The fortunes of the New York Yankees changed yesterday when they swept the Baltimore Orioles 16-1 over a doubleheader in the Bronx. It’s no secret that the Yankees haven’t been playing great baseball before a win against the Blue Jays, they had gone 1-7. In the period, the Yankees slipped from first in the East to third. Yesterday, they were in danger of falling off postseason contention, as the Orioles were only 1 1/2 games behind the Yankees. But the Yankees rose to the occasion big time. Both Gerrit Cole and Masahiro Tanaka had masterful games over the Orioles, holding them to just five hits and one run over the two games of the doubleheader. The Yankees offense exploded at the beginning of both games.
Today, the Yankees will again face the Baltimore Orioles in the third game of the four-game series at the Yankee Stadium. It will be a beautiful day for baseball in the Bronx, New York. The game at 1:05 pm will have a touch of fall in the air. Game time temperature will be right at about 70, and the game will be played under mostly sunny skies. Today’s game will be televised on the YES Network, MASN in Baltimore, and nationally on the MLB Network (out of market).
The New York Yankees will send out number five starter Jordan Montgomery to get the Yankees fourth win in a row. Montgomery, until recently was the Yankee’s second-best pitcher with the highest fWAR. Only second to Yankee ace Gerrit Cole. Montgomery is 2-2 in seven starts with an ERA of 5.72. The Yankees have lost their last three games with Montgomery on the mound. He hasn’t won a game since August 11th. With the momentum created by Cole and Tanaka, Montgomery will look to turn his fortunes around in this matinee.
The Orioles will face Montgomery with Dean Kremer, who beat the Yankees in his major league debut on September 6th, when he pitched giving up just one hit against a silent Yankee offense while striking out seven. Kremer is 1-0 with an ERA of 1.52. With the Yankees scoring 16 runs yesterday and getting 19 hits, Kremer will face a different team than he did in his last game.
After today’s game, the Yankees will face the Orioles once more, tomorrow with another matinee game with J.A. Happ on the mound. They then will have a three-game set with their nemesis Tampa Bay Rays. The Yankees are 1-7 off the Rays this season. These four games with the Orioles are extremely important to the Yankees, with their postseason implications, as they try to hold on to that 8th position in the AL postseason. If they do, they will likely face the Rays in the first round of the postseason which is just seventeen days away.