Chicago White Sox Activate Starting Pitcher Tuesday Against Rays

TAMPA, Fla. –– The White Sox welcome Davis Martin back to the starting rotation Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Rays. Following an 8-3 White Sox victory in the series opener, Game 2 of the three-game series is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET at George M. Steinbrenner Field, with Martin facing Rays starter Drew Rasmussen.

"You're not gonna see the typical six or seven inning outing from him," White Sox manager Will Venable said pregame. "But yeah, hope to get him four or five innings. Just see where he's at. It's important to get him out of it healthy."

Venable mentioned Mike Vasil and Tyler Alexander as potential bulk relievers who could follow Martin, but he'll have plenty of options at his disposal.

"We have pretty much everybody," Venable said. "... We have a good amount of length behind him with multiple guys."

Martin has not pitched in the major leagues since June 12, when he allowed four earned runs and seven hits across six innings with two walks and five strikeouts. He was placed on the injured list on June 20, retroactive to June 17, with a right forearm strain.

Martin made two starts as part of a rehab assignment with the Triple-A Charlotte Knights, throwing two innings with 29 pitches on July 9 and 3.2 innings with 58 pitches on July 13. The starts spanned a combined 5.2 innings with three earned runs allowed, one walk and five strikeouts.

While on the injured list, Martin was eager to return to game action.

"I don't like it. I pride myself on showing up every five days and no one has to worry about what Davis Martin is doing; he just shows up, he does his job and then he goes home. To take IL stints, do stuff like that, it kind of rubs me the wrong way and I don't really like it," Martin said. "Just having a staff, having a front office that takes care of you, sits down, says, 'This is where we're at and this is why we're doing it, you're like 'OK.' But I think that's how all the starting pitchers are wired. None of us want to take time off. We want the ball for six, seven innings every time we go out there. It's just trying to balance the health of your career and also just performance on the field, throughout the season."

White Sox general manager Chris Getz on June 23 explained the decision to put Martin on the injured list.

"It’s just muscular. He had some tightness in there and we didn’t want to mess around," Getz said. "Truthfully, he wanted to take the start. But that just kind of speaks to Davis and how much he likes to be out there and wants to pitch. We felt like it was our duty to step in and give him a break. Make sure he has no soreness in there before we get him back on the bump."

When healthy, Martin was in the midst of a strong run with the White Sox, posting a 3.79 ERA across 80.2 innings.

"This is probably the best I've felt in my career," Martin said. "Just the consistency of the stuff, the consistency of the mechanics and everything and knowing what I'm going to have every week in, week out, not the guessing game of 'Is this pitch going to be there? Is that pitch going to be there?' Just knowing that I'm going to have my stuff pretty much every time I go out there, it's great for the confidence. I think just the execution and everything about it has been phenomenal this year."

"Love having him in our rotation," Venable said. "He's one of our guys. He's one of the guys you just depend on every five days to go out there and compete, get the job done and give us a chance to win."

Related stories on the Chicago White Sox