MINNEAPOLIS – It’s been a frustrating season for Colson Montgomery, no doubt about it. His OPS is 117 points lower than his rookie performance and has been below the league average for most of the year. His strikeouts are up and his walks are down.
But Montgomery proved again on Friday that he can still change a game with one swing of the bat.
Montgomery’s three-run homer capped a four-run first inning as the White Sox held off the Twins, 7-4, at Target Field.
The victory was the 71st of the season for the White Sox, and that total is an indication of how far they’ve come and how quickly they’ve done it. No team that had three straight 100+ loss seasons had ever won more than 70 games in a season. The White Sox passed three 70-win teams – the Astros (2014), the Senators (1965) and the Boston Braves (1925).
The first-inning blast was No. 28 on the season for Montgomery, who made a big splash as a rookie with an .840 OPS and 21 homers in just 283 plate appearances.
This year has been a different story. Montgomery’s average was still below .200 three weeks into the season. Since then, his high-water mark has been .239 on April 24. He’s got five four-strikeout games (compared to zero such games last year) and even on Friday, when he added a single to his first-inning homer, Montgomery struck out twice. And he has fewer two-walk games this year than last (three to two).
“For me to come out tonight and be productive and drive and runs, it means a lot,” Montgomery said. “Obviously I haven't been where I should be with all that stuff, and that's on me. I completely understand I should be driving in more runs or a little better situational hitting.
“But … I'm not getting too down myself about it because I know it's baseball, and it's late August, and sometimes stuff happens.”
Montgomery got the White Sox off to a flying start with his long ball in the first inning. Twins starter Dean Kremer retired the first two hitters before Miguel Vargas singled. He moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Andrew Benintendi’s base hit.
Braden Montgomery followed with a single, setting up Colson Montgomery, who deposited a 1-2 splitter from Kremer into the right-field seats to put the White Sox on top 4-0 before the Twins even touched their bats.
“I'm not really thinking about home runs, or I'm not trying to think about hitting the ball hard,” Montgomery said of situations when he’s had success driving the ball. “It's just kind of sticking with my approach, just being on time and being committed to the pitch in the area. ... I feel like when I do those kinds of things, those little checkboxes, I feel like that's when I do get those results of I hit the ball hard or hit the ball in the air, hit homers and stuff.”
Montgomery’s fifth-inning single gave him 11 hits in his last 11 games (.262 average). Admittedly that doesn’t sound like much, but if he starts getting on base at a higher clip, it could open new dimensions for this already torrid offense.
“That'd be huge,” manager Will Venable said. “He’s a big part of this offense. What's great about it on offense is that it's not just one guy that goes out there and helps win a game. Everyone contributes.
“It takes some pressure off of those guys in the middle of the order where, obviously, slugging is a big part of their game. But when you have guys getting on base and taking a walk and just passing the baton, it means a lot. For Colson to be in that mode is going to be impactful for our offense.”