Striking Out the Side, and Then Some
Ron Montgomery leaned close to his computer in Williamsburg, Va., on July 1 as a radio play-by-play man 600 miles away described the most unforgettable inning of his son’s life.
Mark Montgomery, a 5-foot-11 right-hander who was drafted in the 11th round by the Yankees less than a month earlier, was on the mound to finish the Class A Charleston (S.C.) RiverDogs’ road game against the Rome (Ga.) Braves. And he was about to register a five-strikeout ninth inning.
“I wasn’t really keeping count,” Mark Montgomery said. “But I knew it was unusual.”
Montgomery, 20, had been called up from the Staten Island Yankees the previous day after striking out the side in three consecutive appearances in the New York-Penn League. Now, for the first time in a long time, he was nervous. The first batter tripled and the next one singled, slicing Charleston’s lead to 10-8.
Montgomery then used his fastball and slider to register two strikeouts. The next batter struck out swinging, and back in Williamsburg, Ron Montgomery exhaled.
Except the inning was not over. The ball had skipped off the dirt and caromed to the backstop, allowing the batter to reach base. The next batter also flailed at Montgomery’s dazzling slider and struck out. But once again the ball danced past the Yankees’ 18-year-old catcher, Gary Sanchez. The bases were loaded.
Ron Montgomery, who is the chief deputy of a sheriff’s office in Virginia, wanted to reach through his computer and tell his son to relax, to slow down, to continue to throw his pitch.
“All those things I’d say when I coached him growing up, calling his pitches,” he said. “When I was at those games, it didn’t affect me. It’s harder when you’re not there.”
Mark Montgomery settled in and froze left fielder Robby Hefflinger with a called third strike. This time, Sanchez caught the ball and Montgomery had his fifth strikeout of the inning, an accomplishment that tests the boundaries of baseball.
There has never been a five-strikeout inning in a major league game. Montgomery became the first South Atlantic League player to have one since Jason Lakman of the Hickory Crawdads in 1997. Lakman pitched 10 years in the minors and never reached the major leagues.
Aside from his one splendid inning, Lakman’s strikeout totals were never as startling as Montgomery’s. Montgomery has 28 strikeouts in 141/3 innings for Staten Island and Charleston. His rate of 17.6 strikeouts per nine innings is the highest of any player — from Class A to the majors — who has pitched at least five innings this year.
His fastball can touch 95 miles an hour, his slider is clearly puzzling, and opponents are batting just .207 against him. He has converted all eight of his save chances and has a 1.88 earned run average, but he is only in Class A, after all, and is not close to becoming the Yankees’ successor to Mariano Rivera. And in the minor leagues, potential is defeated by reality more often than not.
But there is something tantalizing, nevertheless, about a pitcher who can strike out five batters in one inning.
“He goes after guys and basically thinks no one can hit him,” the RiverDogs’ pitching coach, Carlos Chantres, said. “He’s got this slider I haven’t seen in a while from a 20-year-old kid.”
Montgomery started pitching in Little League when he was 9. There was a three-inning limit, and he routinely struck out all nine batters he faced. When he became stronger, his father wore full catcher’s gear during backyard throwing sessions.
Most often, Mike Montgomery pretended to be Rivera. He admired his toughness, his composure and his cut fastball, which could make bats snap like toothpicks.
Although Ron Montgomery was impressed by his son’s ability, major Division I baseball programs were not.
“He was one of those guys who fell into the median,” said Chris Pinder, Montgomery’s former travel team coach, who spent several years pitching in the farm systems of the Baltimore Orioles and the Cleveland Indians. “A lot of coaches said, ‘He’s 5-11.’ ”
Longwood University recruited Montgomery as a shortstop, but Coach Buddy Bolding was aware of his right arm. As a sophomore he developed his slider and registered 45 strikeouts in 35 innings with a 3.09 earned run average.
Last summer, Montgomery pitched for Edenton, N.C., in the Coastal Plain League, a high-level college summer bracket, and struck out 54 in 28 innings. As a junior closer for Longwood this year, he allowed opponents to hit only .120 and had a 0.89 earned run average with 48 strikeouts in 301/3 innings.
“The boy is suited for this,” Bolding said. “He has that warrior mentality, and he has it in spades.”
Closers often march to their own beat, and Montgomery is no exception.
He usually downs a five-hour energy drink in the seventh inning of games so he is “amped up” for the ninth. He is a gym rat, preferring 24-hour facilities for occasional 1 a.m. workouts.
And he loves strikeouts. He really loves strikeouts. He remembers most of them, the pitches he used, the counts he worked, the jams he escaped. And just over one month into his professional career, he has already pitched an inning he will never forget.
“When he got ahead, he used that slider, which is really good,” Chantres said. “Most of the kids at this level haven’t seen something like that, and he put them away.”
