Jordan Montgomery Shows Improvement as D-backs Down Rockies

The Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields on Wednesday by a tight score of 1-0. It was a close, well-pitched contest by both teams.

Left-hander Jordan Montgomery made his second start of the Cactus League. His first outing was anything but pretty, as he sat in the 88 MPH range on his sinker, allowing five earned runs while collecting just one out.

Montgomery's throwing program had been delayed, so his debut came a bit later than other starters. After the poor showing his first time out, he was moved to a backfield session at Salt River Fields to continue his ramp-up process and tweak some of his arsenal.

And on Wednesday, it certainly appeared that those tweaks had made at least somewhat of an impact. Montgomery displayed better movement and velocity, and his location was a bit better than his previous appearance.

Montgomery threw just 40 pitches, and was able to create both swing-and-miss and soft contact over 2.2 scoreless innings. He worked quickly and more efficiently, and only one ball was hit harder than 100 MPH off the southpaw.

While only 23 of his 40 pitches went for strikes, many were off the plate by a much smaller margin than before, as many of his misses sat near the edge of the zone. His sinker velocity averaged just above 90 MPH, topping out near 92 MPH.

The velocity is still down 1.5 MPH from 2024, and about 3 MPH below his 2023 form. Regardless, the left-hander certainly looked sharper on the mound on Wednesday.

"It felt good," said Montgomery, speaking to reporters postgame. "We got a lot of ground balls and a few more strikes and it felt pretty good. I wouldn't say I am [where I want to be], but I'm getting closer every time I go out there.

"Sinker was really good today. Threw a couple good curveballs. Of course the best curveball was changed from a strike to a ball, but it's getting there. Threw a good changeup in that first inning strikeout. Sinker was really good."

"I've never lost confidence. I know I'm a good pitcher, just part of it. Sometimes Spring Training will speed up on you," Montgomery continued.

Manager Torey Lovullo spoke on Montgomery's outing in his postgame press conference, speaking to reporters, including Diamondbacks On SI's Jack Sommers.

he gave us every indication that he'd be able to command thebaseball, get to that pitch count, we wanted to get him something over 40, and I thought it wasa really good outing,

Lovullo called Montgomery's first poor outing an "outlier," and said that his two outings since then have been "really, really good." The manager praised Montgomery's overall performance Wednesday.

"I thought he had a fastball, that there was one swing on a right-handed batter, I could see the ball drop in the hitting zone about three inches below the barrel, which was great," said Lovullo. "He threw some quality changeups. I think as he continues to work on the things that he's working on with [pitching coach Brian Kaplan], which are balance and load, I think you're going to see him get even better.

"It's nice to see him have that outing and get on his way as far as I'm concerned."

The manager said Montgomery would continue his ramp-up to four up-downs, and somewhere around 50 plus pitches for his next appearance. He maintained that the left-hander remains in the mix for the fifth starter's slot.

Right-hander Bryce Jarvis also had a solid outing. He went two full innings, allowing two hits, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch, while punching out three. Jarvis needs to limit his base traffic to carve himself out a roster spot, and did so to a moderate degree.

Right-handers John Curtiss, Juan Morillo and Kyle Amendt all threw scoreless innings. Only one base hit was surrendered between the three of them.

Arizona's offense was generally stagnant, despite featuring a lineup of mostly major league hitters. The D-backs' sole run came off a 76 MPH bloop hit into center field from Lourdes Gurriel Jr., as the speedy Corbin Carroll managed to score all the way from first base. Gurriel finished the day 2-for-3 with an RBI.

"Usually, you hit a pop fly to the shallow [outfield], deep infield, everybody kind of pulls up on it, but not Corbin," said Lovullo. "He gave [third base coach Shaun Larkin] a chance to wheel him, and that's the kind of baseball we play here, and we scored that run, and we had to win it one-nothing.

"It's nice to win a one-nothing game."

The Diamondbacks will be back in action on Thursday at Salt River Fields, facing the Athletics at 1:10 p.m.