CLEVELAND — Cold weather finally reached the postseason on Saturday night at Progressive Field.
The temperature was 46 degrees when the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians began Game 4 of the American League Championship Series. Yet 46 degrees feels warmer in October than it does in April; after all, nothing gets the blood pumping like playoff baseball.
So, when a cold front followed Friday’s rain and forced a one-day postponement of Game 4, Rays starting pitcher Nick Martinez didn’t mind. The 36-year-old might be getting older by baseball standards, but he hasn’t reached the age when complaining about the weather becomes an obsession.
“I think your most important games are in the cold weather,” Martinez said. “We have obviously the climate-controlled (Tropicana Field). We play in Florida. It's nice pitching in the Trop.
“But I think you just try to put that aside, right? These games are important. To look at ticky-tack stuff like that about the weather, honestly, you're just so jacked up to pitching in these moments you're not really thinking about the weather.”
Nick Martinez delivered once again for the Rays in Game 4
It turned into an enjoyable autumn evening for Martinez after a shaky start, as he pitched the Rays to a 7-3 win that tied this best-of-seven series at 2-2. Game 5 is scheduled for Sunday before the series shifts back to The Trop on Monday night.
Martinez allowed one run and two hits over 5.1 innings to get the win. He struck out three and walked two.
Steven Kwan singled to lead off the bottom of the first, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Chase DeLauter’s one-out single to give the Guardians a 1-0 lead. Martinez didn’t allow another hit from there and retired 11 straight batters, starting with getting Jo Adell to fly out to end the first.
“We have all the confidence in the world in Nick,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “He's going to go out and do his thing. I thought he really did a nice job. He seemed to settle in after the first inning. After that he did a lot of Nick things out there.”
One of those “Nick things” was locking up the Guardians with a changeup that Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt believes defies the laws of physics.
“He was not challenging us with any fastballs in the zone after the first,” Vogt said. “So, we just weren't able to get that timing on that changeup. It's a stop ball. It just never gets there. He started landing it for strikes, putting it below (the strike zone). He was getting the backdoor slider working all night, the three fastballs. He threw an excellent game against us.”
Why Nick Martinez feels at home on the road
It shouldn’t have surprised anyone that Martinez pitched well despite the chill in the air. Though Martinez grew up in Miami, he played collegiately at Fordham in New York.
Martinez pitched better on the road in the regular season, going 7-3 with a 2.38 ERA in 16 starts. At home, he was 8-3 with a 3.90 ERA over 15 starts.
“I do think anytime you're talking about a younger pitcher as opposed to a veteran, sometimes getting in these environments can be a little challenging,” Cash said. “And the guy that has a little bit more experience, he can help manage himself a little bit more. And Nick does that as well as anybody.”
That is why Martinez was unhittable on Saturday after a shaky start.
“Jacked up, I guess would be a good way to describe it,” Martinez said of his shaky first inning. “Obviously, a great atmosphere. These fans are fantastic. They're pulling for their guys. You know it's going to be a dogfight, as I said before the start. They're a team that doesn't give up. We're a team that doesn't give up, either.
“Not ideal to give up a run in the first inning, but just got to stay in the fight and trust that my guys are going to back me up.”
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