Breaking down Martinez's first win

Martinez pitches. /AP Photo

Texas Ranger righthander Nick Martinez went up against the tough Detroit Tigers lineup (ranked 7th on FanGraphs) and shut them down over six innings of work, allowing just one earned run on eight hits while striking out two. The former Vermont Mountaineer has now completed back-to-back starts with five innings of one run ball and has really shone this year in the bigs.

Martinez has become a talented four-pitch starter, relying on his hard, 93 mph four-seam fastball and mixing in a variety of curveballs, sliders and changeups. He holds an impressive 2.16 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP over 33 innings.

In todays game, Martinez took the mound in throwback jerseys from the Fort Worth Texas Black Panthers, a former Negro league team. He threw his second highest amount of pitches in an inning, 18, and left runners at second and third by getting a popout.

He gave up his only run in the second on an Rajai Davis RBI double, but he picked off Davis to end the threat. Martinez's best inning was the third, as he used six pitches to set down Ian Kinsler, Torii Hunter and Miguel Cabrera on a variety of ground outs, line outs and flyouts.

The fourth was more of the same as he got the next three batters on the same combination of pitching to contact. He extended the streak to eight batters set down in a row into the fifth until he gave up back-to-back singles. Once again, Martinez worked out of the jam.

In his final inning of work, Martinez got an out before allowing three straight singles. A potentially disastrous situation was averted as he got Nick Castellanos to line into a double-play to escape yet another jam. Castellanos ended up being his last batter as he didn't come back in the seventh.

Martinez finished with 91 pitches, 55 of which were strikes. Quick numbers to look at:

• Martinez faced 25 batters, 13 of which he threw first-pitch strikes to.
• He threw his four-seam fastball 55% of the time with an average velocity of 93.1 MPH.
• His fastest pitch measured 95.2 MPH.
• He threw a slider 18% of the time and a changeup 13% of the time.
• The least amount of pitches he used in an inning was six, in the third.
• The most pitches he threw in an inning was 19, in the fifth.