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Yankees star reaches rare milestone, brightening costly loss
New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. celebrates after hitting a home run during the seventh inning against the Baltimore Orioles. Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images

Yankees star reaches rare milestone, brightening costly loss in Baltimore

The New York Yankees need every win possible to cement their postseason seed as the American League's top wild-card team. Friday's road stumble against the cellar-dwelling Baltimore Orioles certainly won't help in that quest.

Despite the 2-4 loss in Baltimore, New York's Jazz Chisholm Jr. joined an exclusive club. Chisholm flamed his 30th home run of the season in the seventh inning off Orioles left-handed reliever Dietrich Enns to become just the third Yankees player to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season. He joins Bobby Bonds (1975) and Alfonso Soriano (2002-03) as Yankees players who had a history-making combination of speed and power.

Friday's home run pushes Chisholm into rarified current company among MLB players as Juan Soto of the New York Mets (42 home runs and 33 stolen bases entering Friday) is the only other player with 30-30 credentials right now.

Asked by MLB.com earlier in the week what a 30-30 season would mean to him, Chisholm replied, "It would mean a lot if we win the division with it."

After nights like Friday, that goal seems more and more improbable. New York entered the game in Baltimore with a 9.3 percent chance of catching the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East, per FanGraphs. Toronto started Friday with a three-game lead in the division.

Baltimore's Trevor Rogers made Orioles history

While Chisholm Jr. was writing his name in the record book, Trevor Rogers was continuing to establish Baltimore history.

Rogers continued his masterful season on the mound for the Orioles by allowing just one hit over six innings and striking out seven in the win. With the outing, Rogers dropped his ERA to 1.35 in 106.2 innings over 17 starts.

The Rogers (also a lefty) was dominant enough to put the stop to what had been one of the Yankees' strengths all season — hitting southpaws. New York entered the night with a .258/.336/.454 slash line against lefties, ranking first among all 30 MLB teams in slugging percentage and OPS (.790) while placing sixth in batting average.

Rogers, however, shut down the Yankees to continue an impressive streak as he has allowed two runs or fewer in a career-high 15 consecutive starts, the longest stretch in Baltimore history.

Kevin Henry

A member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), Kevin Henry has been covering MLB and MiLB for nearly two decades. Those assignments have included All-Star Games and the MLB postseason, including the World Series. Based in the Denver area, Kevin calls Coors Field his home base, but travels throughout North America during the season to discover the best stories possible

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