Mike Trout is a living legend of the game. His true prime ended before COVID-19 ravaged the world due to a mountain of injuries costing not only him of accumulating the stats that would make him an inner-circle Hall of Famer, but robbing us fans of watching his greatness more.
It makes it all the more frustrating that he’s spent his career in the shadows of Anaheim, playing just three playoff games in his decade-and-a-half in the league. Even as it’s been seven years since his last truly great season,
we see glimpses every so often of the player that once ruled the world.
Tonight, he hit two clutch home runs that first tied the game at seven and then gave the Angels the lead. He went shot-for-shot with the current gold standard, Aaron Judge, in a memorable back-and-forth that you only hear about in legend. He even made a great catch to rob Randal Grichuk of extra bases, showing he’s all the way back in center field. This was vintage Mike Trout.
And yet, as it happens over and over again, the Angels found a way to lose. As the ancient scrolls dictate, “Mike Trout hits two home runs and makes a run-saving catch, while Josh Lowe did something that hasn’t been done since Tungsten Arm O’Doyle of the 1921 Akron Groomsmen, as the Angels get walked off by the Yankees, 11-10.”
Warren got things started with a 1-2-3 first inning against the top of the Angels’ order, giving the offense the opportunity to strike first. Paul Goldschmidt did his usual lefty-killer things with a leadoff double to bring up the slumbering captain. It’s impossible to know in the moment when a player starts to figure it out, but after homering in his last at-bat on Sunday, it was a good sign to see Judge identify a 2-0 changeup that went right down Broadway and obliterate it into the left-field bleachers to open the scoring.
That’s been the problem for Judge in the early going, not swinging enough at pitches that he’s historically done a lot of damage on, but he swung at that one, and it landed 456 feet away to quickly jump on Yusei Kikuchi, who’s had success in the past against the Yankees.
Warren gave the Yankees a shutdown inning in the second, pitching around a two-out hit-by-pitch of Jo Adell. In the bottom half of the inning, Grichuk worked a good at-bat to finally get on base of his own volition and set up José Caballero, who crushed a similarly hanging changeup down the pipe for a two-run homer of his own to make it 4-0.
Kikuchi was really laboring, and his defense wasn’t helping. After walking Austin Wells, he seemed to have gotten a routine 5-4-3 double play ball out of Judge, but Yoan Moncada booted it. A walk to Giancarlo Stanton loaded the bases for Amed Rosario, who put a charge into a 2-2 pitch with the bases loaded, but it resulted in a barreled flyout into the glove of Mike Trout in center field.
It was more of the same in the third for Warren, as he tore up the bottom of the Angels’ order with his entire arsenal. Kikuchi finally put up a zero in the bottom half, but was still allowing hard contact. Grichuk was once again robbed of his first Yankee hit by Trout in center field. It wasn’t quite going to be a home run, but it would’ve been in 22 ballparks.
The fourth is where things fell apart. Warren was cruising, but a routine ground ball by Trout was booted by Caballero, and the wheels slowly fell off. Goldschmidt had a chance to turn a 1-6-3 double play a few pitches later, but muffed it and settled for a 3-unassisted. Jorge Soler and Adell put up good at-bats that ended in RBI hits to suddenly get the Angels on the board, but there were still two outs and Josh Lowe at the plate. Well, what if I told you that a guy with bad whiff and strikeout rates put together an 11-pitch at-bat and fouled off 3-4 excellent putaway pitches by Warren. Not great!
And then it got worse. Logan O’Hoppe put a good swing on a sinker below the zone for an RBI single to chase a laboring Warren, who exits with zero earned runs allowed. Fernando Cruz was tasked with putting out the fire and he certainly did not, walking back-to-back batters to tie the game before giving up a long flyout to center field to Trout. At least we got some luck back, right?
Suddenly, in a tie game, the Yankees only got a Goldschmidt walk in the fourth, but it did chase Kikuchi midway through. Tim Hill got the ball for the fifth and it looked like it was happening again, as the usual ground ball specialist was getting ground balls, but they kept finding holes. Suddenly in a precarious spot, he induced an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play out of Adell.
Stanton led off the fifth with an absolute rope of a double that just missed being a home run to center field (110.5 mph and a homer in 17 ballparks!). We then saw Aaron Boone aggressively deploy his bench against Kade Anderson, going to both Ben Rice and Trent Grisham in place of Rosario and Grichuk. Rice was able to work a walk, and after Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a groundout that worked like a bunt, Grisham porched his first extra-base hit of the season for a big go-ahead home run to make it 7-4.
Of course, it can never be that easy. Hill got the first two outs of the inning, but gave up a sawed-off single to Adam Frazier that prompted Boone to go to Jake Bird. It started well, as Bird jumped ahead of Zach Neto and got him to chase a 1-2 sweeper in the other batter’s box… the problem was that the young star shortstop managed to flick it into center field for a hit, which brought up a three-time MVP, who patiently waited for a pitch to hit until Bird served one up on 3-2 for a game-tying homer.
Anderson was still somehow pitching for the Angels in the bottom of the sixth and the managerial novice of Kurt Suzuki showed in a big way. After getting Ryan McMahon to ground out, he faced Judge once again, and the Yankees’ captain once again obliterated a changeup to deep left field for his second home run of the game, putting the Yankees back in front, 8-7.
Stanton finally chased Anderson with a single to left field, bringing on Mitch Farris. Rice singled to right field to put runners on the corners with two out, but the young lefty was able to strike out Chisholm to end the threat.
MLB games nowadays last about two hours and 40 minutes, and we reached this mark at the top of the seventh. Bird stayed on to start the inning and, after striking out the leadoff hitter, gave up a single, double, and game-tying sac fly to Lowe before Boone pulled the plug and asked Camilo Doval to strand the tying run at third, which he was able to do.
Farris stayed out there after the seventh-inning stretch and gave up a two-out single to Wells, but stranded him. Doval started the eighth, as Boone desperately looked for someone to step up, and he did not. With one on and one out, Doval got stuck in a 3-2 count against Trout, and the future Hall of Famer obliterated his second homer of the game to give the Angels their first lead, 10-8.
The vibe was dejected, from the fans to the players to everyone involved. Drew Pomeranz pitched around a Bellinger single in the eighth and Paul Blackburn finally produced a 1-2-3 ninth, but the Yankees were down to their final three outs, facing an old foe, Jordan Romano.
Romano’s career has fallen on hard times since his run as Toronto’s closer. After a truly terrible stint with the Phillies, he’s now the closer for the Angels, and he’s been off to a good start this year. That said, he has bad, bad memories against the Yankees and especially in this ballpark. Those demons needed to be exorcised.
But not today. Chisholm led off with a single to give Grisham another at-bat, and the Big Sleep didn’t miss. The bad luck he’s hit into to start 2026 faded away as he smashed his second clutch home run of the night to improbably tie this game at 10.
Normally, you’d be content with that and be ready for David Bednar in extras, but the Yankees weren’t done. Caballero smoked a double down the left-field line, Wells worked a gritty walk, and up stepped the pariah of the early season: Ryan McMahon. As much as his numbers are still brutal, it does feel like his swings and at-bats are slowly improving, and this was his masterpiece.
Foul ball, ball, called strike that he cleverly overturned with ABS, called strike. With a 2-2 count, he fouled off back-to-back tough pitches, fought off a center-cut fastball, and took ball three low. With a full count and the winning run on third, the strikeout-prone McMahon stared down a slider in the dirt that trickled away from Logan O’Hoppe, allowing the winning run to score to complete the wildest game of the young season.
Somehow, these two teams will pick themselves up after this three-hour, 36-minute marathon and continue this four-game set tomorrow at 7:05 pm EST. It’s Ryan Weathers, hoping for some of this run support, up against left-hander Reid Detmers on YES. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to lie down.
