Jordan Montgomery Flops in Spring Debut

Out in Goodyear, the split-squad Arizona Diamondbacks lost to the Cincinnati Reds by a score of 9-8 as they fell victim to ill-timed walks and some rough pitching. The offense showcased a lot of potential with plenty of hits, walks, and runs but it wasn't enough to win Saturday afternoon.

The story of the day was Jordan Montgomery's debut in Spring Training. To put it politely, it was a rough outing for the tall left-hander who was trying to start the season on a new footing.

He came on to start the bottom of the fourth inning and he led it off with a hit by pitch. From the get-go, his velocity was much lower than it was last year. His fastball consistently sat around 88-89 mph. The very next pitch was hit for a homer by Christian Encarnacion-Strand.

Montgomery followed that up with two walks, a fly out, and a single before being pulled with runners on the corners and three runs given up. Mitchell Stumpo came on in relief and allowed two more runs to score that were attributed to Montgomery's stat line. In total, he gave up a homer, hit-by-pitch, two walks, two hits, and five earned runs.

Montgomery looked rusty as he couldn't locate an off-speed pitch for a strike as his curveballs regularly missed the zone. Then, his fastball and sinkers were far slower than in the past. They were 2.8 mph slower than last season. That's a stark drop-off and it will be hard for him to make that ground up over the next three weeks or so.

There is still plenty of time for Montgomery to turn it around, but this was a difficult start especially as he competes for the fifth spot in the starting rotation.

As for Zac Gallen, he started the game off extremely well with two strikeouts in his first three batters. He showed elite command of his off-speed pitches, a terrific curveball, and improving fastball velocity.

However, the wheels came off the next two innings as the D-backs sought to get him to around 50 pitches and three up-downs.

In the second inning, Gallen got the first out quickly via punchout. However, he then gave up two walks to two of the next three batters. He needed 18 pitches to get past those three batters.

After that, Gallen was removed from the game and replaced by Connor Grammes who got the last out of the inning. Gallen returned to the mound to finish his third up-down to begin the bottom of the third inning.

However, at that point, he was over 40 pitches before starting the third. He got the first out on four pitches, but walked the next batter on six pitches. At that point, he was pulled and his day was over at 52 pitches with just 24 of them landing for strikes.

The batter who walked ended up coming around to score so the final line on Gallen's day was two innings, one run, three walks, and three strikeouts.

Location and velocity seemed to be Gallen's issues. His fastball was still 2.4 miles per hour lower than his 2024 number, and it was not landing in the zone nearly as much as he is known for.

While the curveball and changeup looked strong, there were instances of them not being able to entice batters to swing at it as they dove under the zone. This led to more balls being called.

Regardless, the plan worked. Gallen got three up-downs while reaching over 50 pitches. This is keeping him on schedule for Opening Weekend or Opening Day. Gallen's an elite pitcher who has started slow in past Spring Training camps, this is not a cause for any kind of concern yet.

Justin Martinez struggled later in the game and gave up a couple of runs as he battles to be the closer while A.J. Puk pitched a scoreless inning. Shelby Miller was impressive too in his inning.

As for the offense, Eugenio Suarez was the star. He launched a grand slam that was hit 111+ mph to left field to get the D-backs offense going for the day. Star outfielder Corbin Carroll made his return to the lineup after suffering from lower back tightness and went 2-for-3 with a pair of well-struck singles.

Top-30 prospect Jack Hurley also homered late in the 9th inning to get the score close at 9-8.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have a split squad game again tomorrow afternoon as half the team plays in Las Vegas against the Athletics while the other half will be taking on the Texas Rangers.