Jazz Chisholm Jr. admits his season sucks with surprising nosedive in one area at heart of woes

The big picture regarding Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s season:“It sucks,” Chisholm said while beginning Wednesday with a .217 batting average, 25 points below last year’s, and a .692 OPS that had dropped 121 points.“Sometimes you feel like you’re right there and the change is about to happen.

Then you strike out three times or you go 0-for-4 and three hard hits [that become outs], and then the next day you come in and you hit three balls again hard, and you’re 0-for-3 again.Don’t miss Greg Joyce’s text messages from The Bronx and beyond — he’s giving Sports+ subscribers the inside buzz on the Yankees.

“You just got to keep on working past it.”The smaller picture: a hitter who is accustomed to feasting on fastballs, and particularly four-seam fastballs, has gone hungry.Chisholm crushed fastballs last season, when he slugged .548 against that category of pitch (which, for reference, is higher than Aaron Judge’s slugging percentage this season).While Chisholm’s numbers across the board are down this season, his issues against four-seamers in particular have nose-dived.By Run Value, a metric that attempts to provide an estimated number of runs added, Chisholm’s minus-11 against four-seamers was the third-worst result from one player against one pitch in the majors, ahead of only Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and Colorado’s Ezequiel Tovar against four-seamers.What has happened?“I don’t know,” Chisholm said.

“It’s a good question.”Chisholm entered play hitting .187 with a .309 slugging percentage against four-seamers — a plunge that both he and opponents have noticed.As his results against the pitch and fastballs in general have dipped, opposing arms have adjusted how to pitch him.In May, Chisholm saw 46.5 percent fastballs, and in every month since the percentage has increased.

Entering play, August had brought him a steady diet of 58.9 percent fastballs.Chisholm has tried to respond by being aggressive against the heaters.From Op...