The Angels’ Michael Stefanic, second from left, celebrates with teammates after he hit a walk-off RBI single in the 10th inning of their 4-3 victory over the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Angels starting pitcher Griffin Canning throws to the plate during the first inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Angels star Shohei Ohtani checks his bat in the dugout during the first inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
New York Yankees starting pitcher Luis Severino throws to the plate during the first inning of their game against the Angels on Monday at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani, left, and New York Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo greet each other as Ohtani stands on first during the first inning on Monday at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Zach Neto, right, slides before being tagged out by New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino as he tries to score on a double by Shohei Ohtani during the third inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Zach Neto, right, is tagged out by New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino as he tries to score on a double by Shohei Ohtani during the third inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The Angels’ Zach Neto, left, is tagged out by New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino as he tries to score on a double by Shohei Ohtani during the third inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Zach Neto, left, collides with New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino as he tries to score on a double by Shohei Ohtani during the third inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. Neto was tagged out on the play. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Zach Neto, top, collides with New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino as he tries to score on a double by Shohei Ohtani during the third inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. Neto was tagged out on the play. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The Angels’ Zach Neto, left, collides with New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino as he tries to score on a double by Shohei Ohtani during the third inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. Neto was tagged out on the play. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Zach Neto, left, winces after colliding with New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino as he tried to score on a double by Shohei Ohtani during the third inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. Neto was tagged out on the play. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Zach Neto, left, rolls over after colliding with New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino as he tried to score on a double by Shohei Ohtani during the third inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. Neto was tagged out on the play. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Angels star Shohei Ohtani gestures from the dugout during the first inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Angels starting pitcher Griffin Canning throws to the plate during the first inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Angels star Shohei Ohtani, left, talks with his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, as they watch from the dugout during the first inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
New York Yankees starting pitcher Luis Severino throws to the plate during the first inning of their game against the Angels on Monday at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani hits a double during the third inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The New York Yankees’ Harrison Bader is congratulated by teammates in the dugout after scoring on a ground-rule double by Oswaldo Cabrera during the sixth inning of their game against the Angels on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Trey Cabbage hits a double during the fifth inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The Angels’ Trey Cabbage gestures as he stands on second base after hitting a double during the fifth inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino tags the Angels’ Hunter Renfroe for an out during the fifth inning on Monday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The New York Yankees’ Gleyber Torres hits a sacrifice fly during the seventh inning of their game against the Angels on Monday at Angel Stadium. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Angels star Shohei Ohtani hits a two-run home run to tie the score during the seventh inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Angels star Shohei Ohtani hits a two-run home run to tie the score during the seventh inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Angels star Shohei Ohtani tosses his bat after hitting a two-run home run to tie the score as New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino watches during the seventh inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Angels star Shohei Ohtani flips his bat after hitting a two-run home run to tie the score as New York Yankees catcher Jose Trevino watches during the seventh inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Angels star Shohei Ohtani celebrates as he runs to first base after hitting a two-run home run to tie the score during the seventh inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Angels star Shohei Ohtani celebrates as he rounds first base after hitting a two-run home run to tie the score during the seventh inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Angels star Shohei Ohtani celebrates as he rounds first base after hitting a two-run home run to tie the score during the seventh inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Zach Neto, second from left, places the team kabuto helmet on Shohei Ohtani after Ohtani hit a two-run home run to tie the score during the seventh inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
A fan holds up a sign for Angels star Shohei Ohtani during the second inning of their game against the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Michael Stefanic hits a walk-off RBI single during the 10th inning of their 4-3 victory over the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Chad Wallach, right, celebrates before scoring on a walk-off single by Michael Stefanic as New York Yankees relief pitcher Nick Ramirez walks off the field during the 10th inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Chad Wallach, left, scores on a walk-off single by Michael Stefanic as New York Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka stands at the plate during the 10th inning on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Michael Stefanic, second from right, celebrates with teammates, including Zach Neto, right, after he hit a walk-off RBI single in the 10th inning or their 4-3 victory over the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The Angels’ Michael Stefanic is mobbed by teammates after he hit a walk-off RBI single in the 10th inning of their 4-3 victory over the New York Yankees on Monday night at Angel Stadium. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM — 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, his 20th in the past 34 games. He leads the majors with 35 home runs.
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.
“Most emotion I’ve seen on the field from him,” Manager Phil Nevin said. “It was awesome. Just an incredible deal there.”
Nevin said the impact on the Angels is “massive,” when Ohtani hits a homer, in terms of what it does for the ballpark and among his teammates. Although the narrative as the Angels have struggled lately has been about how the team ought to consider trading Ohtani because there is no chance of bringing the impending free agent back to a team that has not had a winning season since he’s been here, Nevin said moments like that one demonstrate how Ohtani hasn’t given up on the Angels.
“He wants to win in the worst way,” Nevin said. “This has been frustrating for him the last two weeks, as it is for everybody, but you can see it in him. He wants to win. He wants to win here.”
Ohtani’s homer 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 his previous career high by eight pitches.
“We prepare our bodies to do this week in and week out,” Canning said. “So I don’t think (the pitch count) is that big a deal.”
Nevin said he wasn’t concerned about the number, because it wasn’t that many more pitches than Canning had thrown when he reached 112 last month in Colorado. He was nonetheless impressed that he maintained his stuff that long, for that many outs.
“Understanding what we needed today, what has happened to us in the last few days, what our starting pitching has been the last two weeks, that’s as big a start as I think we’ve had this year,” Nevin said.
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, but 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. Canning signaled to the dugout after each hit that he wasn’t ready to come out of the game.
Nevin nonetheless went to the mound after the Volpe hit, but not to pull Canning.
“My intention was not to take him out of the game because I knew what he was going to tell me,” Nevin said. “I just wanted to hear it, and I wanted to give him a little bit of a breather. I told him to empty the tank. Maybe that wasn’t the right thing because I think he overthrew some pitches, but his velocity was still good.”
Canning walked Isiah Kiner-Falefa, loading the bases, and then Nevin finally pulled him in favor of Jimmy Herget. Herget got ahead of him, 0-and-2, and then he hung a changeup over the middle and Oswaldo Cabrera drilled it into left-center. The ball hopped over the fence for a ground-rule double, driving in two runs.
The Angels got one run back on a Matt Thaiss homer in the sixth, and then the Yankees added another against Gerardo Reyes in the seventh, setting the stage for Ohtani’s game-tying blast.
They still had work to do to pick up the victory, though.
Left-hander Matt Moore got into and out of a jam in the ninth, getting a double play to keep the game tied. In the 10th, Loup pitched an inning that Nevin said was “the best I’ve seen him.”
In the bottom of the inning, the Angels’ automatic runner was still standing at second after two outs, when Stefanic came to the plate as a pinch hitter. He got the pitch he was looking for – a changeup – from Yankees left-hander Nick Ramirez, and he yanked it into left field as Chad Wallach sprinted home with the winner.
“Obviously just a really good team win,” Canning said. “Everyone’s sticking together, sticking with the process and luckily we came out on top.”
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