Martinez's 'amazing' scoreless gem paves way for victory

ATLANTA -- Nick Martinez was nearly untouchable on Monday night at Truist Park.

The Reds’ right-hander mowed down the Braves’ lineup with seven scoreless frames of two-hit ball, striking out five and allowing just three total baserunners in the Reds’ 1-0 win of a July 24 postponement. The win counts as a sweep for Cincinnati after the Reds won the first two games of the series in July.

After Martinez issued a walk and gave up a single in the top of the first inning, the 34-year-old retired 17 batters in a row. He retired 21 of 24 batters he faced.

“My mentality is always to challenge guys, and I was able to command and change speeds,” Martinez said. “[Catcher Tyler Stephenson] did a great job of recognizing swings and calling pitches. I think we did a great job keeping guys off balance and creating some weak contact.”

Martinez, who is in his seventh Major League season, made his 100th career start on Monday. It was just the second time in 13 starts this season that Martinez (8-6) went seven innings (Aug. 10 at Milwaukee).

“All of [my pitches] felt really good,” Martinez said. “I was able to command all of it. It’s a good lineup and I was able to challenge them early and often and keep them off-balance.”

Martinez was most effective with his changeup, with four of his five strikeouts coming on the pitch.

“It’s his best pitch when he’s able to throw it for strikes … ,” Stephenson said. “It’s by far his best pitch when he’s got command of it and command of his other pitches as well. It makes his job a lot easier.”

Martinez’s only strikeout that didn’t come on a changeup was a slider to Sean Murphy to end the fourth inning. It was a healthy mix of curveballs, changeups, four-seam fastballs, sinkers and cutters to the Braves on Monday.

“It seems like at any count he can throw any pitch,” Reds manager David Bell said. “He mixed his pitches. He didn’t throw two pitches twice in a row very often. [He had a] great changeup. Maybe his best changeup of the year. He was in rhythm. He has so much confidence in what he does out there, being able to throw strikes with all his pitches.”

The Reds’ starting rotation has been banged up, so Martinez’s outing came at time when Cincinnati needed it most. He tallied first-pitch strikes on 23 of the 24 batters, lowering his ERA to 3.46 in the process.

“He’s been doing it all year for us, but on a night where we needed him to step up, he did exactly that,” Bell said. “He threw strikes and got ahead. I heard he only threw one first-pitch ball, which is just amazing. I don’t know how often that happens. He gave us exactly what he needed. Tyler Stephenson did a great job with him behind the plate and they got it done.”

Braves first baseman Matt Olson got the two lone hits of the night. His first was a single in the bottom of first inning and his second was an infield hit up the third-base line in the bottom of the seventh. In between those hits, the Braves did not get on base.

“He was mixing it up well,” Olson said. “The changeup is one of his best pitches, you know, 81 miles an hour, and good arm speed on it. He was able to locate it pretty well. He threw some good cutters and sinkers to righties. He was mixing it up and didn’t make a ton of mistakes tonight.”

Offensively, Ty France did enough to back Martinez. His RBI double in the top of the second allowed TJ Friedl to score from first after Friedl was hit by a pitch. Fernando Cruz pitched a perfect eighth and Alexis Díaz set down the Braves’ in the ninth to earn his 27th save.

“[In] baseball, that’s just how it goes sometimes,” France said. “[Martinez] came out and threw a gem. All he needed was one run. That’s a good lineup over there, but today was our day. It’s always nice when the pitcher comes out and attacks the strike zone early. He’s been doing that for a while now. I think tonight was his 100th career game, so for him to come out and go seven shutout is impressive.”