Justin Martinez Notches First Save in Thrilling D-backs Win

Zac Gallen turned in a gutsy performance, Tommy Pham and Gabriel Moreno homer in 3-1 victory

Justin Martinez worked an electric ninth inning going through the heart of the San Diego Padres order to lock down his first major league save in a D-backs 3-1 victory. His outing topped off a great pitching night for the D-backs as Zac Gallen, Kyle Nelson and Martinez combined to throw a three hitter.   

Padres starter Rich Hill retired the firsts 10 batters he faced and only gave up two hits in his five innings of work, but both of them were home runs. Tommy Pham hit a two-run shot 430 feet to left center after Corbin Carroll had drawn a one-out walk in the fourth. Gabriel Moreno hit a solo homer in the top of the fifth, spotting Gallen to a 3-0 lead. 

Tommy Pham has really gotten untracked after a slow start with #Dbacks . This bomb went 430 feet on a night the ball not carrying well

pic.twitter.com/zjMj5ppqC3

— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) August 18, 2023

Torey Lovullo's bullpen was gassed from the Colorado series and he really needed length from Gallen. Without his best stuff and his velocity down a tick, Gallen pitched to contact, needing just 41 pitches to navigate the first three innings.  A 21 pitch fourth and a 29 pitch fifth taxed the D-backs ace however. He was giving up hard contact in the air all night long, but had some good fortune as the ball kept finding gloves, often deep onto the warning track. 

Despite all the hard contact the only run Gallen allowed was in that long 5th inning. Jake Cronenworth doubled to lead off the inning and Trent Grisham hit a two out single to right to drive him in. Gallen got out of that inning and retired the side in order in the 6th and even came out to get one more out in the 7th before his evening ended at 100 pitches.  The defense was on point tonight as there were numerous good plays made both in the outfield and on the infield dirt. Gallen strengthened his Cy Young case by going 6.1 innings, giving up 3 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB,  and 3 K. He lowered his ERA to 3.17 and picked up his 13th win. 

Kyle Nelson got the final two outs of the 7th and the first two outs of the 8th, striking out three of the four batters he faced. Torey Lovullo then went to his hard-throwing rookie reliever Martinez who had just gotten off a plane from Reno to make his fifth major league appearance. He struck out Ha-Seong Kim for the final out of the 8th, and with nobody warming in the pen it was clear that he would need to get a four-out save.  Martinez wasn't even aware it was a save situation however, saying he was so focused on making pitches he didn't realize it was a save chance until half way through the outing. 

After walking Fernando Tatis Jr. to start the 9th and then falling behind Juan Soto 3-1 it seemed like control issues that have often held Martinez back would emerge again to thwart his progress. But he fired a 101 MPH fastball for a called strike and then got Soto to hit a ground ball on a 102 MPH pitch right at the bottom of the zone. Geraldo Perdomo made a great diving stop and flipped to second for a force out. 

Martinez then got ahead of Manny Machado and caught him looking with a great splitter for the second out.  The young righty said he really believed he was in the big leagues when he was facing Machado, as the Padres third baseman was one of his idols growing up.  It wasn't over yet however as home plate umpire Nate Tomlinson squeezed Martinez leading to another walk to Xander Bogaerts.  Martinez stayed calm and struck out Jake Cronenworth looking with another splitter for the final out. 

Last year in the Arizona Fall League we spoke with Martinez about that splitter and how crucial it was for him to develop that pitch.  Lovullo said of Martinez, "He's not just a 100 MPH fastball guy. He's got two other secondary pitches. (Splitter and slider). And that's what was impressed upon him when he went down the last time [to Reno] was to be able to execute all of his pitches at any time and he did a very good job of that today"

The D-backs have now won five of their last six and got back to two games over .500 at 62-60. Miami, Cincinnati and Chicago are in a virtual tie for the final wild card spot with the D-backs 1.0 game behind.  The D-backs and Padres play again tomorrow night at 6:40 P.M., Brandon Pfaadt will face Seth Lugo.