It was a battle of the young guys today, Jason Montgomery, 24, versus Joe Biagini, 27, but going on 15, because who’s younger at heart than Joe Biagini?
For Biagini, tonight was the night, the biggest night of his transition to starter. The limits would be off, the pitch count forgotten, at least up to the first hundred, and he could go as far as his talent and skill could take him.
Fun fact: in this day and age when 100 pitches is the magic number, time to pull the pitcher or at the very next baserunner, in the 1968 World Series between the Tigers and the Cardinals, Bob Gibson and Mickey Lolich each started three games. Each completed three games, 27 innings. We don’t have the pitch counts readily available, but Lolich pitched game seven for the Tigers on two days’ rest after a complete game and threw another complete game to win the Series. Surprise your friends: Bob Gibson was not the MVP of the 1968 World Series. Mickey Lolich was.
Jason Montgomery, the Yankees’ starter, has flown under the radar compared to the other young giants on the team, Sanchez, Hicks, Judge, maybe because doing a steady job in the rotation isn’t as spectacular as pounding the ball out of the park. Yet the big lefty, and he is big, six foot six and 225 pounds has been one of the few consistent spots, along with Luis Severino and Michael fuss-budget Pineda, in the Yankees’ rotation.
Since Joe Girardi first handed him the ball on April twelfth against Tampa Bay for his major league debut, Montgomery had made eight more starts for the Yankees, and totalled fifty and a third innings over the nine starts prior to today’s game, pitching to an ERA of 4.11. He has provided a steady left-handed presence for the Yankees that at his age and experience may not have come as a total surprise to Yankees’ management, but has definitely exceeded whatever expectations they might have had for him for 2017.
So the young starters worked through the first two innings without any problems, Biagini on 29 pitches and Montgomery on 32. Biagini walked Aaron Judge, again not necessarily a pitching mistake, in the first, the only baserunner he allowed. Montgomery’s path was a little rockier. In the first inning Judge had to make a nice diving catch on a Texas Leaguer by Kevin Pillar, and Josh Donaldson got most of one and hit it deep to Aaron Hicks in centre. In the second Montgomery skated even closer to the edge, walking Justin Smoak and Troy Tulowitzki , followed by Devon Travis hitting one to the warning track in left. Darwin Barney popped out to short to strand the walks.
The third inning defined the outcome of the game, in terms of both starters and the final score. Biagini, who seems to be becoming the victim of a trend, was nicked for two cheap unearned runs, while Montgomery benefitted from a really fine defensive play by Chase Headley at third that reduced Toronto’s chances of coming right back to make it a game.
After Biagini fanned catcher Austin Romine to start the inning, Rob Refsnyder hit an easy grounder to short. Tulo just bobbled the play, fumbling it a couple of times so that he couldn’t make a throw. With Gardner batting, Refsnyder stole second, and then was able to advance to third on Gardner’s deep fly to centre. So, without benefit of a hit, the Yankees had a runner on third with one out, carrying an unearned run. Which scored when Aaron Hicks hit a flukey blooper down the line in right that went for a double. Then the Judge delivered Hicks with a booming double to centre that just went off Pillar’s glove as he raced back for the wall. The second run was also unearned, because the inning should have ended on Gardner’s fly to centre.
When Montgomery dodged the bullet meant for him in the bottom of the third, a through-narrative could be predicted: this would be a night for the Yankee pitcher, and not the Toronto pitcher. Luke Maile led off for Toronto and hit a hard smash down the third base line. Chase Headley made a valiant dive toward the line for the ball, and partially deflected it into foul territory. Maile had an infield hit, but Headley had definitely saved a leadoff double. So when Pillar followed with his own opposite-field base hit to right, Maile would have scored, instead of advancing to second as he did.
This would have cut the lead to 2-1, put Toronto on the board against Montgomery, and may very well have changed the approach of the Toronto Murderer’s Row of Donaldson, Bautista, and Kendrys Morales. As it was, though, Donaldson fouled out to the catcher, and the three and four hitters both went down on strikes, leaving Maile and Pillar on the bases, and Jason Montgomery pumped, no doubt.
Both pitchers posted goose eggs for the middle three innings. Biagini, in fact, starting from the last out in the third, retired ten in a row, with three strikeouts. Montgomery, pitching on the slim lead, was only a little less effective, giving up a single to Maile and a walk to Donaldson in the fifth before retiring the side on Bautista’s fielder’s choice to third.
Biagini came back out for the seventh, marking his longest and best outing so far as a starter, but hit a bit more bad luck that cost him his only earned run of the game, and ran the Yankee lead to 3-0. Starlin Castro led off with the bloopiest of bloop doubles you’d ever see. The Jays were in the usual configuration of the shift for the right-handed Castro, that is to say the infield was shifted toward left, but the outfield was more or less straight up. I still don’t get it.
Anyway, Castro got a piece of the ball and hit a high popup down the line in left that had a lot of spin on it. Darwin Barney, playing left tonight with the left-handed Montgomery on the mound for the Yankees, had a long run for it, and couldn’t get under it in time. When it hit the turf, it bounced high with so much spin on it that it bounced back over Barney’s head, and Castro made an easy if cheap two-bagger out of it. Then didn’t Didi Gregorius, hitting from the other side, hit almost exactly the same ball, to the same location, but with left-handed spin on it. It hit just inside the foul line and spun away from Barney into foul territory almost to the wall. Castro scored, Gregorius ended up on second, and Barney must have been wondering when the game of go fetch might end.
Biagini got three ground balls to get out of the inning, one of which resulted in Gregorius trying to advance to third on a ball to short and being tagged out by Donaldson with an asssist to Tulowitzki.
Half-way through the seventh, both pitchers were done. If you looked at their lines, you’d see that Biagini had slightly the better of the numbers, and Montgomery had slightly the better of the good fortune. Biagini went seven innings, gave up one earned run on four hits with one walk and six strikeouts on exactly 100 pitches. Montgomery, who would not come out for the Jays’ seventh, went six innings, gave up no runs on three hits, walked three and struck out five on 103 pitches.
Well done, young fellas, and I hope you enjoyed your shakes at the milk bar after the game.
Adam Warren picked up Montgomery in the seventh and pitched around a walk to Zeke Carrera who hit for Barney and also stole a base. Tyler Clippard took over in the eighth and retired the Bash Boys in the two/three/four slots on 13 pitches, and then Dellin Betances threw 13 pitches to retire Toronto in the ninth, despite walking Tulowitzki. Betances came in despite the Yankees’ seven-run lead, presumably because he needed the work, not having been used yet in this series.
Wait a minute. Seven-run lead? Didn’t Biagini only give up three, only one earned? Seven runs?
Well, try this one on for size: Jason Grilli came in to pitch the eighth for Toronto and the Yankees hit Four. Solo. Home. Runs. Off. Him. Gardner hit one out leading off. Hicks hit one hard but right at Carrera in left. Judge was called out on strikes. Then the parade. Holliday hit one out. Castro hit one out. Gregorius hit one out.
It was horrible. I felt like I was watching Jason Grilli’s career swirl down the drain and wash away to the sea. This was beyond any concern about the game being out of reach. Three runs is usually plenty enough for the Yankees’ bullpen, so the runs were probably superfluous. And it wasn’t like John Gibbons was going to waste another arm to finish it off, though in the end he did have mercy and brought J.P. Howell in to get the last out, a redemption of sorts for Howell after yesterday’s disastrous stint to be able to retire Headley on a grounder to Smoak on only three pitches.
Though it would be very sad to see, I would not be at all surprised if Jason Grilli has thrown his last pitch for Toronto. With Joe Smith firmly ensconced as the setup man, the heady days of 2016’s BenGriNa are long over, and life, and baseball, move on.
Just to wrap it up, Danny Barnes came on for Howell and chewed through the Yankees on eight pitches. Barn door open. Nothing left of the horse except a pile of what horses always leave behind.
It’s Marcus Stroman versus Luis (“Do I get two shots at him if I miss the first one?”) Severino tomorrow. Apparently, Severino has been colouring inside the lines this year, so it’ll be a tough matchup for Toronto to split the series.
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