Yankees made two key discoveries during an insane night in the Bronx | Klapisch

NEW YORK — It would be easy to sanitize the Yankees’ 11-10 win over the Angels, so let’s get the niceties out of the way first.

It was a breakout night for Trent Grisham (two home runs, five RBIs), a stirring performance from Aaron Judge (also two home runs) and the end of that nasty five-game losing streak.

Stop right there if wins and losses are the only currency you care about. The Yankees did, after all, withstand Mike Trout’s own two-home run performance. And down by two runs in the ninth inning, the Yankees tied the game on Grisham’s second blast before scoring the game-winning run on a walk-off wild pitch.

That’s pure adrenaline. The Yankee Stadium crowd went home happy, although somewhat woozy from the close-up look at the Yankees’ numerous flaws. That riveting three-hour show matters less than the long-term implications of a) an unreliable bullpen and b) the numerous automatic outs in manager Aaron Boone’s lineup.

But let’s be fair one more time. Judge and Grisham, along with Jose Caballero, combined to save the Yankees from what would’ve been their worst defeat of this young season. It’s the kind of game bad teams routinely lose: blow an early lead, tie it up, only to fizzle out at the 11th hour.

The Yankees followed that playbook down to the last maddening detail. Starting pitcher Will Warren was knocked out in the fourth inning after wasting a 4-0 advantage. The bullpen proceeded to fritter away leads of 7-4 and 8-7. It took Grisham’s two-run blast and Angels closer Jason Romano spiking a breaking pitch with Caballero on third to spare fans the agony of listening to Boone rationalize the slop.

Instead, Boone was able to say, “I feel like it was good to win a game like that, where the offense breaks out and has a ton of really good at-bats.”

The problem is that 11 runs is an unsustainable request from any lineup. That’s especially true when the non-producers (Ryan McMahon, Austin Wells, Jazz Chisholm, Randal Grichuk, Grisham and Caballero) outnumber the studs (Judge, Ben Rice, Giancarlo Stanton, Cody Bellinger).

As for the bullpen, which allowed six runs in 5 1/3 innings, I count only three trustworthy arms: David Bednar, Tim Hill and Fernando Cruz. The rest of the crew should be replaced.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman had the chance to tweak the roster over the winter but chose the controversial Run It Back formula. He was vindicated by the Yankees’ 7-1 start, but the GM’s gamble looks shakier lately.

Start with McMahon (.108), who shows no sign of ever becoming an upgrade over DJ LeMahieu at third base. He might be even worse. Fans are already starting their campaign to bring prospect George Lombard Jr. to the Bronx. His early numbers at Double-A are impressive (.464 average, 1.388 OPS in 28 at-bats), though there’s no chance the Yankees will allow the 20-year-old Lombard to skip Triple-A as they did with Anthony Volpe.

But the fact that Lombard has become part of the conversation is proof that Cashman’s Run It Back formula is highly unpopular. The same is true about Grisham, although his two home runs against the Angels might be the awakening he and the Yankees have been waiting for.

Until that point, however, it looked like the club’s $22 million qualifying offer – and Grisham agreeing to it – was nothing short of a heist for Grisham. After hitting 34 home runs in 2025, he had none in his first 45 at-bats this year. With a .133 average, Grisham was in the process of making Cashman look like he’d been had. Everyone, it seems, wants Jasson Dominguez back in the Bronx.

I don’t see that happening yet. Judge will carry the offense if Monday’s two home runs signal the start of a monster run. That’ll buy time for Grisham and Chisholm to get hot. I don’t know if McMahon can be salvaged. Amed Rosario looks better every day.

But while the anti-Cashman army is feasting on McMahon’s failures, the general manager deserves credit for not sticking with Bird, whom he acquired last July at the trade deadline and brought back this season. The right-handed reliever has twice been demoted to Triple-A, including after Monday night’s fiasco.

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Bird was charged with three runs in one inning — all on the massive home run he surrendered to Trout in the sixth. With a 7.71 ERA, Bird was on his way out of the Bronx within an hour after the game. I doubt the Yankees would replace him with Carlos Legrange and his triple-digit fastball, but his time is coming.

The question is whether Cashman is willing to make more drastic changes on the fly — not just with Bird but with McMahon and reliever Camilo Doval, too. (I think there’s a low probability of that happening right now.)

Judge wasn’t wrong when he said, “Every good team goes through at least two big losing streaks (during the course of the season).” But folks who watch the Yankees every day know this wasn’t an ordinary dip. Something just doesn’t feel right.

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