Frankie Montas gives best effort as a Yankee
Yankees starting pitcher Frankie Montas walks to the dugout during the sixth inning against the Mets in an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Tuesday night, Frankie Montas showed Yankee Stadium might not be too big of a stage for him after all.
Clarke Schmidt again showed he feels right at home there.
Montas, taking into account the circumstances of starting a Subway Series game, was perhaps the best he’s been as a Yankee. Though not quite dominant, Montas showed flashes of it during his 5 2/3-inning outing in which he allowed two runs, six hits and a walk. Montas, who brought a 9.00 ERA from his first three starts after being acquired from Oakland at the trade deadline, struck out six, including five straight from the third inning into the fourth.
"Packed house, in the Bronx, first Subway Series, man, he went out there and did his thing,” said Aaron Judge, who did his thing, as well, hitting his MLB-leading 48th homer. “He was working all his pitches. He showed some bulldog out there, that’s for sure.”
Montas, disappointed in how his first trio of starts went, said he “definitely threw the ball well tonight, better than I have been throwing.”
The righthander worked out of a two-on, one-out jam in the first and faced another such situation in the second before getting bailed out by a well-executed 6-4-3 double play, started by shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa. He was helped again by his defense in the fifth when Kyle Higashioka made a nice scoop on a between-hop on an accurate throw home by rightfielder Oswaldo Cabrera to tag out a sliding Brett Baty, keeping it, at the time, a 2-1 Yankees lead.
Schmidt, who has pitched well in his time in the big leagues this season but hasn’t been able to stick because he has minor-league options and some other relievers in the bullpen do not, took over for Montas with two outs in the sixth after Jeff McNeil tied it with an RBI double. Schmidt retired Mark Canha, en route to throwing three scoreless innings. Schmidt, running out of gas in the ninth, lost the strike zone and loaded the bases with two outs and Francisco Lindor coming up. Aaron Boone brought in lefty Wandy Peralta to turn the switch-hitting Lindor around and the Mets shortstop flied to center to end it.
“Wandy,” Schmidt said with a smile, “saved my [butt].”
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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