This Red gives his teams gifts on his birthday

This story was excerpted from Mark Sheldon's Reds Beat newsletter, written this week by Paige Leckie. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MIAMI -- There’s just something about Nick Martinez’s birthday that he seems to thrive on. In three career birthday appearances in MLB, Martinez has allowed just one run, posting a 0.75 ERA.

In the latest such instance, Monday evening at loanDepot park, the Miami native delivered five scoreless innings to help propel the Reds to a series-opening victory. Of course, Cincinnati’s offensive onslaught gave him some early breathing room, but it was Martinez who walked away with the win.

“It was a big start for us,” manager David Bell said postgame. “Hometown birthday -- great day for Nick, but yeah, he pitched really well. … He was ahead, threw a ton of strikes. Good fastball. He threw a lot of offspeed, he mixed it up, but really good fastball when he needed it. And it doesn't get much better than that as far as getting not only scoreless, but five innings was a bit of a stretch going into that just based on how much he's pitched. But he did it.”

Of course, it probably helped that Martinez was able to see family and friends and had slept in his own bed. Plus, that good ol' birthday luck.

“I think the last start I had on my birthday was in Japan,” Martinez said, “and I also went five scoreless. Yeah, it’s happened quite a bit, actually, in my career, I’ve thrown on my birthday.”

The Reds knew that they’d likely need Martinez to step up after they dealt Frankie Montas at the Trade Deadline. It’s a role Martinez is quite familiar with -- he made spot starts for Montas earlier this season when the latter was on the IL and has stepped up in key spots. Martinez’s versatility has been crucial for Cincinnati this season.

But it hasn’t been an easy task. In his five first-half starts, Martinez posted a 7.36 ERA over 25 2/3 innings. Prior to Monday, his last start was on May 22, when he allowed five runs on eight hits and one walk over 4 2/3 innings in a 7-3 loss to the Padres, Martinez’s former team. According to Bell, one reason for those early struggles was because Martinez hadn’t had a chance to truly ramp up and get used to a starter’s workload.

“I think if anything, the -- you say, 'struggles with the starts,' I think, for a guy that wasn't really built up to be a starter and was kind of switching back and forth, it had more to do with that,” Bell said pregame on Monday. “He can pitch, so it doesn't matter if it's in relief or as a starter. So I think over the last two weeks, we've kind of helped him kind of prepare for this a little bit more. He's still pitched out of the bullpen, but he's ready. … He's willing to do whatever. Right now, he's in our rotation and starting today.”

This time, the Reds made sure Martinez was set up for success. Over the previous week or two, Cincinnati worked with Martinez to build up his threshold.

“With my role being so versatile, there's unique ways to find opportunities to build,” Martinez said. “I'm able to throw in high-leverage situations and give guys breaks. You know, we have [Fernando Cruz] throwing a bunch, [Lucas Sims] when he was here threw a lot, and [Alexis] Díaz. So whenever those guys were down or [when] we need a bridge to Díaz, I'm able to fill in and also keep my workload up. So there's a lot of unique situations where I can help the team win late in the ballgame and maintain my workload to be able to slide in like this and start.”

So, where does this birthday rank for Martinez?

“It’s up there,” Martinez said with a grin.