Thor beaten in NY return, Yanks hand Halos 6th loss in row
NEW YORK — Noah Syndergaard was rocked in his return to New York, giving up Matt Carpenter’s two-run homer in a four-run first inning that propelled the Yankees over the reeling Los Angeles Angels 9-1 Tuesday night.
Starting a high-profile three-game series against Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout & Co., New York improved the American League’s best record to 3414 and sent the Angels (27-23) to their season-worst sixth straight loss.
Jordan Montgomery (1-1) pitched four-hit ball for seven innings, allowing Luis Rengifo’s seventh-inning homer on a hanging curveball.
Aaron Judge, the 6-foot-7 All-Star, helped out with his glove, jumping to get his glove above the 8-foot-5 center-field wall to deny Ohtani a possible home run in the first.
A Mets fan favorite across town at Citi Field from 2015-19, Syndergaard hardly resembled the flamethrower known as Thor. He missed all of 2020 following Tommy John surgery and returned to pitch two innings during the final week of last season. Syndergaard signed a $21 million, one-year deal with the Angels and has reinvented himself, his old 98 mph bolts now absent.
Syndergaard (4-3) got just one swinging strike among 45 pitches, averaging 94 mph with his fastball. He allowed five runs, seven hits and a walk, his ERA rising from 3.08 to 4.02.
“I think he’s just amped up being on the soil here. He loves the area,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said before the game. “He’s excited to be back here. He loved living in the city. He relates to this place very strongly.”
Jose Trevino also homered for the Yankees and tied a career high with three hits.
Judge walked on four pitches with one out in the first, and Anthony Rizzo smoked an RBI double to the right-center gap that just glanced off the glove of a diving Trout in center.
Gleyber Torres hit a drive off the top of the glass in front of the left-field bullpen to make it 2-0 — thinking the ball was out, he jogged between first and second and was called out on a video review for overrunning third.