Cincinnati Reds RHP Nick Martinez on his 7-inning start, team’s win
Cincinnati Reds starter Nick Martinez pitched seven strong innings for the second time in three starts, lowering his ERA to 2.13 in his last 6 starts.
Reds starting pitcher Nick Martinez pitched seven strong innings, giving up only one hit and no walks.The Reds offense scored early and often, including a two-run home run by Tyler Stephenson.TJ Friedl reached base three times and Trey Mancini tripled for the third time in four games.
KANSAS CITY – Maybe the Cincinnati Reds just needed to get out of their league, change the scenery, and see an old friend or two in order to feel better about themselves after all those ugly finishes at home over the weekend against the Chicago Cubs.
They didn’t even seem to mind the rain Monday that fell from start to finish in their 7-4 victory over Jonathan India and the Kansas City Royals in the opener of the three-game interleague series.
Smarting from a lost series against the NL Central leaders that included late blown leads of four and five runs in the two losses, the Reds found the classic antidote to most baseball ills: starting pitching.
Veteran Nick Martinez continued a monthlong heater by opening the game with three perfect innings, six scoreless innings and seven overall to lower his ERA over his past six starts to 2.13.
“I live for the slop,” said Martinez, who tried to use the elements to his advantage against “uncomfortable” hitters. “My mother was a mudder.”
It was the fourth consecutive game the Reds scored at least six runs, fourth consecutive game they led in the seventh inning, and second win of those four.
“If we’d have swept them over the weekend, I’d have said the same thing. Turn the page,” manager Terry Francona said.
“We had really good energy. It’s rare where you travel and you have a day game, but we showed up and were ready to play, and we beat a good team.”
Martinez, who didn’t allow a hit until former teammate India’s leadoff popup to right in the fourth landed between three Reds, didn’t walk a batter for the fourth time in five starts.
He’s allowed only 25 walks in 27 starts since joining the Reds staff last season ‒ already the first Reds starter since Bronson Arroyo in 2013 to issue that few walks in any 26-start stretch.
Most important for a team forced to lean too hard on a shaky bullpen in recent weeks, he became the first Reds starter to go seven innings since he also did it two starts earlier.
“I thought Nick Martinez was outstanding,” Francona said. “He made one bad pitch to (Salvador Perez) for the (fifth-inning) home run. Other than that he was really good.”
The last Reds starter not named Nick Martinez to get through seven innings in a start was Nick Lodolo April 27 in Colorado.
“I know I’ve said this a number of times: You watch him out there pitching and he’s having a ball,” Francona said. “He loves competing. And I really respect that. It’s a good feeling knowing that the game’s not going to speed up on him. And you’re going to have to beat him. And sometimes that happens. But he’ll give you everything he has.”
The Reds jumped on former Reds pitcher Michael Lorenzen for a quick run in the first and three more in the third, then added two more on Tyler Stephenson’s two-run homer in the fifth for a 6-0 lead.
They put the leadoff man on in each of Lorenzen’s five innings of work.
Stephenson had three hits, including a run-scoring single in the big third. Leadoff hitter TJ Friedl reached three times, including the first-inning double that turned into a run on Austin Hays’ sacrifice fly.
“I’m just trying to work through some stuff, and the past few days have been feeling a lot better,” he said. “I’m happy with how it is today but gotta keep working. It’s a long season, a lot of ball left. Just trying to put good swings on the ball.”
Say Trey Hays even tripled off the centerfield wall in the eighth, then scored on Santiago Espinal’s double as the Reds added a two-out run late.
It was Hays’ third triple in four games. He’s the ninth Red to pull that off in the expansion era (post 1960) and first Red to triple in back-to-back games since Phil Ervin in 2019.