White Sox starter Davis Martin had already thrown 89 pitches and lost a tick on his fastball velocity on Tuesday night against the Angels, but he wanted that sixth inning.
Manager Will Venable might’ve called it a night for other arms on a young pitching staff that has produced uneven results early in the year — but not from Martin, who got two more outs en route to his fourth win of the season.
It’s a sign of trust the second-year skipper has in the veteran righty, who has put himself on the map over the first month of the season with a 1.95 ERA that was tied for eighth in MLB entering play Wednesday
And that trust is all Martin, 29, has ever wanted in a career that got a bumpy start out of the gate due to injuries.
“It’s everything. That’s what you want to do. You want to be dependable, you want to be relied on, you want to be the rock,” Martin said after his sixth rock-solid outing in a row to start the season. “[Venable] and I had a candid conversation, and that trust kind of builds up throughout the years, and so [I] just continue to do my job and be honest with him with where I’m at and go from there.”
Where Martin is at now is in the somewhat unexpected position of staff ace, following the early-season struggles and Triple-A demotion of Opening Day starter Shane Smith.
He’s also the only Sox starter aside from prized rookie Noah Schultz who hasn’t gotten the opener treatment from Venable & Co. to take the edge off early runs through opposing batting orders, working at least into the sixth inning in all but one of his starts.
“Every outing he just builds confidence,” Venable said. “He’s getting great results, really from the first start. He just kind of felt like a guy out there that you can depend on throwing strikes, throwing deep in games, gives us a chance to win every single one of his starts.”
But Martin’s not just the de facto ace. He’s honed in on his cutter and kick-changeup to round out a complete arsenal, stymying imposing lineups with stuff that’s effective if not flashy.
“No. 1, he’s throwing a lot of strikes. We’ve talked about that but the stuff is really good too,” Venable said. “We’ve seen some really good sliders, good use of the cutter and throwing the four-seam and two-seam fastballs, so really mixing it up well and continuing to pound the zone.”
And with Martin also serving as the unofficial off-field captain of a tight-knit rotation, Venable hopes that’s rubbing off on Sean Burke, who has turned in a pair of strong outings after an iffy start to the year, as well as Erick Fedde (3.34 ERA) and Anthony Kay (6.12).
“He’s the perfect example of how you can be successful and pitch deep into games and limit the run production when you’re in the zone,” Venable said. “He throws everything for strikes and gets ahead of guys and gets that count leverage.”
The longest tenured player on the Sox roster, Martin certainly would’ve liked to have gotten to this point earlier. A 14th-round draft pick in 2018, he debuted in 2022 but went down with Tommy John surgery that cost him the ‘23 season and most of ‘24.
Better late than never for Martin, last year’s staff workhorse (7-10, 4.10 ERA) who entered his second full season with the benefit of his first “full offseason with your arsenal and not having to tweak.”
“I think at this time last year we were trying to overhaul a slider, and trying to make adjustments in-season in the major leagues is about the hardest thing you can do,” Martin said. “So to have so much confidence in it all going into the season is great.”