Sonny Gray of the Yankees walks to the dugout after...

Sonny Gray of the Yankees walks to the dugout after the second inning against the Twins at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac

With Sonny Gray under the microscope again for Wednesday night’s start against the Twins, we’ll begin with this question: Good news first? Or bad?

OK, let’s rip off the Band-Aid and open with the bad. Gray was marginally better with Austin Romine behind the plate — there were plenty of bouncy-balls to scoop — but failed to complete five innings for the fourth time in five starts this season. Gray got to within an out of that unreachable goal, until he walked Eduardo Escobar with pitch No. 104 (not a misprint) to load the bases, and Aaron Boone couldn’t dial up Chad Green fast enough.

Gray showed more conviction on the mound, but his walks (five) outnumbered the strikeouts (four) and it felt like he was itching to give back the lead all night. The dense fog in the Bronx wasn’t thick enough to cover up the fact Gray is still a liability for this rotation.

Now for the good news: It really shouldn’t matter.

The Yankees can cover for Gray in the short term, as they did for Wednesday’s 7-4 victory, thanks to a relentless offensive attack — highlighted by April MVP Didi Gregorius — and a relatively fresh bullpen that benefited from the rest of the rotation doing their jobs the last turn through. That should be a manageable formula for a while, until Gray finds whatever it is he’s looking for, or the Yankees come up with a contingency plan for his spot, which has slid to No. 5.

“I don’t think it’s a secret that I’m struggling right now,” said Gray, who slightly trimmed his ERA from 8.27 to 7.71. “But at the end of the day, if you start a game like that and the team comes out with a win, it’s a positive.”

Give Gray points for his team-first attitude. The Yankees had lost three of Gray’s four previous starts, and in the last two, they couldn’t overcome the early deficits (6-0, 5-4) he stuck them with before bowing out well short of the fifth inning. Can it really be considered progress that Gray survived 4 2⁄3 innings and narrowly escaped with a 6-3 lead intact?

“I think it was a big step forward,” Boone said.

If the manager truly believes that, Gray must be worse off than we thought. Gray was up to his old tricks Wednesday when he dumped the Yankees in a 2-0 hole within his first dozen pitches, courtesy of Miguel Sano’s two-run homer. That alone was more than the whole staff had surrendered in any of the previous four games.

Sonny’s early sabotage didn’t stick, however, because the rolling Yankees came in leading the majors in runs scored (135) and homers (36), the latter stat putting them on pace for 265, which would break the Mariners’ single-season record of 264 (1997). During this five-game win streak, they’ve outscored the opposition 43-10.

“That’s been our mindset all season, and from last year,” Aaron Judge said. “We’ve got nine innings.”

Gregorius reached base in all five plate appearances, including an RBI single and tying homer with two outs in the third inning. That padded his MLB-leading RBI total (29) and helped keep him No. 1 in both slugging (.833) and OPS (1.303).

When a reporter asked Gregorius postgame if he had ever felt this locked in before, Didi smiled and replied, “That’s the same question as yesterday.”

You get the point. Aside from Gregorius, Judge may be even more dangerous than last year, and with Giancarlo Stanton off to a slow start, the Yankees have leaned on their youth brigade to provide the additional pop. It was Tyler Austin’s turn Wednesday and his three-run blast gave Gray his first lead, 5-2. Lower down, in the No. 9 spot, Gleyber Torres chipped in with a pair of hits and scored two runs.

That was all too much for the Twins, the Yankees’ favorite piñata. And once Gray was removed, Boone made sure it stood up by using four relievers — a luxury the other members of the rotation granted him in the days leading up to Gray’s assignment with four consecutive starts of six-plus innings.

Boone can’t tax his bullpen like that every night, obviously. But the Yankees can overcome Gray’s failures by riding the success of everyone else.

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