CINCINNATI -- Since about a week after he debuted the pitch, the degree to which opposing teams have gameplanned around Davis Martin's kick change has been in plain sight.
It's not been rendered ineffective or anything. But Royals hitters squaring it up for three crucial hits while chasing him in the fifth inning of the last outing drew the question of whether he might be able to use this attention to his advantage
"I think so," Martin answered.
Reasonable observers can differ on whether Martin flipped the Reds' expectations or simply benefitted from his velocity being up a tick across the board. But he heavily rode (42 of 95 pitches) a particularly effective new slider (originally tagged as a cutter) en route to a career-high 6 2/3 innings, generating an eye-popping 11 whiffs on 30 swings. In either case, there's a big W next to his name as the White Sox won a third consecutive game for the first time all season.
"Obviously it's great when you don't have to throw your best pitch over and over again," Martin said postgame. "[The Reds are] a zone control team so that's what we have to do. We have to get in the zone and we have to get beat in there. Just being comfortable being in the zone, being not afraid of contact and just going after guys."
Even with 97 mph in his back pocket, Martin wasn't quite overpowering. He allowed the leadoff man to reach four times, including a Spencer Steer solo shot to lead off the seventh that was the only mark against him. But five strikeouts paired with nine groundouts lent the feel that he could always generate an unproductive out on command. A pair of two-out doubles off Brandon Eisert in the eighth, the first of which was an Elly De La Cruz drive to the wall in left that Brooks Baldwin couldn't corral, served as the only breakthrough in a 1-for-9 showing for the Reds with runners in scoring position.
"The pitching has been great," said Michael A. Taylor, who lifted a solo shot in the seventh. "They're keeping us in the ballgames, and I think the bats are getting going right now. We've had quality at-bats for a while, and now starting to scratch across a few runs."
Will Benson's defense in center field felt like the one thing standing between Reds starter Nick Lodolo and an early exit -- and given Martin's performance, a relaxing win -- for most of the first half of the evening. Benson flagging down a Miguel Vargas liner at the warning track prevented what would have otherwise been four straight Sox hitters reaching in the third, and Lodolo was able to escape by inducing a bases loaded popout from Andrew Vaughn (who had doubled home Luis Robert Jr. to open the scoring an inning before).
After Tim Elko's first non-homer hit with one out in the fourth, Benson nicely ran down a Brooks Baldwin liner to right-center to put down any further progress. And he robbed Vargas again after Chase Meidroth led off the fifth with a walk, such that when Robert lined a two-out single to center, he felt compelled to draw himself in an inning-ending rundown to make sure the run got home.
Lenyn Sosa eventually chased Lodolo the old-fashioned way with one out in the sixth, lifting a full-count changeup for a solo shot out to right at the end of an eight-pitch battle. Taylor pounced on a front-door Scott Barlow slider an inning later to stake Martin & Co. to a 4-0 lead for the final third of the game, with the two solo shots maintaining an evening-long theme of the Sox piling up an advantage on the scorecards in lieu of a knockout blow.
"This whole season we've been taken this thing day by day, and so certainly, back-to-back series, and a road series win is huge," said Will Venable. "At the same time, these guys are going to show up tomorrow not thinking about that. We're going to go do our best to win a game. But it's nice for these guys, as hard as they're working, to get positive results."
Brooks Baldwin tried to take it upon himself to deliver it in the ninth, but his drive to left off Brent Suter literally bounced off the top of the wall above the 379' sign, and bounced back in. The Sox played for one run and got zilch, with Miguel Vargas popping out and Edgar Quero grounding out after Taylor bunted Baldwin over to third.
No matter: Mike Vasil didn't need the extra cushion to lock down his first career save. He had a four-pitch one-out walk mixed into his inning, so it would have been nice, but he didn't need it.
"I now know why those guys get paid a lot, because my heart was beating probably a thousand beats per minute," Vasil said.
Bullet points:
*The Reds took the field to a Ted Nugent song on Pete Rose Night. It wasn't that specific Ted Nugent song, at least.
*Robert's two singles gave him just his fifth multi-hit performance of the season. He also stole his league-leading 17th base of the year, enabling a light jog home on Vaughn's second inning RBI double.
*If you count Jonathan Cannon as Tuesday's starter rather than Brandon Eisert, White Sox starters have gone walkless in three of their last four outings. It's still true if you count Eisert, just less notable.
*Sosa missed on a two-homer night by mere feet, doubling off the wall in right in the eighth after homering in the sixth.
"It has been a very hard work that I’ve been doing, trying to be consistent day in and day out with my at-bats, just working the counts," Sosa said via interpreter. "Lately I’ve been feeling comfortable, more comfortable with that."
