The way in which Jordan Montgomery sees it, the lifting of a number of burdens has helped him thrive with the Cardinals after being traded by the Yankees earlier than the deadline.
The southpaw now not has to cope with the strain of merely being a Yankee, nor does he have the Yankees telling him to not throw his fastball anymore.
“I used to be all the time frightened about getting booed off the mound in New York,” Montgomery mentioned not too long ago on CC Sabathia’s and Ryan Ruocco’s “R2C2” podcast. “The pinstripes are heavy. Not everybody can deal with it. I really feel like I dealt with it OK. I may’ve been higher, however there was loads of issues going into that I assume. However right here [in St. Louis], I’m simply being myself and pitching the way in which I need to. I assume the followers have type of embraced me to date.”
Montgomery, who’s scheduled to pitch Tuesday in opposition to the Brewers in St. Louis, is 5-0 with a 1.45 ERA in seven begins with the Cardinals after going 3-3 with a 3.69 ERA in 21 begins with the Yankees earlier this season. The 29-year-old had a profession 3.94 ERA in 98 appearances (97 begins) as a Yankee.
His first begin as a Cardinal got here in opposition to the Yankees in St. Louis, the place he threw five shutout innings in a 1-0 win. Six of his seven Cardinals begins have come at residence.
Montgomery mentioned the Yankees weren’t followers of his fastball, however now it’s turn into one in all his strengths.
“I didn’t actually have a lot religion in my heater on the Yankees,” Montgomery mentioned. “I had been instructed that it wasn’t that good in comparison with my different pitches and if I used to be gonna get hit, it was gonna be on a curveball or changeup, which isn’t how one can pitch.
“So if I acquired two strikes on a man, he was in all probability auto-taking as a result of I used to be gonna throw a curveball or a changeup. He was attempting to only foul a changeup off or see a curveball down. I’m throwing my fastball in two-strike counts, I’m throwing something in any rely now, so it’s positively opened up.”
Montgomery mentioned he would “completely” push again relating to his fastball utilization.
“However then I might miss a spot and quit a homer as a result of I by no means threw my four-seamer in, so there was actually no constant really feel of it, and I’d leak center or I wouldn’t have any confidence in it,” he mentioned. “I’m considering, ‘all proper, I’m throwing this not to surrender a success’ as a substitute of, ‘I’m gonna throw this and blow your doorways off.’ So now it’s only a entire completely different aggressive mindset the place I’m the man, I’m a canine on the mound and I’m simply coming proper after everyone.”
The Yankees did deal with Montgomery nicely, he mentioned, and he believed he was going to be a Yankee for all times.
“Whenever you come up homegrown they care for you, and never everybody can pitch in Yankee Stadium,” Montgomery mentioned. “We traded for Sonny Grey and that didn’t work out nicely; we traded for Joey Gallo, that didn’t work out nicely. Whenever you commerce for somebody and so they pitch in New York, you by no means know the way it’s gonna work out. I type of felt protected and thought I used to be gonna be there perpetually, or at the least for just a few extra years.”
