ARLINGTON, Texas — Trevor Williams threw the final 4 innings of Friday’s 7-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays without allowing a run. Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said that outing is the reason Jordan Montgomery was available to cover 3 2/3 innings on Saturday.
Trevor Williams Covered Four Innings In Friday’s Texas Rangers Win
Williams signed with Texas on Sept. 1 and had not pitched since Sept. 9 before Friday. He was out of gas by the ninth inning and told the Rangers he could stay in, Schumaker said.
“Initially, that happened because of Trevor Williams,” Schumaker said. “Trevor Williams going back out in the ninth inning last night to just cover us allowed Monty to be able to throw three or four innings. So that game, that outing right there was because of Trevor Williams. And we wouldn’t have been able to do that because Monty was pitching that ninth inning if Trevor couldn’t give us another inning. He was out of gas, and he said, ‘I can give you guys one more if you need it.’”
“So that’s what this team is all about right now,” Schumaker continued. “And Monty coming in and providing what he did to get us through the fifth inning, again, our bullpen has been really, really good lately. It has covered so many innings and some really unsung heroes right now that are providing so much length to cover us, not only that game to help us win, but the next day.”
“And then we started matching up best we could against a really good team,” Schumaker added. “And they only gave up, what, two runs total, one run after Monty came out of the game, I think, something like that. So a lot happened, sorry, in the pitching side. But, yeah, Monty, fantastic. But, again, these are team wins, and there’s also because of what happened the day before really covering us today.”
Jordan Montgomery Retires 11 Of 12 Toronto Blue Jays Batters
Montgomery entered with one out in the second inning Saturday, two days after throwing 16 pitches out of the bullpen against the Boston Red Sox. He threw 3 2/3 hitless innings on 51 pitches, with 1 walk and 1 strikeout, and left with a 3-0 lead.
Montgomery retired 11 of the 12 batters he faced. It was his longest scoreless outing of the season, and the second-longest relief appearance of his career, Kennedi Landry of MLB.com reported. The longer one was 4 1/3 scoreless innings against the New York Mets on Aug. 27, 2024.
Montgomery (1-0) earned his first major league win since Aug. 14, 2024, when he pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He came off the 60-day injured list Aug. 7 after Tommy John surgery and has pitched out of the bullpen since. Texas won 6-2 and moved one game ahead of the Houston Astros in the American League West with seven games left.
Jacob deGrom (11-9, 3.79 ERA) starts Sunday’s series finale at 1:35 p.m. CT on Rangers Sports Network.
