Jordan Montgomery in cruise control as Yankees batter Angels

It was the kind of run support Jordan Montgomery simply isn’t used to.

The lefthander, who rarely sees crooked numbers on the scoreboard when he starts, did not waste it.

Riding a four-run first-inning outburst against former Met Noah Syndergaard, which included RBI doubles by Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres and another homer from newest Yankee Matt Carpenter, Montgomery controlled the Angels for seven innings of a 9-1 victory in front of 31,242 at the Stadium.

“They really came out swinging,” Montgomery said of an offense that totaled five runs the last three games against the Rays last weekend.

The Yankees (34-15), coming off a split of their four-game series in St. Petersburg against Tampa Bay, had 13 hits compared to seven for the Angels (27-23), who lost their sixth straight. Jose Trevino led the way with three hits, including a two-run homer in the eighth that made it 9-1 (the catcher also picked off a runner and showed some nice open field moves in avoiding a tag at the plate in the sixth).

“It was good to see Monty get some run support like that and then kind of take it from there,” Aaron Boone said.

Montgomery, 0-1 but with a 3.30 ERA coming in, allowed one run and four hits over seven innings in which he walked one and struck out four. The run came on Luis Rengifo’s solo homer with one out in the seventh, which made it 7-1. Montgomery entered the night having received three runs of support or fewer in eight of his nine starts and two runs or fewer in seven of those starts.

Syndergaard, a Met until this offseason when he signed with the Angels, came into the night 4-2 with a 3.08 ERA but was roughed up for four runs in the first and five runs overall in an outing that lasted just 2 1⁄3 innings.

Montgomery got some help from his defense in a 1-2-3, nine-pitch first. Joey Gallo, starting in right, made a nice play in foul ground on a fly ball hit by leadoff Taylor Ward, swinging at the game’s first pitch. Shohei Ohtani followed with a drive to the track in center where Aaron Judge appeared to take a homer away with a leaping catch at the wall. Montgomery struck out Mike Trout swinging at a 1-and-2 curveball for the third out.

Though Boone said off the bat he felt the Ohtani ball “was a homer,” Judge thought he had a chance.

“Ohtani hit it to the moon and I was able to get underneath it,” Judge said.

It took 14 pitches for the Yankees to give Montgomery the lead.

DJ LeMahieu led off with a groundout but Judge worked a four-pitch walk. Anthony Rizzo, in a 6-for-36 (.167) skid, sent a 1-and-2 fastball toward the gap in right-center where a diving Trout couldn’t make the catch, the ball glancing off his glove. Judge scored for a 1-0 lead. Torres’ RBI double made it 2-0 and the lefty-swinging Carpenter, brought aboard last Thursday, roped a 1-and-2 slider into the seats in right, his second homer as a Yankee (the veteran also homered Friday at the Rays) that made it 4-0.

Though the Yankees would eventually make the game a laugher — LeMahieu’s RBI double in the second made it 5-0 and the Bombers tacked on two more in the sixth for a 7-0 lead — Carpenter pointed to Judge’s theft of Ohtani in the first as the turning point.

“It’s a complete momentum swing,” said Carpenter, now in his 12th season in the majors. “When you can do something like that, it just changes the game. Being in the other dugout, it’s the same thing [except] it’s a gut punch. You’re looking to score some runs early and a guy makes a play like that, it can take the wind out of your sails.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.