{"id":738772,"date":"2026-06-15T21:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738772\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T21:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:21:12","slug":"dodgers-rays-preview-facing-the-standout-veteran-nick-martinez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/738772\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers-Rays preview: Facing the standout veteran Nick Mart\u00ednez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Following a couple of series away from home against the Pirates and White Sox, the Dodgers return home to face yet another team with a record above their initial expectations\u2014a Rays team battling neck and neck with the Yankees for the AL East lead. Right at the center of this phenomenal campaign of the Rays lies the stabilizing work of veteran right-hander Nick Mart\u00ednez alongside Drew Rasmussen at the top of the rotation. While Martinez\u2019s terrific numbers in 2026 come as a surprise given his recent track record, specifically for Dodger fans, it is no new thing to see him perform well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">When Martinez takes the mound for the 41-27 Rays against the Dodgers, he\u2019ll put on the line the finest numbers of his career against any big league club. Mart\u00ednez has a 2.50 ERA in 36 innings against the Dodgers across three starts and another 10 appearances out of the bullpen. Mookie Betts, for instance, the Dodgers\u2019 player with the most at-bats against Mart\u00ednez, has a near .200 average in 29 at-bats against him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">As a team, the Dodgers didn\u2019t get out of Chicago with a lot of positives, but one of them was seeing Betts\u2019 bat coming alive, with the shortstop piling on five hits in the last two games, including a homer. Betts now carries this spark into a tough challenge facing a pitcher he has routinely struggled against.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a couple of series away from home against the Pirates and White Sox, the Dodgers return home&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,356697,591,85],"class_list":["post-738772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-los-angeles-dodgers-discussion","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}