On a day when the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw won his 20th game and may well have claimed, unofficially, the National League Most Valuable Player award, Russell Martin smacked a three-run homer and may well have claimed the same honor with the Pirates.
Purists will say Andrew McCutchen, who leads the team by a wide margin in almost every important offensive category, is the team MVP. Fans, who love his energy, passion, versatility and constant stream of big plays, will say Josh Harrison has been the Pirates’ most important player.
But on a night when he almost personally pushed the Milwaukee Brewers into the abyss and kept the Pirates in hot pursuit of both St. Louis in the NL Central and San Francisco in the wildcard, it’s hard not to believe Martin -- by bat, by glove, by arm, by example -- is the team MVP.
No disrespect intended for McCutchen and Harrison, both extremely important to the Pirates’ success. But, really, this isn’t close. Not only is Martin vastly superior defensively to Harrison and McCutchen, he is so at the most important position on the field. At the same time, he’s putting forth offensive production that is, at least, close behind his two teammates.
The Pirates were trailing by two in the eighth with one out when Martin came to bat with Starling Marte and pinch-runner Chase d'Arnaud on base and drove a Jonathan Broxton pitch into the right-center field stands to lead a rally to a 4-2 win.
Jeff Locke pitched a superb seven innings, John Holdzkom, the phenom, worked the eighth to get the win and Mark Melancon pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, eight pitches, for his 31st save as a packed PNC Park watched in admiration and adulation.
The loss was another slash to the heart of the Brewers, who trail the Pirates by 4 1/2 games both in the Central Division and the wildcard standings. All things are possible, but such a deficit with eight games remaining for them is close to impossible to overcome. The Brewers, once seemingly the clear class of the division, are done.
The Pirates, second in the division and the wildcard, need only look forward to St. Louis and San Francisco.
• The Cardinals, with a 2 1/2 game lead, are catchable but, based on their schedule, not easily. They have two with the Reds and three with the Cubs and Diamondbacks, which makes them a solid favorite to win the division.
• The same can’t be said for the status of the Giants, whose remaining schedule is two with San Diego, three with the Dodgers and four more with San Diego. The Dodgers will be playing for the division and for seeding. The Giants can be caught, which would put the wildcard game at PNC Park on Oct. 1.
Martin has 123 fewer at bats than Harrison and 168 fewer than McCutchen, which means he can’t begin to match them in most power statistics. But he does lead not only the Pirates but the National League in on-base percentage and he’s tops on his team in RBIs per at bat. Of particular significance, he is the team’s best clutch hitter. Consider these batting lines with runners in scoring position:
Martin: .380/.496/.533/1.029
Harrison: .365/.398/.494/.892
McCutchen: .294/.423/.437/.860
The Pirates, unlike the Steelers, don’t pick a team MVP, which means this is an argument with no clear-cut answer. But based on his importance to the pitching staff, his ability to shut down the running game -- he’s throwing out runners at a 40 percent rate -- his league-leading on-base percentage and his outrageously high clutch numbers, it’s hard to argue against Martin.
First Published: September 20, 2014, 9:30 a.m.
