Yankees’ Jordan Montgomery not expected to miss next start after negative MRI

Jordan Montgomery said he felt no soreness or stiffness in his left knee when he threw his bullpen Wednesday, so the Yankees lefthander is expecting to make his scheduled start Friday in Baltimore.

“Feeling good, getting better every day,” Montgomery said before Thursday night’s series finale against the Blue Jays at the Stadium. “Pitching I feel nothing. So it’s a blessing.”

Montgomery was hit in the back/side of his left knee in Sunday night’s loss to the Red Sox.

“It’s like a pitcher’s nightmare, but honestly, I’d rather be in my leg than above the hips,” Montgomery said with a laugh.

“I got hit last year against the Astros, I got hit against the Pirates, and they should just call me a pinata,” he continued. “I’ve had worse (like in) Houston last year.”

Still, the knee was swollen and that caused some stiffness, so the Yankees sent him for an MRI and CT scan.

“They just wanted to kind of check on everything and stuff like that. I think Charlie Morton got hit (last year in the playoffs) and then ended up breaking his leg. Yeah, kind of just make sure that didn’t happen,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery got hit in the first inning, but managed to stay in the game and complete 3.1 innings. He allowed three earned runs on four hits. He walked one and struck out four.

WELCOME TO THE SHOW

JP Sears’ girlfriend and parents had been waiting for nearly a week. The young lefty had them in New York since Opening Day, hoping they would be able to share in the moment when he made his major league debut.

Wednesday night, Sears made it worth the wait.

He went out and pitched a perfect inning, striking out Blue Jays center fielder George Springer in his big league debut.

“It was the last night my girlfriend was able to be here before she had to go to work today so that was great,” Sears said. “And then obviously it’s just better to have a debut in Yankee Stadium.”

Sears was invited to big league spring training after a pretty impressive season between Double-A and Triple-A last season. Sears pitched to a 3.46 ERA in 25 games, including 18 starts. In 104 innings pitched, Sears struck out 136 and walked just 29.

“We’ve been kind of in these high leverage games each and every night where we haven’t had a lot of chances to let our length guys to just roll. So again, that gets back to we’re six games into this. So it was a chance last night to get him in,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “That it was really good to see him pitch as well as he did against a really good part of the lineup. He came in with a really efficient three strikes tactic, he trusted his stuff and I think everyone got a little peek at why we’re excited about him.”

Sears, a Sumnter, South Carolina native, grew up with Montgomery. Their parents are friendly and they’ve worked with the same pitching coach for years.

“It was awesome. I was ready for him to get out there. He’s been chomping at the bit there in the bullpen to get in and especially the first strikeout is George Springer. That’s pretty exciting,” Montgomery said.

QUARANTINED COACH

Yankees catching coach Tanner Swanson has not been with the team this week after testing positive for COVID-19 on Sunday. He has been quarantined at home and according to MLB rules needs two tests to come back negative or wait 10 days in isolation before returning to the team.

A team source said Swanson is feeling OK.

The Yankees had a battle with COVID-19 outbreaks last season. They lost several coaches for nearly two weeks and player Gleyber Torres in the first outbreak. After the All-Star break, Aaron Judge, Gio Urshela and Jonathan Loaisiga were among the players who tested positive. At the beginning of August, they had another outbreak with Gerrit Cole, Jordan Montgomery and Anthony Rizzo among the players who were sidelined.

The Bombers were among the first teams to be 85% vaccinated, which lowered the MLB protocols for health and safety. It is believed they have less than a handful of unvaccinated players.