Martinez Snaps Out of Slump : Terrell and Davis Provide Pitching as Padres Beat Braves

ATLANTA —  Carmelo Martinez had decided, that’s it , he didn’t want to look at himself or his swing anymore. He was hitting .125, which was worse than Monday night’s Padre starting pitcher Walt Terrell (.167). He was in a one-for-28 slump which was worse than, well, let’s be serious for a minute. If Ronald McDonald gets rid of the big shoes, even he could squeeze in one hit in 28 tries.

Martinez arrived at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium Monday afternoon, stepped inside the clubhouse and decided, there was only one way to face this, and that was not to face it. He decided, he wasn’t coming out of that clubhouse until game time. He wasn’t taking batting practice. He wasn’t taking fielding practice. He might make it outside in time for the national anthem. Maybe.

“I asked Amos (Otis, hitting coach) and he said fine; then I told Sandy (Alomar, third base coach) that if Jack McKeon asked about me, tell him where I was,” Martinez said late Monday in that same clubhouse. “And then I just stayed here and thought about nothing. I relax. I take all those bad things out of my mind.

“Then about 20 minutes before the game, I finally go outside.”

Talk about your dramatic entrances.

Against Atlanta Braves rookie starter Derek Lilliquist, Martinez singled and started a two-run rally in the second inning. He singled and scored in the third inning. Then in the eighth inning off reliever Jose Alvarez, who had a streak of 25 2/3 scoreless innings dating back to last season, he smashed a homer to left to finish off the Braves en route to a 5-2 Padre victory.

Martinez is now hitting .167 while Terrell, who went zero for three, fell to .111.

“Tell you what,” said Tony Gwynn, who went zero for four. “Tomorrow night before the game, I ‘ m staying inside. I’m serious.”

He was talking about tonight, in Pittsburgh, where this road show continues, now on a bright note after Monday’s victory broke a two-game losing streak and earned the Pardes a split of their four-game series here. While they are just 4-6 at home, the Padres are now 4-3 on this trip and 6-4 overall on the road, which is no big deal except when you consider last season, they did not win their sixth road game until June 17.

“Really?” Randy Ready asked. “That’s unbelievable.”

Speaking of which, even John Kruk had a base hit Monday night, scoring the game’s final run in the ninth inning after entering the game in the eighth. For Kruk, who is actually slumping worse than Martinez, it was just his fifth hit of the year, improving his average to .147. So, you breaking out of it, Johnny?

“Breaking out of what?” Kruk asked. “I’m not in anything. And I ain’t getting in anything this year. I was in enough stuff--like trouble--last year.”

Kruk did admit that he had lost seven pounds in a couple of weeks, since realizing that the added weight (the 5-foot-10 outfielder was up around 210 pounds) was hurting his swing. But enough about physics.

Monday was a night for the mind: Martinez relaxed his, and Padre pitchers Terrell and Mark Davis continued to confound the minds of opponents. Backing Martinez up was Terrell, who allowed two runs in seven innings to improve his record to 2-2 and lower his ERA to 2.96, best among Padre starters. Then there was Davis. And just when you thought there would finally be a story about a Padre victory that did not include his name. The Padres’ last five victories before Monday all came thanks to Davis saves, and so now the number is six, as he pitched two shutout innings Monday in gaining his major league-leading ninth save in nine appearances.

But more than anybody Monday, there was the ever-happy Martinez, who afterward, for the first time this season, was laughing as if he meant it.

“I told myself, it can’t get any worse,” Martinez said. “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow or the next day, but I just know, it can get no worse. Knowing that, it helps me.”

Martinez’s first-inning single started a rally in which one run scored on a throwing error by second baseman Jeff Treadway and another run was knocked in on a single by Ready, who played well defensively and had two hits to improve his average to .357 and ensure himself a spot at third base for at least another game.

Padre Notes

The Padre minor league department made two notable transactions in the 10 days, it was announced Monday. They traded outfielder Randell Byers, the hottest hitter at triple-A Las Vegas, to the St. Louis Cardinals organization for a pitcher who is spending his third year at Class A, Jeremy Hernandez. Byers, who was on the Padres’ roster this winter and has appeared with the big league club at the end of each of the last two seasons with a .269 composite average, has been known as a good-hit, no-field prospect. But what a hitter he has been this season, leading Las Vegas after 16 games with a .344 average and three homers and 13 RBIs. Hernandez, on the other hand, was 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA in three starts for the Cardinals’ Class-A team in St. Petersburg. Last year Hernandez was 12-6 with a 3.54 ERA for the Cardinals’ lower Class A club in Springfield, Ill., last year. While the Cardinals are sending Byers to triple-A Louisville, the Padres will put Hernandez at Class-A Charleston. The other transaction was the signing of former Atlanta shortstop Paul Runge, who was released in spring training and turned down a coaching job at the Braves’ double-A team at Greenville, S.C. Runge, 30, signed to play for Las Vegas, has a .232 career big league average in 183 games over a span of eight years, with the rest of the time being spent in the minor leagues.