Ghastly Jazz Chisholm Jr. defensive gaffe ends Yankees' season in familiar fashion

For the second consecutive year, a promising New York Yankees season will informally end due to defensive malfeasance under the brightest lights.

This time, the culprit was Jazz Chisholm Jr., Game 3's hero and one of the significant reasons why the Yankees were able to stay alive until Wednesday night at home, a bullpen game for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The ending of this game hasn't only been familiar because it featured a bad bounce and a thud on the infield dirt, of course. The most familiar feeling of all was watching the Yankees' vaunted offense stumble against a succession of underwhelming relievers, earning only one at-bat with a runner in scoring position through the sixth inning. That at-bat was taken by Chisholm Jr. with two outs in the sixth. He fouled off his pitch to hit, then rolled over one weakly off the outside corner to end the inning.

That took the Yankees to the top of the seventh, where Cam Schlittler was running on fumes (and successfully so). Ernie Clement lined a single to right (of course, that's all he's done this series), but with one on and one out, Andrés Giménez slapped a hotshot up the middle, but directly to where Chisholm was positioned.

He was screened slightly by the umpire, but that's no excuse, and we refuse to make it one. It's a play that has to be made, in order to give Schlittler the galvanizing double play he'd earned for his efforts. At the very least, it has to be kept on the infield.

Instead, it scooted up the middle and ended the rookie's day.

Cam Schlittler's day ended by Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s poor Yankees defense in ALDS Game 4

Don't be mad at Jazz for yawning once. Be mad at him for this, though. He's not the disease, however. He's merely a symptom.

As if anyone needed more proof that the narrative edge had slid back to the Blue Jays, Devin Williams entered to face longtime enemy George Springer, and he dissected him on exclusively changeups. With two outs and two runners in scoring position (thanks to a steal on Springer's third strike), Nathan Lukes strode to the plate as Joe Davis in the booth laid out his decade of minor-league service. At that moment, it seemed clear he'd be delivering the ironic killshot, rather than Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Boom. Line drive single. Suddenly, the scoreboard looked a lot more like the game we'd all watched, in which the Jays had constantly threatened and the Yankees had mustered next to nothing.

This series has been marked by the Yankees looking overwhelmed at all times in Games 1, 2 and 4, making Game 3's stunning comeback look like more of an outlier than anything. In last year's World Series, they reserved their defensive flops and catastrophic plays for only the most important moments. In this series? They just looked a step behind throughout, rather than specifically taking a step back when it mattered most.

Of course, the dual daggers came at the hands of Chisholm's ... hands, as well as the quick twitch of a journeyman. Maybe next year, the Yankees' role players and stars will sync up to put the pressure on their opponent instead of the other way around.