New York Yankees: Good news and bad news following third-straight win over Baltimore

New York Yankees, Jordan Montgomery

After sweeping the Baltimore Orioles in a doubleheader on Friday, the New York Yankees backed up impressive performances with a victory on Saturday afternoon. The 1 PM game featured Jordan Montgomery on the mound for the Bombers, who lasted 5.2 innings and gave up three hits and one run. He earned a career-high nine strikeouts over 72 pitches.

However, when manager Aaron Boone walked out to the mound to take the ball from Montgomery, he showed clear frustration and shook his head in disagreement.

Nonetheless, the relief pitchers for the Yankees performed well, limiting Baltimore to just one hit over four innings.

FINAL SCORE: 2-1

Good news and bad news for the New York Yankees:

GOOD NEWS:

While the offense failed to spark on Saturday, the starting pitching for the Yankees has been excellent the past four games. They are currently on a four-game winning streak, three of them coming against Baltimore. Montgomery, who struggled in his last start, looked fantastic. He only threw 72 pitches, which was clearly an indication of a pitch count or that Boone wants a quick turnover to his next appearance.

Offensively, the Yankees only totaled five hits, one more than the Orioles, but a sack fly by Luke Voit drove in DJ LeMahieu for the winning run.

With the Yankees set to gain back Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton next weekend, they can finally bench some of their more inadequate reserve players at the plate.

BAD NEWS:

The bad news, the offense didn’t perform well on Saturday. Aside from LeMahieu scoring both runs for the Yankees, they totaled eight strikeouts, two coming from Thairo Estrada. Gary Sanchez is looking far better in recent days, hitting the ball well despite only recording one hit over three at-bats on the day. Mike Tauchman has disappeared at times, failing to reach the base paths over four at-bats.

Ultimately, Judge will replace Tauchman in right field, and Stanton will fill the designated hitter spot. This might force Clint Frazier back into a reserve role, but it will give them some of their best offensive weapons back. The Yankees are currently in a wild-card spot, set to make the playoffs, but could use some more cushion heading into the latter portion of the 2020 regular season.

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