Jordan Montgomery’s Eight-Pitch Ninth Finished the Rangers’ 3-1 Win

Three batters. Three outs. Eight pitches.

Jordan Montgomery finished the Texas Rangers’ 3-1 victory over the New York Mets Thursday by dispatching Juan Soto, Bo Bichette and Carson Benge in the ninth inning. Soto grounded to third. Bichette grounded to short. Benge struck out swinging. Ballgame, neatly folded.

Montgomery took over with a two-run lead and the Mets’ second, third and fourth hitters due. There was enough room to absorb a baserunner, but he allowed none. Texas had spent much of the afternoon protecting a smaller advantage; the finish asked very little of its final pitcher.

Montgomery threw five strikes among his eight pitches, allowed no baserunner and faced the Mets’ Nos. 2-4 hitters without extending the inning. Soto entered the ninth 0-for-2 with one intentional walk, the latter coming in the third inning.

Bichette was 0-for-3 before his groundout made him 0-for-4. Benge, who singled home Francisco Lindor in the first inning for New York’s only run, struck out to end the game.

That is a tidy way to close a game, particularly one in which the margin had been one run until Corey Seager’s sixth-inning home run. But the finish had three relievers in front of it, and their work mattered because it kept the Mets from creating a more complicated assignment.

Kumar Rocker gave Texas five innings, allowing one run on three hits with four strikeouts and two walks. His best escape came in the third. Nick Morabito doubled, Francisco Lindor struck out and Soto was intentionally walked. Bichette then grounded into a double play, with Justin Foscue starting the turn to Corey Seager and Jake Burger. A potentially awkward inning ended without another Mets run.

Rocker’s line was not flawless, and the first inning showed why the Rangers needed more than a competent start. Lindor doubled, Soto popped out and Bichette grounded out before Benge’s single brought Lindor home. Texas answered in the bottom half: Justin Foscue singled, Corey Seager struck out, and Josh Jung followed with a two-run homer.

The exchange created the 2-1 lead, but it left Rocker with a game that still required careful handling.

Robert Garcia supplied exactly that in the sixth. He faced Lindor, Soto and Bichette and retired all three on 10 pitches. The outs came by way of a flyout, a foul pop and another flyout.

There was no need for a strikeout parade. Garcia simply moved through the most threatening section of the lineup and handed the game back to the offense with the lead intact.

Seager then hit the decisive insurance homer against Jefry Yan in the bottom half. That solo shot changed the arithmetic around every subsequent out. A 2-1 lead invites one mistake to become the entire inning; 3-1 still demands execution, but gives the pitching staff more room to absorb ordinary baseball.

Tyler Alexander protected that margin in the seventh. He allowed Brett Baty’s single, then retired Marcus Semien and A.J. Ewing on fly balls to finish the inning. Chase Silseth handled the eighth, striking out Luis Torrens and Morabito before Lindor flew out. From Baty’s single through the end of the game, the next eight Mets batters were retired, a sequence completed by Montgomery’s three outs.

The bullpen’s combined numbers were modest rather than theatrical: Garcia, Alexander, Silseth and Montgomery covered four scoreless innings, allowing one hit, issuing no walks and recording three strikeouts. Garcia, Alexander and Silseth did the bridge work; Montgomery supplied the polished final piece.

Texas did leave some room for criticism. The Rangers stranded four runners, lost runners on separate caught-stealing plays and ended the eighth with a double play after Evan Carter walked and Jung singled. The offense relied heavily on its productive core: Jung reached in all four plate appearances, while his homer and Seager’s blast accounted for every Texas run.

Texas offered Montgomery two runs of protection; he let none of the three hitters reach. That was all this ninth inning required, and it was all New York got.

Sources

Official game data

Official game box score