CINCINNATI -- Warm and humid with the wind blowing out at Great American Ball Park on Thursday afternoon were not optimal conditions for Reds starting pitcher Nick Martinez to slow his recent surge of allowing home runs.
Martinez gave up three more homers to the Twins -- including two to leadoff hitter Byron Buxton -- during Cincinnati's 12-5 loss that snapped a four-game win streak.
“I was attacking the zone, but I definitely made some mistakes," Martinez said.
For the first time since his 2014 rookie season, Martinez had a big league start that lasted less than three innings. Over 2 2/3 innings, the 34-year-old right-hander gave up seven earned runs, seven hits and a walk with four strikeouts. It shot his ERA up from 3.92 to 4.55, and he is 4-8 in 15 starts this season.
“I thought he had good stuff. I thought he made some mistakes and paid heavily for them," manager Terry Francona said. "It seemed like that was the trend all day. Even in a couple of innings when we had two quick outs, we couldn’t get the third out, and it ended up driving everybody’s pitch count up, led to runs and it kind of led to an ugly day.”
Opponents have slugged nine homers against Martinez over his last five starts, which total 25 1/3 innings -- including six in his last two games. Before that, he allowed just one homer over a stretch of eight starts.
During his last outing, an 11-5 loss to the Tigers on Friday, Martinez allowed three solo homers.
“I think it just comes down to execution," Martinez said. "I’m giving up the long ball and some hard contact.”
Twins hitters averaged a 97.8 mph exit velocity against Martinez, according to Statcast.
To open the game, Buxton slugged a 1-2 fastball from Martinez into the second deck of left-field seats for his second leadoff homer in two days. With two outs in the second inning, Kody Clemens and Buxton hit homers on back-to-back pitches.
Clemens clobbered an 0-1 cutter at 107.8 mph off the bat to right field. Buxton drove a first-pitch changeup into the left-field seats for a 4-2 Twins lead.
In the Twins' half of the third inning, Ty France scorched a one-out RBI double off the wall in left field. A two-out, two-run double hit hard down the left-field line by Ryan Jeffers made it 7-2 and brought Martinez's day to a premature end at 52 pitches. Francona was asked if Martinez needed time to reflect about how to adjust.
“If you’re going to reflect, you better do it quick, because he’s pitching pretty soon," Francona replied. "When you’re not throwing 98 [mph], your margin for error is a little bit less."
All but two of Minnesota's runs overall came with two outs.
The Reds’ lineup did make an effort to keep the game close in the early innings. Tyler Stephenson's two-out RBI single to left field followed by Spencer Steer's RBI double down the left-field line gave Cincinnati a 2-1 lead in the first. Gavin Lux's two-run homer to right field against Chris Paddack cut the deficit to three runs in the third before the Twins pulled away for good.
Despite the rough afternoon, the Reds had already taken the first two games of the series and have won four series in a row. They've won nine of their last 12 games and are 10-6 in June.
"I’d like to get a win. Series wins are what matters," Martinez said. “We’re still walking out of here with a series win against a team that expects to be in the playoffs. We’re playing good baseball.”