Finally, after 10 tries, the Padres got J.D. Martinez out.
They finally got him out in the ninth inning of the last game of this series, when Martinez swung through Jeremiah Estrada’s 2-2 splitter, a sensation Martinez last experienced in the sixth inning of Friday’s series opener.
Since then, he had walked five times, hit two home runs, doubled and singled twice.
That’s 10 straight times getting on base, if you’re counting, 10 times over which the 36-year-old Martinez planted himself smack in the middle of this Mets’ unlikely renaissance.
By the time the Padres got him out, Martinez had tied himself for the second-longest such streak in Mets history with Robinson Cano and extended an on-base streak to 20 games, the best for any Met since Mark Canha in 2022.
“He was just so locked,” Pete Alonso said. “The entire series and homestand, what he was able to do is really special. He was not just driving pitches, but it’s the pitches that he doesn’t swing at and the pitches that were just tough pitcher’s pitches that he just takes that are balls. Drives the ball to the big part of the field.
“It was a clinic he put on this homestand.”
When Estrada snapped his streak late in Sunday’s game, Martinez had already accounted for a run scored and an RBI double in this eventual 11-6 victory to seal a sweep over San Diego.
He had already done all the damage he needed to do — comparatively little on this afternoon when the Mets’ superstars all had their bats going — and brought his batting average over the past seven games to a clean .400.
“To get on base 10 times in a row, and the way he was getting on base — he wasn’t getting any cheap hits,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He’s driving the ball and then he’s laying off some tough pitches. He’s walking, he’s getting on base, passing on tough pitches and that’s what good hitters do. Impressive, but that’s how special he is. To see him get hot like that, he can carry a team.”
He has helped carry the Mets all the way back into the edge of the playoff race, something that looked improbable a few weeks ago when they were merely counting down to the trade deadline when Martinez would inevitably be among the players shipped off.
Whether or not Martinez ends up being a Met for longer than a few months isn’t clear at this point.
But it’s certainly hard to see them sticking around in the playoff race without him.
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