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Look back at: Divisional Playoffs |
League Championship
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Monday, October 23
Martinez's first-inning single gets it going
By David Kull
ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- In the realm of unexplainable behavior, Mike Hampton's sudden loss of control in the first inning ranks well below Roger Clemens' bizarre broken-bat toss in the vicinity of Mike Piazza and the Yankees' ninth-inning bullpen implosion.
|  | | Tino Martinez continued his hot hitting in the playoffs by collecting three hits in Game 2. |
But while one incident nearly incited a bench-clearing brawl only 10 minutes into Sunday's Game 2 and another tightened an otherwise tensionless game, Hampton's meltdown had more damaging results for the Mets, courtesy of Tino Martinez.
Facing Hampton after consecutive four-pitch walks to David Justice and Bernie Williams, Martinez lined a single to left field to score the Yankees' first run and send them on their way toward a 6-5 victory and a 2-0 World Series lead.
Only minutes after the much-hyped Piazza-Clemens subplot nearly assumed the ugliness of a Tyson fight, Hampton went to work against the Yankees in the bottom of the first inning. He retired Chuck Knoblauch on a liner to center field and struck out Derek Jeter on a 2-2 pitch.
No problems, right? But then Hampton, unlike Clemens, demonstrated how a pitcher normally gets a little wild. The Mets' starter threw eight straight balls to Justice and Williams to bring up Martinez.
Hampton started Martinez with a ninth straight ball, prompting a visit from pitching coach Dave Wallace. Once Wallace retreated to the dugout, Hampton recaptured his control for a moment, getting ahead of Martinez with two straight strikes.
The 1-2 pitch was a fastball over the outer half of the plate, and Martinez, going with the pitch, drove it the opposite way into left for the Yankees' first run. After Clemens settled down and began throwing dominant pitches instead of broken bats, Martinez's single helped give the Yankees an early cushion.
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Sun., Oct. 22
Joe Torre thinks Tino Martinez got too home run conscious early in the year and got himself into a slump and his front shoulder was flying out. But when he hits the ball to center and left, that's when he is most potent.
After he hit the big home run to center field against Seattle, he knows he has to stay on the ball now. He has hit some tough pitches in this Series -- pitches down and away. And he's swinging as well as we've seen in a while.
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The comfort level nearly escaped them in the ninth inning, when Jeff Nelson and Mariano Rivera, two pillars of postseason dominance, gave up five runs on a Piazza two-run homer and Jay Payton's three-run blast to right field.
But no worries -- Martinez had already made the Mets' five runs inconsequential in the ninth inning. His RBI single off Dennis Cook, Martinez's third hit of the game, provided the Yankees with a 6-0 lead going into the ninth, a blow soon to be known as the game-winning hit.
While not nearly as dramatic as Jose Vizcaino's RBI single in the 12th inning the night before, Martinez's contribution was more symbolic of the Yankees' sudden transformation back into championship mode. After the team's duller-than-usual regular season, no player has flipped the proverbial switch in the postseason more than Martinez.
While the once-steady first baseman endured the worst offensive season of any Yankee regular this side of Scott Brosius, hitting .258 with only 16 home runs, Martinez has been the Yankees' hottest postseason hitter. His three hits Sunday lifted his team-high playoff average to .382.
Hampton, meanwhile, failed to continue the mastery he displayed in the National League Championship Series, when he pitched 16 consecutive scoreless innings and was named the series MVP. Even after the two-run first inning, Hampton rarely located his pitches on a night when Clemens' performance left little margin for error.
Despite a solid 15-10 season, Hampton's losses often coincided with a loss of precision. Hampton, who was sixth in the National League with 99 walks, ended his shaky six-inning stint with a line that included five walks, eight hits, four runs and one hit batter. Only 65 of his 124 pitches were strikes.
Perhaps Hampton could blame his performance on the weather. The game-time temperature was 48 degrees and Hampton has had chilling results in games he has started when the temperature was under 50 degrees. The career numbers: a 6.27 ERA and 5.5 walks per nine innings on sub-50 degree days, compared to a 3.33 ERA and 3.4 walks per nine innings on games on 50+ days.
Facing the cold reality of a 2-0 deficit, Hampton and the Mets could use some of the heat from Clemens' arm and Martinez's bat -- as long as the bat's not broken.
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