Halfway through June, the White Sox remain the biggest surprise in baseball. However, their first game after taking two of three from the Dodgers over the weekend brought the old Sox back for a night.
The Yankees tagged Davis Martin for nine runs over 3 1/3 innings and beat him and the Sox, 12-2. It was a far cry from the pitchers duel Martin was expected to have with Gerrit Cole.
Martin entered his start ranked second in the AL in ERA. That no longer is the case as his ERA ballooned from 2.41 to 3.31 in this start. The three home runs he gave up in this abbreviated start matched the number he had given up to that point in the season.
Naturally, this sent some people into a panic, and they have a point to a degree. Through three starts in June, Davis is 1-2 with a 9.67 ERA, 2.14 WHIP and .387 batting average against. This also was his second straight road start in which he went less than five innings and gave up at least six runs on at least eight hits.
But a look at Martin's numbers over the first two months suggest that this level of regression was inevitable. From the beginning of the season through the end of May, Martin went 8-1 with an even 2.00 ERA. His WHIP was an otherworldly 0.99, and opposing batters hit only .215 against him.
In an analytics-driven game where teams constantly are reviewing numbers and video and adjusting accordingly, it was unrealistic to expect Martin to sustain such a high level of production over six months. Regression to the mean eventually was going to happen, and it all just happened to hit the fan at this point in the season.
If there's one reason to be concerned about Martin, it's the splits between home and road games. He's 5-0 with a 1.01 ERA over six home starts but 4-3 with a 5.09 ERA during eight starts away from Rate Field.
But Martin's road struggles merely are a symptom of an overall team pitching problem. The Sox have the second-worst road ERA in baseball at 5.49 and have given up the third-most earned runs at 181.
So if the Sox are worried about Martin, they better be worried about every other pitcher the same amount. They can't keep him from starting on the road the entire rest of the season, and it's not like they have enough starting pitchers to put such a plan into action.
Martin will be fine. All he can do is pitch through it. That's the only way he can put his struggles to an end.
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