Nick Martinez had the thought of a no-hitter in the back of his mind pretty quickly during Friday’s game.
He managed to keep the Padres without a hit for nine innings in the Reds’ 8-1 victory. Early on, he started contemplating how it would feel to achieve all 27 outs without giving up a hit.
“The devil was chatting in my ear pretty early,” Martinez reflected in a post-game interview. “I had to push those thoughts away and just focus on one pitch at a time.”
Before this, Martinez spent the first four years of his career with the Rangers. After spending four seasons in Japan, he was looking to reestablish himself in MLB. He walked Jackson Merrill in the first inning, then didn’t allow another base runner until he issued a five-pitch walk to Trenton Brooks at the start of the ninth.
After that, Elias Diaz doubled on just the second pitch he threw, and with that, Martinez’s night, which included 112 pitches, ended with a tinge of ‘what if’.
This was somewhat surprising because he had shifted from the starting rotation to the bullpen earlier this month, and now he was back on the mound for the series opener against the Padres.
Martinez had posted an ERA of 4.55 over his first 15 starts in the 2025 season but had recently thrown three scoreless innings from the bullpen, including a shutout seventh inning against the Yankees on Monday.
He was candid after the game about his previous outing, where he gave up seven runs in just two innings against the Twins on June 19. “I wasn’t at my best last time; it was a rough one,” he admitted.
Friday’s performance reflected the promise that had him signed for the 2022 season, following his time in Japan.
Despite the wandering thoughts, he positioned himself for the Reds’ first no-hit opportunity since Wade Miley did it in 2021.
With this outing, Martinez improved to 5-8 with a 4.12 ERA this season, marking his second time hitting at least seven innings. He also broke the 100-pitch mark for the third time in 2025.
