Davis Martin’s emergence for the White Sox has freed up Jimmy Lambert for a new role

HOUSTON — What’s the first thing you’ve noticed about Davis Martin’s surprising call-up and hot start as a White Sox rookie?

Is it his relative composure despite entering the year with the belief that, “God willing, if we’re in Charlotte by the end of the year, it’s a good season for me”? Is it that someone who was entirely off the prospect radar at the open of the year is throwing mid-90s with three viable off-speed pitches, en route to a 3.05 ERA in 20 2/3 major-league innings? Or is that before every pitch, he very markedly bends over, sticks his butt out toward the first-base side and keeps it there as he slowly lifts his torso back up, like an open door slowly swinging back closed, as if on a hinge?

“Hinge” is Martin’s word for it. He wants to transfer the weight and pressure into his leg muscles before he drives toward the mound. The bend, the forming of his body into a hinge, is so he feels it before every pitch, which all come out of a stretch delivery. As Martin would readily point out, he spent most of last season at High-A Winston-Salem and struggled for much of his time there. His hinge, and the consistency, is new.

“There was just a big gap and a hole in my leg drive, basically the hip hinge was nonexistent,” Martin said. “In spring training, I went into the biomechanics lab, I think we made some breakthroughs with just the mechanics and being able to repeat a little bit. That was kind of like the ‘click.’ Once we found out those mechanics, we just had to basically repeat mechanics more often. And so adjustments with pitches in-game were a lot easier than they were prior years.”

Consistent mechanics, and thus consistent performance, is how the 25-year-old Martin would describe his improvement this season. He wouldn’t say he’s seen a velocity jump per se, because he had hit 97 mph before, but he also had days last year when his delivery was out of whack and he was figuring out how to work with velocity as low as 86 mph. His slider had shown flashes before, but what is new is the ability to throw that slider for strikes so consistently that he threw it more often than his fastball while holding the Rangers to two solo home runs in five innings last week — working it like a boxer throws a jab, by his own description.

Some of that is a product of spending the offseason working with former major-league pitcher Scott Bankhead in North Carolina, where Martin simulated throwing all his off-speed pitches for strikes in different counts. But it’s all a level of self-analysis Martin had never undergone before entering the team’s biomechanics lab; certainly not in college, where he fell to the 14th round of the MLB Draft coming out of Texas Tech.

“I’m able to throw the bad one and am able to fix it the next one, instead of throw four or five, six, seven bad ones before you can really say, ‘OK, I figured it out now,’” Martin said. “I just think those in-game adjustments on the fly happen a lot quicker than they used to, just with the simplicity of the mechanics.”

With Lance Lynn back, Johnny Cueto providing a midseason injection of steady innings and Michael Kopech seemingly avoiding a major injury after a scare this week, the White Sox’s five-man rotation is seemingly set for now, without Martin in it. He has shown absolutely no issue in pitching behind an opener (“It’s just baseball,” he reasons), and his express purpose in being on the roster at the moment is backing up Kopech if anything goes wrong with the right-hander’s right knee Sunday. For now, Martin will try to learn from Kopech while he’s here.

“I asked him, ‘What do you think about on the mound?’” Martin said. “He goes, ‘I try to be pitch-to-pitch,’ And this year, I thought I was revolutionizing by being batter-to-batter. So I realized, ‘OK, there’s one more step that we need to take.’”

Someone feeling the impact of Martin beyond this weekend figures to be Jimmy Lambert, who previously had been the sixth starter of choice but has not been built up to log heavy innings due to elbow soreness shutting him down for multiple weeks early in the season. With Martin’s emergence, coupled with Liam Hendriks and Aaron Bummer landing on the injured list, manager Tony La Russa has used Lambert as a multi-inning reliever in his last two outings. La Russa was rewarded with 4 2/3 innings of scoreless work with four strikeouts from Lambert, and the manager intends to use him in a similar role again.

“He’s actually making pitches with three or four pitches,” La Russa said. “Take this at this stage, he reminds me of (Adam) Wainwright in ’06. He goes out there with three or four pitches, very competitive. The key now is: He pitches an inning, give him a couple days. (He) pitches a couple innings, give him three days. Just don’t hurt him.”

Lambert, with a slider, changeup and a 12-6 curveball, has a starter’s arsenal and would still like to be a starter long term. But he is also 27 and views himself as a big leaguer ready to help the major-league roster first and foremost, so he’s very willing to see the benefits of this new role, even with some adjustments to his physical routine.

“It’s been something that I’ve been wanting to do for years, not necessarily being in the bullpen, but just helping the team win,” said Lambert. “I’ve been optioned 20 times in my career now. Every time you go down, you don’t really know if you’re going to come back. And so every time I’ve come back, I haven’t taken it for granted. Every time I’ve gotten to take the ball, I haven’t taken it for granted to be in a big spot.”

The big spot Lambert is specifically referencing is striking out Corey Seager with a high heater last weekend to keep a game tied heading to the bottom of the eighth in an eventual White Sox loss.

Lambert has previously hit the 94-97 mph range with his fastball when healthy while starting in the minors, but he acknowledged that velocity might come more consistently or even increase when working out of the bullpen. As a reliever, there is no pacing himself, nor slowly unspooling his full arsenal through multiple trips through the order. Lambert threw more changeups than any other pitch his last time out, and is throwing his heater just around 40 percent of the time since being recalled.

Some of that is just throwing his best stuff out of the gate, and some of that is he’s rolling and setting himself up well for a kitchen sink approach in the late innings.

“When I’m ahead in the count or in a really advantageous position with a hitter, I can really mix it up,” Lambert said. “I don’t think I’m necessarily pitching any different than I would as a starter. I think I’ve been executing pitches pretty well the last couple of times out there. And when I’m doing that, I’m able to throw all four (pitches). That’s the kind of pitcher I am. I’m gonna mix it up. I don’t throw 100 mph.”

(Photo of Davis Martin: Jonathan Dyer / USA Today)