Monty & the Pen Lead Big Win. 3 Reasons Why NY 4 Tampa 3 on 6-2-21

June 3, 2021 paperbacklou 2021 0

Jordan Montgomery pitched winning baseball into the 7th, and the Yankee pen came in and shut down Tampa the rest of the way to lead the Yankees to the 4-3 win.

It was a Huge win over 1st-place Tampa — NY’s 2nd in a row — which puts the Yanks in a position to take the 4-game series with a win on Thursday afternoon with Gerrit Cole pitching. The win pulled NY to 31-25 — 3.5 behind Tampa and 1.5 behind Boston.

It was also a nice win for NY Knick fans who are also Yankee fans, as the Knicks were eliminated in their 1st round series against Atlanta, and disappointment was in the air.

Details:

1. Monty Pitched Great

Jordan Montgomery had a good start — pitching into the 7th to gain the win. Yes the all-important win. The stat that so many modern stat heads have eschewed these days as unimportant. But it is important because it measures a pitcher’s ability to pitch deep into games; go thru a lineup 3 times.

Monty is now 3-1 3.92. “It was a strong effort by Monty in a game where we needed it,’ said Manager Aaron Boone afterward.

In Monty’s previous start, Boone lifted him with the lead with 2 outs in the 5th, denying Monty a chance at the win (because the score was 4-3, there was a runner on 2nd and Toronto’s Bo Bichette was coming up, who had hit a homer earlier).

In this game, Monty also got into trouble in the 5th — with NY leading 4-1, a leadoff walk, then error by Rougned Odor put runners on 1st and 3rd, nobody out. And you were thinking — will Boone allow him to get thru this inning for the win?

But Monty struck out Randy Arozarena, allowed a sac fly to Yandy Diaz, and got Austin Meadows on a grounder.

Monty also got some help from Gio Urshela defense in the 2nd — with 2 out and 2 on, Gio made a Graig Nettles-esq play for the final out of the inning — saving an RBI single.

2. Yank Bats Rip McClanahan

Yankee batters were up against stud young lefty Shane McClanahan, who had been on the mound for 5 straight Tampa victories, including 5 shutout innings against Toronto in his previous start.

NY got to him early — Giancarlo Stanton singled as the 2nd batter in the game, and Gio Urshela hit 2-run homer to make it 2-0 NY.

In the 2nd, NY got a Gary Sanchez double and a Clint Frazier walk but didn’t score.

In the 4th the Yankees chased McClanahan:

McClanahan was gone, replaced by Ryan Thompson and with 1 out, Clint Frazier singled in 2 to make it 4-0.

That proved to be all the runs the Yanks needed; and all they’d get.

Yank Survive Baserunning Miscues

In the 7th, Urshela led off with a double and Gleyber Torres walked to put 2 on, nobody out — but Urshela tried to run to 3rd base on a ball in the dirt and was thrown out, and Torres was then picked off 1st base. You can imagine Yankee Twitter’s reaction; for example.

3. Yank Bullpen Does It’s Job

Monty got into trouble in the 7th — with NY up 4-2, Joey Wendle got on due to an error by Monty and Taylor Walls singled to put 1st and 2nd, nobody out. Monty struck out Brett Phillips but as he was doing so, Wendle and Walls stole 2nd and 3rd.

Jonathan Loaisiga relieved and struck out Arozarena for the 2nd out. But Ji-Man Choi singled in a run to shallow center to make it 4-3, runner on 3rd, before Meadows grounded out.

Chad Green motored thru the 8th (one walk) and Aroldis Chapman came in for the 9th of the 4-3 game.

Chapman Agita In the 9th

Chapman threw balls at first — walking the 1st two batters. Massive agita, especially to Knick fans who had just tuned in from the Knicks loss to Atlanta.

But then Chappy got in groove — striking out Arozarena, striking out Choi twice (it looked like he had a called 3rd strike on pitch 4 that wasn’t called a strike), and getting Meadows on a grounder for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

Aaron Judge was the starting centerfielder. It was the second time in his career he’s played center — the first time was in 2018. At 6’7″ tall, Judge is tied with Walt Bond as the tallest center fielders in MLB history.

The Yankee outfield was Miguel Andujar in left, Clint Frazier in right, with Judge in center. Judge moved to right in the 7th, replaced by Brett Gardner, with Frazier replacing Andujar in left.

It was the first ever Lou Gehrig day — the Yankees honoring Gehrig and his battle with ALS. June 2nd marks the anniversary of Gehrig’s death (not his birthday which was June 29).

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401227886

 

 

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