Yankees Survive, Force Game 5 Friday Night

 YANKEES 5 - RAYS 1 

The Yankees needed Jordan Montgomery to channel his inner Andy Pettitte in order to keep their season alive. While he wasn't as thoroughly dominating as the former Yankees' lefty, Montgomery held his own, kept the Rays off the board, and gave his team a shot to put the pain of Game's 2 and 3 firmly behind them. 

Montgomery did exactly what the Yankees needed him to do. He settled things down. The Yankees, specifically manager Aaron Boone, General Manager Brian Cashman and the entire Yankees analytics department came under heavy fire for their gamble to use the opener in Game 2; a decision that backfired badly. 

After dropping Game 3 last night, the Yankees found themselves on the brink, with their ace Gerrit Cole unable to pitch until a potential Game 5. But the Yanks needed Montgomery to pitch well in Game 4. A loss and the questions would almost certainly come as to why the Yankees sabotaged their chances when they burned Deivi Garcia in Game 2, only to remove him after an inning in favor of inconsistent J.A Happ.

Thanks to Montgomery's four solid innings where he worked around three hits and three walks, and Chad Green's two innings of perfect baseball, the Yankees had the perfect tonic for their ills in this series. 

Meanwhile, the Yankees did just enough offensively to make the efforts of the Yankees pitching stand up. 

Luke Voit got the party started with a solo blast in the bottom of the second to give New York the early 1-0 lead.

After walks to Brett Gardner, Gio Urshela and Gleyber Torres, D.J. LeMahieu lifted one to deep right for a sac fly, scoring Gardner from third to make it 2-0. 

The score would remain 2-1 New York until the bottom of the sixth when Torres lifted the first pitch he saw from Ryan Yarbrough, and deposited it over the left field wall for a two-run homer to break the game open at 4-1. 

The Yankees would tack on some insurance in the eighth on Kyle Higashioka's RBI single to extend the lead to 5-1. 

With the game firmly in control after the Torres homer, Boone turned to Zach Britton and Aroldis Chapman to finish it off. Britton twirled 1.2 shutout innings, striking out three, while Chapman held the Rays to a walk over the final 1.1 innings. 

With the series tied at two, the Yankees now can turn the page and bring back Cole for Game 5. Cole pitched really well in Game 1, a 9-3 Yankees victory. If Cole is worth the $324 million the Yankees paid him last off-season, this will be the game to showcase why he is the true ace of this franchsie for years to come.