Yankees lose to Angels in 10th after Shohei Ohtani ties game with two-run shot in seventh

ANAHEIM, Calif. — With 2022 American League MVP Aaron Judge watching helplessly from the dugout, this year’s winner — and if Shohei Ohtani doesn’t win it unanimously, voting privileges should be revoked — helped send the Yankees to yet another brutal loss Monday night.

After Ohtani hit a tying two-run homer off Michael King in the seventh inning, giving him an MLB-leading 35 homers, pinch hitter Michael Stefanic’s two-out RBI single off Nick Ramirez in the 10th gave the Angels a walk-off 4-3 victory over the Yankees in front of an electrified crowd of 41,180 at Angels Stadium.

Ramirez also had allowed a tying two-run homer in the 11th inning in the Yankees’ walk-off loss to the Rockies on Sunday, a game in which they blew two late two-run leads.

The Yankees struck out 17 times and went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, leaving 10 on base. The Angels went 1-for-11 — Stefanic got the only hit — and left 13 on base.

Ohtani’s blast, which gave him 19 homers in his last 31 games and 23 in his last 40 games, helped drop the Yankees (50-45) into sole possession of last place in the AL East. It also overshadowed a much-needed positive outing by Luis Severino, a solid game by Oswald Peraza (one hit, four walks) and a big late-inning hit by Oswaldo Cabrera.

King took over for Severino in the seventh and it was a disaster. He struck out Trey Cabbage but walked Eduardo Escobar. After Zach Neto struck out, Ohtani hammered a 1-and-2, 97-mph fastball to left-center to tie it at 3-3 — and punctuated his blast with a demonstrative bat flip.

“I wish it wasn’t at my expense,'' King said. "But he’s an incredible hitter. We knew as a team that we didn’t want him to be the one that beat us, and unfortunately I got greedy in a two-strike count and tried to make a better pitch than I needed to. Instead of just really throwing a chase fastball up and away, I tried to keep it close enough for him to swing, not obviously on the plate. But I can’t let him be the one that beat us, and I did today.”

Did the bat flip bother him? “No,'' he said. "If you’re going to tie the game that late, you can do whatever you want.”

Aaron Boone was asked if he considered intentionally walking Ohtani in the seventh, as he had in the fifth with runners on first and third and two outs. “No. Not that spot,'' he said. "Look, I did it in about as unique a spot, first and third, as you can in a tie game. But when we have the two-run lead there, the guy hitting behind him’s hitting .330 [Mickey Moniak was hitting .326 coming into the game]. So I wasn’t going to put another runner out at second and the tying run at first and the go-ahead run at the plate with a two-run lead there. Now had he gotten to second and we were behind in the count or something, different story. But, no, not in that [situation].”

The Yankees, whose offense under new hitting coach Sean Casey has yet to take off in any meaningful way, squandered a scoring chance in the ninth. Pinch hitter DJ LeMahieu led off with a single and took second on an error by rightfielder Hunter Renfroe. Peraza walked and, with Giancarlo Stanton up, the bench called for a double steal. It backfired when Stanton flied to deep left, plenty deep enough to allow pinch runner Billy McKinney to advance to third. Instead, he had time only to get back to second. Gleyber Torres, hot of late and with two singles and a sacrifice fly already in the game, hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.

The Yankees got to Griffin Canning in the sixth. The righthander struck out Torres to start the inning, giving him a career-high 11 strikeouts. He ran the total to 12 by fanning Anthony Rizzo, but Harrison Bader and Anthony Volpe singled and Isiah Kiner-Falefa walked to load the bases. Righthander Jimmy Herget came in to face Cabrera, who fell behind 0-and-2 before lacing a changeup into the gap in left-center for a ground-rule double that made it 2-0.

Severino got the first two outs in the bottom of the inning, but Matt Thaiss crushed a 96-mph fastball 438 feet to right-center to make it 2-1.

The Yankees tacked on in the seventh against righthander Gerardo Reyes. Peraza was the sparkplug, drawing a leadoff walk and stealing second. Stanton struck out and, after Peraza advanced on a wild pitch, Torres’ sacrifice fly to deep center made it 3-1.

Severino, who entered Monday 1-4 with a 7.38 ERA, allowed one run, six hits and three walks in six innings in which he struck out three. He pitched out of a second-and-third, none-out jam in the fifth without allowing any runs.

In his previous two games, Severino allowed 19 hits and 16 runs (14 earned) in 6 2⁄3 innings, recording an 18.90 ERA and a 3.45 WHIP. Opponents had a .475/.523/.850 slash line against him.

In his previous seven games, Severino held the hard-hitting Rangers to no runs in six innings — and allowed 37 runs (33 earned) and 48 hits in 25 1⁄3 innings in the other six games.

Severino was asked if he “needed” this kind of outing after the way things had been going. “I needed it a lot,'' he said. "It’s not about the runs or the homers and everything, it’s just about getting my team some innings. I don’t want to go out there and throw three innings. If I give up three, four runs in seven innings, I’ll be happy because at least I helped the bullpen. Just getting out there to the fifth, the sixth, made me really happy.”

The Yankees fell a game behind the fourth-place Red Sox and are 2 1/2 games behind the Astros for the third wild-card spot.

 “It’s a really tough division,'' King said. "We’ve obviously scuffled and haven’t capitalized on opportunities we’ve been given. I wouldn’t say it’s a big concern, but obviously we don’t like being in last place and we need to make a change and we need to start up this team and get in a groove here. It’s not a fun locker room to be in when you’re losing. We have a lot of ground to make up and I have a lot of faith in the guys we have right here. But today Sevy did great, offense gave us a lead and I didn’t come through. So it’s on me today.”