{"id":1512,"date":"2023-10-16T14:47:38","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T11:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/1512\/mlb-2023-playoffs-alcs-rangers-pitching-astros-yordan-alvarez\/"},"modified":"2023-10-24T21:20:39","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T18:20:39","slug":"mlb-2023-playoffs-alcs-rangers-pitching-astros-yordan-alvarez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=1512","title":{"rendered":"How Jordan Montgomery finally beat Yordan Alvarez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How Jordan Montgomery finally beat Yordan Alvarez\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Jeff Passan, ESPN<span class=\"timestamp \">October 16, 2023, 5:30 a.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\">Close<\/p>\n<ul>ESPN MLB Insider<br \/>Author of &#8220;The Arm: The Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Asset in Sports&#8221;<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>HOUSTON \u2014 Over the winter, Jordan Montgomery spent his days at Tread Athletics, a performance lab about 10 miles outside Charlotte, honing his throwing skills.  While Tread <a href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/2625\/seven-top-young-coaches-to\/\">coaches<\/a> liked almost everything about Montgomery, from his size to his competitiveness to his willingness to learn, what they liked most was his curveball.  They loved him so much that he earned a nickname:<\/p>\n<p>The death ball.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#8217;s Choice<\/h2>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>To the naked eye, it looks like a perfectly OK curveball, and based on spin rate and break alone, it&#8217;s nothing special.  And it confuses hitters anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Yordan \u00c1lvarez learned his power Sunday night in Game 1 of the American League Championship <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/series\/\"   title=\"Series\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">Series<\/a>.  The Houston Astros slugger, one of the best hitters in the world, coming off a split series in which he hit four homers in four games, faced Montgomery three times.  All three ended with \u00c1lvarez running through the Death Ball.  Never had a pitcher struck out \u00c1lvarez three times in a single game.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline float-r inline-track\">\n<h2 class=\"img-title\">How the Rangers got to October<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-lazyload=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1697175764_16_MLB-playoffs-2023-Even-in-a-week-of-chaos-the.jpg\" class=\"round lazyload\"\/><\/p>\n<p>After decades of struggles on the mound, the Rangers have finally cracked the code to building a modern rotation, or at least that&#8217;s what they hope.<br \/>Jeff Passan \u00bb<\/p>\n<p>Passan: In the frenzy of deadlines in Texas \u00bb<br \/>Doolittle: Weathering a Storm the Size of Texas \u00bb<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Montgomery isn&#8217;t just any pitcher.  Acquired by the Texas Rangers at the trade deadline for exactly one night like tonight, the 30-year-old turned in one of the best starts \u2013 and certainly the most important \u2013 of his career in Game 1.  He pitched 6\u2153 scoreless innings and neutralized \u00c1lvarez in the Rangers&#8217; 2-0 victory that stole home-field advantage from Houston and silenced the once-raucous crowd of 42,872 at Minute Maid Park.<\/p>\n<p>In the three at-bats Montgomery faced with \u00c1lvarez, he threw 17 pitches \u2013 eight sinkers, six Death Balls, two four-seam fastballs and even a changeup, a rarity for a left-handed pitcher against a left-handed hitter.  He worked inside and outside, up and down, completely avoiding the middle of the strike zone.  If a pitcher wants to beat \u00c1lvarez, he has to empty his bag of tricks.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a good thing Montgomery&#8217;s curveball is magic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it comes out of his hand, it looks like a fastball,\u201d \u00c1lvarez said.  &#8220;It makes it a little more difficult. The way he releases the ball, the angle he releases it at, makes the recovery a little more difficult and makes it look like a fastball.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This is why, even with the analytics that inform so much about baseball today, context matters.  At Tread, Montgomery worked not only on the form of his pitches, but also on how his speech presents them.  \u00c1lvarez suggesting that Montgomery&#8217;s curveball resembles a fastball may seem odd \u2014 the average velocity on Montgomery&#8217;s fastball Sunday night was 93.3 mph;  on the curveball, 79.8 \u2013 but he&#8217;s not wrong.  That\u2019s how Montgomery and his coaches designed it.<\/p>\n<p>They recognized that Montgomery had two things that worked in his favor on the field: his size and his release point.  It didn&#8217;t spin particularly hard and didn&#8217;t have the looping action that a more aesthetically pleasing curve might provide.  He came out flat and broke late \u2014 and when paired with that sinker and a four-seam fastball, he turned into a haymaker.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline float-r inline-track\">\n<h2 class=\"img-title\">The best of the 2023 MLB playoffs<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-lazyload=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1697175764_445_MLB-playoffs-2023-Even-in-a-week-of-chaos-the.jpg\" class=\"round lazyload\"\/><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve got you covered for all things baseball this October.<\/p>\n<p>Calendar, bracket, classification \u00bb<br \/>World Series Odds, LDS Preview \u00bb<br \/>Our predictions for each round \u00bb<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Montgomery&#8217;s release point on the Death Ball is 80.2 inches off the ground, the second-highest vertical release on a curve in baseball (behind his Game 1 opponent, Justin Verlander).  Montgomery releases his 80.4-inch four-seamer vertically and his 80.9-inch sinker \u2013 and the horizontal release points of all three are less than half an inch apart.  The tunnel effect tricks hitters into thinking they&#8217;re seeing one thing when it&#8217;s something else, and that&#8217;s what left \u00c1lvarez struggling, with five whiffs among the 17 pitches he saw.<\/p>\n<p>When he was about 12 years old and growing up in South Carolina, Montgomery learned to draw a curve when his father, Jim, helped him wrap duct tape around Coke cans to give them more weight .  Montgomery was trying to throw them into a nearby trash can.  Eventually he took notice of the pitch, rode it to the University of South Carolina and used it to get to the major leagues with the New York Yankees.  They traded him to the St. Louis Cardinals last season, and the Cardinals received a bonus from the Rangers in the late July deal that brought him to Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Upon his arrival, Montgomery did not think he would be the team&#8217;s ace in the playoffs, not with the subsequent acquisition of Max Scherzer, and Nathan Eovaldi pitching as a front-line starter.  But Eovaldi was injured.  And Scherzer did it too.  And Montgomery found himself not only starting Game 1 of Texas&#8217; wild-card series against Tampa Bay, but doing the same against the Astros, whose seventh straight ALCS appearance extended the league record.<\/p>\n<p>\u00c1lvarez helped carry the Astros here.  The 26-year-old is a dream hitter: powerful but precise.  He destroys right-handed pitchers \u2013 and crushes lefties, too.  Her holes are more pinpricks than Swiss cheese.  Cutting it out requires the precision of a surgeon.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Montgomery started first with a clear plan: to work \u00c1lvarez inside.  He started with a low, inside sinker that \u00c1lvarez fouled, moved up and inside with a sinker that \u00c1lvarez mistook for a ball, then hammered three more pitches to the inside: a curveball that \u00c1lvarez took for a strike, a sinker that he fouled and a curveball that he crossed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know he likes to extend, and we were going to make him fight inside, make him a little uncomfortable,\u201d said Rangers catcher Jonah Heim, an All-Star widely praised for his decision-making and framing skills.  \u201cAnd when he squirms a little bit, we try to catch him, and the curveball plays. [Montgomery] did an incredible job of execution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The second at-bat could have been even more impressive.  In all the years Montgomery spent in the AL East, he learned that the best hitters, like Rafael Devers, will eventually sell out on an infield if you keep hitting there.  So, after missing the pitch with a sinker, Montgomery hit a four-seam shot up the middle that \u00c1lvarez tipped through.  He came back high and with a sinker that \u00c1lvarez fouled, tried to change his eye level with an even higher four-seamer and went inside twice &#8211; a change for a ball, a sinker committed a foul &#8211; before another Death Ball.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to swing it,\u201d Montgomery said.  &#8220;I was going to make him fight with my best throw there. And usually when you don&#8217;t miss the middle, it&#8217;s a good day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline float-r inline-track\">\n<h2 class=\"img-title\">What happened?!?!<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-lazyload=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/MLB-playoffs-2023-Even-in-a-week-of-chaos-the.jpg\" class=\"round lazyload\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The #1 offseason question for every eliminated MLB team.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1697166059_76_NBArank-2023-24-reaction-Snubs-surprises-and-players-who-could.png\" width=\"49\"\/>    Non-playoff teams \u00bb<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1697166059_76_NBArank-2023-24-reaction-Snubs-surprises-and-players-who-could.png\" width=\"49\"\/>    Teams eliminated in the playoffs \u00bb<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>That&#8217;s the problem with Montgomery.  He&#8217;s not a snacker.  He&#8217;s not someone who picks in corners.  He attacks the hitters directly.  And he is not afraid to deepen his repertoire.  Earlier this <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/week\/\"   title=\"week\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">week<\/a>, Rangers outfielder Robbie Grossman told Montgomery he needed to use a sliding pitch toward home plate rather than his full throw when no one was on base.  Well, in his third at-bat against \u00c1lvarez, trailing 2-0, Montgomery conjured one more round and froze \u00c1lvarez on perhaps the hardest pitch he would see all day, a low sinker and in the middle of the marble.  .<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just about the curve,\u201d Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said.  &#8220;He&#8217;s got a bunch of other weapons as well, and he executes really well. So I think it&#8217;s really just execution. It&#8217;s a good pitch.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Montgomery knows this, and so after getting that first shot against \u00c1lvarez, he didn&#8217;t throw anything else.  On 2-1, Montgomery threw a curve down the strike zone;  \u00c1lvarez rolled over.  The next pitch was a bouncer, away from home plate, and it left \u00c1lvarez struggling, looking less like one of the best hitters in the world and more like a guy completely perplexed by what he was seeing.<\/p>\n<p>Three at-bats.  Three strikeouts to end the inning.  And a gift of a performance, both to Rangers and to his family.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, Montgomery&#8217;s wife, McKenzie, celebrated her birthday.  And Sunday was his dad&#8217;s, and Jim was asking for a playoff <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/win\/\"   title=\"win\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">win<\/a> as the perfect gift.  An ALCS victory over a future Hall of Famer was enough.<\/p>\n<p>Montgomery is not finished.  He will likely <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/start\/\"   title=\"start\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">start<\/a> another match in this series, when he faces Verlander again.  He&#8217;ll follow the meticulous routine of pregame plyoball drills that his coach, Tyler Zombro, taught him at Tread \u2014 the ones that help him find consistency in his delivery and conviction in his movements.  He will get together with Heim and his pitching coach, Mike Maddux, with whom he vibed almost immediately after his arrival, and plan his game.<\/p>\n<p>And then he&#8217;ll try to continue doing exactly what he&#8217;s done all postseason and what he hopes to do throughout the World Series: run them dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How Jordan Montgomery finally beat Yordan Alvarez\u060c Jeff Passan, ESPNOctober 16, 2023, 5:30 a.m. Close ESPN MLB InsiderAuthor of &#8220;The Arm: The Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Asset in Sports&#8221; HOUSTON \u2014 Over the winter, Jordan Montgomery spent his days at Tread Athletics, a performance lab about 10 miles outside Charlotte, honing his throwing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1507,668,1864,1862,1863,1865],"class_list":["post-1512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-alvarez","tag-beat","tag-finally","tag-jordan","tag-montgomery","tag-yordan"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4282,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512\/revisions\/4282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}