Jesus Montero hits his first two homeruns as the Yankees defeat the Orioles

The New York Yankees defeated the Baltimore Orioles by the score of 11-10 on Monday afternoon. It was certainly a hitters day as both starting pitchers really struggled. Freddy Garcia started and for only the second time all year he failed to pitch at least five innings. The Yankees offense bailed him out though as they scorched the ball off of the Baltimore pitching. Jesus Montero had the big game with his first two major league homeruns. They were both impressive shots to the right field bleachers. Robinson Cano hit his third grand slam of the season.
Garcia pitched 2 2/3 innings giving up nine hits and seven runs. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out one. Scott Proctor who was making his first Yankees appearance since 2007 pitched two innings giving up three hits and one run with a walk and two strikeouts, Aaron Laffey got the win pitching 2/3 of an inning and walking one and Luis Ayala pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up one walk and he struck out one. Laffey is 2-1 on the season. Boone Logan pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and one run, Cory Wade pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up one hit and Mariano Rivera picked up his 38th save of the season and 597th of his career. Rivera pitched an inning giving up two hits and a run, hitting a batter and striking out one. It was just not a good day for the pitchers although the bullpen did pretty well for the most part.

Derek Jeter had a hit, Curtis Granderson had a hit and two RBI and Mark Teixeira had two hits an RBI and a walk. Alex Rodriguez had a hit, two walks and was hit by a pitch, Cano had two hits and four RBI and Andruw Jones had a hit, RBI and a walk. Russell Martin had two hits and Montero had two hits, three RBI and a walk. Jeter, Granderson and Martin each had a double. Teixeira and Cano each hit a homerun and Montero had two homeruns. The Yankees were 3-6 with runners in scoring position and they left six men on base. Dickerson made an error and Martin had a passed ball.

The Orioles took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Nick Markakis solo homerun. The Yankees came right back in the bottom of the first with two runs. Teixeira hit a solo homerun and Jones had an RBI single. In the second inning the Orioles regained the lead with four runs. Robert Andino had an RBI single, Martin had a passed ball allowing another run to score and make it 3-2 Orioles. Kyle Hudson reached on a fielders choice and a run scored and J. Hardy had an RBI single to make it 5-2 Orioles. In the bottom of the second the Yankees came back with six runs to take an 8-5 lead. Granderson hit a two run double and Cano hit a grand slam homerun. In the third inning Mark Reynolds hit a two run homerun to make it 8-7. In the fifth Andino hit a solo homerun to tie the game at eight. In the bottom of the fifth Montero hit his first major league homerun to give the Yankees a 9-8 lead. Montero hit a two run homerun in the seventh inning to give the Yankees a 11-8 lead. Montero also received two curtain calls for his heroics. In the eighth inning Markakis hit an RBI single making it an 11-9 game. In the ninth inning Ryan Adams had an RBI single to make it 11-10. Rivera struck out the last batter with runners on second and third.

The Yankees have won five games in a row. The Yankees won the first game of this three game series although the two teams will play four games in a row. The Yankees and Orioles will complete this series on Wednesday afternoon and then play a day game on Thursday which is a makeup game but it will be in Baltimore. The Yankees extended their first place lead in the AL East to 2 ½ games over the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox lost 1-0 to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Yankees will be calling up a few more players on Tuesday. The call ups will be Ramiro Pena, Hector Noesi, Greg Golson and George Kontos. The Yankees are also debating calling up one of their top pitchers Dellin Betances. Montero looks like he will be making the postseason roster as the Yankees DH but they still view him as a catcher. He will most likely be the backup catcher next year and also DH. A lot of people doubt if he will ever be a good defensive catcher in the majors but if he hit’s the way he has all of his life they will find a spot for him. Montero said this about his homers “The first one I hit it, I was like, that’s a homerun for sure. I know right field is right there. So when I feel the bat, it was like Gone. The other at-bat I hit it kind of the same, it felt the same way, and it was an amazing moment.” Montero said this about the curtain calls “I see everybody doing that. I was dreaming of that before. I was always telling myself before, One day I’m going to be that guy, It was an amazing moment and an amazing feeling.”

Girardi said “I think sometimes you put a ton of pressure on yourself when you have an opportunity to get there. Well now he’s here, he knows he’s going to get at-bats and we’re going to see what this young man can do.” Girardi also said “The one thing is, you don’t get too giddy on one game, and you don’t get too down on another game. We’ll watch him over a period of time. We always thought that this young man can swing the bat.” The Yankees will attempt to win their sixth straight game on Tuesday night with Phil Hughes making the start. Hughes has been up and down since coming back off the disabled list and is looking to try and stay in the rotation and make the postseason roster. The Yankees right now have CC Sabathia and are unsure after that how it will line up. Ivan Nova and Bartolo Colon are most likely going to start in the playoffs but that last spot is between Garcia, A.J. Burnett and Phil Hughes. There will probably be one of them in the pen and the other left off the roster entirely. The Yankees first have to worry about winning the division and seeing how everyone is then. The season ends on September 28th and the playoffs start a couple of days after that. The Yankees right now have their biggest lead in a while and they would like to finish up strong, win the division and then see what happens from there. The Yankees are always trying to win a World Series and having home field advantage would help.