Judge and Grisham Walk Off as Yankees Outlast Angels in Slugfest

Monday night at Yankee Stadium belonged to the home run ball, and thank God for that, because without it, the Yankees would have lost to an Angels team that came to the Bronx swinging with genuine menace. This was baseball at its most gloriously unhinged: two offenses determined to out-slug each other into submission, with the Yankees ultimately emerging victorious 11-10 behind Trent Grisham‘s two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth that tied the game, followed by a walk-off on a wild pitch. It was messy. It was thrilling. It was exactly what baseball should be.

Let’s not pretend Paul Blackburn did anything resembling normal pitching work to earn the win. The man threw one inning without recording a single out, but when your offense is generating this kind of firepower, you take what you get. The real story here is that the Yankees’ lineup, particularly Aaron Judge and Trent Grisham, absolutely refused to quit when Los Angeles took a 10-7 lead into the ninth inning.

Judge and Grisham Refuse to Let This One Slip Away

Judge went 2-for-5 with two home runs and three RBIs, continuing his ridiculous early season pace. That 456-foot bomb in the first inning was a statement of intent, and his sixth home run of the season in the sixth extended the Yankees’ lead before the Angels clawed back. But it was Grisham who delivered the dagger, smashing two homers on the night for five RBIs, with his game-tying shot in the ninth preventing what would have been an inexcusable collapse.

Trout’s Brilliant Night Couldn’t Overcome Yankees’ Firepower

Mike Trout, predictably, had a monster game for the Angels. Two home runs, five RBIs, two runs scored. The man is playing at an MVP level right now, and if the Angels had received even league-average support from their pitching staff, they walk out of here with a win. But here’s the thing about the Yankees: they have enough firepower in their lineup to outlast anyone on any given night. Judge and Grisham proved that on Monday.

The Angels’ pitching was absolutely butchered. Jordan Romano, who came in presumably to close out a game that looked safe in the ninth, recorded zero outs and allowed three runs. That’s the kind of inning that haunts a team in September when they’re fighting for a playoff spot. Yusei Kikuchi and Will Warren did okay work for the Angels earlier, but it didn’t matter because once the Yankees got their teeth into this game in the fourth inning, when they scored four runs off some sloppy Angels defense, there was only going to be one outcome.

José Caballero’s two-run shot in the second kept the Yankees in striking distance, and the Yankees’ lineup attack in the fourth, featuring singles from Jo Adell and Logan O’Hoppe and a walk by Zach Neto, proved that grinding baseball wins close games. Mike Trout‘s three-run homer in the sixth looked like it might be the dagger, but the Yankees’ bats kept coming.

This was a game won on the margins, decided by the fact that the Yankees have more superstar power and more resilience than the Angels. On Monday night in the Bronx, that was the difference. The Yankees escaped because they had to, and that’s what good teams do.