Yankees 2, Orioles 3: Montgomery labors on Memorial Day

The first couple innings of this game were a real grind for the Yankees. Jordan Montgomery was laboring and seemingly put on a couple runners every inning. He lasted just 4.1 innings, allowing eight hits in the process.

Despite all that, he gave up just three runs all game. The problem was, the Yankees didn’t really break through themselves. The Yankees picked up seven hits against Dylan Bundy, but they only scored two runs. The two teams combined to leave eight runners on base. The difference was just the one extra run the Orioles scored, as the Yankees opened a series in Baltimore with a 3-2 loss.

The Orioles struck pretty quickly, scoring in the bottom of the first. After Joey Rickard singled to lead off the game, Montgomery got the next two hitters out. He couldn’t quite get out of the inning damage free, though. Mark Trumbo singled to score Rickard. It could have been worse as Welington Castillo singled to put runners on the corners. However, Montgomery was able to comeback and strike out Trey Mancini to keep it to just the one run.

The Yankees got that run back in the top of the second. Starlin Castro was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, and then moved to second on Aaron Judge’s fly out. Didi Gregorius then grounded one to the right side of the infield. Orioles’ first baseman Chris Davis got a glove on it, but couldn’t make the play and deflected it past another fielder. That allowed Castro to move to third. Then when Aaron Hicks’ flew out, Castro was able to tag up and score to tie the game.

In the third, Montgomery again gave up runs after getting the Orioles two outs down. With one out, Trumbo reached after Castro made a fielding error. After Montgomery got the second out, Mancini singled to keep the inning alive. That would be costly as Jonathan Schoop then doubled to score both runners.

In the fifth inning, Montgomery allowed two one-out singles and was removed from the game. He was at 100 pitches after just 4.1 innings, allowing eight hits and a walk. Jonathan Holder came in and got two strikeouts to keep the score at 3-1.

The Yankees got a run back in the top of the seventh. Judge led off the inning with a home run, cutting the Yankees’ deficit to one run.

That would be as close as the Yankees got to a comeback. They got solid bullpen efforts from Holder and Chasen Shreve to keep them in the game. But after the Judge home run, the Yankees would put on one other baserunner in the game. The offense just couldn’t do enough, and the Orioles opened the series with a win.