I don’t know who that was out there on the mound for the Cubs in Arizona Tuesday night, but it wasn’t Mike Montgomery. This isn’t some full-on They Live impostership or anything, but Monty apparently came to the desert prepared to do two things: Chew bubblegum and kick ass. And as the Diamondbacks quickly discovered, the lefty was all out of bubblegum.
With a Ketel Marte home run standing as his only real blemish, Montgomery mowed down his opponents with a unique array of pitches that featured the offspeed pitch as his weapon of choice. According to Baseball Savant, the 29 changeups he unleashed were the most he’s ever tallied in a game and also represented a higher percentage (30.