Five years ago, Nick Martinez was pitching in Japan. His MLB pitching career had gone sideways with the Texas Rangers. He went across the Pacific to rediscover himself.
On Friday night, Martinez wasn’t just back in Major League Baseball. He was chasing baseball history..
Pitching on his home mound for the Cincinnati Reds, Martinez didn’t allow a single hit through eight innings.
But in the ninth, he walked the leadoff guy and gave up a double off the left-field wall to Elias Diaz, and that was it for the bid at history.
He couldn’t quite throw the 18th no-hitter in the storied history of the Reds.
It’s a list that includes two guys with two, Johnny Vander Meer and Homer Bailey. It’s a list that includes the immortal Tom Seaver, and the less-than-immortal Bumpus Jones and Noodles Hahn.
Sadly, it won’t quite include Martinez.
He walked just two batters. Otherwise, he was perfect until the ninth. He ended with a career-high-matching 112 pitches.
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And although it doesn’t go into the record books, it’d be hard for Martinez to have imagined it much better. He left the mound to a standing ovation.
The San Diego Padres have a strong lineup. They made some strong contact.
But when they hit it hard, it was at someone, until Diaz’s double over everyone.
Martinez has been better since returning to MLB in 2022 with the Padres. But for the past three seasons, two with San Diego and 2024 with Cincinnati, he was a reliever and only occasional spot starter.
Now, he has pitched so well that the Reds have no choice but to start him every turn through the rotation.
And that faith, and Martinez’s belief in himself, were nearly rewarded in a beautiful way on Friday night.
In the moment, it stings that it wasn’t a no-hitter.
But when Martinez looks back on it, he’ll know it was the culmination of a storybook return journey to Major League Baseball after his career had been at a major crossroads not that long ago.
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