Nick Martinez gave Tampa Bay exactly the kind of October start it needed Saturday night, working through an early Cleveland strike before taking command of a 7-3 Rays victory in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field.
The win evened the best-of-seven series at two games apiece and ensured the Rays will return to Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay can take a 3-2 edge into that homecoming with a win in Sunday’s Game 5.
Martinez, the 36-year-old right-hander, earned the first postseason victory of his career after allowing one run and two hits over 5 1/3 innings. He left with Tampa Bay ahead 2-1, and Freddy Peralta entered with one out and a runner aboard in the sixth to get the final two outs of the inning.
Changeup finds its lane after rocky first
Cleveland jumped on Martinez almost immediately. Steven Kwan began the first with a single, took second on a bounced changeup, and scored when Chase DeLauter singled to right two batters later.
DeLauter tried to turn the hit into a double, but Rays right fielder Victor Mesa Jr. made a sliding stop and delivered the throw to erase him at second. That defensive play prevented the inning from growing, and Martinez soon settled into his rhythm.
He retired 11 consecutive Guardians before Travis Bazzana drew a one-out walk in the fifth. Martinez’s only other trouble came when he departed in the sixth, but Peralta protected the one-run margin before the Tampa Bay offense widened the gap later in the night.
“You know it’s going to be a dogfight,” Martinez said. “They are a team that keeps coming, and so are we. Giving up a run in the first wasn’t what I wanted, but I had to keep competing and trust the guys behind me.”
His changeup became the difference. Martinez threw the pitch 23 times in a 79-pitch outing, more often than any other offering, and drew four of his eight misses with it. Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said the Guardians could not adjust once Martinez began putting the slower pitch in better locations.
“We never really found the timing for that changeup,” Vogt said. “It is a stop ball that seems like it never arrives. He started getting it over for strikes and dropping it underneath.”
A staff decision that paid off
Friday’s rainout gave Tampa Bay the option of using Drew Rasmussen on four days’ rest in Game 4. Instead, manager Kevin Cash handed the ball to Martinez, preserving Rasmussen for Sunday and keeping Peralta in line to likely start Game 6 if the series requires it.
Cash said the club never wavered in its belief that Martinez could handle the assignment.
“We have complete confidence in Nick,” Cash said. “He went out there and did the things Nick does.”
Those things have carried Martinez through the strongest season of his nine-year major league career. The first-time All-Star posted a 3.10 ERA across 180 innings in 31 regular-season starts. He had also allowed two runs in 3 2/3 innings during Game 3 of the AL Division Series, a Tampa Bay win that completed a sweep of the Yankees.
Martinez works with a four-seam fastball, cutter, sinker and the changeup that Cleveland could not solve once it came alive. His catcher, Liam Hicks, said the changeup’s speed and shape make it especially uncomfortable for hitters.
“As the game went on, he really found it,” Hicks said. “It is such a slow, different look. You can see it and freeze, and when you do decide to swing, you can be way out front.”
Cash also pointed to the pace Martinez brings to the mound. Rather than laboring through long counts, the veteran looks for quick contact and lets his defense stay involved.
“There is a quickness to him,” Cash said. “He tries to create soft contact early in at-bats. When your leader is on the mound, everybody wants to do whatever it takes to help him get that win.”
Now the Rays have done enough to reclaim home-field energy for at least one more game. Martinez said the chance to bring the series back to Tropicana Field carries real weight for a club that has leaned on its crowd all season.
“Going home is huge,” Martinez said. “The fans have been tremendous. We have fed off that energy all year, and it feels good to give them another game and try to turn this series our way.”
