Yankees too much for Angels, Noah Syndergaard in convincing win
In a battle of stars, Tuesday night got off to a perfect start for the Yankees.
Just two batters into the game, Jordan Montgomery allowed a shot to dead center by Shohei Ohtani.
Aaron Judge tracked it back to the wall, timed his jump perfectly and made a tremendous leaping grab to rob the Angels dual-threat star.
From there, the Yankees overmatched their AL West foes in a 9-1 win to open a six-game homestand.
“That was a complete momentum swing,’’ Matt Carpenter said. “It changes the game.”
With the win, the Yankees stayed 5 ½ games ahead of Toronto in the AL East, while Tampa Bay slipped back into third, six games back.
The Yankees jumped on ex-Met Noah Syndergaard for four runs in the bottom of the inning, knocked the right-hander out of the game in the third and tacked on two more runs in the sixth against the reeling Angels, who have lost six in a row.
Joey Gallo, mired in a nearly yearlong slump, reached base three times and Jose Trevino added three hits — including a homer — as the Yankees had their biggest offensive outburst since a 10-4 win over the White Sox on May 13.
“To get that four-spot in the first inning coming off a series when we didn’t score a lot of runs was big,” manager Aaron Boone said of the offense, which scored just five runs in the Yankees’ last three games at Tampa Bay. “There were a lot of contributions.”
Montgomery delivered another strong start, giving up just one run on a homer by Luis Rengifo in the seventh.
Judge sparked the first-inning rally with a four-pitch, one-out walk.
Anthony Rizzo followed with a double to right-center, where Mike Trout couldn’t make a diving catch. Judge scored the game’s first run and Gleyber Torres knocked in Rizzo with a double to left.
Torres was thrown out on the play. He initially beat the throw to third, but slid off the bag and was tagged.
Miguel Andujar then reached on a two-out single and stole second.
Carpenter, in his first game at the Stadium after signing with the Yankees, followed by hitting one out to right for his second homer to make it 4-0.
Montgomery followed a nine-pitch first with an easy second, which ended when Trevino picked off Matt Duffy at first base.
Torres led off the bottom of the third with a single but was thrown out trying to steal second and appeared to injure his right arm on the play, however he remained in the game.
The Yankees had a chance to lengthen their lead when they loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, but lefty Kenny Rosenberg struck out Judge and Rizzo flied to right.
The Angels got nothing going against Montgomery, who allowed just a pair of singles and a walk before Ohtani doubled with two outs in the sixth.
Trout ripped a hard grounder to the left side of the infield, where Isiah Kiner-Falefa made a fantastic diving stab and strong throw to first to end the inning.
“All night, the defense did a lot of really good things,’’ Boone said. “They thwarted some rallies.”
In the bottom of the inning, Trevino singled with one out and moved to third on a double by Gallo.
With the infield in, LeMahieu grounded to second and the throw home by Rengifo was there in plenty of time to get the out, but Trevino scooted around Max Stassi’s tag and scored.
Miguel Castro replaced Montgomery to start the eighth and gave up a double to another former Met, Juan Lagares, and a single to ex-Yankee Andrew Velazquez. After Velazquez stole second, Castro got Ohtani and Trout to each fly to center.
