Mike Clevinger already has reclaimed his spot in the rotation. Blake Snell isn’t too far behind. Whatever comes of the discussion after the Padres use all six starting pitchers on the active roster over the next week, Nick Martinez aims to at least make it interesting.
At least as much as he can.
The 31-year-old right-hander matched a career high with seven innings, supported solely by two homers from Manny Machado in a 2-1 win over the Miami Marlins on Thursday night at Petco Park.
It was just the eighth time in his career that Martinez had completed seven innings and the first time he pitched past the sixth this year.
No better time to do it, either.
With Clevinger back in the fold, the Padres are presumably deciding between Martinez and rookie MacKenzie Gore when they revert to a five-man rotation next week. Snell’s return, possibly after a third rehab start next week, likely forces the other from the rotation.
Martinez’s start on Thursday only complicates the proverbial good problem to have.
He struck out four batters and allowed one run on four hits and a walk while throwing 71 of his 102 pitches for strikes.
The only blemish on Martinez’s line arrived in the fourth, when Miguel Rojas and Payton Henry singled to open the inning and Jesus Aguilar lined a one-out single to center to tie the game at 1-1.
Martinez then induced a double-play ball to end the inning, the start of 12 straight batters retired.
A two-out walk to Avisail Garcia in the seventh snapped that string, but Martinez remained in the game after a huddle on the mound with pitching coach Ruben Niebla and got a ground ball to get out of the inning.
Luis Garcia stranded a two-out single in the eighth and Taylor Rogers recorded his 11th save with two strikeouts in a perfect ninth, securing the Padres’ seventh win in their last nine games.
Machado’s two-homer game was the 31st of his career and his ninth at Petco Park, the most ever by a hitter. Both victimized Marlins left-hander Jesus Luzardo, whose only other hit allowed in six-plus innings was Eric Hosmer’s second-inning single.
The first blast was a 105 mph fly ball over the wall in center after Luzardo fanned Austin Nola and Jake Cronenworth to start the game. Three innings later, Machado lined a 105 mph ball into the second deck in left to give the Padres a 2-1 lead that Martinez and the bullpen made stand up despite just two hits from Padres not named Machado or Hosmer.
Jorge Alfaro’s seventh-inning single was stranded and Cronenworth’s eighth-inning single, on the heels of Nola’s leadoff walk, went for naught when Machado bounced into a double play and Hosmer grounded out with runners on first and third.
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