Hill is in the midst of a middling season, as he has a 7-10 record with a 4.76 ERA, a 1.48 WHIP and 104 strikeouts in 22 starts. The Pirates have only made one trade so far, dealing veteran first baseman Carlos Santana to the division-rival Milwaukee Brewers last week in exchange for 18-year-old shortstop prospect Jhonny Severino. This is Martin's sixth postseason appearance, and only once has he hit above the Mendoza Line.īut for one evening, he outshined everyone.At 47-58, Pittsburgh sits in fourth place in the NL Central and nine games out of an NL wild-card spot, which could influence the team to be in sell mode prior to the deadline. The Pirates, however, shouldn't expect many more performances like this. “Probably couldn't have written a better script.” “It's definitely a special game, and I'm going to remember it for a long time,” Martin said, per Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Martin also called a good game behind the dish, picking the right spots for Liriano to unleash his twisting slider and, other times, having him pitch to contact. He made hard contact all night, seemingly reading the offerings before they even came out of the pitcher's hand. Usually known as a defensive stalwart with an inconsistent bat, Martin was locked in on Tuesday. The Yankees are watching the postseason from home, and their former catcher is playing hero on his new franchise's biggest stage in generations. Now? Martin may actually represent what fans once thought was a joke. But that narrative was a nice jab about the supposed "fall" of the Yankees and rise of the Pirates.
The truth was that New York never made Martin an offer, and the Pirates were higher on him than any other team by far. One of the most amusing offseason storylines of last winter was the Pirates swooping in and pilfering Martin from the Yankees. Cueto and the Cincinnati bullpen largely pitched around him and nibbled at the corners, and he was also intentionally walked. The star outfielder went 2-for-3 on the evening, hitting two singles despite the Reds' concerted efforts to limit his effectiveness. Pittsburgh also got everything it could have asked for from Andrew McCutchen. In his first postseason at-bat of his 12-year career, outfielder Marlon Byrd hit a solo home run off Cueto, who gave up four runs (three earned) on seven hits in just 3.1 innings of work. In one game of the 2013 postseason, Martin has nearly as many hits as he had all of the 2012 postseason with New York. The 30-year-old catcher went 3-for-4, belting solo home runs off Cincinnati starter Johnny Cueto in the second inning and Logan Ondrusek in the seventh. Tony Watson worked through a rocky eighth inning that included a solo shot by Shin-Soo Choo, but Jason Grilli pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to close it out at 6-2.Ĭatching the whole way was the veteran Martin, whose bat made as much noise as his battery-mate's arm. He had an 8-1 record with a 1.47 ERA in 11 starts at PNC Park heading into Tuesday night's contest, and he did all he needed to keep that success going. A year after being dumped off by the Minnesota Twins and removed from the Chicago White Sox rotation, Liriano's career has found a second life in Pittsburgh.
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