Martinez Zipping Along in Fast Lane of Road Back
“Here, you look at this,†says Mike Brito, laying down his radar gun behind home plate, pulling a small pile of papers from inside his game program.
The white pages are filled with scribbled names and abbreviations, but he didn’t want you to look at those.
“The numbers,†he says. “Look at the numbers.â€
Oh, the numbers.
87 . . . 94 . . . 91 . . . 91 . . . 91 . . . 84
Moments after the fastball jumped out of Ramon Martinez’s hand, the numbers jump off the old scout’s report.
90 . . . 94 . . . 90 . . . 90 . . . 94 . . . .91.
When estimating a pitcher’s location on the comeback road, you look first at the mph signs.
On a warm Saturday afternoon, for a pitcher recovering from a torn shoulder, those numbers were in the 90s.
The fastest man on one of baseball’s fastest teams was the one who just stood there.
The tallest was the most elusive.
The skinniest was the strongest.
In an 11-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners, the walking contradiction that is Ramon Martinez presented six innings’ worth of unassailable fact.
He’s back.
“Throwing harder than before,†Mariner Jay Buhner said.
“Threw really hard,†Mariner Paul Sorrento said.
“Hmmmm,†Mariner Ken Griffey Jr. said.
That is what you say after you are baseball’s best player, yet you have just been retired three times by a guy who is supposed to have a questionable arm, three times without once getting the ball out of the infield.
In the first inning Martinez struck out Junior on three pitches, the third an 89-mph, chest-high fastball at which Griffey wildly swung and missed.
In the third, Martinez again struck out Junior on three pitches, this time finishing with an 88-mph fastball in the same spot, Junior with the same blind swing.
In the sixth, Griffey finally put the ball in play, but barely, chopping at a 91-mph inside fastball and knocking it to first base.
Martinez was finished moments later, having given up only one run and three hits, having thrown first-pitch strikes to 13 of 23 batters, fancy numbers for his second official start since coming off the disabled list.
“The story of the day,†Manager Bill Russell said.
If Martinez doesn’t wake up this morning too sore to brush his teeth, it could be the story of the year.
Enjoy this team’s new speed. Appreciate the improved defense. Savor dizzying rushes like the one felt by 53,638 screaming fans when Mike Piazza swatted a two-out, full-count pitch into the right-field seats.
But understand that the Dodgers cannot fulfill a World Series destiny without their toughest pitcher at his toughest.
What, somebody said World Series? Yep. It was Martinez. “We are playing like world champions,†he said. “I was around for a little bit in 1988. This is exactly the same attitude we had then.â€
It was his torn rotator cuff, suffered back in June, which first caused this team to squelch that talk.
He never said anything at the time, but he acknowledged Saturday that he wasn’t so sure he could recover without surgery.
“I was kind of scared,†he said. “But then we started to work.â€
That we would include team therapist Pat Screnar, who once saved Orel Hershiser’s career and is now on the verge of saving the Dodgers’ season.
Martinez did not balk at Screnar’s painful arm exercises. He did not despair at painfully awful innings in minor league parks.
He looked lousy in his first attempted comeback start in New York, but was saved by rain. He looked better but still unsettled in his first official start in Pittsburgh, giving up two runs in five innings.
By the time he took the mound Saturday in what the Dodgers figured could be an important postseason predictor, he decided enough was enough. “I tell myself, I don’t have any pain anymore,†he said. “I don’t feel anything.â€
That’s precisely how he pitched, and everyone who was wondering how he can do this with a torn shoulder, now nobody is wondering.
He apparently will just do it. Don’t ask, just watch. And count.
Working on a five-day rotation, Martinez can pitch the first game of next home stand against the Florida Marlins, and the last game of that home stand against the Atlanta Braves.
Two starts later, with a couple of extra days’ rest, he could pitch the first game of the last trip in Colorado. And then, well, that puts him on schedule for the opening game of the playoffs.
Which is where the Dodgers must have him, although late Saturday afternoon he had a more pressing appointment. A kid sent him a letter saying that he was having a birthday party, and that he would be sitting down by the bullpen, and would Martinez come visit his party?
“That’s where I’m going now,†Martinez said, smiling, heading for the field with an autographed ball.
A party indeed.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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