Loons' Martinez strikes out career-high 11

Beginning his second tour through the Midwest League, Jonathan Martinez looked like a seasoned veteran.

The 19-year-old Dodgers prospect recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts over six innings Thursday night as Class A Great Lakes opened the season with a 9-0 whitewash of Fort Wayne at Parkview Field.

Martinez (1-0) established season highs with five and six strikeouts, respectively, in his final two starts for the Loons last year. He continued trending upward in that category on Opening Night, notching multiple strikeouts in four separate innings and fanning the side in the third.

"He did a great job establishing his fastball early, mixing in and out, and controlled at-bats that way," Loons pitching coach Bill Simas said.

Martinez allowed two hits without walking a batter and was economical throughout, finishing one strikeout shy of matching the single-game franchise mark. Working under a limit of five innings or 85 pitches, the Venezuela native needed only 75 to finish six frames, thanks to his ability to work ahead in the count.

"He's a strike-thrower," Simas said, "and he likes to use his fastball. He gets early-count outs, and tonight he ended at-bats pretty quickly just getting ahead in counts and staying aggressive. If he didn't end it with a fastball, he was able to throw some breaking balls and bury them and get some strikeouts that way.

"I don't know the number [of first-pitch strikes] off the top of my head, but it was high 20s out of 31 or 32 batters. We've stressed that since Spring Training and it's definitely, from my point of view, a good way to start for the team, as far as him having his strike zone, getting ahead early and being able to finish at-bats."

After matching his previous career high of nine strikeouts, set over five hitless innings for the Rookie-level Arizona League Dodgers on July 24, 2012, Martinez finished the night in style by fanning the final two TinCaps he faced.

"It's kind of what we expected from him," Simas said. He's been in this league last year. He's only 19 years old, but he's pretty mature and has good poise. It really didn't affect him in the moment. It's the first game and all that, but he went out there and did what he normally does."

Great Lakes built a sizable early lead, thanks to a four-run third inning. Four Loons collected multiple hits on the night, led by first baseman Justin Chigbogu, who homered, tripled, drove in two runs and scored twice. It was the Loons' first Opening Day win since 2010.

The TinCaps mustered just one hit after Martinez exited as Francisco Villa fanned three over two innings and Mark Pope struck out two in the ninth.

Fort Wayne starter Walker Weickel (0-1), the Padres' No. 13 prospect, was reached for five runs on five hits over three innings.

Tyler Maun is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @TylerMaun.