NEW YORK — With the Yankees down 5-3 and two outs, Trent Grisham began rewriting the night in the fifth. He jumped on the first pitch and drove it out for a solo homer. Ben Rice doubled two pitches later, and Spencer Jones followed with an RBI double that tied the game.
The decisive swing came two innings later. Grisham doubled home the go-ahead run in the seventh as the Yankees moved in front 6-5. Rice added an RBI single, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. worked a bases-loaded walk as New York stretched the lead.
Grisham then supplied the exclamation point in the eighth with his second homer of the game, this one to right-center. He finished 3-for-5 with two home runs, a go-ahead double, four RBIs, three runs and 10 total bases. It was his second multi-homer game of the season and ninth of his MLB career.
Before blasts, came the Warren curse for Grisham
But Grisham started the Yankees game with a blunder.
The Yankees spent Wednesday night climbing out of a hole that seemed to deepen every time Will Warren returned to the mound. Seattle struck for three runs in the first inning at Yankee Stadium, forcing New York’s lineup to chase the game almost immediately. Randy Arozarena hit a two-run homer, and Julio Rodríguez followed with another shot before Warren could settle in.
The pressure carried into the second. Brendan Donovan lifted a ball into shallow center, where Trent Grisham broke in late as rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr. drifted back. Grisham appeared to hesitate, Lombard made a desperate attempt with his back to the plate, and the ball dropped for a double. Warren escaped the inning by getting Taylor Ward to ground into a double play, but the moment added to an already tense start.
Seattle kept attacking. Dominic Canzone homered in the third, and Warren later left with a runner aboard in the fifth. He was charged with five runs on six hits and four walks in four-plus innings. The Yankees trailed 5-3 when their bullpen took over, leaving the offense to rescue a starter who had given up three home runs on three different pitch types.
The comeback eventually became one of the Yankees’ biggest offensive nights in weeks. New York scored the final seven runs of a 10-5 win, collected 13 hits and six doubles, and clinched the series in front of 41,714.
Paul Blackburn earned the victory, Gabe Speier took the loss and no save was recorded. The Yankees improved to 68-52, remained six games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and held a four-game advantage over Boston for the American League’s top wild-card spot.
Only after the game swung completely did the night’s most striking sequence come into focus. Television cameras caught Warren visibly cursing after Grisham’s second-inning hesitation.
Video of the play showed Warren yelling in frustration, and a report that examined the clip read his lips as saying, “God DAMN it, dude!” The same player who drew Warren’s anger soon became the reason the Yankees won.
Warren takes responsibility for losing composure
Warren did not point at Grisham after the game. Instead, he turned the criticism inward and acknowledged that his emotions affected his outing.
“You got to be able to control your emotions,” Warren said after the win. “I don’t think I did a very good job of that tonight, and that’s probably why I got ran out of there in the fifth.”
The fly ball itself did not produce a run, but Warren never fully found command. Arozarena homered on a sweeper outside the strike zone. Rodríguez drove a four-seam fastball over the right-field wall. Canzone later launched a changeup 397 feet to right.
Warren also walked four and repeatedly pitched from behind in the count.
“Overall, just behind in the count,” Warren said, “and they made me pay.”
Grisham’s bat erases the image from the second inning
For the Yankees, the reversal was unusually complete. Grisham went from being involved in the most visible defensive mistake of the night to delivering the hit that permanently put New York ahead. His first homer made it a one-run game. His seventh-inning double supplied the winning run. His second homer turned the late lead into a five-run cushion.
After Wednesday’s game, Grisham had multiple hits in three straight games and an extra-base hit in four consecutive games. CBS Sports listed his season line through 399 plate appearances at .222/.314/.418 with 15 home runs, 50 RBIs, seven stolen bases and 59 runs.
Jones drove in three runs with two doubles, Rice had two hits and an RBI, and Ryan McMahon doubled home New York’s first run. The Yankees scored more than five runs for only the fifth time in their previous 48 games and reached double figures for the first time since July 9.
One sequence, two very different endings
For Warren, the second-inning camera shot became part of a difficult start he later owned publicly. For Grisham, the same inning became a footnote once his bat changed the game. He had been the target of a teammate’s visible frustration, then produced the decisive hit and two home runs before the night ended.
The Yankees entered Thursday with the series already secured and one game remaining against Seattle before a trip to Toronto. Warren left Wednesday with a no-decision and a lesson about controlling his emotions.
Grisham left with the game-winning RBI, his 15th homer of the season and the most striking answer possible to an ugly moment two innings into the night.
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