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Yankees Score Early After Wild Play in Sunday Morning Game
© John Jones-Imagn Images

It was 11:35 a.m. on a Sunday, which already made things feel off.

Because the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles were featured in the Roku Leadoff Game of the Week, they started earlier than usual. By the bottom of the second inning, things got weird fast.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. was on second with the Yankees trailing 2–0 when he broke for home on DJ LeMahieu's smoked line drive to left. As he turned the corner at third base, Chisholm shifted into another gear and ran right out of his left shoe. 

Chisholm, however, kept going, and so did the weirdness. 

The throw came up the line. Orioles catcher Maverick Handley reached out to make the tag. Chisholm didn’t slow down.

Instead, he tried to juke the tag and then half tried to leap over it —an awkward, airborne sidestep. Handley's arm and shoulder seemed to clip Chisholm's hip as he lost the ball. 

Chisholm hit the dirt, slapped the plate, and popped up with one sock on. 

The run counted. The cleat did not.

Handley stayed down after the play and left the game after several minutes of being examined by trainers. There was no immediate update, but it was a hard collision—one that didn’t feel routine.

That's a huge blow for the Orioles, who just put All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman on the injured list Saturday. 

Chisholm stayed in the game, unfazed as usual.

It wasn’t clean or smooth. But it got the Yankees on the board, trimming the deficit to 2–1.

It may not have been what anyone expected when the game started with coffee and bagels. But if New York needed a jolt, Chisholm gave them one.

Even if it cost him a shoe.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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