KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Turns out Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. perfectly plays the role of play-off villain.

Chisholm then made headlines New York lost Game 2 of the AL Division Series to the Royals this week when he declared they had ‘just been lucky’. And the sold-out crowd of 40,312 that greeted him in Kansas City for Game 3 on Wednesday night reminded him of the comments, which booed Chisholm every time he touched the ball or stepped up to the plate.

“I enjoyed every second of it. I love it. It gets my juices flowing,” Chisholm said after the Yankees posted a 3-2 victory that put them on the brink of the American League Championship Series. ‘I’ve never seen anyone call a bum a name. It gets us going. That’s the reaction I wanted and it got us flowing. It sounded like I was reaching a lot of people.

Luck was not much on Chisholm’s side; he went 0 for 4 with a strikeout. But the Yankees still won thanks to an eighth-inning home run from Giancarlo Stanton and a masterful performance from their bullpen, which produced 4 1/3 scoreless innings and silenced a feverish crowd as they witnessed the Royals’ first home game in nearly a decade.

New York will try to take its place the American League Championship Series with Gerrit Cole on the mound Thursday evening.

As for Chisholm, he’s just the latest Yankees player to suffer the vitriol of Kansas City fans.

Those who were there in 2012, when Kauffman Stadium hosted the All-Star Game, remember the way they spewed venom at Robinson Cano, who had snubbed Royals slugger Billy Butler when the captains picked the Home Run Derby teams . Royals fans continued to boo Cano for years every time he returned to Kansas City.

Chisholm certainly seems okay with that potential future.

“He loves it. He enjoys it,” Stanton said. “If you get the crowd involved and distract him with something, he’ll be fine.”

The first wave of cheering came Wednesday night when Chisholm trotted to the third base line to stand between Stanton and shortstop Anthony Volpe for introductions. It continued through his first at-bat, a groundout to second base, and every time he stepped up to the plate for the rest of the night — until he grounded out or struck out, and the crowd cheered.

“Bronx cheers,” very fitting for a member of the Yankees.

“Jazz can be colorful sometimes,” New York manager Aaron Boone admitted. “In his mind, because of the confidence he has in himself and our group, it’s like, ‘Hey, they got lucky.’ But I don’t think that was the case. They obviously played very well. They played two very good games against us and got a win (Monday) evening.”

The Yankees earned one of their own on Wednesday night. No luck needed.

“He handled it well,” Boone said of Chisholm’s rude reception in Kansas City. “It’s good that the play-offs have a bit of that. I don’t think he meant any disrespect by it. You know, it made for a slightly better environment.

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