The man with the dancing feet on the mound pitched six scoreless innings on three hits, before running into difficulties in the seventh, his final inning.
During the first three innings he needed only 24 pitches, 18 for strikes, to get nine straight outs.
Martinez leads MLB in nicknames — Smiles, Doc and Tricky.
It is Smiles for obvious reasons, he smiles while he works, it is Doc because he works with a surgeon’s precision and it is Tricky because he pitches like a magician.
And now they can add another nickname. Mudder.
The game was played in a steady rain all afternoon and it seemed to bother everybody but Martinez, who pitched a sixth quality start in his last seven appearances.
Martinez said he used that quagmire of a pitcher’s mound and infield to his advantage.
“Sure, I use it to my advantage,” he said. “It stinks for both sides, but I just tried to make pitches and attack the zone to force some weak swings.
“The conditions are uncomfortable for everybody. With the rain, the bats are wet but for me you can’t let it get to you,” he added.
It definitely got to Kansas City starter and former Reds pitcher Michael Lorenzen. His pitches were mostly high, wide, low, in, out and everywhere.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
In five innings he gave up six runs and 11 hits and needed 102 pitches to get 56 strikes. In his previous three starts in Kauffman over 19 innings, he had given up only two earned runs and 13 hits.
But TJ Friedl opened the game with a double, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly from Austin Hays.
Friedl later walked and singled, the sixth time in the last seven games he has had multi-hit games. He is fast becoming one of MLB’s best leadoff hitters.
He has taken the challenge from manager Tito Francona’s spring training message, “All I want you to do is get on base.”
The Reds added three in the third with five singles, including a run-scoring single by catcher Tyler Stephenson.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
That wasn’t his biggest contribution, though, among his three hits. He also singled in the second inning, two poked singles the opposite way.
In the fifth, he turned on an inside pitch from Lorenzen and dropped a two-run home run into the Reds bullpen in left field, his first three-hit game of the season.
And it gave the Reds a 6-0 lead.
“I had two hard-hit balls the other way and that’s a guy (Lorenzen) that I know pretty well on the mound, a guy I have some history with when he was over here,” said Stephenson.
“I kinda had the feeling he was going to go with something inside after my hits the other way,” Stephenson added. “He did, gave me something I could get to, and I gave our bullpen a nice little present.”
Everything was going Martinez’s way until he gave up a leadoff single to Vinnie Pasquantino to open the seventh, Salvador Perez followed with a home run down the left field line.
Maikel Garcia doubled and took third on a bunt by rookie John Rave, playing his first major league game. Martinez pounced on the bunt and ripped a throw.
Umpire Ron Kulpa called Rave safe. The Reds asked for a review and the call was overturned. Rave was out, a big out.
The Royals would have had runners on third and first with no outs, trailing 6-2. But with one out, Martinez got out of it with just a sacrifice fly to make it 6-3.
The Reds plated a mammoth insurance run in the eighth. With two outs, Austin Hayes tripled for the third time in a week and scored on Santiago Espinal’s double that lifted Cincinnati’s lead to 7-3.
Martinez was finished, but left the shell-shocked bullpen (19 runs and five homers in 11⅓ innings against the Chicago Cubs) only two innings to cover.
Tony Santillan, one of the relief pitchers beat up by the Cubs, pitched a 1-2-3 eighth.
It wasn’t a save situation with a four-run lead, but Francona wanted to give closer Emilio Pagan some work.
And it was hard work. The muddy mound tormented him as he kept using tongue depressors to pry mud from his cleats.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
He gave up a leadoff single to Pasquantino, who had three of the Royals’ seven hits. Then he hit Perez with a pitch to put two on with no outs.
Maikel Garcia popped out, but he walked the rookie Rave on four pitches to load the bases. Then he slipped on the rubber, a balk that scored a run.
It was 7-4 with two-on and one out — the potential tying run at the plate. He went to 3-and-2 on pinch-hitter Drew Waters and struck him out.
It ended when Michael Massey lifted a shallow fly to right field and there was a collective exhaling of breaths in the Reds’ dugout.
About his efficiency, Martinez said, “I looked up in the fourth inning and I saw 38 pitches. I said, ‘All right, I’m doing it and it’s still early.’ In the fifth inning I saw 50 pitches and I go, ‘Crap, I might do it (a complete game),’ but then I blew it. But Tony (Santillan) came in and shut it down for me.”
Said Francona, “Nick Martinez was outstanding. He made one bad pitch to Salvy (Perez) for the home run, other than that he was really good. His low pitch count really did help our bullpen.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“You watch him out there pitching,” said Francona. “He is having a ball. He loves competing and I really respect that.”
Even though they lost two of three to the Cubs, the Reds have scored six or more runs in four straight games and Francona said, “Things usually even out. Sometimes you have to pick up your pitchers and sometimes they have to pick you up.”
There is no better pick-up than Smiley-Doc-Tricky Martinez.
NEXT GAME
Who: Reds at Royals
When: Tuesday, June 27, 7:40 p.m.
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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