Winning As Designed. Yankees 7 Texas 1

September 22, 2021 paperbacklou 2021 0

Jordan Montgomery pitched 6 strong innings, and this time got run support — a little at first and then the Yanks kept bombing away later on with Giancarlo Stanton, Joey Gallo, and Aaron Judge hitting homers — to carry the Yanks to the easy 7-1 win on a Tuesday night at The Stadium. Michael King had another strong relief outing and to top it off, Luis Severino made his first appearance in almost 2 years and pitched the last 2 innings, shutout ball.

This was the way the Yankees were designed to win — good starting pitching, good bullpen, and the Bronx Bomber offense bombing away.

It is as if all the considerable Yankee forces are coming together at the right time. The only question: is it too late? Boston and Toronto both won — so the Yanks remain .5 behind the final Wild Card with 10 games to go.

1. Monty and His Big Curveball Terrific Again

Jordan Montgomery was on top of his game, using his 93-MPH fastball to setup his wicked 81-MPH curve and changeup to strikeout batters and get easy outs.

He got into a little trouble in the 4th, walking the leadoff batter and then allowing a single to put 1st and 3rd nobody out. But then he struck out Adolis Garcia on a big curve and got 2 groundouts to end the inning — the 1st one scoring a run to make it 2-1 NY.

Monty has had a lot of trouble this season getting out of the 5th — his pitch count always rising. Not this time — he motored through a 1-2-3 5th on a strikeout, groundout, fly out. He got the first 2 outs of the 6th as well, nursing a 3-1 lead at that point, before yielding a double to Andy Ibanez and was relieved by Michael King, who got the final out of the inning.

Monty’s final line: 5.2 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 6 K’s, 1 walk. He evened his record to 6-6 3.55 on the year.

“I really liked Monty; he struggled a little bit there in the 4th inning, but made a really good adjustment and came out and was on the attack in the 5th inning, and worked efficiently; there was energy; he got right back into the strike zone. But for him to go out and pitch into the 6th and really give us a strong outing, set us up nice tonite.”

“I think he’s established himself as a really good pitcher in this league,” added Boone. “And he’s confident too — he knows he can go out and when he’s on his game, he’s capable of taking care of any offense.”

2. Yanks Get Early Runs

The Yanks jumped on top in the bottom of the 1st off Texas ‘opener’ Dane Dunning.

Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch with 1 out, and Aaron Judge doubled to put 2nd and 3rd. Giancarlo Stanton grounded out for a 1-0 Yankee lead.

In the 2nd, the Yankees gave Monty a 2nd run — Giancarlo Stanton RIPPED a line drive to left for a homer.

The Yanks tacked on another run for Monty in the bottom of the 5th: the Yanks had 3 consecutive singles to start the inning off Texas reliever Kolby Allard — by Gio Urshela, DJ LeMahieu, and Anthony Rizzo — to plate a run.

Aaron Judge then Ripped a line drive to 3rd that Yonny Hernandez made a terrific play on — robbing Judge of an extra base hit and turning the line drive into a fielder’s choice at 2nd. Giancarlo Stanton then hit into an inning-ending double play.

In the bottom of the 6th the Yanks tacked on another run to make it 4-1 — on a Joey Gallo homer.

3. King Excellent Again

King got the big final out of the 6th to save Monty with the runner on 2nd and 2 out, and then motored thru the 7th — striking out the side on 10 pitches. The addition of King back from the finger injury while lifting weights in July continues to be a HUGE lift for the Yanks.

4. Judge 3-Run Bomb Puts It Away

And then in the 7th against Allard, DJ LeMahieu walked, Rizzo was hit by a pitch — and Aaron Judge put the game away with a 3-run blast to the opposite field in right.

5. Severino Looked Good!

The 7-1 lead provided a perfect opportunity for the Yanks to give Luis Severino some action in a non-pressure situation.

Severino was sharp, striking out Alex Trevino, the first batter he faced, on an 88-MPH changeup after showing him 2 94-MPH fastballs. He got a groundout, allowe a double to Leody Taveras, and then struck out Isiah Kiner-Falefa on an 82-MPH slider to end the inning.

Severino pitched the 9th, getting a fly out, single, ground out, and ground out for the old ballgame.

“I think he executed a number of different pitches within the course of the outing, and hopefully a step forward for him to help us down the stretch,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “Tonite we celebrate him, and his journey back to a major league mound. I’m really proud of him and excited for him.”

Etcetera

  • Aaron Judge went 2-4 (and was robbed of that hit) with the homer and 3 RBI’s to raise his slash line to 36-89-.288 (.371 OBP) with 10 games left.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401229319

 

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