Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery throws during the first inning of Game 1 of the … [+]
Seven months ago the scenario of Jordan Montgomery opposing Justin Verlander in a postseason game was not necessarily unrealistic but perhaps the location of that hypothetical playoff matchup would be different.
During spring training, the Cardinals and Mets were among preseason playoff favorites in the National League, meaning a matchup between Montgomery and Verlander would take place in St. Louis or Citi Field in New York.
Except the projected plans never played out for the Cardinals and Mets, who became colossal failures, leading Montgomery and Verlander to become former players of those teams and oppose each other in Game One of the ALCS pitting the Rangers and Astros in the first postseason matchup between the teams, who are good for the first time in a season since 2015 and 2016.
Montgomery continued to see the amount of his next contract in free agency spike up and give some Yankee fans angst about trading him to St. Louis in the first place at the 2022 trade deadline. Throwing his sinker and curveball 33 times apiece, Montgomery held the Astros to five hits in 6 1/3 innings during his second dominating start of the postseason.
The first occurred in the opener of the wild-card series against Tampa Bay on the same day the Yankees began their offseason meetings that according to managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner became quite heated. It is unclear if questions about trading Montgomery came up or discussions about possibly signing him emerged but it continued to be another misstep, though perhaps not as egregious as the deal for Josh Donaldson.
Montgomery was in the prominent role of a Game 1 starter because St. Louis cratered from the outset. On the way to their first losing season since 2007 and first 90-loss campaign since 1990, the Cardinals lost 19 of their first 29 games, were seven games under .500 through May and went 10 games under for good on June 4.
Montgomery’s contribution to the rough season was a 6-9 record with a respectable 3.42 ERA and other than the 60-game bizzarro nature of the 2020 pandemic, his ERA has not been over 4.00 in any full season. Montgomery’s stats were good enough for the Rangers to enhance their rotation at the deadline and he was 4-2 in 11 starts before being deemed good enough to start a postseason opener.
As for Verlander, his 35th and 36th postseason starts were expected to occur while pitching for the Mets and getting paid by the Mets as part of the highest payroll in baseball history. Instead Verlander missed the first month with a shoulder injury, the Mets fell under .500 for good on June 6 and were out of contention for anything when the time came to start moving pieces.
Houston Astros starting pitcher Justin Verlander throws during the first inning of Game 1 of the … [+]
Verlander got the milestone of his 250th career win accomplished on July 30 against the Nationals before he exited, doing so two days before the deadline. It was a milestone that was hardly talked about since it occurred around the frenetic trade deadline and coincided with Max Scherzer being traded to Texas and by the end of that week, Verlander was making his second Houston debut against the Yankees, who opted not to get him from the Detroit Tigers in 2017.
Against Montgomery, Verlander’s fastball was thrown 47 times, though 27 of those resulted in swings that did not miss. Still he allowed two runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings in a game defined by rookie Evan Carter’s catch and doubling off Jose Altuve second in the eighth.
In many ways, the ALCS is defined by some variation of the old school with the managerial matchup of Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker. While both look at the various analytics they do not let it define things, a fact pointed out by Derek Jeter on the FOX pregame when the former Yankee captain made it no secret about his disdain for that tactic.
The Montgomery-Verlander matchup was also the first of the 23 postseason games so far where each starter pitched into the seventh.
It was the type of scenario the Cardinals and Mets dreamt off during the optimistic phases of spring training. Because Montgomery and Verlander’s former employers never got their seasons going in the anticipated direction, the matchup occurred in Houston and not New York or St. Louis.
The matchup of the ALCS opener also continued the what-if nature of the postseason for the New York teams, who combined for Opening Day payrolls of about $630 million and wound up with 157 wins