Reliable lefty Montgomery picks bad time to lay egg

Jordan Montgomery spent the season establishing himself as one of the Yankees’ most consistent starters.

But in his biggest start of the year, the lefty went off the rails for the worst outing of his career.

With the Yankees still fighting for a wild-card spot on the penultimate day of the regular season, Montgomery allowed a careerhigh three home runs and seven earned runs in a 12-2 loss to the Rays on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

“Nobody’s perfect. They’re bound to happen out of 30 starts,” Montgomery said. “It just sucks. I wanted to give our guys a better outing.”

Montgomery lasted just 2 2/3 innings in a nightmare of a start. By the time manager Aaron Boone finally pulled him in the third inning, the Yankees trailed 7-1 and Montgomery was booed off the mound as he took the long walk to the dugout.

Two of the three home runs he allowed were threerun shots by the left-handed hitting Brandon Lowe. Coming into Saturday, Montgomery had allowed just two home runs to lefthanded batters all season (in 136 plate appearances).

“Usually I do pretty well against lefties,” Montgomery said. “But he got to one of my fastballs on that first one and then just left a changeup up and he was able to pull it. … Just pride myself on getting lefties out. But Lowe’s a good hitter and put two good swings on them. Just gotta be better next time.”

Both of Lowe’s homers went to the short porch in right field — at estimated distances of 349 and 344 feet — but both were smoked. The first put the Rays up 3-0 in the first inning and the second pushed their lead to 6-1 in the third. Lowe later added a third home run, a solo shot off Michael King.

After Lowe’s second home run, Mike Zunino went back-to-back with a solo shot to left field, making it 7-1.

The abbreviated start put a strain on the Yankees’ bullpen, needing to cover 6 ¹/3 innings with another critical game looming Sunday — and either a possible tiebreaker Monday or a wild-card game Tuesday.

Before the clunker, Montgomery had given up 10 earned runs across five starts and 28 ¹/3 innings against the Rays this season. But they had his number from the jump Saturday.