TORONTO — Russell Martin is enjoying the most marvelously awful season, perhaps in Yankees history.
He has spent this year dabbling with both Mendoza and Mantle — .200 average and Yankees hero.
Martin doesn’t hit much, but boy when he does it tends to turn memorable. For example, the Yankees are the majors’ most homer-driven operation, in part because their home stadium is a long-ball mecca for lefties. Yet, the only two walk-off homers there this season have been by the righty-swinging Martin.
And Martin now has six homers in September, which ties Curtis Granderson for the team lead and are as many as Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez have together. No. 6, like the previous five this month, was huge, another push for both the Yankees’ playoff drive and Martin’s salary drive.
“I feel better now,” said Martin, who didn’t even get his average over .200 for good until Sept. 5. “I feel like I am helping the team to win.”
Don’t let the 11-4 final score fool you, Martin helped the Yankees win, helped keep the lead one game over the Orioles with five to play.
When Martin came to the plate with two on and two outs in the sixth, the score was close, the momentum heading in the wrong direction for the Yankees and the pressure, while not suffocating, also was not of the mid-May variety.
Nick Swisher had provided a 2-0 lead with a two-out two-run double in the first. The Yankees went hitless in their next seven at-bats with runners in scoring position. That began when Granderson followed Swisher with what off the bat appeared an RBI single up the middle. Toronto starter Chad Jenkins lifted his glove, the ball ripped into the web, popped the glove off Jenkins’ hand and the righty caught his glove for the out.
The play will be a stadium highlight staple for years. In this game, it merely triggered a run of familiar Yankees’ ineptitude in the clutch.
The Yankees loaded the bases with no outs in the second and got just Derek Jeter’s run-scoring double play. In the sixth, the Yankees put two on with no out before both Granderson and Raul Ibanez struck out.
The score was 3-1. Nevertheless, the need to expand that was overt. Hiroki Kuroda had given up just one run through five innings. But he was getting hammered, yielding eight hits, five for extra-bases. Kuroda was saved by baserunning gaffes from Brett Lawrie and Yunel Escobar and that Toronto was hitless in six at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Still, this was no night to trust a slim lead to Kuroda, who is beyond his career high in innings and showing the wear, raising concern. His next start is scheduled for Game 162, just another reason the Yankees need to wrap up matters before then, to avoid asking this version of Kuroda to win a must game on the last day and/or to give him extra rest for the postseason.
Blue Jays manager John Farrell saw the value of keeping it 3-1, replacing lefty Brett Cecil with righty Jason Frasor, who holds righties to a .223 average. Martin hits just .201 vs. righties. To further heighten the stress, the Orioles led the Red Sox 9-1. So the implications of blowing this game were clear — the AL East lead would be gone again.
Martin saw that score, just as he has had to stare at his average all season. But he has impressed his teammates by not surrendering and just writing the year off. As Alex Rodriguez said, “What has been most important is that his attitude never wavered. He has kept going around saying, ‘It is my turn to get big hits, the odds are in my favor.’ He has been competing his heart out. He’s never stopped trying.”
Martin went from 1-2 to a full count and remembered Frasor had opened the at-bat with a slider. He suspected the same pitch here to get him to chase. So Martin counseled himself to be patient, trust his hands. He is from Ontario and had a dozen friends/family in the crowd “that I wanted to make proud.” He did, smacking his career-high 20th homer. The Yankees had an exhale moment, edgy 3-1 becoming a comfortable 6-1.
For Martin, excelling in what has amounted to playoff-type games this month will enable him to add clutch to a free-agent resume that already included durability and athleticism, plus power and patience as a hitter.
His average still remains just .212. Fitting for Martin’s season, it is possibly the biggest little average in Yankees history.