Right-hander Davis Martin delivered seven shutout innings for the Chicago White Sox on Monday, prompting fellow starter Anthony Kay to approach him with a playful challenge.
“Why couldn’t you go eight?”
The White Sox call that “chirping,” and the team believes it fuels a starting rotation that has Chicago aiming to win a series against the visiting Seattle Mariners on Sunday afternoon.
“I think I’m the biggest culprit there, you know. I like to keep things loose,” Kay said. “I joke around a lot with these guys. Even when they’re doing good, I still want them to be better.”
Kay’s kidding aside, Martin has been nearly untouchable in the first six weeks of the season.
Coming off his road gem Monday against the Los Angeles Angels, Martin (5-1, 1.64 ERA) now owns the second-lowest earned run average in baseball, trailing only Cam Schlittler of the New York Yankees (1.35). In that outing, Martin allowed five hits while striking out a career-high 10 batters with zero walks.
“It was awesome, executing at a high level, getting ahead, attacking the zone,” Martin said. “Kind of feeling free out there, almost.”
Right-hander Logan Gilbert (2-3, 4.30) will attempt to slow a White Sox offense that has hit five home runs in the first two games of the series.
Miguel Vargas homered twice to power a 6-1 victory on Saturday. The night before, Luke Raley’s grand slam and three-run homer led Seattle to a 12-8 slugfest win.
In Saturday’s loss, the Mariners managed only four singles, two from Julio Rodriguez. Kay allowed one run and three hits over five innings to spark Chicago.
“We weren’t able to get too much traffic going,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “It looked like he had pretty good command of the outside corner with some more of the off-speed stuff. Keeping us honest with some good (velocity) on the inner half and making tough at-bats.”
Raley, a left-handed hitter, was not
