White Sox workhorse Davis Martin pacing steady rotation after tough start to season
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — White Sox starter Davis Martin has been doing this for awhile, but not quite with this level of assurance.
The 29-year-old right-hander and longest-tenured Sox pitcher turned in his strongest start yet in his third outing this season Friday against Kansas City, striking out three with no walks over seven innings for a tough-luck 2-0 loss.
Martin’s strong introduction to his second full season has buoyed a rotation that sank fast in the first week of the season, only to rebound through its second and third turns.
And for a veteran leader on the staff, it all comes down to knowing himself.
“This is probably the best knowledge of my stuff,” said Martin, who debuted with the Sox in 2022 before undergoing Tommy John surgery. “Obviously, there's still so much more that I feel like I can accomplish, and so much more refining that I think I can do, but from this year to last year, I feel like I know what pitches are working, I know how to use them, and then second and third time through the lineup, [how] I probably want to adjust and go from there.”
It was the second consecutive quality start from Martin, who’s 2-1 with a 2.50 ERA over 18 innings with 15 strikeouts and four walks. There’s not much flashy about his 94 mph four seamer, but a kick-changeup Martin refined last season has kept hitters on edge along with a sinker that opponents have faced to a .091 average so far.
Consistency with those pitches and a quick pace to boot might hearken back to some other all-time Sox fan favorites. He made quick work of the Royals on a night Kansas City starter Kris Bubic struck out 11 Sox in a clean one hour and 55 minutes, the fastest Sox game since July 6, 2015, when Chris Sale outdueled then-Blue Jay Mark Buehrle in a cool one hour, 54 minutes.
“Davis, that’s as good as we’ve seen him pounding the zone. I thought he had command of all his pitches. It was awesome,” manager Will Venable said of the righty who has often flown under the radar.
“He works so hard and puts himself in such a good position to continue to progress and do well. Every outing… it’s better and better,” Venable said. “He has good stuff, throws strikes and he’s not scared. Good ingredients to have a good starting pitcher.”
Martin still sees plenty of room for improvement.
“It feels good. It's still so early. There's a lot of good stuff that we can take from this, but there's also a lot of things that I want to do better. I want to have better kill counts. I want to execute 0-2 better,” Martin said. “Don't have to do too much more. And don't try to reinvent the wheel.”
Offense has been hard to come by across the league in early April, but Sox pitchers have rebounded from an atrocious first six games of the season, when the staff stumbled to an 8.63 ERA. Entering play Saturday, the 2.25 ERA they’d posted since April 3 was second-best in baseball, with the starters’ collective mark of 1.19 leading MLB.
While Opening Day starter Shane Smith figures things out down at Triple-A Charlotte, Anthony Kay has posted a 2.45 ERA in his three outings and Sean Burke has settled down at 3.60.
A key component of that positive trajectory is a tight-knit group getting closer for the season-long marathon, Martin said.
“To be together for 10, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, that camaraderie starts building at a quick pace... I come in and Anthony’s already busting my chops about how I gave up a home run,” Martin said. “There's a competitive, fun friendship thing there and we're doing a good job. Gotta keep doing it.”