Rangers mulling third start for Martinez with Griffin close

The Rangers will wait to determine who will start Wednesday’s game in Houston. Right-hander A.J. Griffin threw 37 pitches in a rehab outing for Triple A Round Rock Friday night and feels ready to return from a bout of gout in his left ankle.

But the Rangers have liked how Nick Martinez has pitched in his two outings while Griffin is on the disabled list. He’s allowed four earned runs on nine hits in 13 innings.

Manager Jeff Banister said he won’t make much of Griffin’s struggles in 1 1/3 innings in Memphis in which he allowed four earned runs on five hits.

“They’re no indicators of what a guy is going to do when he steps back out on a major league field,” Banister said.

Griffin said his ankle feels fine. He attributed the rough outing to a lack of control which kept him behind batters and forcing him to throw mostly fastballs. He was scheduled to throw two innings or 35 pitches, Banister said.

“I didn’t have time to throw any other stuff because I wasn’t throwing strikes too much, I wasn’t getting ahead. And when I did throw strike they hit it first pitch,” he said.

Martinez might’ve have thrown well in his place, but Griffin’s last two starts were very good, too, including six scoreless innings in Oakland on April 17.

“The easy thing would be to say, yeah, Nick threw the ball well [let’s use him again],” Banister said. “Tough part of evaluating rehab stints is they’re rehab stints.

This story was originally published April 29, 2017 at 6:09 PM with the headline "Rangers mulling third start for Martinez with Griffin close."