LOS ANGELES — Choose your pleasure, Yankees fans.

What delighted, soothed or pleased you the most Friday night at Dodger Stadium, as the Yankees exploded out of their funk with a 10-2 pummeling of baseball’s best team? Was it the barrage of offense against Dodgers starting pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu, who only leads the major leagues in ERA? Or was it the mastery displayed by the Yankees’ own starter James Paxton, who toyed with the National League’s best offense as if it were a sparring partner at the local gym?

I’ll guess that most of you go with the Big Maple. Because this was the guy they need, the guy they hoped they were acquiring last offseason, to turn this weekend into a true World Series preview.

Because if he sure as heck didn’t end the Yankees’ starting pitching crisis, he at least found a flashlight in the dark, an especially handy tool on a night when the Yankees wore those ridiculous black uniforms to celebrate Players’ Weekend.

“Terrific,” Aaron Boone said, simply enough, of his left-hander. “It was really good to see him go out in this environment. Coming off of a tough series, he really set the tone for us in a big way.”

With the Yankees entering this historic, beautiful ballpark as the owners of a four-game losing streak (tying their season worst) after suffering a three-game sweep at the hands of the A’s in Northern California, Paxton lifted his club with 6²/₃ ⅔ innings of two-run, five-hit excellence, walking none and striking out 11.

He recorded three 1-2-3 frames, including the first inning — which has given him so much trouble this season — and his continued, increased usage of his curveball paid off, accounting for five of his Ks. He struck out NL Most Valuable Player candidate Cody Bellinger — with his dad, former Yankee Clay Bellinger, in attendance — and stud rookie catcher Will Smith three times apiece.

“Just pounding the strike zone,” said Paxton, who made sure to credit his catcher Gary Sanchez. “Used the curveball really well. Threw the cutter to left-handers. The guys did a great job playing D.”

He operated with a thin margin for error for four innings, Aaron Judge and Sanchez knocking solo homers in the third, until the Yankees blew it open in the fifth, thanks primarily to Didi Gregorius’ grand slam, the first of two homers for the Yankees’ shortstop. Even then, with these juiced baseballs and this Dodgers lineup, you take nothing for granted, and Paxton grinded for 109 pitches before Tommy Kahnle relieved him with two outs in the seventh.

“We were trying to mix our pitches tonight, get ahead early,” Sanchez said through an interpreter. “[Paxton] did an amazing job. He was able to hold the fort.”

No one would dispute that Paxton’s first season as a Yankee has disappointed overall; his ERA dropped to an underwhelming 4.43 with this effort. Nevertheless, given the overall state of the Yankees’ pitching, Paxton has something that puts him in a tier with Domingo German and Masahiro Tanaka, above that of J.A. Happ and CC Sabathia: A high ceiling.

“I know he’s had some tough ones, obviously,” Boone said of Paxton, “but from what I’ve been seeing really since when he’s come back off the injured list [in late May], … I think the way he’s throwing the ball, that is what he’s capable of. I’ve never doubted that.

“Hopefully he can continue to build off this. I know he’s in a good place throwing the ball right now. Excited where he’s at right now.”

The Yankees, despite owning the American League’s best record at 84-46 and trailing the Dodgers (85-45) by just one game, face an October when they could be underdogs in the AL Championship Series against the Astros and in the Fall Classic versus these Dodgers. That shouldn’t faze them, given all of the adversity they already have overcome, but it reflects the need for mid-level performers to reach their peaks at the right time.

Paxton, a mid-level performer with a high-end left arm, can be such an asset. Would anything bring you more baseball pleasure than another start just like this two months from now?