Angels rough up by MLB-leading Yankees, 9-1

It’s too early in the season for a make-or-break series, but three road games against a team with the best record in baseball—with your own club reeling from a brutal stretch of late-inning meltdowns—qualifies as a benchmark of sorts for the Angels.

“There are measuring sticks of where you’re at and how good you are, and this is a perfect team to see how you measure up with right now,” Angels manager said before Tuesday night’s game against the New York Yankees. “Coming to their town after a couple of tough games, it will be nice to see what we’re made of.”

If Tuesday night’s 9-1 loss before a crowd of 31,242 in Yankee Stadium is any indication, the Angels do not measure up to the American League East leaders.

Noah Syndergaard was roughed up for five runs and seven hits in 2 1/3 innings, and the Angels managed only one run and four hits in seven innings off Yankees left-hander Jordan Montgomery.

The Angels have now lost six straight games, including a four-game home sweep at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays, and 10 of their last 13. They were 24-13 and tied for first place in the American League West on May 15. Their two-week tailspin dropped them to 27-23 and 4 ½ games behind Houston.

The Angels are not at full strength, with third baseman Anthony Rendon on the injured list because of right-wrist inflammation and right fielder Taylor Ward missing most of last week because of shoulder/neck injury.

But the Yankees (34-15) are without injured outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, third baseman Josh Donaldson, closer Aroldis Chapman and reliever Chad Green.

Starting pitching has been a strength for the Angels, who entered Tuesday with baseball’s ninth-best rotation ERA (3.44), best average against (.214) and fourth-best WHIP (1.13 walks plus hits per inning).

But the Yankees have a superior rotation, one with the second-best 2.78 ERA, the best WHIP (1.01) and the third-best average against (.216).

The Yankees also have the height advantage in center field, where the 6-foot-7 Aaron Judge leaped above the wall to rob Shohei Ohtani of a homer in the top of the first inning Tuesday and the 6-foot-2 Mike Trout came up just short on his diving attempt of an Anthony Rizzo RBI double in a four-run bottom of the first.

Tuesday marked the beginning old-home week for the Angels, with former Yankees Andrew Velazquez, Tyler Wade and third-base coach Phil Nevin returning to the Bronx and Syndergaard, the former New York Mets star, returning to the city he spent the first seven years of his career in.

“I think it amped him up being on the soil here,” Maddon said of Syndergaard before the game. “He’s excited to be back. He loved living in the city. He relates to this place very strongly. I believe he’s going to be prepared for tonight’s game.”

The Yankees looked far more prepared for Syndergaard, who, after dominating the Texas Rangers with eight innings of one-run, four-hit ball in his previous start, was unable to complete the third inning Tuesday night.

Syndergaard threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of 27 batters and did not have a three-ball count in that May 24 game against Texas. He threw three straight balls to start the first inning against DJ LeMahieu, who eventually grounded out, and walked Judge on four pitches.

Rizzo roped an RBI double into the right-center field gap beyond the diving Trout. Gleyber Torres followed with an RBI double to left-center, the Angels catching a break when Torres was ruled out on instant replay for coming off the third-base bag with his pop-up slide.

Miguel Andujar singled to center, and Matt Carpenter poked a 356-foot, two-run homer over the short porch in right field for a 4-0 lead. Joey Gallo flared a one-out single to left in and scored on LeMahieu’s double into the left-field corner to give the Yankees a 5-0 lead in the second.

Angels left-hander Kenny Rosenberg, recalled from triple-A Tuesday, saved the bullpen by throwing five innings in which he allowed four runs and five hits, including Trevino’s two-run homer in the eighth.

Luis Rengifo hit a solo homer to left off Montgomery in the seventh, but the Angels failed to score after putting runners on first and third with no outs in the eighth, Ward striking out and Ohtani and Trout flying out to center.

The start of the six-game trip wasn’t a total loss. Wade said he had dinner Monday night with Judge, the Yankees slugger who is batting .309 with a major league-leading 18 homers and 37 RBIs and will be a free agent next winter after turning down a seven-year, $213-million offer before this season.

Wade didn’t stage an all-out recruiting effort to lure Judge to Anaheim—can you imagine a middle of the order with Trout, Ohtani and Judge?—but he admitted Judge’s impending free agency did come up.

“Yeah, you never know, I might have planted a couple of seeds,” Wade said with a grin. “He’s having a great year. I’m happy for him. He deserves everything that’s coming to him, and you guys have seen it for six years now. What he does on the field and off the field is special, and you can’t replicate that.”