Yankees respect Shohei Ohtani, but MVP over Aaron Judge? C'mon.

MILWAUKEE — Aaron Boone was unmoved. So were Aaron Judge’s teammates.

After Shohei Ohtani pitched seven scoreless innings in the Angels' 2-1 victory over the Mariners on Saturday night — a game in which he scored a run and drove in the other — the reigning American League MVP appeared to make a case for winning two in a row.

"I don't like to self-critique myself in any way," Ohtani said through an interpreter, according to The Associated Press. "One thing I could say is, overall, balance-wise, I'm having a better season this year than I had last year."

Ohtani had 46 homers, 100 RBIs and a .965 OPS last season, as compared with 34 homers, 89 RBIs and an .891 OPS this year. He was 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP in 2021 and is 13-8 with a 2.43 ERA and 1.04 WHIP this year. He struck out 156 in 130 1/3 innings last season and has struck out 196 in 148 innings in 2022.

Boone paid his due respect to two-way All-Star Ohtani, but he didn’t budge in his thoughts regarding this year’s race.

"Shohei might be having a better [season than 2021],” Boone said late Sunday morning before Judge hit his 58th and 59th homers in a 12-8 victory over the Brewers, “but Judge is having one for the ages."

After going 3-for-6 in his return to the lineup, Anthony Rizzo, in answering another question about Judge, said he sees it the same way.

“I understand there's going to a storyline for the next two weeks on who deserves the MVP,” Rizzo said. “But this hasn't been done in this era, someone chasing 61 clean like this and no real question marks on what’s going on in the game. It’s really impressive, it’s really fun. I know there's a debate about Ohtani and what not, but Judge, it's his season. He’s just having a special season."

Judge leads MLB in home runs, RBIs (127), runs (122), on-base percentage (.419), slugging percentage (.701) and OPS (1.120) and owns large advantages over his closest pursuers in many of those categories.

Said Gerrit Cole: “In the end, we win as a team and we lose as a team, and the most valuable asset that we have had this year, winning as many games as we have, has been Aaron. There’s that component to it and then there are the statistical numbers that speak for themselves.”

Nothing yet on Montas

The Yankees have the results from the MRI taken of Frankie Montas’ right shoulder, but Boone said that before making any determinations, the club wants the pitcher and the results evaluated in New York by team physician  Christopher Ahmad.