FEEL THE THUNDER
• Trenton rallies off Reading bullpen to take Game 1 of ELDS • Montgomery tosses 3 rehab innings; Sevy, Betances, Estrada expected in series
READING, PA. >> The one thing Jordan Montgomery didn’t expect to do during his rehab outing was have to field a bunt.
That turned out to be the biggest blip in what was otherwise three innings to build on for the Yankees’ left-hander.
“You don’t expect that in a rehab, but it’s the playoffs, so I should have,” Montgomery said after allowing a pair of runs in three innings. “I haven’t done PFPs since Tampa early rehab. I probably didn’t look too athletic during that.”
Montgomery hasn’t pitched yet this season after undergoing Tommy John surgery and dealing with left shoulder inflammation. This was his second rehab appearance after throwing 35 pitches for TripleA Scranton last week.
This one ended up coming in a 4-3 win over Reading in Game 1 of the Eastern League Division Series at FirstEnergy Stadium on Wednesday night.
Montgomery allowed two runs on four hits, struck out five and walked none. His fastball was 92-94 miles per hour and he got swing and misses on a number of curveballs against the Fightin Phils’ lefthand heavy lineup.
“I didn’t want to come out here and ruin these guys’ season,” Montgomery said. “Of course, I was amped up and ready to compete, but also knew I needed to work on things. There were so many lefties that I didn’t just want to throw curveball after curveball.”
Montgomery got in trouble in the third when Luke Williams dropped down a first-base line bunt that an off-balance Montgomery threw down the right-field line. Williams raced all the way to third and scored on Mickey Moniak’s sacrifice fly.
Alec Bohm followed with a two-out single and Darick Hall knocked him in with a double off the wall in center.
“A lot of lefties, so I knew it was going to be a lot of curveballs,” Montgomery said. “Threw my fastball as much as I could (because) I didn’t want it to be a straight curveball show. I was aggressive with my fastball and got a lot of swing and misses with it, couple ground balls, fly balls, threw that bunt away, but not much hard contact.”
Meanwhile, Reading right-hander Spencer Howard, the Phillies’ No. 4 prospect, sliced through the Thunder lineup to the tune of 12 strikeouts. Howard didn’t allow a hit until Ben Ruta’s infield single in the sixth and exited after seven innings and 99 pitches with a 3-1 lead.
The Thunder jumped on the Fightin Phils’ bullpen in the eighth, an inning that started when Max Burt reached on a wild pitch strike three. In total, Trenton sent nine batters to the plate and took a 4-3 lead when Garrett Clevenger walked Kyle Holder on four pitches to force in the go-ahead run.
The Thunder recorded just two hits in the inning but took advantage of three walks by the Reading bullpen.
Clarke Schmidt, the Yankees’ No. 5 prospect and expected Game 1 starter, backed up Montgomery. He shook off a nervy fourth frame in which he issued a leadoff walk, had a throwing error and a balk to navigate the next six innings allowing just the one run.
The right-hander recorded two of his four strikeouts in the ninth, including a 2-2 curveball that he froze Cornelius Randolph with to end the game.
Schmidt had tossed 13.2 straight scoreless innings over his last two starts and the hype entering Game 1 was the Schmidt vs. Howard storyline. It didn’t quite play out that way with Montgomery’s rehab, but both were outstanding.
But the Thunder drew first blood in the best-offive series.
Game 2 is Thursday night at 7 p.m.