Justin Martinez escapes jam with devastating splitter: ‘I can say I’m back’

PHOENIX — Justin Martinez’s first outing back with the Diamondbacks during Saturday’s loss to St. Louis did not go as planned, but he came out of it feeling strong and that he threw the ball pretty well.

On Monday, the D-backs put him in another demanding spot, having him face the bases loaded with nobody out while holding onto a 5-0 lead in the eighth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Martinez’s mindset was simple:  ”They can’t even hit a foul ball.”

Martinez, who spent more than three weeks on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation, jumped ahead of Bryan Reynolds 0-2. Reynolds stayed alive by fouling off a couple splitters then worked a full count.

The reliever felt Reynolds would be waiting for a triple-digit heater, two of which Martinez had just thrown for balls, so he went another route.

Martinez unleashed a devastating splitter that looked like it would drop to the bottom of the zone but just fell completely off the table. Reynolds whiffed through it for a critical strikeout.

Justin Martinez, Filthy 89mph Splitter. 😷 pic.twitter.com/640xjfWNT9

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 27, 2025

“I felt like he turned the entire inning around with one pitch,” manager Torey Lovullo said.

He did.

Martinez got Spencer Horwitz to pop-up a fastball to third baseman Eugenio Suarez and jammed Joey Bart to bounce into an inning-ending fielder’s choice. Martinez’s heat reached 102.1 mph.

The Diamondbacks held on for a 5-0 win, ending a five-game losing streak and receiving an outing from their top reliever that sparks optimism going forward.

“I can say I’m back,” Martinez said. “Tonight, I think I hit 102. That’s pretty good because my velocity went down.

“In St. Louis, I thought it was a good outing,” Martinez added. “I gave up two runs and I got the loss, but I felt pretty good. … Tonight I had the same feeling as St. Louis. That just happens. It’s a bad game. It’s gonna happen.”

Lovullo said Martinez had a couple misses that led to some hard-hit balls against the Cardinals, but his stuff overall looked crisp.

He described Martinez’s performance on Monday as a save, even though it won’t go down as such in the scorebook. One hit or a walk would have brought the tying run to the plate, and this D-backs squad has struggled to hold leads.

“He’s been telling me how great he feels,” Lovullo said. “So I knew if we kept putting him into that environment and that situation, that eventually he was gonna go out and do something like that today. …  I think he’s trusting exactly what his body’s telling him, and he’s going out there and executing.”

Ryne Nelson and Justin Martinez were among the standouts in Monday's Diamondbacks win. pic.twitter.com/oNhyA7486Z

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) May 27, 2025

Monday was Martinez’s first outing at Chase Field since April 27.

Martinez started the year with seven innings and no earned runs before his shoulder issue popped up in mid-April. After four appearances in which his velocity tumbled, he went on the IL.

Now that he’s back in the fold, the Diamondbacks have the option to use him on the very back end, ideally with better success locking down games. Arizona entered Monday with the most save opportunities in MLB with 28 and the most blown saves with 11.

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