If Ike Davis needs a patron saint, someone to remind him that a season can be salvaged even at this late date, then we offer up Russell Martin.
Less than a month ago — May 17 to be exact — Martin was sitting on the same .167 average Davis holds today. A threat of a minor league demotion was not looming for Martin. But this is his walk year and the cha-ching of the cash register was growing fainter and fainter with each feeble at-bat.
“It does affect your whole attitude,” Martin said of prolonged struggles. “The game just is not fun.”
Martin, though, made a subtle change that has brought happiness to his game — and to the Yankees. He noticed he was getting jammed like crazy. To try to counteract that strategy, Martin was opening up quickly, reducing himself to a Little Leaguer stepping in the bucket. That eliminated any chance to drive the ball to the opposite field and, in particular, capitalize on the short porch at Yankee Stadium.
So he shut off the spigot of advice that comes to any struggling player and determined on his own to back a few inches off the plate. That minute alteration has enabled him to keep his bat in the strike zone longer and, thus, power the ball to right. The results have been fantastic, never more so than yesterday when Martin proclaimed, “I can’t picture a better script for me.”
In the finale of this Subway Series, Martin stirred what was again a clutch-challenged Yankees offense. Following a David Wright two-out error in the seventh, Martin produced the Yankees’ first two runs with the ultimate Yankee Stadium homer, not just a drive to the short field in right, but literally off the top of the wall and over. That two-run liner off Jonathon Niese reduced the Mets’ lead to 3-2.
And then after the Mets tied it 4-4 in the ninth — on an RBI double by the suddenly-showing-a-pulse Davis — Martin was thinking right field again to lead off the bottom of the inning. But something else was in the back of his mind. Jon Rauch had induced Martin to ground out with a first-pitch slider Friday.
Rauch threw six pitches to Martin yesterday, five were sliders, including the last one. Martin, cognizant of the slider, nevertheless remained determined he would drive a fastball to right if he saw one. Thus, his bat was sped up to pull the off-speed pitch about six rows deep and 20 feet inside the left-field foul pole. The Yankees’ first walk-off homer since Nick Swisher did so against the Orioles on Sept. 8, 2010, provided a 5-4 triumph and a sweep of the Mets.
“I am starting to feel dangerous at the plate,” Martin said. “I have confidence. I was lost at the beginning of the season, but I am back.”
Martin said this while wearing a Ron Burgundy T-shirt and for the first six weeks of this season he looked as clueless as Will Ferrell’s “Anchorman.” Through his first 33 games, he had that .167 average, .614 OPS, three homers and nine RBIs. But in his last 17 games, Martin is hitting .308 with a 1.092 OPS, five homers and 11 RBIs.
His overall batting average remains just .216. But his .780 OPS is better than his career .756. Combined with his fine defensive work, it gives Martin greater value now and as a free agent. Of course, following the ballplayer mantra, Martin in a private moment with The Post, insisted he was not “thinking about that stuff, and I am being totally honest. I am not worried, as long as I am wearing a uniform next year.”
The Yankees would certainly like to keep Martin in pinstripes. They offered him a three-year deal in the $24 million range that was rejected last offseason. That was after trading Jesus Montero and before Austin Romine suffered a back injury that has kept him out the whole season. But with plans to get the payroll under the luxury tax of $189 million for 2014, the Yankees probably will feel hard pressed to do much better than their previous proposal.
So they are in this interesting spot: The better Martin does, the more financially untenable he becomes to retain. But as the ultimate win-now club, the Yankees desperately want Martin to excel — and will figure out the finances and the future catching situation later.
In other words, the Yanks want the Russell Martin who is feeling dangerous a lot more than the one who was imitating Ike Davis.
joel.sherman@nypost.com