Chisholm call propels Yanks, befuddling Royals
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — Jazz Chisholm Jr. stood at first base in the seventh inning of the Yankees‘ 6-5 win Saturday night, reading the game in front of him, calculating whether there was a chance for him to swipe second.
He represented the winning run in the Yankees’ seesaw clash with the Kansas City Royals in Game 1 of the American League Division Series. Reaching scoring position was paramount.
Finally, with Anthony Volpe in a full count against Michael Lorenzen, Chisholm let first-base coach Travis Chapman know it was time.
“Hey, I might go here,” Chisholm told Chapman. “He might bury one now.”
Sure enough, Chisholm dashed for second as Lorenzen buried a sweeper in the dirt to strike out Volpe. He got a poor jump, but Royals catcher Salvador Pérez‘s throw sailed, forcing second baseman Michael Massey to leap to make the catch before applying an acrobatic tag.
Chisholm’s left foot just beat Massey’s glove — or so second-base umpire Lance Barrett ruled. The Royals challenged the call.
One replay angle showed Massey’s glove might have touched Chisholm’s foot with a sliver of space between him and the bag, making for a suspenseful break in the action. But the call stood to keep the scoring threat alive.
Two batters later Alex Verdugo capitalized, slashing a line drive to left field to score the speedy Chisholm, who nearly collided with umpire Adam Hamari after crossing the plate to give the Yankees the lead for good.
“I knew I was in there,” Chisholm said of the bang-bang play at second base. “That’s what we were talking about at second base, actually. [Massey] was like, ‘I put down a good tag.’ I said, ‘You did put down a good tag. That doesn’t mean I’m out.'”
Royals manager Matt Quatraro saw it differently after looking at the play postgame.
“I haven’t gotten any sort of explanation,” Quatraro said. “In my opinion, I thought we had a really good argument to get that overturned.”
From there, Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver combined to keep Kansas City scoreless over the final two innings. Weaver recorded the final four outs, three via strikeout. One drew more scorn from the Royals’ dugout: After falling behind 3-0 against Bobby Witt Jr., the Royals’ star shortstop, Weaver worked his way back to a full count. Finally, on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, he struck Witt out on a fastball Witt thought was too low.
Instead of a walk and Witt, perhaps the fastest player in the majors, on first base to wreak havoc, the Royals were down to their final out.
Chisholm reaching base in the seventh inning with a leadoff single changed the game. His exploits on the basepaths — both the steal and easily scoring from second base to give the Yankees the lead — showcased one of the reasons New York acquired him from the Miami Marlins at the trade deadline.
Yes, he has the pop and a swing from the left side seemingly made for Yankee Stadium’s short porch in right field. Yes, his positional versatility is an asset; he showed up and became the team’s third baseman after never playing the position. And yes, he has two more years of team control before hitting free agency.
But the Yankees, beyond Volpe, lacked speed and athleticism in their every-day lineup. They were eager to add another dynamic player who could provide another dimension in October. In Chisholm they boast a weapon with the ability to impact games with his legs — and the confidence to impact them when the lights are brightest.
“Nobody’s going to throw me out,” Chisholm said.
OTTAWA, Ontario — Danny Nelson scored the eventual game-winner in the third period and Trey Augustine made 38 saves, leading the United States to a 4-1 win over Canada on Tuesday night and into the top spot in Group A at the world junior hockey championship.
Cole Hutson and Cole Eiserman each had a goal and an assist for the Americans. Ryan Leonard scored into an empty-net.
Bradly Nadeau scored for Canada, which allowed three goals on seven American power plays. Carter George stopped 24 shots.
Canada finished third in the pool and will face Czechia in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Americans face Switzerland.
“We’re not here to beat Canada tonight,” Augustine said. “We’re here to win a gold medal.”
The other matchups will have Group B winner Sweden take on Latvia, and Finland square off with Slovakia.
Canada and the U.S. played in the same building exactly 16 years to the day at the 2009 event, when John Tavares scored a memorable hat trick in Canada’s 7-4 comeback victory on New Year’s Eve. The Canadians went on to win a fifth straight gold.
“That’s something that’s storybook-like,” Eiserman said of beating Canada on home soil in the tournament’s marquee round-robin matchup. “Something that you’ve dreamt of.”
The teams met on New Year’s Eve for the first time since Dec. 31, 2016, when Canada picked up a 3-1 victory in Toronto. The U.S. got revenge less than a week later with a 5-4 shootout win in the title game in Montreal.
The Americans opened this under-20 tournament with a 10-4 win over Germany followed by a 5-1 victory over Latvia before losing to Finland 4-3 in overtime. Canada started with a 4-0 defeat of Finland before falling to Latvia 3-2 in a shootout and then rebounding to beat Germany 3-0.
The Canadians had a power play to start the third period while trailing 1-0 after Leonard took a roughing call at the end of the second. Nadeau blasted a one-timer for his first goal of the tournament off a feed from Brayden Yager at 1:58.
Nelson restored the U.S. lead at 4:22, taking a pass from Huston and beating George with his third goal.
The U.S. scored its third power-play goal of the game at 13:21 when Eiserman scored his second and put the game out of reach at 3-1 after a boarding penalty by Canada’s Easton Cowan.
Leonard scored into the empty net with 1:52 left in regulation to spark chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”
George, who entered with consecutive shutouts that bookended the Latvia loss, saw his streak end at 133:02 on Tuesday’s first power play to silence the beer-chugging crowd at Canadian Tire Centre.
In the first period, Hutson took advantage of a failed Canadian clearing attempt on a U.S. power play and scored his second goal of the tournament.
Tempers flared later in the period when Canada’s Luca Pinelli and Zeev Buium of the U.S. went off for roughing and then jawed at each other in the penalty box.
Leonard hit another post for the Americans and Carson Rehkopf fired an effort that Augustine, who entered with an .879 save percentage in two starts, got enough of with his glove at the other end before tempers again boiled over at the buzzer.
In another Group A game, Finland beat Latvia 3-0 and finished second in the group. In Group B, Switzerland beat Kazakhstan 3-1 to secure a spot in the quarterfinal round. Also, Sweden completed a sweep of its four preliminary round games, beating Czechia 4-2 in another Group B game.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
New York Rangers star goaltender Igor Shesterkin has been placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, an NHL source told ESPN on Tuesday.
The Rangers recalled NHL veteran Louis Domingue from the AHL Hartford Wolf Pack. Shesterkin’s backup, Jonathan Quick, is 5-4-0 in 12 games this season with a .907 save percentage and a 2.69 goals-against average.
Shesterkin stopped 21 of 25 shots in the Rangers’ 5-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Monday night. During that game, Panthers forward Sam Bennett was checked into Shesterkin’s upper body by Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren. Shesterkin was down on the ice briefly but didn’t leave the game.
Shesterkin, 29, is 11-15-1 in 27 games this season with a .906 save percentage and a 3.10 goals-against average. While the Rangers are 20th in goals against per game this season, Shesterkin is second among all goalies with 13 goals saved above replacement, according to Stathletes.
It has been an eventful month for Shesterkin. He signed a contract extension with the Rangers on Dec. 6 that makes him the highest-paid goalie in NHL history: an eight-year, $92 million deal that starts in the 2025-26 season. The 2022 Vezina Trophy winner is in the final year of a four-year deal with an average annual value of $5.66 million.
The injury to Shesterkin is the latest bit of adversity for the Rangers this season. They are 16-19-1 after 36 games, having lost four in a row and going 2-8-0 in their past 10. The Rangers were seven points out of a playoff spot entering Tuesday night.
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