Aaron Judge homered twice, and Mike Trout thought he got the last laugh, but Trent Grisham's second home run tied the game in the ninth before Angels closer Jordan Romano's wild pitch plated the winning run as the Yankees outlasted the Angels for an 11-10 win on Monday night in the Bronx.
The Yankees saw leads of 4-0, 7-4, and 8-7 all evaporate before Trout’s second home run with one down in the top of the eighth appeared to put the visitors from Los Angeles ahead for good.
But Romano imploded in the ninth, allowing all five batters he faced to reach in the three-run inning, with his final offering a 3-2 wild pitch to score the game-winning run from third, closing the 3:36 marathon game.
The battle of the three-time MVPs lived up to its billing as Judge finished the day 2-for-5 with three batted in on his two long home runs, the 373rd and 374th of his big league career. And Trout matched him with a 2-for-5 day with two homers and five RBI, representing his 407th and 408th of his career. He also came close to a grand slam in the fourth.
Even with the 11 runs, the Bronx Bombers - who only scored all but one run via the long ball – nearly let a win slip away at the plate, going 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base.
But the win snapped New York's five-game losing streak to improve to 9-7. The visitors fell to 8-9.
Here are the takeaways...
- Judge took a pair of curveballs outside the zone from Angels’ starter Yusei Kikuchi before drilling a hanging changeup for a towering two-run home run to left in the bottom of the first. The middle-middle pitch soared out of the yard 456 feet and 116.2 mph off the bat.
In the second, he reached on an error on what could have been a double-play on a ball he just smoked (103.9 mph) to third. He went down swinging against righty reliever Shaun Anderson with a runner on second in the fourth.
Judge got revenge on Anderson and put the Yanks ahead, turning on a changeup right over the plate for a 398-foot homer down the left field line. He just crushed the 1-2 pitch, 111.4 mph off the bat to make it an 8-7 game with one down in the sixth. He hit another ball hard, 107.1 mph, in the eighth, but it was a simple lineout to center.
- Grisham, pinch-hitting with two in scoring position for Randal Grichuk in the fifth, got a hanging 2-1 changeup down-and-in from Anderson and just stayed behind it enough and got under it enough to sneak it over the short porch in right. He hit it relatively hard (99 mph) and got it to travel 355 feet to right-center for a three-run shot in the only park it would have been a homer in, for his first round tripper of the year.
After lining out to center in the seventh, Grisham got a low slider from Romano and turned on it for a 391-foot shot to right to tie the game at 10.
- José Caballero fouled the first pitch he saw off his left foot and needed a bit of time to shake off the pain. It worked as he lined the very next Kikuchi pitch (another hanging changeup) into the seats 370 feet down the left field line for a two-run home run to make it a 4-0 Yanks' lead in the bottom of the second. He went hitless in his next three times up, but doubled down the third base line before stealing third base without a throw and scoring the winning run.
- Ryan McMahon, who entered at third for the top of the sixth in Paul Goldschmidt's spot with Ben Rice shifting to first, grounded out and lined out before he worked the 'walk-off' walk Romano that saw the winning run score.
- Giancarlo Stanton opened the fifth by drilling a double off the wall in center. The liner was just smashed, 110.5 mph off the bat, and beat Trout to the wall for a 412 feet two bagger. He added a second hit of the night with a two-out single to left. He finished 2-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts swinging.
- Will Warren’s only blemish through three innings was a two-out hit batter in the top of the second, as he collected five strikeouts through the first nine outs on 52 pitches. The righty allowed his first hits of the game in the fourth, and they proved costly. Of course, the downfall all began with Caballero letting a ball scoot right past him for an error as he tried to take the hard shot from Trout off his side.
After a groundout put Trout in scoring position, Warren left a sweeper in the middle of the zone to Jorge Soler, who turned on it for an RBI double to left. After another strikeout on a good changeup, Warren left a fastball belt high to Jo Adell, who smacked it (109.7 mph) to right for an RBI single to left.
After a mound visit by pitching coach Matt Blake, Warren lost a battle to Josh Lowe for an 11-pitch walk and then surrendered a single past a diving Caballero to plate the third run of the inning and Aaron Boone had to come get the starter.
Fernando Cruz entered, but walked Adam Frazier to load the bases and, after getting ahead of Zach Neto 1-2, walked in the tying run with a splitter in the dirt. After another Blake mound visit, Trout, who started the inning, got a down in the zone fastball and cranked it 393 feet to left-center, but there was enough room for CodyBellinger to end the inning. The fly ball, hit 106.8 mph, would have been a grand slam in four big league parks.
Warren’s final line: 3.2 innings, four runs (none earned) on three hits, a walk, and hit batter with six strikeouts on 89 pitches (60 strikes).
- Tim Hill got the fifth and had two men on with one out after a couple of singles, but got Adell to bounce into a 6-4-3 twin-killing.
Hill left after a two-out single in the sixth, giving way to Jake Bird, who surrendered a bloop single to center and a game-tying, three-run bomb by Trout. The future Hall of Famer crushed the up in the zone sweeper 421 feet, 108.7 mph off the bat to left-center.
Bird stayed on and got a strikeout to start the seventh, but a hard hit single and a smashed double down the third base line sent Blake back to the mound for a visit with two in scoring position. Bird got ahead 0-2, but couldn't get the strikeout as a sac fly to right tied the score.
Camilo Doval stranded the go-ahead run at third to end the seventh, but let the lead slip in the eighth after a leadoff single, strikeout, and two-run shot by Trout. Doval's sixth pitch of the at-bat was a 3-2 slider down that Trout launched 445 feet into the visitor's bullpen in left (109.2 mph off the bat).
Paul Blackburn had a 1-2-3 ninth with three flyouts to center and earned the win as the pitcher of record.
- Goldschmidt, in the lineup against the lefty starter, opened the bottom of the first by roping a double (106.2 mph) into the left-center gap before coming around on the Judge homer. The veteran, who just seems to wear out southpaws, naturally went down swinging in his next at-bat. He finished 1-for-2 with a walk against the lefty starter.
- Jazz Chisholm Jr., hitless in his first three at-bats with a strikeout swinging on a breaking pitch low and away, got a chance against lefty reliever Mitch Farris with runners on the corner and two down in the sixth. But waved at a changeup well below the zone. He added a single to start the ninth ahead of Grisham's game-tying homer.
- Bellinger went hitless in his first four times to the plate, the middle two times coming up with runners in scoring position. But he did smack a one-out single in the eighth.
- Austin Wells walked twice and grounded a single off a lefty in the seventh to finish 1-for-3.
- Amed Rosario, who singled the other way on a two-strike, 0-2 pitch in the first, had a chance with the bases loaded and two away in the second, and on a 2-2 delivery cranked a down in the zone fastball to center, but Trout managed to range back to haul in the 104.8 mph, 390-foot out. He would finish 1-for-2 before exiting for a pinch-hitter in the fifth.
- Grichuk, after walking his first time up, looked to have his first hit in pinstripes, but Trout made a leaping grab just short of the wall in the deepest part of the ballpark for a 413-foot out. The ball was tattooed (106.9 mph) and would have been a homer in 22 of 30 big league parks. He finished 0-for-1 before being lifted in the fifth.
- Rice walked as a pinch-hitter for Rosario in the fifth, singled off the lefty Farris in the sixth, but went down swinging to the lefty Drew Pomeranz.
Highlights
What's next
The two teams continue the four-game set with a 7:05 p.m. first pitch on Tuesday.
Left-hander Ryan Weathers (2.81 ERA, 1.375 WHIP in 16.0 innings) looks to repeat his great outing last time out against fellow southpaw Reid Detmers (4.60 ERA, 1.277 WHIP in 15.2 innings).
