NEW YORK - The Rays are one win from the American League Championship Series, and Nick Martinez is the one they’ve handed the ball to with the Yankees’ season hanging by a thread.
Martinez gets the start Wednesday night in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, where Tampa Bay carries a 2-0 lead and a chance to reach the ALCS for the first time since 2020. His road work this season is a big reason the Rays are comfortable putting him in this spot. In 16 starts away from Tropicana Field, Martinez went 7-3 with a 2.38 ERA.
He said he’s locked in on what this game means.
“Yeah. I've been paying attention to the last two games.
So I'm fully aware what's at stake tomorrow,” Martinez said in a Zoom call with reporters. “It should be exciting.
I imagine it's going to be an electric crowd with (the Yankees') season on the line. It's going to be an absolute dog fight, just like my last 31 starts.”
There’s also a neat twist to this assignment: Martinez once pitched not far from Yankee Stadium as a college player at Fordham University. Over three seasons there, he was mostly an infielder, batting .295 (167-for-567) with 66 RBI in 152 games. He also made 15 relief appearances, so the arm work was part of the package even then.
Martinez said that time at Fordham still matters to him now, especially at 36.
“It helped me a ton because I didn't pitch (much) in college. So I didn't have the same type of mileage that a lot of guys my age have,” he said.
“So it kept me fresh. But I think ... playing every day, you want to help the team win it any way possible, and I think that mentality of playing every day and doing whatever it takes to win, I think it creates a little bit more character like just getting the job done, doing whatever you can."
The Rays’ one-year, $13 million deal for Martinez has paid off in a big way. In his first full season as a starter, he won a career-high 16 games. Now, if he’s going to help finish off the Yankees, he’ll need to lean on the two pitches that have driven his success: the changeup and the cutter.
Hitters have managed only a .184 average against his changeup, according to Baseball Savant, while his cutter has held opponents to a .239 average. Martinez isn’t built around strikeouts. His game is about weak contact, early-count outs and trusting the defense behind him.
Kevin Cash said that approach is exactly why Martinez has worked so well for Tampa Bay.
“We got a lot of guys and a lot of starters that get a lot of outs via the strikeout. We know and (Martinez) knows that's not his bread and butter,” Cash told reporters.
“It's to try to get guys out early in the count, trust the defense. He does that as well as anybody, and set up his pitches, where it's not an overpowerful approach. ...
He knows that the reason he's had so much success this year is probably due in large part because of that cutter and the changeup combination have been getting a lot of early swings on it.”
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