Cardinals ace Carlos Martinez started in the Bronx against the Yankees on Saturday, and it went well. It also went badly. Mostly, it went weirdly.
Here, let Martinez's line-score do the talking:
All right. To summarize, 11 strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings is good, eight walks over that same span is bad, and all of it taken together is weird.
The Yankees managed to swing at enough balls to put three runs on the board, and it would be enough for them to take home a 3-2 win when all was said and done.
For "writ small" purposes, consider C-Mart's especially weird first inning on Saturday:
37-pitch inning with no contact for Carlos Martinez.
— Mike Axisa (@mikeaxisa) April 15, 2017
Walk
Walk
Passed ball
Strikeout
Strikeout
Wild pitch
Walk
Walk
Strikeout
Stated another way, the entire Yankee lineup batted in the first inning without putting a ball in play.
As for Martinez's day on the whole:
Carlos Martínez (@Cardinals) is the 1st pitcher to walk at least 8 hitters and strike out at least 11 in a game since Randy Johnson in 1993.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 15, 2017
So at least he's in good company. The thing about having electric stuff, which is certainly what Martinez has, is that it's sometimes hard to harness. When it's both nasty and lacking command, you get days like Martinez's -- lots of walks and lots of helpless batters.
It's also worth noting that Martinez, who recently signed a $51 million contract extension with St. Louis, got knocked around by the Reds in his previous start. In that one, though, he walked only one, so his Saturday struggles were of a different flavor.
Weird, is what they were. We may have already said that.
