USA TODAY International Edition
Martinez copes without friend
Cardinals pitcher who grew up with Taveras uses loss to better self
Carlos Martinez no longer burdens his mind with constant thoughts of Oscar Taveras’ untimely death. Instead, the St. Louis Cardinals right- handed pitcher is putting into action the lessons learned from such a painful loss.
Martinez and Taveras formed a tight bond going back to their childhood in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, playing together in the minors and then joining forces on the Cardinals. The upand- coming stars, both in their early 20s, had outgoing, carefree personalities to match.
When Taveras, the Cardinals’ top prospect, perished along with his girlfriend in a car crash Oct. 26 — it was later learned Taveras was intoxicated and driving at high speeds on wet roads — the baseball world was stunned.
Martinez was devastated, expressing his grief in tweets that wondered why his “brother” had been taken away.
St. Louis shortstop Jhonny Peralta, who lives an hour away from Puerto Plata in Santiago, was worried enough about the impact on Martinez to visit his young teammate a few times during the offseason.
“He and Oscar were very close, like brothers, and I know he was lonely,” Peralta told USA TODAY in Spanish. “I also wanted to give him some advice on how to take care of himself on the streets. You need to know where you’re going and have your eyes wide open. You need to know who you’re with and at what time to go out.”
The pitcher known as Tsunami says the message hasn’t been lost on him, and those around him say he has settled down and gotten more serious about his career. The results on the field seem to confirm that.
Martinez, 23, has helped the first- place Cardinals overcome
the absence of staff ace Adam Wainwright, out since April 26 with a torn Achilles tendon, by establishing himself as an AllStar- caliber starter in his first full season in the rotation.
Martinez takes a 13- 6 record with a 2.91 ERA into the homestretch of a season in which he’s leading the Cardinals in strikeouts and ranking second in wins, all while throwing 1542⁄ innings — 50 more than he has logged in any professional season.
Perhaps with an eye toward that innings total and the Cardinals’ all- but- clinched postseason appearance, Martinez will skip his scheduled start Tuesday, officially to rest his back.
That he has carried such a significant load for the Cardinals comes as little surprise to those who watched Martinez surge to the top of the Cardinals’ pitching-prospect rankings in recent years, then saw him show flashes of brilliance — averaging nearly a strikeout an inning — while shuttling between the rotation and bullpen the last two seasons.
What’s noteworthy is the role Taveras’ death had in Martinez’s emergence.
“It has helped me mature, get closer to my family, be more careful on the streets, work more with the team, focus more on baseball,” said Martinez, who switched uniform numbers from 44 to Taveras’ old 18 this season to honor his friend. “It has helped me grow up a lot.”
Some of that is reflected in Martinez’s on- field demeanor. Often demonstrative and at times defiant on the mound, Martinez has been receptive to advice from coaches and fellow pitchers Jaime Garcia and Carlos Villanueva that he tone down his act.
The exuberant gestures, they told him, serve little purpose other than to motivate opponents. Better to keep the emotions under control and not betray what’s bubbling inside. It’s a fine line, though, because that little- guy fire — Martinez is listed as 6 feet, 185 pounds but appears smaller — is part of what makes him successful.
And Martinez has lost none of the abundant confidence that helped earn the nickname he has tattooed under his right arm. It was bestowed on him by members of the Milwaukee Brewers entry in the Dominican Summer League. “Whenever I pitched against them, the players on the Milwaukee team would say, ‘ Here comes the tsunami. He’s going to sweep over everybody,’ ” Martinez said. “So it stuck.”
Chicago Cubs catcher Miguel Montero said he appreciated Martinez’s feistiness even as he was giving up seven runs in 32⁄ innings in a game May 4. A little less than two months later, Martinez shut down the Cubs on two hits and a run over six innings in a 4- 1 Cardinals win.
“You can tell he’s a gamer, a competitor,” Montero said. “Even the day we scored all those runs against him, he wanted to stay in the game. You respect that. He has a lot of passion for the game. He lives it. I enjoy watching him pitch because of that.”
The other aspect of Martinez’s game that has grown is his repertoire. Once mostly dependent on a four- seam fastball that crackled at close to triple digits on the radar gun, he now mixes more sliders and curves.
In addition, his changeup has gained a downward motion after he adopted a different grip suggested to him by countryman Pedro Martinez, to whom he often is compared. Carlos Martinez also will change the release point on his sinker at times, from over the top to three- quarters, to gain more movement.
Manager Mike Matheny sees room for growth in Martinez but also noted the remarkable strides he has made. “He’s gone through his minor league career being a hard thrower,” Matheny said. “Now he’s making that evolution into understanding how to use his other pitches and not be predictable. Being able to have wipeout stuff with the changeup, the breaking ball and the fastball, all those really point in a positive direction.
“We’re talking about having in the tank 99 to 100 mph, too, and able to throw that throughout 100 pitches. It’s a great mix.”
The next step for Martinez is to prove he can sustain excellence for a whole season — and this year, as a key member of the National League’s best team. Marti- nez earned an All- Star Game nod through the final ballot entry by going 10- 3 with a 2.52 ERA in the first half. He’s 3- 3 with a 3.80 ERA since.
Upon learning he made the All- Star team, Martinez tweeted a photo of himself and Taveras saying they were going to Cincinnati, site of the festivities, as a way of sharing the joy without dwelling on his death.
“I try to just keep him in my heart, not to think about it too much,” Martinez said. “Things happened because they were meant to.”