Usually one to be back in the training room or away from the dugout when the game ends, Jordan Montgomery was there for the late innings Friday night, poised near the railing as he was earlier on the mound.
Although, entering the second month of his quest for a win, his decision to be that close to the field for game’s end had nothing to do with his changing his view or changing up his luck.
“I was just out there in case we cleared,” Montgomery said.
That’s “cleared” as in cleared the dugout.
“Cleared” as in cleared to take the field to confront the Reds.
In the seventh inning, one inning after Montgomery’s scoreless start ended, Cincinnati starter Ben Lively tagged catcher Willson Contreras with a pitch, right near his pinky. Contreras took issue with the obviousness of the pitch, and it took manager Oliver Marmol two visits to Contreras at first base to make sure his catcher was OK. One was to check the finger and make sure Contreras did not have to leave the game. The second time was to check the jawing to make sure Contreras wasn’t told to leave the game.
The whole time, Montgomery returned to the dugout, and that put him there, close to the action, as the longest losing streak of his career came to an end.
The Cardinals took an early lead, added to it late, and fended off some rallies for a 7-4 victory Friday against the Reds at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals drew a full house: three Jordans, two Nolans. Montgomery provided a quality start, Jordan Walker hit a two-run homer and Jordan Hicks had a turbulent seventh that tightened the game. Nolan Arenado hit a two-run homer for the first lead, and Nolan Gorman provided welcome cushion after Hicks’ inning with a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh.
Montgomery (3-7) pitched six scoreless innings to earn his first win since April 8 and quash a run of 10 consecutive starts without a win. He’d lost a career-high seven consecutive decisions, and the Cardinals had gone winless in the lefty’s past 10 starts. The Cardinals lost nine of them by one run or in a shutout, or both.
“He’s done a really nice job of giving us a shot for a W often,” Marmol said. “And we haven’t been able to reward him for that with some run support. The guy has given us a shot plenty of times. We just haven’t come through for him.”
Earlier this season, Montgomery was asked about run support and rapped his knuckles against the wood of his locker so as not to upset the luck.
Asked late Friday night if he was superstitious, Montgomery shrugged.
“I’m not superstitious,” he said. “But I’m a little-stitious.”
He admitted to be “pretty superstitious,” but he has been leafing through different superstitions in his pursuit of a win. He didn’t remain longer in the dugout — not unless he thought there be some brouhaha — and he didn’t take a different route to the ballpark. He didn’t switch up his workouts, didn’t alter warmup.
He kept the same cleats.
Same glove.
Even the same socks.
But a different changeup.
The off-speed pitch that spent most of the losing streak misbehaving has settled back into his hand over the past three starts, and it was at its best Friday. Montgomery threw the changeup 29 times, and 10 of them got a swing and a miss.
The Reds fouled off five.
They did not put a changeup in play.
“Montgomery has a plus changeup,” Contreras said. “And it’s not easy to read out of his hand. And when you have a heavy fastball and you can manage it effectively at 90 (mph), 91, 93, 95 — that makes it a lot more difficult.”
The catcher added: “It looks like say a slower fastball, but a way slower fastball. It looks like a fastball for sure, like a four-seam changeup. When it’s not good, it looks more like a faded changeup. You can see it out of the hand. It’s really good.”
When it wasn’t as effective, the bottom dropped out of it, and it could be ignored as a ball, allowing the hitter to hunt sinker. At other times, Montgomery’s changeup would float on him — up out and away from the zone or up and over the wall. The one changeup he misplaced this past week in Pittsburgh was socked for a home run.
Montgomery throws a four-seam, circle change, and during his between-start catch with teammates, he has been searching and shifting, shifting and searching for the right feel.
“Just something you’ve got to get extension,” Montgomery said. “When you get extension on it, and it comes out of your hand right and the shape is right, you move it up a little bit. It’s a lot easier for it to be right when you miss down and work up.”
Which is what he did Friday.
In the opening inning, Montgomery missed with the changeup down. The lefty pitched around a leadoff double and struck out rookie sensation Elly De La Cruz on three pitches to end the first inning. Contreras said it was then that Montgomery made a slight adjustment. He brought his changeup up and into the zone. By the third, he had it defying bats. De La Cruz struck out all three times he faced Montgomery. In the third, with a runner in scoring position, De La Cruz took Montgomery to a full count and then fell for the changeup.
That was the second of 11 consecutive batters retired by Montgomery to complete his six innings. The early innings bloated his pitch count, pushing it to 97 by the end of 18 outs.
The run of 11 consecutive outs included three groundouts to shortstop Paul DeJong, including one that was a dive to his left to steal a single. Dylan Carlson had two key catches for Montgomery in right field, and one of them in the first inning kept Cincinnati from a sacrifice fly. The inning after Montgomery turned the ball over the bullpen ended with Contreras throwing a runner out at second as the Reds tried a two-out double steal. For the Cardinals’ defense “there were little moments everywhere,” Marmol said. Montgomery fed that with seven groundouts and a sinker that played even better because Cincinnati had to respect the changeup.
There would be no reason to clear the dugout in the late innings, no fracas sparked by Lively plunking Contreras. But the possibility put Montgomery in a new spot as the game came to an end and a win went by his name.
That was the biggest change of them all.
“Hopefully this is a start,” Contreras said. “Where he keeps pitching, we keep scoring.”