Though things looked precarious for a moment there, but the Davis Martin Hype Train choo-choos on!
In the first inning, it looked as if the 29-year-old’s magical run to start this interesting 2026 campaign might finally be at its end. Martin struggled to put hitters away early, letting in a run in the first inning — just the second time this season he’s been tagged for a tally in the first — when Julio Rodríguez drove a double into the left field gap, moved to third on a wild pitch and ultimately
scored on a Randy Arozarena poke into center field.
With those hits sandwiching a nine-pitch walk of Josh Naylor, it was one of the more laborious innings we’ve seen from Martin in a while. At that point, I was bracing myself for the inevitable turning of Martin’s luck.
Wrong. Martin gritted his teeth, dug in, and proceeded to allow just two baserunners over his final five innings, one via hit and one via walk. And it wasn’t all soft contact, either — Martin has become a bona fide whiff machine, tying the career high he set just six days ago with 19 swinging strikes.
His pitch chart is a thing of beauty, showing how effectively and consistently located his fastballs up and to the glove side, paired with a healthy dose of changeups and breaking balls just below the zone — more or less exactly where you want them.
Unfortunately, Martin was robbed of what should have been his sixth win of the season by virtue of Seattle starter Logan Gilbert, who the White Sox simply couldn’t touch in what was easily his best start of the season.
That the White Sox managed to win a game in which the opposing hurler twirled six one-hit innings, facing just a hair over the minimum, seems like an alien idea. Yet that’s exactly what happened today.
Sox hitters were clearly pleased to see Gilbert depart the game for José Ferrer in the seventh inning, although Ferrer followed his starter in keeping Chicago scoreless. In the eighth inning, it was Antonio Bazardo’s turn to quiet the Sox bats — and this time, the home team won the matchup with just a few swings of the bat.
First, Bazardo hung a dry-aged ham of a breaking ball to Randal Grichuk, who managed to deposit it into the bleachers despite a heady wind blowing in from left field.
It’s pretty refreshing when the declining veterans get cast off into the White Sox lineup and still actually have something left in the tank, isn’t it!
Almost immediately following, Drew Romo continued his tear at the plate, slicing a double into the right field corner to put the lead run in scoring position. After Sam Antonacci laid down a perfectly-executed sacrifice bunt to move Romo to third, it was Miguel Vargas’ turn to play clutch again. Though he certainly wishes he had hit this fly ball a little deeper, it was just deep enough for Romo to bait Arozarena into air mailing his throw home, allowing what was ultimately the winning run to cross the plate.
Seranthony Domínguez had a very Seranthony Domínguez ninth inning, loading the bases with just one out — and looking like his feel for the strike zone was irreparably gone for the day — before inducing a pop out and a weak ground ball to end the game and earn his ninth save of the season. We’re not even halfway through May, and those nine saves are already tied with Michael Kopech’s 2024 for the most saves by a Sox reliever since Liam Hendriks notched 37 in 2022. What a time to be alive!
With this win, the White Sox remain within striking distance of .500, and with Cleveland dropping their matinee to the Twins this afternoon, they’re just a single game back of the Guardians in an AL Central that is fully AL Central-ing, with four teams all hanging around .500 and refusing to take the reins and separate from the pack. They’ll look to keep climbing during the rest of this season-long homestand, next hosting Kansas City for a three-gamer from Tuesday through Thursday. Erick Fedde takes the hill in the first game of that set, scheduled for 6:40 p.m. CT. We’ll see you there!
