After all the futility that we saw in that homestand (and the past few weeks), it’s refreshing to see a win tonight to start the road trip. Jordan Montgomery stepped up as the stopper and the Yankee bats did their thing – despite losing Starlin Castro – to win this one 6-5. The bullpen was a bit shaky in the end but it sure is nice to have a 5-run lead heading into the ninth inning. They remain in first place along with the Red Sox, who also won a game tonight.
Gumby Good
Ho-hum, another good start from Jordan Montgomery. He’s been the Yankees best starter for the past few weeks – marking a 2.52 ERA in his last 6 starts.
The Yankees rookie did a great job being a stopper: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 8 K. He’s done much more than the Yankees could have hoped for and has become a legitimate ML starter. The only blemish from Montgomery tonight came in the bottom of the second. Todd Frazier hit the second pitch he saw from Montgomery over the left center field seats for a 1-0 White Sox lead. That was the only run Monty allowed all night.
Let’s go to Brooks Baseball to look at his arsenal tonight, shan’t we? He got 17 whiffs alone from his offspeed pitches, including 8 from his curveball. That’s pretty good. Yankees looked at him as a guy who can get hitters out with savvy approach using different looks and that’s exactly what he’s been able to do. After tonight’s start, his ERA dropped to 3.53 and he’s up to 1.6 fWAR, which is the 25th best among all qualified SP’s in the MLB. Not a bad
Let’s go get some runs
Trailing 1-0, the Yankees scored three in the fourth to get it started. Aaron Judge led off the frame with a walk. Gary Sanchez grounded to third but Judge advanced to third on an error by 3B Todd Frazier, making both runners safe. Tyler Austin followed it up with a sac fly to score Judge to make it 1-1 game. The Yankees didn’t stop there. Jacoby Ellsbury singled to put runners on first and second and Chase Headley followed it up with an RBI single of his own to make it 2-1 Yankees. Austin Romine walked to load the bases and Ronald Torreyes hit a sac fly that ultimately became a double play when 1B Matt Davidson cut the throw off and got SS Tim Anderson to tag out Headley advancing to second. Meanwhile, Ellsbury scored to make it 3-1 Yankees. Not a bad inning!
Tyler Austin added another run for the Yankees in the sixth. He got the 88 mph up the zone and hit a bullet into the bullpen over the left field fence to make it 4-1 Yankees. Ellsbury followed it up by hitting a roller down the first base line that pitcher David Holmberg couldn’t handle for an E-1. Headley hit a double to deep right to put two runners in RISP and that was it for Holmberg. White Sox brought in Juan Minaya to try to finish the inning off. Romine hit a sac fly to add another run and during Torreyes’ AB, Headley advanced to third on a passed ball by C Kevin Smith. Torreyes reached on a missed catch error by 1B Matt Davidson and Yankees tacked on another, 6-1. The White Sox played some sloppy, sloppy baseball in this frame. A five-run lead was pretty comfortable but man, thank God that Yankees scored that much because they really needed it later on.
Bullpen show
After Montgomery finished his 7-inning gem, Jonathan Holder was summoned to pitch in the eighth inning. After getting Tim Anderson strike out swinging, Holder allowed a single and walk to Melky Cabrera and Jose Abreu respectively. After he got Avisail Garcia to ground into a fielder’s choice to third, Joe Girardi brought in Dellin Betances to nail down the final out of the inning. After walking Frazier to load the bases, Betances struck out Matt Davidson to finish the eighth unscathed. That was just a prelude to a big egg that the bullpen would lay in the next inning.
Boy, the ninth got edgy pretty quickly didn’t it? The Yankees had a 6-1 lead heading into the 6-1 and, because it was far from being a save situation, Girardi sent Chasen Shreve to the mound to close it out. However, after getting the first out, Shreve allowed back-to-back singles to Smith and Adam Engel, and allowed a three-run bomb to Tim Anderson (on a 0-2 count!) to make it 6-4 Yankees lead.
Aroldis Chapman came in to try to nail down the last two outs. Dude still hits 100, 102 on the radar guns but the White Sox hitters pestered him well tonight. He threw 20 pitches and did not get a single whiff. Melky Cabrera singled to center and Jose Abreu followed it up with an RBI double to make it 6-5. Dicey! Thankfully, Avisail Garcia grounded out to third and Frazier flew out to Brett Gardner to end the game. This was way more stressful than it should’ve been, but a win is a win.
Leftovers
Aaron Judge did not get a hit but man, he still continues to be a wiz at getting on base. He walked three times tonight, which brings his season totals to 50. It’s not even the middle of the season and he has that much! The last time a Yankee hitter had more than 100 walks in a season was 2006 Jason Giambi, who had 110.
Starlin Castro, who’s been having a nice season, hurt himself in the top of the third trying to beat out a grounder for a base hit. He had to limp off the field and the Yankees announced that he had a hamstring strain. Not good! As a response, they are calling up Tyler Wade, who’s been hitting .313 with .834 OPS in the Triple-A this season (.351 BA, .894 OPS this month). Wade coming up is exciting because he’s a young guy (22-years old) with legitimate talent but you don’t want to see your starting second baseman with a good bat go down.
Box score, standings and WPA graph
Here’s tonight’s box score, updated standings and WPA graph.
Source: FanGraphs
The Yankees are back again tomorrow at the Guaranteed Rate Field at 8:10 pm EST. Luis Severino is up against the former Yankees farmhand Jose Quintana. It’ll be a nice matchup to watch.
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