MILWAUKEE — The Yankees picked up Michael Tonkin off waivers Thursday and threw him right into the fire Friday.
Both parties got burned.
After the Yankees took a one-run lead in the top of the 10th, Tonkin allowed the tying run to score in the bottom of the inning before the Brewers walked it off on him in the 11th for a 7-6 win at American Family Field.
Joey Ortiz delivered the dagger, shooting a hard ground ball past third baseman Jahmai Jones to score the winning run from third.
On a night when Luis Gil lasted just five innings, the Yankees (17-10) already had used four relievers to get to the 10th inning, including Clay Holmes throwing a 10-pitch bottom of the ninth.
Before Friday, the closer had last pitched on Tuesday, when he threw a nine-pitch inning, but manager Aaron Boone chose not to extend him for a second inning of work against the Brewers (17-8).
Instead, Boone called on Tonkin — seemingly the last man available in the bullpen — who had been designated for assignment three times this month (twice by the Mets).
Tonkin stranded the winning run at third base in the 10th inning, but after the Yankees went down quietly in the top of the 11th, the Brewers pounced in the bottom of the frame.
Giancarlo Stanton, who has struggled as a pinch-hitter during his career (3-for-42 entering Friday), delivered off the bench in the top of the 10th inning.
He drilled a leadoff double to the gap to score the automatic runner for the 6-5 lead, though the Yankees were unable to add any insurance runs.
Three home runs by Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham had given the Yankees a 5-4 lead by the top of the fourth inning.
From there, though, their offense went quiet.
Brewers right-hander Colin Rea and the bullpen went on to retire 10 in a row and 13 of the next 14.
The Yankees threatened in the top of the ninth as Alex Verdugo drew a one-out walk, but he was erased trying to steal second base.
Oswaldo Cabrera then drew a two-out walk, but Jose Trevino grounded out to end the inning.
Clay Holmes threw a scoreless bottom of the ninth — giving him 13 straight appearances without allowing an earned run to start the season — to send the game to extras.
After not giving up any home runs through his first four starts of the season, Luis Gil got taken deep twice on Friday night.
They accounted for four of the season-high five runs he allowed over five-plus innings.
Gil took the mound to start the sixth inning protecting a 5-4 lead courtesy of a three-run home run from Grisham for his first hit of the season.
But ex-Yankee Gary Sanchez roped Gil’s second pitch of the inning to left field for a double, ending the right-hander’s night.
Ron Marinaccio relieved Gil and got a groundout that allowed Sanchez to move up to third base before he scored on a sacrifice fly by Joey Ortiz that tied the game at five.
The Yankees had staked out an early 2-0 lead as Soto and Verdugo each hit a solo home run in the first two innings.
But the Brewers quickly tied things up in the bottom of the second, when Ortiz — part of the return from the Orioles in the Corbin Burnes blockbuster — clubbed his first big league home run, a two-run shot off Gil.
The Brewers then took a 4-2 lead in the third inning when Gil got into trouble with two outs.
Rhys Hoskins extended the inning with a single before Bryce Perkins — who spent the 2022 season in the Yankees’ farm system and lived with Anthony Volpe’s family in New Jersey while playing for Double-A Somerset — crushed a two-run homer off a 96 mph fastball at the top of the zone.
But the Yankees found an immediate response, delivered by Grisham.
The former first-round draft pick of the Brewers in 2015 was starting just his sixth game of the season and came into the night 0-for-12 with two walks.
After Cabrera singled and Austin Wells walked with two outs in the fourth inning, Grisham came to the plate and hit a long fly ball down the right-field line that was just foul.
Two pitches later, though, he clobbered another pitch and kept it fair for a three-run home run into the second deck, providing the Yankees a 5-4 lead.