The 21-year old from Venezuela, Jesus Montero accomplished career firsts in today’s 11-10 victory.
After all the hype that Montero was projected as the best hitting prospect since some shortstop named Derek Jeter, today was his day. In the 5th inning, Jesus Montero hit his first career home run into right field to break an 8-8 tie. Then in the 7th inning, Montero added more runs to the Yankees 9-8 lead with a two-run home run for his second career home run to make the score 11-8. The scouting reports of the young catcher indicated that he had power to the opposite field and he showed that today.
The Yankees scored their first 8 runs with the help of some regular providers of offense. Mark Teixeira started the Yankees offense with a solo home run in the 1st inning, his 36th of the season. Robinson Cano was the other huge contributor today as he hit a grand slam deep into right center field for his 24th home run of the season.
10 runs scoring indicates that the Yankees pitching was not good. Freddy Garcia lasted just 2.2 innings as he gave up 7 runs on 9 hits. His pitches kept hanging and getting hit hard. Returning to the Yankees, Scott Proctor made his first appearance with the team this season and went 2 innings but gave up a game-tying home run before Montero’s first home run.
Mariano Rivera was able to close the door despite letting one run score and the game-tying and game-winning runs reach base for his 38th save of the season and 597th of his career. He is now 3 saves from 600 and 5 saves from the all-time record, surpassing Trevor Hoffman’s 601 saves.
Ryan Nakada
@adakannayr
