Jordan Montgomery leads Diamondbacks past Marlins to even series

Left-hander Jordan Montgomery’s fastball velocity continued to trend upward. His curveball elicited more swings and misses. His change-up, he said, was no longer cutting.

If that wasn’t enough to tell how he felt about his performance in a 3-2 win over the Miami Marlins, Montgomery did something else notable after firing six innings of two-run ball on Saturday night.

“He was smiling,” Diamondbacks catcher Tucker Barnhart said.

In five of his first six starts, Montgomery more or less did what clubs ask of their starting pitchers. He pitched competitively. He soaked up innings. He gave his team the proverbial “chance to win.”

But Montgomery knew: He was not quite right. He could not bury his curveball at will. He did not have the fastball velocity he usually had. He could not turn over a change-up like he could when he is at his best.

More than likely, there was a good reason for this. For all six weeks of spring training, Montgomery was an unsigned free agent. Splitting time between his hometown in South Carolina and a training facility in Miami, he threw bullpens and attempted to simulate game situations. But he had not faced an actual hitter by the time he agreed to a one-year, $25 million deal with the Diamondbacks shortly before Opening Day.

He did the best he could to prepare, but looking back on it now, he knows it was not the same as a normal year.

“I used to hate spring training,” Montgomery said. “And, now, I’m like, ‘I love spring training.’”

With the win, the Diamondbacks were able to bounce back from a listless 3-0 loss on Friday night, putting themselves in a position to secure their second consecutive series with another win on Sunday afternoon.

Other than a rough outing against the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this month, Montgomery had been a relatively dependable, if unspectacular, member of the rotation. He had pitched into the sixth inning in his other five starts. He had allowed three runs or less in four of those five. The Diamondbacks had gone 4-2 in his outings.

But after his performance on Saturday, in which he gave up two runs on nine hits and one walk, striking out four, Montgomery sounded like he expected to take his game to another level going forward.

“I’m happy I could go out there every five days and at least give the team a chance to win,” he said of his first six starts. “Hopefully, I can do that even more so now.”

On Saturday, Montgomery averaged 92.3 mph with his sinker — not quite up to his 93.3 mph average from last year, but better than the 91.6 mph he had been averaging this season. He got six swinging strikes with his curveball on Saturday night, two more than his previous season high. And he sounded as if he felt in control of his night in a way he hadn’t all year.

“Finally,” he said, “stuff was moving how it was supposed to.”

It was almost as if Montgomery had finally ironed out all the things he would have had he been able to have a normal spring training.

“I mean, that’s what spring’s for,” he said. “When you’re out there and it matters and you haven’t faced hitters, that’s what spring is for. You go out there (in spring) and you give up seven runs, but everything is fine. It doesn’t matter. You just go back out there.”

For Barnhart, he saw things as a matter of Montgomery “getting his sea legs” under him. He figured it was only a matter of time until Montgomery began looking more like the pitcher who logged a 3.20 ERA in 32 starts last season, a starter whom many had expected to land a nine-figure guarantee over the winter.

“He was able to be really positive after the game and not nitpick a little bit, which he's done after his last couple starts,” Barnhart said. “Which, again, is the reason he's this good. He wants to be great. But, yeah, he seemed very happy with that one.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jordan Montgomery leads Diamondbacks past Marlins to even series