Texas Rangers: Nick Martinez shines in Miami

Miami – The Texas Rangers finished up their 2-game series in an early day game against Miami Marlins.  Nick Martinez went to the mound in front of a his home crowd in Florida.

More from Texas Rangers News

• Early 2023 MLB mock draft has Texas Rangers selecting an Ohtani-lite
• 3 Texas Rangers outfield trade targets not named Bryan Reynolds
• Did Jacob deGrom really mean what he said at his Texas Rangers press conference?
• Martin Perez accepting the qualifying offer looking like solid deal for the Rangers
• 4 outfielders the Texas Rangers can still pursue this winter

Martinez is a very good pitcher, but his season hasn’t gone as expected.  A large part of that is because he’s been called up a little bit earlier than expected

because of all of the injuries to the Texas Rangers pitching staff.

Today was one of his best outings this season.  It might have been in part because he was in front of his family or maybe things are finally starting to click for the young pitcher.

After the game Ron Washington commented that he looked very good today and had full command of his fastball and all of his secondary pitches.

"“He had a good breaking ball and a good changeup and spotted his fastball really well early,” Washington said. “I liked the way he attacked hitters and used all his stuff. He’s a calm kid, he always looks calm. That’s why he’s still here.” (T.R. Sullivan – MLB.com)"

It looked like he was showing a bit more confidence with his pitches, but he’s normally very confident on the mound even in tough situations.

Over 6.0 innings Nick Martinez only gave up 2 earned runs, 2 walks and struck out a career hit 7 batters.  After he departed the game there was a noticeable cheer from his family and other Rangers fans in attendance.

With just a little over a month and half of the season to go this was the type of outing Martinez needed to help him land a job in the starting rotation next season.