‘He gave us a chance to win’: Jack Martinez puts up strong start in loss to Arizona

PHOENIX — In the moments leading up to the start of the seventh inning, Arizona State senior right-handed pitcher Jack Martinez stepped onto the mound inside Phoenix Municipal Stadium looking to put his last frame of work behind him. 

He’d just given up three runs on three hits that ballooned Arizona’s lead from 2-0 to 5-0, and with an ASU offense that seemed lifeless for most of the night, a five-run deficit appeared a tall mountain to climb. However, if you only watched that seventh inning, you wouldn’t have any idea what had happened just minutes earlier.

Martinez instantly locked back in, striking out the side in what was his final inning of the night. Despite conceding two solo shots earlier in the game and finishing with five earned runs on his line, Martinez fanned a career-high 12 batters — the second straight night an ASU starter recorded double-digit strikeouts — and only walked one in a mostly-strong seven-inning start.

But like Friday, it wasn’t enough. Martinez’s impressive outing on Saturday was overshadowed by the Sun Devils’ lineup searching for an offensive spark for most of the night. Although it put together a convincing rally in the ninth and had the winning run at the plate, No. 24 ASU (20-11, 7-4 Big 12) fell to Arizona (22-8, 8-3 Big 12), 5-3, clinching a Territorial Cup series win for the Wildcats.

“He’s a damn good pitcher and we’re lucky to have him,” pitching coach Jeremy Accardo said. “He gave us a chance to win. We went down with the winning run at the home plate. That game could’ve easily been where we just laid down and let them stomp all over us, but we didn’t. So focusing on the positives is tough in these types of situations, but sometimes it’s good to look at those as well as the negatives.”

It would be quite difficult for one of those negatives to emerge earlier in the game, as senior second baseman Garen Caulfield unloaded on Martinez’s third offering of the game, sending a leadoff blast over the left-field wall and giving his team an early lead. However, that was all the damage the Sun Devils’ pitcher allowed, and he quickly settled in and looked like his old self, who leads the Big 12 in strikeouts with 65.

Martinez did exactly what he’s done for most of the season: pitch backwards, using his secondary pitches — a changeup and curveball — to set up his mid-90s fastball. Like normal, it worked, and the righty put up four more zeros, facing the minimum in two of those innings.

“When he’s working ahead and using his fastball and not nibbling, he’s pretty dang good,” head coach Willie Bloomquist said. “He gave up some runs today, got touched up there in the (sixth), but for the most part he was throwing the ball pretty well.”

However, two innings in the middle of the game caused some more problems for Martinez. After he struck out the first two batters he saw in the frame, sophomore left fielder Andrew Cain got all of a first-pitch fastball and deposited it into the Wildcats’ bullpen in left field. At that point, Martinez had allowed three hits through five frames, and two were home runs.

The sixth spelled even more trouble for the Sun Devils’ Saturday starter. After freshman outfielder Gunner Geile doubled off the center-field wall, junior outfielder Aaron Walton drew a walk and stole second. Junior shortstop Mason White then slammed a two-run triple into left and was later driven in by junior catcher Adonys Guzman’s single.

In the span of five hitters, Arizona more than doubled its lead. But when the time came to play the field in the seventh, ASU’s coaches continued to show trust in Martinez.

“The three hitters that were up, he can dominate them,” Accardo said. “I think he could dominate the ones he pitched to before.”

Martinez did just that — dominate, needing only 11 pitches to fan the side in his final inning of work. Allowing five runs at Phoenix Municipal isn’t the worst thing in the world, especially with the lineup ASU possesses. In fact, ASU’s 5.06 team ERA this season is a significant upgrade from the 7.77 ERA it posted last year, and a big reason for that is the quality starting pitching it’s benefitted from.

On Saturday, ASU’s potent lineup didn’t come through, but Accardo knows that won’t last. As long as starting pitching continues to have solid overall performances while limiting the catastrophics a bit more, the Sun Devils will have a winning recipe as they move into the heart of Big 12 play.

“Our goal is to limit hard contact, miss barrels when we can go out and attack, limit free passes,” Accardo said. “Our guys have done a pretty damn good job of it. I think if we keep stacking pitching performances like this, our offense is too damn good to let this thing continue. So I’m proud of these guys, and I know those hitters are down on themselves.

“They’re just too good to be. We’ve just got to focus on what we can fix and turn the page, and let’s freaking go.”

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