CHICAGO — Cardinals left-hander Jordan Montgomery had been largely dominating the Chicago White Sox’ lineup. In his own words, he’d been “cruising.”
Then his right leg, the one he lands first as he’s delivering a pitch to the plate, pulled at him.
Montgomery felt the tug. The 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds of South Carolina-bred workhorse couldn’t pretend it wasn’t there, but he did try to throw one more pitch after his leg yanked at him.
When Montgomery yanked his next pitch far askew of the strike zone and nearly hit the shins of the batter Elvis Andrus, Montgomery knew his outing was done.
What Montgomery doesn’t yet know is how long this injury might sideline him or the extent of any potential damage done.
“I just kind of slipped on the mound and I guess my body tried to catch myself,” Montgomery said of the injury.
He stopped short of making any declarations about the severity of the injury or making any optimistic proclamations.
“I don’t want to say anything yet,” Montgomery said. “I’m big. I’m strong. I’m in really good shape. So I’m just trying to think thank goodness I’m as strong as I am and could catch myself. I’m just hoping for good news tomorrow.”
Montgomery gave up one run on three hits and one walk in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out five batters and looked poised to carry the Cardinals deep into a game that they’d controlled since the second inning. Instead, Montgomery left and the White Sox rallied against a Cardinals bullpen that’s been inconsistent and vulnerable.
Even after the White Sox came from behind and took the lead, Cardinals star Nolan Arenado belted his second home run of the night and temporarily put his club back in front by a run.
However, the White Sox onslaught against the Cardinals relief corps proved unrelenting. The Cardinals registered their 19th and 20th blown save opportunities of the season in an 8-7 loss to the White Sox in the opening game of a three-game series at Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday night.
“Obviously it sucks, but it’s just kind of freak thing,” Montgomery said. “It’s not like I pulled it running or anything. I just slipped.”
Montgomery knocked on a wood locker as he said he’d never dealt with any sort of soft tissue injury.
A Cardinals pitching rotation that already lost Adam Wainwright to the injured list with a shoulder ailment and demoted Matthew Liberatore back down to the minors due to ineffectiveness, now awaits a medical update on Montgomery.
Last year’s key trade deadline acquisition for the Cardinals, Montgomery had just tossed one of his most efficient outings of the season in his previous start against his former club the New York Yankees. He took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of that outing at Busch Stadium and won a showdown with his former teammate, mentor and Yankees ace Gerrit Cole.
Montgomery picked up against the White Sox in much the same place he left off against the Yankees. He allowed just one hit in the first four innings. He walked just one and struck out five in that same stretch.
With the Cardinals leading 5-0, Montgomery gave up a one-out solo home run in the fifth inning on 2-2 sinker to Jake Burger. Montgomery didn’t locate the pitch the way he wanted, but also wanted to be aggressive considering the lead he had and game situation.
“I was pretty much in control every A-B,” Montgomery said. “I let one kind of come more middle to Burger there, but it was a full count and I just wanted to go after him. Yeah, I was cruising.”
After the home run, Zach Remillard, ripped a double down the third base line just past the glove of Arenado and into the left field corner. That brought Andrus to the plate.
When Montgomery’s third pitch to Andrus drifted way inside, Cardinals rookie catcher Ivan Herrera got up from behind the plate and motioned to the dugout as he approached the mound.
The White Sox scored five runs in the sixth inning, including an unearned run aided by an error by second baseman Nolan Gorman.
At one point in the inning, Marmol went out to the mound in the middle of an at-bat because the baserunner Yasmani Grandal was able to see into relief pitcher Andre Pallante’s glove and relay pitches to batters.
Rookie reliever Kyle Leahy, promoted to the majors for the first time on Thursday, made his debut in the seventh inning. Like the two reliever who preceded him, Leahy gave up multiple runs as the White Sox tacked on two runs in the seventh to retake a one-run lead.
“We’ve been there before,” Marmol said of the leading getting away twice in the game. “We’ve had the lead more than twice in certain games and blown it. With our pitching staff, we can’t give away outs. And we did a decent amount of that today.”
Having lost four of their last five, the Cardinals fell to 36-52. They’ll need to win on Saturday to avoid losing a second consecutive series heading into the MLB All-Star break.
Offensively, they collected 16 hits on Friday. Brendan Donovan (3-for-5) and Paul Goldschmidt (3-for-5) had three hits apiece, while Lars Nootbaar had two hits (2-for-5), Jordan Walker (2-for-5), Ivan Herrera (2-for-5, two RBIs) and Arenado (2-for-4, two home runs, four RBIs) also had multi-hit games. Walker and Herrera each had doubles.
The Cardinals had the tying and go-head runs on base in the eighth inning and ninth inning, but could Nootbar struck out to end the eighth. Herrera grounded out to end the ninth.
