Red-hot Rays look to squeeze out another win against Marlins

The Tampa Bay Rays are getting plenty of bang for their buck after signing right-hander Nick Martinez in the offseason to a one-year contract worth a guaranteed $13 million.

Martinez will look to continue to pay dividends on Saturday when the red-hot Rays attempt to win the three-game series against the Miami Marlins in St. Petersburg. Fla.

Cedric Mullins homered among his season-high four hits and scored three times, helping Tampa Bay cruise to a 7-2 victory in the opener of the Citrus Series. The win was the Rays' 11th in a row at home and 17th in their past 20 outings overall.

Martinez (4-1, 1.70 ERA) will look to win his fifth straight start on Saturday when he opposes Miami's Sandy Alcantara (3-2, 3.90).

Martinez continued his torrid pace after allowing one run in 5 2/3 innings of a 4-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday. He has yielded just three runs on 20 hits in 25 2/3 innings during his personal winning streak and surrendered two runs or fewer in each of his eight starts to begin the season.

"His body of work through all (eight) starts, we're incredibly pleased with it, and he should be proud of himself," Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Martinez.

Martinez, 35, is 4-1 with a 3.58 ERA in 12 career appearances (five starts) against Miami.

As for Mullins, he appears to be pulling out of his early season funk. He followed up a disastrous April in which he batted .143 by hitting .306 (11-for-36) thus far in May.

Yandy Diaz answered a two-hit performance in Wednesday's 5-3 loss in 10 innings to the Toronto Blue Jays with a two-run homer on his first at-bat on Friday.

Keeping Mullins and Diaz in check will be the responsibility of Alcantara.

The 2022 National League Cy Young Award winner recorded his third straight no-decision on Sunday despite allowing two runs on five hits in six innings of a 5-2 win against the Washington Nationals.

Alcantara, 30, is 2-4 with a 3.89 ERA in seven career appearances (all starts) against Tampa Bay.

Should all go well for the Marlins, the ball could land in the hand of former Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks. He signed a one-year, $13 million contract with Miami during the offseason following seven seasons with Tampa Bay.

"The last time I was in here (Tropicana Field) throwing, I got hurt. Hopefully we'll avoid that on this one," said Fairbanks, who just returned from the 15-day injured list on Wednesday due to nerve irritation in his right (pitching) hand.

"I spent a lot of games either watching or pitching at the Trop. It kinda takes me way back. ... it's not uncharted territory but it's definitely a little different after spending as long as I did on the home side."

As it stands, Miami has lost two in a row and three of its first four contests on its six-game road trip that also took the Marlins to Minnesota.

Jakob Marsee homered among his three hits and Connor Norby also went deep on Friday for the Marlins.

--Field Level Media