Angel Martínez’s strong game shows how important he is to Guardians' postseason hopes

There’s no denying this has been an up and down season for Angel Martínez. 

After making his big league debut in a utility role last season, Martínez ended up serving as the Guardians’ main option in center field this year despite grading out as a negative defender there for most of the year. 

But he made the most of his first postseason chance on Tuesday by nabbing every ball hit his way while also helping generate Cleveland’s lone run in their 2-1 loss to the Tigers in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series.

While none of the balls hit Martínez’s way were exceptionally tough, he did a great job handling them on a sunny day where it was difficult to track balls.

Angel Martínez’s skillset was made for the postseason

Martínez also went 1-for-3 at the plate while hitting in the No. 2 spot in the lineup and saw 18 pitches in his three at-bats against Tarik Skubal. His hit — a 48.6 mile per hour chopper that dribbled down the third base line — was one of the two the Guardians tallied against Skubal. 

Martínez advanced to second base on a walk before coming around to score on Gabriel Arias’ Baltimore chopper that Skubal fielded behind the mound with his back to home plate. 

After fielding the ball, Skubal fired a throw toward home, but Martínez was able to slide around catcher Dillon Dingler’s tag. He reached a sprint speed of 29.5 ft/sec on the play, which is the fastest he’s ran on any play in his career. 

While Martínez’s defensive deficiencies may end up rearing their head at some point during this series, he passed his first test in Tuesday’s series opener. 

The biggest problem is that the rest of the Guardians’ lineup wasn’t able to produce. Martínez, Arias and Kyle Manzardo had Cleveland’s only hits, and Detroit ended up taking the lead in the seventh inning thanks to traffic generated by a misplay at first by Jhonkensy Noel. 

Martínez may not finish many games this postseason thanks to those defensive deficiencies, but he should be a lineup mainstay thanks to his speed and ability to switch-hit (even if he’s much better as a right-handed hitter). 

And, as Tuesday proved, the Guardians’ lineup needs as much help as it can get. The Guardians finished 29th in OPS in the regular season and won plenty of games down the stretch by getting *just* enough out of their offense.

 And while that’s fine and dandy when you’re facing off against the lowly Texas Rangers at the end of the year, playoff Tarik Skubal is a different breed. In total, Skubal allowed just one run in 7 2/3 innings with 14 strikeouts to help give the Tigers a 1-0 lead in the series.

Now Martínez and the Guardians are staring down the barrel of a must-win game where they’ll go against Tigers starter Casey Mize.