Right-hander Davis Martin had delivered seven shutout innings for the Chicago White Sox on Monday when fellow starter Anthony Kay approached him with a question.
“Why couldn’t you go eight?”
Chicago calls that “chirping,” and the club credits it in part for the success of a starting rotation that has the White Sox aiming to win a series from the visiting Seattle Mariners on Sunday afternoon.
“I think I’m the biggest culprit there, you know. I like to keep things loose,” Kay said. “I joke around a lot with these guys. Even when they’re doing good, I still want them to be better.”
Kay’s kidding aside, it would have been difficult for Martin to have pitched more effectively in the first six weeks of the season.
Fresh off his road gem Monday against the Los Angeles Angels, Martin (5-1, 1.64 ERA) enters with the second-lowest earned run average in baseball, trailing only Cam Schlittler’s 1.35 mark for the New York Yankees.
Martin spaced five hits on Monday while collecting a career-best 10 strikeouts against zero walks.
“It was awesome, executing at a high level, getting ahead, attacking the zone,” Martin said. “Kind of feeling free out there, almost.”
Right-hander Logan Gilbert (2-3, 4.30) will try to slow a White Sox offense that has clubbed five home runs in the first two games of the series.
Miguel Vargas went deep twice to key a 6-1 victory on Saturday. Fueled by Luke Raley’s grand slam and three-run home run, Seattle had four home runs Friday to win a 12-8 slugfest.
One night later, the Mariners collected just four singles, including two from Julio Rodriguez. Kay allowed a run and three hits over five innings to spark Chicago.
“We weren’t able to get too much traffic going,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “It looked like he had pretty good command of the outside corner with some more of the off-speed stuff. Keeping us honest with some good (velocity) on the inner half and making tough at-bats.
“That’s what pitchers do. In and out and change speeds and up and down. And it seemed like he had all three of those going.”
Raley, a left-handed hitter, was not in the starting lineup against Kay, a lefty. Seattle also rested Brendan Donovan, who was in the lineup Friday after being reinstated from the 10-day injured list upon recovering from a strained left groin muscle.
As with Martin, Gilbert also picked up a 5-4 victory on Monday despite yielding four solo home runs to the visiting Atlanta Braves. He gave up six hits in six innings and had two walks and four strikeouts.
Gilbert is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA in six career starts versus the White Sox with 33 strikeouts in 30 innings.
Martin is 0-2 with a 4.80 ERA in three career appearances against the Mariners covering 15 innings, including two starts.
Colson Montgomery has reached base in 21 straight games for the White Sox. He hit a two-run home run on Saturday.
–Field Level Media
Martin: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/04/chicago-white-sox-angels-munetaka-murakami/
Gilbert vs. CWS: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=gilbelo01&year=Career&t=p
Martin vs. SEA: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=martida03&year=Career&t=p
–Field Level Media
