Yankees 9, Orioles 3: Yankees rout O’s behind Montgomery

Source: FanGraphs

Make it a season high five consecutive series wins for the Yankees. At 82-66, the Yankees are a season high 16 games over .500, and the magic number to clinch a postseason spot is down to a season low nine games. The Yankees picked up an easy 9-3 win over the Orioles on Saturday afternoon. Since it’s Saturday, let’s recap with bullet points:

• Making Earl Weaver Proud: The Yankees have hit five — five! — three-run home runs in the first three games of this four-game series. Todd Frazier and Aaron Judge (two) combined for three Thursday night, and on Saturday, Didi Gregorius and Greg Bird socked three-run homers of their own. Didi’s gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead in the third and Bird’s gave them a 6-0 lead in the fourth. That all happened after the trainer came out to look at Jeremy Hellickson, who remained in the game. He didn’t look all that good after the visit and the Yankees took advantage.
• Six Strong For Montgomery: Great start for Jordan Montgomery. He needed one too. The last few weeks have been tough. Montgomery completed six innings for the first time since July 25th (eight starts ago) and he did not allow a run for only the second time all season (27 starts). Montgomery held the Orioles to four singles and a walk in his six scoreless innings, and he struck out six. He allowed just one runner to reach second base and none made it as far as third. Way to go, Monty.
• Insurance Runs: The Yankees didn’t stop at six runs because, well, have you seen the O’s pitching staff? Jacoby Ellsbury, who went 3-for-4 and has reached base safely in 28 of his last 52 plate appearances, singled in a run in the fifth inning. Frazier cranked a two-run home run in the seventh inning to make it 9-0 Yankees. That was Frazier’s fifth homer in his last eleven games now. The Yankees have outscored the Orioles 30-10 in the series so far.
• Leftovers: Scoreless innings from Tommy Kahnle and Ben Heller, then Chasen Shreve walked four and allowed a garbage time two-run homer in the ninth, and Gio Gallegos balked in a run. Whatever … three hits for Didi and Ellsbury, and one each for Brett Gardner, Chase Headley, Frazier, and Bird … Judge drew two walks while Headley and Frazier had one each … Miguel Andujar pinch-hit and grounded out in the ninth. His career MLB batting line went from .750/.800/1.000 to .600/.667/.800. Lost .333 OPS points with one swing … and finally, the Yankees have clinched a winning record for the 25th straight season. That is the second longest such streak in history behind 39 years by the 1926-64 Yankees. If the current streak lasts long enough to match that one, Luis Severino will be 37 when it happens. Crazy.

Here are the box score, video highlights, updated standings, and postseason odds. Don’t miss our Bullpen Workload page. Sadly, this four-game series will come to an end Sunday. That’s unfortunate. That’s a 1pm ET start. CC Sabathia Sonny Gray and Ubaldo Jimenez are the scheduled starting pitchers. The Yankees shuffled the rotation so Sabathia won’t have to pitch on the turf in Toronto next weekend.