ST. PETERSBURG -- With the Rays leading the American League East and owning the AL’s best record, there’s been a lot of talk about what kind of impactful acquisitions their aggressive approach to the Trade Deadline may yield over the next nine days.
They’ll have a hard time making a better move than one they pulled off in February: signing a veteran free agent by the name of Nick Martinez.
Martinez continued his incredible run with the Rays by holding the Guardians scoreless for six innings in Tampa Bay’s 3-0 win over Cleveland on Saturday night at Tropicana Field. The 35-year-old right-hander earned his 10th win, and the Rays improved to 16-4 in his starts this year.
Martinez’s 2.45 ERA is the second-lowest mark among qualified pitchers in the AL, trailing only Yankees ace Cam Schlittler (2.07), and he joined Sonny Gray (12), Gavin Williams (10), Nathan Eovaldi (10) and Schlittler (10) as the only AL arms with a double-digit win total.
“I don’t know what to say. I can say a million words, but I’d still be short,” veteran designated hitter Yandy Díaz said. “He’s just been marvelous for us the entire year.”
Martinez stuck to the formula that’s made him such a huge part of Tampa Bay’s rotation all year, throwing strikes with a mix of his three fastballs and excellent changeup to make quick work of Cleveland’s lineup. He allowed only four hits, all singles, and didn’t walk a batter while striking out five as the Rays rolled to their seventh shutout win of the season.
He cruised through his team-leading 11th quality start with just 84 pitches, which is on brand for the pitcher who leads all qualifiers with an average of 14.05 pitches per inning.
“It’s just part of our identity of attacking the zone and getting ahead and winning that race to two strikes,” Martinez said. “[Force] hitters to swing the bat, and good things will happen.”
It was the seventh time this season Martinez has worked at least six innings while allowing one or zero runs. Two of those outings have come against the Guardians, as he worked seven-plus scoreless innings at Progressive Field on April 28.
“Just a pretty impressive performance once again by him,” manager Kevin Cash said. “He's had two really big games against Cleveland. … So appreciative of him and what he brings to our club on a daily basis.”
As beloved as he Martinez inside Tampa Bay’s clubhouse, it’s no stretch to say he’s been just as impressive on the mound.
Excluding openers, Martinez owns the fourth-lowest ERA for any Rays pitcher in the first 20 starts of a season behind Shane McClanahan in 2022 (2.07), Blake Snell in his AL Cy Young Award-winning 2018 campaign (2.27) and Charlie Morton in 2019 (2.35), and just ahead of David Price when he went on to win the Cy Young in 2012 (2.57).
“He knows who he is, and he knows how to pitch,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “It's really impressive to watch him work.”
It was more of the same for the Rays, too, as they’ve won five of their last six games while outscoring their opponents by 27 runs (38-11). The only different element of Saturday’s victory was that their big rally was started not by the suddenly red-hot bottom of the order, but from the “Big Three” at the top of the lineup.
With one out in the fifth inning, Díaz ripped a double to center field off Guardians starter Tanner Bibee. That brought up Jonathan Aranda, who knocked a single to left. Then came Junior Caminero, who hammered a 110.8 mph double off the right-field wall for an RBI double.
“He’s insanely impressive,” Martinez said of Caminero. “What he can do at the plate and the way he's been playing all year, man, he's playing with a lot of joy and having fun with it.”
Díaz reached another milestone in the first inning, recording his 1,000th hit as a member of the Rays, and it came in classic fashion for him: a leadoff single on the ground to right field.
“Really happy,” Díaz joked through interpreter Kevin Vera. “I can retire now.”
The 34-year-old added the baseball to a growing collection in the corner lockers he occupies, each one representing a recent accomplishment for one of the franchise’s most productive hitters.
Díaz is only the fourth player in Rays history with 1,000 hits, joining Carl Crawford (1,480), Evan Longoria (1,471) and Ben Zobrist (1,016) atop the franchise’s all-time hits leaderboard.
“He’s putting himself in some pretty impressive categories with all the better hitters, better players that have played in this uniform,” Cash said. “He's one of them.”