Yankees' Jordan Montgomery a winner even without his best stuff
Yankees starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery works in the first during a game against host Atlanta on Monday. Credit: AP/John Bazemore
ATLANTA — When it comes to attention paid to members of the Yankees rotation, Gerrit Cole is Gerrit Cole and, because of his recent stretch of dominance after a dreadful start to his season, Jameson Taillon comes in right behind the ace righthander.
Lost a bit in the chatter about a group that has been one of the best in the sport of late?
Jordan Montgomery, who is having perhaps the most underrated season of any Yankees’ starter.
The Yankees won their 10th straight Monday night and little attention was paid to the 28-year-old Montgomery who, while battling command issues, still held one of the National League’s most potent lineups to one run and two hits (he walked four) over five innings.
"Didn’t really have much going today," said Montgomery, who walked four. "But we still won."
Though Montgomery won for just the fifth time this year to even his record to 5-5, he lowered his ERA to 3.69. Most teams would happily sign up for that from their No. 2 or No. 3 starter, let alone their No. 4.
Monday marked the 10th straight start in which Montgomery, whose fastball rarely reaches much above 90 mph, has allowed three earned runs or fewer. And of that victory total: it would certainly be higher if Montgomery received any kind of run support.
In the first nine of those aforementioned starts, Montgomery received a total of six runs of support, with a remarkable zero runs of support in six of those starts.
If Montgomery, a fourth-round pick of the Yankees in the 2014 draft who was a surprising winner of a rotation battle during spring training of 2017 under former manager Joe Girardi, had any frustration pitching in the midst of such offensive futility, he never shared it publicly.
"He’s really growing into his role, becoming a mature major league pitcher on a contending team in the middle of a pennant race," one rival American League talent evaluator said. "His ability to change speeds and keep hitters off of the barrel has always stood out and he’s been really consistent with that [this season]. Throws a fastball up and down in the zone, a breaking ball that changes at eye-level and a changeup that keeps hitters off-balance and off of the fastball. Even though the fastball isn’t plus-plus with speed, it plays up because of the off-speed stuff."
What impressed Aaron Boone the most Monday night was Montgomery, making his second start since coming off the COVID-19 injured list and still very much from a fatigue standpoint feeling the effects of his bout with the virus, held a club that had won nine straight going into Monday to one run. And he did it without anything close to his best command.
"Man, he battled," Boone said. "I thought it was a grind from jump street for him, and to go through that lineup and only give up one run through five innings [was impressive]."
Boone continued: "I looked up [at the scoreboard] and I think he had as many strikes as balls at one point, so it wasn’t easy for him tonight. It was a grind, but he made pitches, he made big pitches when he had to. It was just I thought a really showy outing for a guy kind of grinding through it physically and just [not] having everything. But that said, I thought this stuff was good because he went to every pitch and was able to make big pitches with all of them. I think it's just a sign of the quality of pitcher he has become, that he's able to, not on his best day necessarily, go out there and hold a really good team to one run and give us a great chance to win the ballgame."
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.
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