The ugliest fun game of the year so far
The Yankees beat the Angels 11-10 Monday night at the Stadium on a walk-off wild pitch, snapping their losing streak in the most Yankee Stadium way possible. Seven home runs. Two separate Trent Grisham bombs. Judge and Trout trading shots. A ninth-inning rally that ended with Jose Caballero scoring on a bounced slider that nobody in the ballpark saw coming.
26 combined hits. Seven home runs (five Yankees, two Angels). Neither starter got through four innings. Will Warren coughed up four unearned runs and threw nearly 40 pitches in a brutal fourth inning. Yusei Kikuchi gave up four walks and two homers in 3.1 innings and looked like a guy who'd rather be anywhere else. This was not a crisp ballgame. This was a slap fight in a phone booth.
The Yankees led 4-0. Gave it back. Led 7-4 after Grisham's pinch-hit bomb. Gave it back. Led 8-7 after Judge's second homer. Gave it back. Down 10-8 entering the bottom of the ninth, and that's when it got stupid.
But it's the kind of game you remember in August when you're checking the wild card standings, because the Yankees had been in a funk and they absolutely had to have one. They got one.
Judge vs Trout, one more time
Aaron Judge homered twice. Mike Trout homered twice. Three-time MVP versus three-time MVP, trading haymakers like they knew the story being written. Judge got Kikuchi for a two-run shot in the first on a 2-0 changeup that he didn't miss, 456 feet into the left-field bleachers. His second one in the sixth barely stayed fair down the left field line, the kind of homer where you're not sure if it's going to be a double off the wall or a souvenir. 8-7 Yankees.
That was Judge's 47th career multi-homer game. Passed Mickey Mantle for second most in franchise history. He still trails Ruth's 68, because of course he does, but he's going to catch him too eventually if his knees hold up.
Trout did Trout things. Two bombs of his own, five RBI, and a run-saving catch in center that would've tied it earlier if he hadn't run it down. He's 34 and still the second-best player on the field when Aaron Judge is the first. How is that possible? I don't know. But it was fun to watch, even with the Yankees giving up 10 runs.
Grisham was the story all night
Five RBI, two swings. That's the whole night.
First one was a pinch-hit three-run shot off Shaun Anderson in the fifth, turning a 4-4 tie into a 7-4 lead. Second one was the big one: two-run shot off closer Jordan Romano in the bottom of the ninth, right field seats, forcing a 10-10 tie the Yankees had no business being in. The guy is making $22 million this year and tonight he looked worth every penny and then some.
The walk-off was a whole sequence
Caballero had already homered earlier, a two-run shot in the second that put the Yankees up 4-0. That lead lasted about fifteen minutes because Warren had nothing. But the ninth is where he earned his check.
Grisham ties it 10-10. Next batter is Caballero, and he rips a double down the left field line. Then he just takes third. Uncontested. The Angels had their corner infielders pulled in, nobody covering, and Caballero read it and was on his way before the pitcher even came set. Austin Wells walks. Now it's first and third, nobody out. Ryan McMahon comes up, works a full count, and Romano bounces a slider past Logan O'Hoppe to the backstop. Caballero scores. McMahon walks on the same pitch. Game over.
That's the kind of inning that doesn't happen if Caballero doesn't take third on a read. Not loud. Not flashy. Just the right baseball move at the right time. I don't know what the Yankees are paying him but whatever it is, double it.
Bottom line
Yankees 11, Angels 10. Skid snapped. Grisham drove in five on two homers, one as a pinch hitter and one off the closer to tie it. Judge passed Mantle on the multi-homer list. Trout reminded everyone he's still Trout. Caballero did the thing that wins baseball games that nobody shows on highlight reels until they absolutely have to.
