Crochet starting for Boston their goal was to get as many righties in their as you could considering his splits: vs RHP .229/.279/.374, vs. LHP: .166/.193/.262. No matter who you have hitting it's going to be a really tough task to get things going, but the odds swing slightly more in your favor if you're sending up righties. The Yankees' lineup computer took that to heart and spit out a 9 man card that featured just three lefties 1) Cody Bellinger who hits L/L as well as anyone in the sport 2) Trent Grisham who plays a good CF with pop and 3) Austin Wells who controls the running game better than Ben Rice. You then saw Amed Rosario, Jose Caballero, and Paul Goldschmidt in there over Jazz Chisholm, Ben Rice, and Ryan McMahon. In their mind, this was their best attempt of balancing defense with RHB vs. LHP. 

The problem with that is by only starting those three, it meant sitting Ben Rice and Jazz Chisholm Jr. who combined for 57 homers during the regular season. Jazz was a 30/30 guy while playing good defense at 2nd and Rice turned into one of your best overall hitters. Both benched in Game 1 of a best of three because the computer said no. Rosario started at 2nd because he hits lefties very well and was 6 for 9 lifetime vs. Crochet heading into the game. I was good with getting him in there, but it coming at the expense of Jazz felt wrong. They seemed terrified to play him over at 3rd which meant Jazz's spot at 2nd was going to come into play. When facing the choice of playing your best guys or playing the odds, the Yankees went with the math. It didn't work outside of Goldschmidt at first, but that made sense because you got the better glove as well as the strong splits in his favor. 

The media asked Jazz after the game about not starting in a crucial postseason game and he didn't seem thrilled, answering some questions with his back turned. 

Do I blame Jazz for being upset about being benched? Of course not. How could you? The guy went 30/30 this year and he's not starting the team's first postseason game? If he wasn't upset that'd be a problem. In the tweet below it's revealed he did have a conversation with Boone after the game. 

It's a brutal conundrum to figure out, right? You know Crochet is toughest on lefties and want to avoid any sort of lane that he can cruise through, but on the flip side some of your best guys are lefties and you want them in there. Jazz (108 OPS+ vs. LHP) and Rice (110 OPS+ vs LHP) aren't exactly inept against lefties. It's just tough to see them combine to get one at bat in a game you really could have used a big swing. Not getting Rice in there for Wells in the 8th was a brain dead decision. One of my biggest fears entering the series was Boone's mismanagement of the bench/bullpen and boy did that rear its ugly head. 

On Wednesday they'll face the righty Bello, so Jazz and Rice will be in there. They probably should have been Tuesday night. Is it the sole reason they lost? No, Luke Weaver has to do his job plain and simple. Could Fried have kept going? In a perfect world yes, but at the same time how about your bullpen gets you big outs and doesn't walk guys like Rafaela after getting ahead 0-2. Gotta be better. Play your best guys on Wednesday and push this to Game 3.