Davis Martin walked into the All-Star break with a line that would have sounded plenty good in March: 9-4, a 3.41 ERA, 18 starts, 100 1/3 innings. But the White Sox right-hander also knows the story of his first half is a little more complicated than the final numbers.
Wednesday night’s 5-0 loss to the Red Sox at Rate Field put a rough cap on a night that started well enough for Martin. He retired Boston’s first six hitters before the game slipped away in the third and fourth innings, when the Red Sox pushed across three runs and then two more.
“Mechanically, I felt really, really in sync in those first two innings,” Martin said. “Felt like they were really crisp, clean and then kind of goes downhill from there. There were a lot of positive takeaways, but overall just not good.”
The first half has given Martin both ends of the spectrum. He opened the season with an 8-1 record and a 2.00 ERA through the end of May, then had to absorb the harder stretches that followed. Still, he’s choosing to take the long view.
“It's a really interesting place to be right now,” Martin said. “But I'm going to celebrate it.
We're in a really good spot. Had some really good starts, had some really bad starts, but a lot to build off of.
A lot to be excited about in the second half.
“Going into the break, enjoy some time with my family and time away from baseball. Celebrate what this first half was and get ready to go for the second half.”
That perspective matters for a White Sox team that has come a long way from the 121-loss season of 2024. Martin is one of 13 players from that team still in the organization, and now he’s part of a club that heads into the break with a one-game lead over the Guardians, a two-game edge over the Twins and a 5 1/2-game cushion over preseason favorite Detroit.
Chicago’s 47-44 record is hardly a finished product, but it represents real progress after three straight seasons of 100-plus losses.
Martin has been one of the rotation’s anchors, but he’s quick to point out that the staff has been a group effort.
“One hundred percent,” Martin said. “We're still doing a lot of good things, and I credit that to Sean Burke and some of the other starters picking up slack. That's the fun thing to think about.
“We really all haven't been on at the same time, and that's going to be a fun thing if we ever all start clicking at the same time. It'd be a really tough rotation and a really hard team to beat.”
At home, Martin has been especially sharp. He came into Wednesday 5-0 with a 0.88 ERA in seven starts at Rate Field, allowing just four earned runs in 41 innings.
That run didn’t survive Boston, though, and neither did the White Sox’s home-series streak. The Red Sox have outscored Chicago 13-1 over these two games, ending a franchise-record stretch of 10 straight home series wins.
It also marked the White Sox’s first three-game home losing streak since the Rays swept them from April 14-16.
Whether that’s the hangover from a tough four-game split at Progressive Field against the Guardians or just the kind of dip every club hits over 162 games, the White Sox aren’t pretending it’s anything more dramatic than a bad patch.
“It’s going to happen. It’s baseball.
A lot of ups, a lot of downs,” White Sox designated hitter Randal Grichuk said. “You gotta ride them out.
All it takes is one big hit and a big inning and it can turn. So, definitely flush this one and go back at it tomorrow.”
Martin, meanwhile, will head into the break without an All-Star nod, though he said that wasn’t on his mind Wednesday.
“No, win the game. Win the game.
The All-Star thing is going to take care of itself,” Martin said. “It's so far out of my control.
I let myself have a day to be upset about it, but after that it was, ‘Get back to work and get ready to try to win this game.’ That's nowhere close to my brain.”
When the White Sox return, Martin expects his next turn to come in Toronto or Texas. For now, he’s left with a first half that has been both productive and messy, and a team that still has plenty to prove after the break.
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