Rangers pitcher Nick Martinez put together a dominant outing to earn his second win of the season Tuesday night against the Angels.
"Plus command tonight," manager Jeff Banister said. "[Martinez] has bought into being able to pitch inside for strikes and pitch inside for effect, to open up the outside part of the plate."
Martinez (2-0) tossed six scoreless frames before allowing an unearned run to score on a Johnny Giavotella sacrifice fly in the seventh inning for his only blemish of the evening. He was charged with one unearned run on five hits and three walks while striking out one over seven innings of an 8-2 victory.
"It definitely felt great," Martinez said, per MLB.com. "We needed a big win. Everybody came out hot and we played good defense tonight."
Martinez has yet to surrender an earned run through his first 14 innings pitched. He is scheduled to make his Tuesday at Arizona. He went 4-5 with a 4.09 ERA over 83 2/3 innings of work away from Globe Life Park last season.