Once kicked out of Yankee Stadium, Nick Martinez returns to pitch Rays into AL Championship Series

NEW YORK (AP) — Ejected from Yankee Stadium during his college days, Nick Martinez will be back in the Bronx on Wednesday trying to pitch the Tampa Bays Rays into the AL Championship Series.

Martinez spent 2009-11 playing for Fordham, a school just 5 miles from the big ballpark. His last trip to Yankee Stadium as a student was memorable.

“We had practice get canceled and so me and my roommate we went out pretty early. They were playing the Red Sox. Might have had a few too many adult beverages. Got kicked out,” he recalled in May. “It was rowdy. We were kind of rowdy. Next time I was at Yankee Stadium I was pitching."

Hoping for its first World Series title, Tampa Bay has a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five AL Division Series against New York . Martinez is 2-2 with a 2.93 ERA in nine Yankee Stadium appearances.

“As a student at Fordham, whenever we had practice off or a day off and they were playing at home, we’d come over, catch a train and watch a game at Yankee Stadium and we’d be in the bleachers, my roommate or a couple buddies,” the 36-year-old right-hander recalled Tuesday.

“Man, obviously playing here would be pretty badass,” Martinez remembered thinking back then.

He became a first-time All-Star this year, going 15-6 with a 3.10 ERA — including 7-3 with a 2.38 ERA and .232 opponents batting average on the road.

“It’s super cool to see a guy like that who’s been around for a long time, have the success he’s had,” Rays outfielder Jonny DeLuca said. “It’s the vibes. It’s everything that he brings."

Martinez was primarily a middle infielder in college, hitting .295 with four homers and 66 RBIs. He made five relief appearances as a freshman, none as a sophomore and 10 as a junior, totaling 26 1/3 innings.

He drew the attention of Texas Rangers scout Jay Heafner on March 14, 2011, throwing four shutout innings of three-hit ball against Charleston Southern. Heafner was tipped to watch Martinez by Juan Alvarez, a former major leaguer who also was a Rangers scout at the time and had given Martinez some pitching lessons during his junior year at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Kendall, Florida.

Martinez was selected by the Rangers in the 18th round of the 2011 amateur draft with the 564th pick and signed for a $60,000 bonus. He made his big league debut in 2014 and went 17-30 with a 4.77 ERA in 68 starts and 20 relief appearances while getting optioned to the minor leagues 13 times.

Not wanting to risk getting designated for assignment, Martinez left and spent four seasons in Japan with the Nippon Ham Fighters and Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. He pitched for the U.S. in the 2021 Olympics, beating South Korea in the group stage and allowing Munetaka Murakami's go-ahead homer in the third inning of a 2-0 loss to Japan in the gold medal game ,

“We could talk for an hour about how Japan changed my career,” Martinez said. “I just grew as a pitcher physically and mentally and was able to hone in my craft. Ultimately I was able to shake that label of being a depth guy, being a guy that can be in Triple-A and come up for a spot start and kind of ride that DFA train and bounce around teams and just fill in.”

He has blossomed back in the major leagues and has a 53-65 career record with a 3.99 ERA in nine big league seasons. After pitching for San Diego and Cincinnati. he joined the Rays for 2026 with a $13 million, one-year deal.

“Induces soft contact,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We got a lot of guys and a lot of starters that get a lot of outs via the strikeout. We know and he knows that that’s not his bread and butter. It’s to try to get guys out early in the count, trust the defense. He does that as well as anybody.”

After bouncing between the rotation and the bullpen, Martinez became a full-time starter this season.

“I’ve always believed that I can be a starter,” he said. “I’ve always enjoyed being one of the five or six horses on the team that the team relies on for a full season.”

Martinez impressed Cash as much with his demeanor.

“He is so genuine and authentic,” the manager said. “The selfless approach. I’ve heard him no less than 20 times this year look at me as like, `I don’t care. I’ll do whatever. I’ll pitch out of the pen. I’ll start games. I’ll do whatever you need me to do to help this team win.'”

Martinez returned to Fordham on Sept. 21, throwing long-toss at Jack Coffey Field with fellow Rays pitchers Drew Rasmussen and Freddy Peralta on an off day before his last start against the Yankees.

“In his head it logically made sense to come up to campus and throw more than I guess throwing in Central Park,” Fordham baseball coach Kevin Leighton said. “They easily could have taken it easy, but those guys were up early in the morning after a flight to New York and they were getting their work in up at Fordham. To me, that says a lot about those guys and their work ethic and commitment to being the best.”

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