Martin rolling with changeup: 'It's a great safety net'

BOSTON -- Walking off the mound after a 1-2-3 third inning, Davis Martin embraced batterymate Chuckie Robinson and kissed the crown of the catcher’s helmet. Martin had just retired the heart of Boston’s lineup, culminating with a strikeout of Tyler O’Neill on a 90.3 mph changeup.

Following his six innings of one-run ball in the White Sox 3-1 loss to the Red Sox in Friday’s series opener at Fenway Park, Martin lowered his ERA to 2.53 over his past six starts. The right-hander struck out three, walked one and hit three batters.

“Chuckie was working really hard back there tonight, as you can tell, with me hitting everybody,” Martin said. “[The ball was] kind of spraying a little bit, and Chuckie reached across the plate and stuck it in the other corner. And that's who he is. He's just grinding back there for his guys, and he wants to win, he wants to see us succeed. And so I'm not scared to give him a little bit of love, a little kiss on the helmet on the way in.”

After sitting out the 2023 season while he recovered from Tommy John surgery, Martin returned to the White Sox on July 27 with 2 2/3 innings of relief against Seattle. His first start of the season came on Aug. 2, when he gave up four runs over 3 2/3 innings at Minnesota.

Since that start, Martin has gone at least five innings in five of his past six outings, including a scoreless six-inning start on Aug. 7 at Oakland.

“He’s been solid,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said. “Every time he goes out there, he competes, he gives us a chance to win, keeps us in the game. I thought it was a good game all around, a good pitching battle between both sides. Not a lot of hits either way, just really came down to one good swing by them.”

After Jacob Amaya plated the first run of the game with a two-out RBI single in the second inning, Martin kept the White Sox in it, surrendering an RBI single to Triston Casas in the fourth after hitting Wilyer Abreu and Masataka Yoshida on the back foot in back-to-back plate appearances -- a risk that comes with going to the aptly named backfoot curveball and backfoot slider.

Of his five-pitch mix, Martin relied heavily on the changeup that he introduced following his Aug. 2 start. He went to the pitch 26 times on Friday, generating 13 swings and two whiffs. Since he started throwing the pitch, the changeup has become a go-to for Martin for a myriad of situations.

“Honestly it's just any count, anybody. It's a great safety net,” Martin said. “It's been really great to get out of jams, to get ground balls. We look at double-play balls, that's basically the best pitch for me to use for a double-play ball. So it's been really good for me, and I feel like it's led to a lot of the success I have been having.”

In addition to the punchout of O’Neill, Martin got Abreu swinging on a 90.7 mph changeup in the first inning. Though the three strikeouts matched a season low, Martin generated eight groundouts, including one on a 4-6-3 double play to end the fourth inning with only the one run allowed.

“Getting strike one, getting to the changeup, making guys uncomfortable, staying inside,” Martin said of his approach. “Just doing all those things and obviously just trying to get a ground ball. I think that's the mindset shift: you don't have to strike everybody out, you can get a double play, our infield’s really good and Jacob [Amaya] is doing a great job at short. Trust those guys to make a play and they did.”

Friday marked just the fourth time Robinson has caught Martin in a game, though their on-field chemistry would suggest otherwise. Despite not having ample opportunity to work together in game situations, Robinson has made an effort when he’s not playing to catch Martin’s bullpen sessions, get to the field early and chat with his teammates to ensure everyone is on the same page.

The payoff of that extra effort can be seen in outings like the duo’s six innings on Friday.

“It's everything,” Robinson said. “On and off the field we're good friends, and we just continue to learn off each other and build, and this was a good outing to build off of.”