Jazz Chisholm Jr. was speaking for himself Sunday when a player who always says what’s on his mind acknowledged, “I’ve sucked all season.”
Yet he could have been talking about the entire Yankees lineup, which stopped hitting altogether right about the time Aaron Judge stopped playing.
A night later, both Chisholm and the supporting cast around him did less sucking, more feasting on the Pirates pitching and defense and even a little bit of fighting.
Led by a pair of homers from Chisholm, the Yankees broke out in the kind of offensive performance that has been nearly nonexistent in the post-Judge days with an 8-5 series-opening victory that briefly got tense late in front of 42,348 on Monday night in The Bronx.
The deeply slumping Yankees had scored more than five runs in only one of their previous 27 games — a nearly unbelievable drought, the entirety without Judge and Giancarlo Stanton — but for one night, they racked up eight by the third inning and finished with 11 hits.
The catalyst was Chisholm, who had launched the go-ahead shot Sunday then made it three straight plate appearances with a homer, adding a three-run dinger in the first inning and wrapping a two-run, go-ahead shot around the foul pole in what became a four-run third.
The catalysts for the extracurriculars were José Caballero and former Yankee Dennis Santana, who fielded a comebacker from Caballero and began a frame-ending double play in the bottom of the eighth.
The two jawed at each other, prompting the benches and dugouts to empty, but seemingly only words were exchanged.
The Yankees (56-44) have won six of eight, remain 1 ½ games back of the Rays in the division and cannot exhale, but probably can breathe a bit easier than they had been a week ago.
In what you could consider only their second strong offensive performance since June 18, the Yankees had help.
The Pirates (52-49) — a decent team, we swear — looked like the Pirates of old in the first, when Paul Goldschmidt bounced a hopper to the left side that deflected off the glove of third baseman Nick Gonzales and into center field.
Ben Rice chugged from first to third and Goldschmidt hustled into second, where left fielder Bryan Reynolds intended to throw upon pouncing on the ball but then tried to halt his throw upon realizing no one was covering the base.
What followed would have worked in Spikeball, a throw that might have traveled 2 feet and allowed Rice to score without a throw.
After a Cody Bellinger single, Chisholm smoked his first homer of the night to right for a 4-0 lead that would not be safe.
Ryan Weathers (4 ²/₃ innings, five runs) was not sharp and allowed all of his runs in the second and third innings.
In the second, the first three Pirates tallied hits, the third an RBI double from Jared Triolo.
Pittsburgh added another on a Gonzales single through the middle.
An inning later, rookie sensation Esmerlyn Valdez blasted a two-run shot deep into the right field seats, which gave the Pirates a lead that also would not be safe.
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In the third, Goldschmidt singled before Chisholm got a 2-2 slider down and in, throwing his barrel to the pitch and doing whatever he could to keep it fair.
Chisholm remained at home plate, leaned to his left and watched the ball sneak inside the foul pole and reach its destination in the second deck in right field, which became the last meaningful swing of the night and ended the scoring.
Considering his second and third innings, Weathers did well to record 14 outs on a night the Yankees needed at least some length following a doubleheader.
When he was finished, Angel Chivilli, Brent Headrick, Tim Hill and Fernando Cruz — all pitching on consecutive days — held the Pirates scoreless for 4 ¹/₃ innings.
