Last night the New York Yankees needed a win, after a poor series they lost to the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend, and that’s what they got. Jordan Montgomery pitched five innings of scoreless ball, and Luke Voit and Mike Ford powered the Yankee offense with three RBI’s apiece.
The Yankees got off to a fast start last night at Yankee Stadium. Luke Voit, with DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Hicks on base, hit a long blast into the left-field stands for the first for the 3-0 lead. For Voit, it was his fifth home run of the year with 11 runs batted in.
At the top of the third inning, Montgomery allowed to runners but got out of the inning scoreless. At the bottom of the frame, the Yankees loaded the bases. Gleyber Torres reached on an error, driving in LeMahieu for the Yankee 4-0 lead. Following Torres, Mike Ford hit a two-run double to the centerfield wall scoring Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks, and it was Yankee 6-0. At the bottom of the fifth inning, Aaron Judge hit a bullet of a line drive that hit the Toyota sign over the bullpen in right-center, for his ninth home run of the year. Yankees 7 Braves 0. The Judge home run was measured at 422′.
Also in the fifth, Mike Ford struck again with a ground out that scored Aaron Hicks from third base for the Yankee 8-0 lead. All was not positive for the Yankees last night, in the Bronx. At the top of the sixth inning after pitching so well, Montgomery gave up a three-run homer to Marcell Ozuna. David Hale came on in relief of Montgomery in the seventh and allowed two men on. Ottavino followed him on the mound and run scored when the duo of Torres and LeMahieu committed their second error of the night. Yankees 8 Braves 4.
At the bottom of the seventh Mike Ford again hit a double driving in a run, the New York Yankees final run of the game, and it was 9-4 Yankees. Camargo in the top of the eighth with one on doubles to the centerfield wall. Duvall from first beat out the throw to the plate and it was 9-5 Yankees. Luis Cessa allowed another run in the inning for the final score of New York Yankees 9 and the Atlanta Braves 6.
In the top of the ninth with last licks for the Braves, Zack Britton got his sixth save of the season.
With the win last night the Yankees set a recond when they went 26 straight series at Yankees Stadium without a loss. The winning pitcher was Jordan Montgomery, the loser was Touki Toussaint, and Britton got the save. Both DJ LeMahieu and Gleyer Torres were charged with errors in the game. Chad Green continued his dominant pitching coming in the eighth to get the final two outs of the inning.
The Major takeaways in the game were the Monty win his second of the season. Mike Fords hitting, Aaron Judge’s ninth homer of the year and of course the Luke Voit 3 run bomb. On the negative side, the Yankees have some infield work to do, to solve those two sloppy plays that caused the infield errors. In the game, Voit was hit by a pitch and Gary Sanchez was charged with a passed ball.
As for Montgomery, this was bounce-back win after a poor showing in his last outing. Montgomery this year is the fifth man in the rotation, replacing Luis Severino and Domingo German. Although he is doing an okay job, the Yankees would like to see him increase his fastball which hovers around 90 mph. He has good stuff, but an increase in his fastball velocity would create more consistency and more wins.
On Wednesday night the New York Yankees will go for the sweep of the Braves, before a day off. On Friday the Yankees will host the Boston Red Sox for a four-game series that will end on Monday. The last time the Red Sox were at Yankee Stadium they were swept in a game set.