Jazz Chisholm Jr. shows up Guardians, bails out Aaron Boone in tight Yankees win

Right after the Guardians took two out of three from the Yankees in the Bronx, New York returned the favor in Cleveland. They'll go for the sweep on Wednesday afternoon. After Monday's dramatic extra-inning victory, the Yankees pulled out a tight 3-2 win on Tuesday thanks to Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s eighth inning homer and beautiful trot around the bases.

Does that get you on Jimmy Fallon, Tom Hamilton? The Guardians had the matchup they wanted and Chisholm Jr. delivered the final nail in the coffin for the second time in the last three games.

Both teams' bats were largely ineffective in this one. The Guardians notched 10 hits, but none went for extra bases. They also went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Two of the Yankees' eight hits were homers; the other from Spencer Jones, which was the first of his career, in the second inning.

After that 2-0 lead, the Yankees gave it right back. And had this been a loss, it would've fallen squarely on Aaron Boone's shoulders.

He put Anthony Volpe in the starting lineup for the sixth time in the last eight games despite the fact he was hitting .182 with a .532 OPS over that stretch. Volpe went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and couldn't field a rocket ground ball right at him that ended up allowing a run. Somehow it wasn't ruled an error, even though it was an easier play than the one Jose Caballero botched on Monday night that put an error on his ledger.

Not only that, but Boone had the opportunity to pinch hit for Volpe in his fourth at-bat when the Guardians brought in a right-hander. He opted not to, and Volpe made another out late in the game.

Aaron Boone nearly cost Yankees with bullpen, Anthony Volpe decisions in win over Guardians

And then there were the bullpen decisions. He brought in Paul Blackburn after having to remove Gerrit Cole, who labored through four innings (83 pitches). Tim Hill relieved Blackburn and recorded one pitch to get Chase DeLauter out.

Instead of keeping Hill out there for the next inning to face lefty Kyle Manzardo, Boone brought in Camilo Doval, who has been surrendering runs with ease. Thankfully Doval got the job done, but we'll never understand using a reliever for one pitch to defeat the threat of a runner on first base with two outs.

After Doval? Jake Bird! Who couldn't handle the 7-8-9 hitters. He got Steven Kwan out, but then allowed a single and walk before Boone was forced to go to Fernando Cruz, which probably should've been the move to begin with.

Cruz, like Chisholm, bailed Boone out. The right-hander finished the game, logging 1 2/3 innings on 25 pitches. He struck out four Guardians, including the final three to end the game. But again, the Yankees never should've been in this position.

Had Volpe fielded that shot by DeLauter, Cole saves a bunch of bullets and can at least go five innings. Had Boone brought in Hill for the seventh, Bird probably never comes into the game. With Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Max Fried on the shelf, the Yankees cannot afford to be put in these precarious situations.

Yes, we love wins. We even love lucky wins. But we don't like pressing our luck with very avoidable situations. That's exactly the concern most fans have with Boone, who finds ways to manage in a far more complicated fashion than he needs to.

Carlos Rodón, please go seven innings on Wednesday so we don't have to deal with a bullpen carousel. And put Volpe on the bench. Heck, send him down to Triple-A and bring up Dominguez, who already homered from the right side of the plate on Tuesday. You can only play with fire for so long.

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