ANAHEIM -- It was a showdown between American League MVP candidates on Monday night with both Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge homering in front of a sold-out crowd at Angel Stadium.

Ohtani, the reigning AL MVP, remains firmly in the mix for the award this year despite Aaron Judge reaching 51 home runs on Tuesday. Ohtani has hit 29 blasts this year but has also posted a 2.67 ERA with 176 strikeouts over 128 innings in 22 starts on the mound. He has the highest strikeout rate among all qualified pitchers and the 11th-best ERA in the Majors.

Add it all up, and Ohtani has a case to be AL MVP for a second straight year despite Judge’s superior offensive numbers. It’s looking like it could be a close race down the stretch and Ohtani said his goal is to play as much as possible the rest of the season and let the chips fall where they may.

"Of course, it's important for a player to be able to have a season like this," Ohtani said through an interpreter. "I want to be able to keep this pace and continue to play in games. I've been able to see the ball pretty good, and it's leading to relatively good results."

Interim manager Phil Nevin also gave his opinion again on the subject on Monday. Nevin, who was the Yankees’ third-base coach from 2019-21, has a strong relationship with Judge but believes Ohtani is the MVP because of his ability to affect the game as an elite two-way player.

"What our guy does, until somebody can do that offensively and what he does on the mound, as far as value in this game and this league, I think it's Shohei,” Nevin said. “But I really love the guy across the field. I know what kind of special person he is."

Nevin was also pleased that Ohtani’s two-run homer proved to be the difference in Monday’s 4-3 win, while Yankees skipper Aaron Boone didn’t appear to be in the mood to marvel at Ohtani or the AL MVP race with his club suffering another loss in a tough August. 

“Ohtani hit a big homer against us that hurt us,” Boone said. “I certainly respect his talent and what he is to this sport. So, I mean, I have that respect and admiration for him and the way he goes about things, but I don't really get caught up in trying to appreciate the opponents -- especially when they're beating us."

Ohtani is set to make his next start on the mound on Saturday against the Astros, as the Angels will give him an extra day of rest after Thursday’s off-day. With another off-day coming on Sept. 8, Ohtani’s next start after that would also come against the Astros in Houston on Sept. 10.  He’s expected to make five more starts down the stretch, which gives him a strong chance of reaching 200 strikeouts for the first time in his career. He also has to get to 162 innings to be qualified for the ERA title.

“Any way you look at it, if you bump him up, he’s going to make the same amount of starts,” Nevin said. “It just works that way with some Saturdays and then a Friday. If we don’t have a day off, he’ll pitch every six days and if we do, he’ll pitch on the seventh day.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• The Angels pulled off an unlikely sweep in Toronto and the win on Sunday was powered by homers from Mike Trout and Ohtani, as MLB.com’s Julia Kreuz wrote on Sunday. It was a big weekend for Ohtani and Trout, as Ohtani also outdueled Alek Manoah with seven scoreless innings and nine strikeouts on Saturday, while Trout passed Garret Anderson as the franchise’s all-time leader in runs scored with a homer on Friday.

• Shortstop prospect Kyren Paris was promoted from High-A Tri-City to Double-A Rocket City on Tuesday. Paris, ranked as the club’s No. 20 prospect by MLB Pipeline, was a second-round pick in the 2019 Draft. He'd been impressive in 18 games this August, hitting .323/.457/.662 with five homers, eight RBIs and four stolen bases. The 20-year-old had a .735 OPS with nine homers, 34 RBIs and 28 stolen bases in 89 games with Tri-City before the promotion.

• Right-hander Michael Lorenzen will need to make one more start as a part of a rehab assignment before he’s reinstated from the injured list. Nevin said they want to get Lorenzen up to near 90 pitches before he rejoins the rotation. Lorenzen, who has a 4.94 ERA in 13 starts this year, has been out since July 1 with right shoulder strain. He’s set to be a free agent after the season.

TRIVIA

Who was the Angels starting pitcher in the series-clinching win in Game 4 of the 2002 ALDS against the Yankees?

A.) Jarrod Washburn

B.) Kevin Appier

C.) John Lackey

D.) Ramon Ortiz

THIS WEEK IN ANGELS HISTORY

Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero reached the 300-homer club with a solo shot off Mariners lefty Jamie Moyer in a 4-1 win at Angel Stadium on Sept. 2, 2005. It was also the 27th homer of the year for Guerrero, who would finish the season with 32 blasts. He finished his career with 449 homers, including 173 with the Angels.

TRIVIA ANSWER

A.) Jarrod Washburn

Washburn, who allowed two runs (one earned) over five innings to get the win in the series clincher. The Angels scored eight runs in the fifth inning in a 9-5 win with David Wells allowing eight runs in 4 2/3 innings to get the loss. Washburn also started Game 1, while Appier started Game 2 and Ortiz started Game 3.

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