ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani launched, watched and flipped.
The Angels superstar blasted a game-tying two-run home run in the seventh inning of a 4-3, 10-inning victory over the New York Yankees on Monday night.
Michael Stefanic pulled a single into left field to drive in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th, after left-hander Aaron Loup stranded the Yankees’ automatic runner with two strikeouts in the top of the inning.
The lasting image from the game, though, will be Ohtani’s homer.
It was not Ohtani’s most majestic homer – measuring a mere 403 feet – but it clearly ranked among his most enjoyable, based on his reaction.
He stood at the plate for an extra moment and then tossed his bat high in the air, toward the Yankees’ dugout.
Ohtani’s major league-leading 35th homer of the year was the iconic moment from a victory the Angels badly needed to wash away the frustration from their blown four-run lead on Sunday.
That loss drained their bullpen, setting the stage for Griffin Canning to deliver a heroic performance on Monday.
Canning threw 120 pitches, the most in the major leagues this season and the most for any Angels pitcher since 2015. It surpassed Canning’s previous career high by eight pitches.
The Angels have been desperate for quality pitching, having posted a 7.88 ERA during the 2-11 stretch that preceded Monday’s game.
Canning was sharp throughout the night, finishing with a career-high 12 strikeouts, but the Yankees still ran up his pitch count. He was at 101 pitches after the fifth.
Nevin still sent him to the mound in the sixth, the first time all season he had sent a pitcher to the mound after they had already thrown 100 pitches.
Canning struck out Gleyber Torres and Anthony Rizzo, but he could not get the third out. He gave up singles to Harrison Bader and Anthony Volpe.
Nevin went to the mound, but not to pull Canning. They talked and he allowed Canning one more shot to get out of the inning. Canning instead walked Isiah Kiner-Falefa, loading the bases.
At that point, Nevin went to Jimmy Herget to face Oswaldo Cabrera. Herget got ahead of him, 0-and-2, and then he hung a changeup over the middle and Cabrera drilled it into left-center. The ball hopped over the fence for a ground-rule double, driving in two runs.
The Angels trailed 2-0 because the offense, which has been good during most of this season-defining stretch, missed on a few opportunities in the early innings.
In the third, Zach Neto was easily thrown out at the plate after third base coach Bill Haselman waved him around on a double by Ohtani.
The Angels put the first two runners of the fifth inning on base, with a Hunter Renfroe walk and a Trey Cabbage double. They couldn’t drive them in. Eduardo Escobar struck out. Neto hit a grounder to third, and the Yankees got the out at the plate. After Ohtani was intentionally walked, Mickey Moniak hit a hard flyout to right.
Matt Thaiss put the Angels on the scoreboard with a homer in the sixth, cutting the deficit to 2-1. The Yankees scored a run against Gerardo Reyes in the seventh to pad the lead to two, just before Ohtani erased it.
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