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Martinez having rare October struggles Posted: Thursday October 10, 2002 11:49 PMUpdated: Friday October 11, 2002 12:42 AM
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Tino Martinez's history as a star in October was a big reason the St. Louis Cardinals signed him to replace Mark McGwire. They're still waiting for Martinez's first big hit in this postseason. The San Francisco Giants beat St. Louis 4-1 on Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series. Martinez stranded five runners in a 9-6 loss Wednesday night, leaving the bases loaded in the first inning. He was a quiet 0-for-3 with a walk in Game 2. That makes Martinez, who had 100 RBIs six of his past seven seasons with the New York Yankees, a feeble 1-for-18 in the playoffs. The lone hit from Martinez, making his eighth appearance in the postseason, was a single Wednesday ahead of Miguel Cairo's two-run homer in the sixth inning. Fans chanted "Let's go Tino! Let's go Tino!" before he walked in the seventh inning of Game 2. But they also booed him after he flied out in the ninth, and he heard boos in Game 1 as well. "I'm not mad about it, but it's surprising," Martinez said. "It's October and we're out there busting our butts and we've had a long year. But I'm just going to keep doing what I do and play hard and try to help the team win." Martinez said he's learned from experience not to let failure linger. He batted .188 in the 1996 postseason with no RBIs because, he said, he allowed the outs to snowball. "I couldn't get anything going and I let it carry over from one series to another," Martinez said. "I knew I swung the bat well in the Arizona series and didn't get any hits, but I just put it behind me from day to day now and game to game." Fernando Vina, who batted .600 in the Cardinals' division series sweep of the Diamondbacks with nine hits in 15 at-bats, also has faltered in the second round. Vina is 1-for-9 in the NLCS and his shallow fly to center with runners on second and third and one out in the third inning was perhaps the turning point in Game 2, ending in a double play. Third base coach Jose Oquendo sent J.D. Drew from third and Kenny Lofton threw him out at the plate to end the Cardinals' only real threat of the night. "I got a good jump but it was just one of those things," Drew said. "It was a real shallow fly ball, nothing you can do about it. "I'm listening to Oquendo the whole time and he said 'Let's go.'" Cardinals manager Tony La Russa had no problem with Oquendo sending Drew on the play. "We were all yelling, including myself, 'Send him, send him!'" La Russa said. "The way Schmidt is pitching, you have a chance to make a dent and tie the game. "You had a great runner and he had to make a perfect throw." Last year, Martinez gave Yankees fans a magical moment with a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth inning off Arizona's Byung-Hyun Kim that tied a World Series game the Yankees wound up winning. In 2000 he led the Yankees with a .364 average in the postseason and in 1999 he tied Bernie Williams for the team lead with eight playoff RBIs. In the 1998 World Series, Martinez hit a grand slam off the Padres' Mark Langston to cap a seven-run seventh in the Yankees' Game 1 victory. The crowd has been chanting for Martinez all season, hoping at some point that he'll get going. He batted .200 in April with only nine RBIs and didn't hit his first homer until May 1. Martinez finished with acceptable numbers, 21 homers and 75 RBIs, but they were a big letdown from 2001 when he had 34 homers and 113 RBIs for the Yankees. He closed with a rush, hitting six homers and driving in 14 runs in his last 20 games, to give the team hope he was finally about to turn it on. Vina compensated for a so-so .270 regular-season average in the division series, but in the NLCS it has been a different story. He was hitless in his first eight at-bats before a two-out single in the eighth. "It's pressure, you know what you need to do," Vina said. "I just prepare myself the way I know how and let the chips fall where they may." Vina was far from alone in struggling against Giants starter Jason Schmidt, who held the Cardinals in check until pinch-hitter Eduardo Perez homered with two outs in the eighth. "I never give credit to the pitchers, ever," Martinez said. "But tonight he pitched a great game. He had all his stuff working and threw whatever pitch he wanted at any time." Of the Cardinals' four hits against Schmidt, two were infield
singles. The right-hander even contained Cairo, who entered 7-for-8
in the postseason. Cairo was hitless in three at-bats against
Schmidt and finished 0-for-4.
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