Montgomery follows Scherzer’s steps in stellar debut
ARLINGTON — Jordan Montgomery admitted he had a couple of further nerves going into his debut with the Rangers on Friday evening. After all, he went from pitching for a last-place staff in St. Louis to a first-place staff in Texas.
“Just want to make a good first impression on the new team,” Montgomery mentioned.
Well, regardless of these nerves inflicting a gradual begin, Montgomery did simply that. He ended up throwing six-plus innings of two-run ball, main the Rangers to a 6-2 victory over the Marlins at Globe Life Field.
Much like Max Scherzer did in his debut Thursday, Montgomery stumbled out of the gates after which battled again. After permitting single runs within the first and second innings, Montgomery put collectively 4 scoreless innings en path to a top quality begin.
Montgomery and Scherzer are the one Rangers pitchers within the final 4 seasons to register high quality begins of their first outing with the membership. Montgomery mentioned it felt like a standard begin as soon as the third inning rolled round.
“Really, once I settled in, I just kind of fell back on what I know,” he mentioned.
Montgomery had retired 11 consecutive batters going into the seventh earlier than giving up a leadoff single and a stroll to finish his evening. Still, it was a terrific begin by the left-hander, who completed with six strikeouts and eight groundouts.
“We just couldn’t get any hits,” Marlins supervisor Skip Schumaker mentioned. “I think that was the main thing. We couldn’t get the ball off the ground. A lot of weak contact throughout the game after the second inning.”
In the meantime, the Rangers’ lineup did its factor.
Texas answered with single runs within the backside half of the primary and second innings — on Corey Seager’s seventeenth homer and Leody Taveras’ RBI double, respectively — after which jumped in entrance on a few solo residence runs by Adolis García within the third and sixth innings.
Receiving that kind of run assist hasn’t been too frequent for Montgomery this season. He went by means of a stretch of seven consecutive video games through which the Cardinals didn’t rating greater than three runs whereas he was on the mound. Overall, the Cardinals didn’t rating greater than three runs whereas he was on the mound in 13 of his previous 21 begins, together with a few weeks in the past when he confronted this similar Marlins staff.
Montgomery held Miami to at least one run over six innings on July 18, however he ended up with a no-decision as he exited with the rating tied 1-1. St. Louis went on to win the sport 5-2 in further innings.
Montgomery mentioned he has nothing however respect for the Cardinals group. However, he’s excited to hitch a contender and pitch for a staff that boasts MLB’s highest-scoring offense.
“Anytime you can go six innings with two [runs allowed] on a team like this, there’s a pretty good chance of it being a win,” he mentioned. “I’m enjoying that for the first game. Hopefully, I can give them 15 more.”
“He’s awesome,” Montgomery mentioned of Stratton. “Y’all will get to know him, how quality of a guy he is. And I think he’s nasty [on the mound]. He’s willing to take the ball every day.”
Finally, it’s price noting that García had his seventh profession multi-home run recreation, together with his sixth at Globe Life Field. No different hitter has greater than three multi-homer video games on the stadium.
García completed the evening reaching base in all 4 of his plate appearances with the 2 residence runs, a double and a stroll.
“What a game, huh?” supervisor Bruce Bochy mentioned of García. “It looked like he saw the ball well. Really, the last few days you’ve seen more of what Doli is. I think he’s in a good place with his swing.”
Everyone contained in the Rangers’ clubhouse appears to be in a superb place as of late. They’ve gained 4 straight video games and have the third-best 110-game begin in franchise historical past at 64-46.
