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MILWAUKEE — Against an opposing right-hander in Colin Rea, the most logical decision would have been to insert lefty-hitting Jesse Winker at designated hitter.
Carlos Mendoza, though, opted for résumé over baseball rationality.
Hours before the game, the Mets manager included a prediction in justifying J.D. Martinez’s presence in the order.
“We signed this guy in the offseason for games like this,” Mendoza said of the righty slugger. “He’s done it before. He’s been in a lot of meaningful games, and it’s about time for him to have a huge game.”
“Huge” might be a stretch, but a big game at least followed.
The Mets signed the designated hitter for afternoons like Sunday’s, when he went 2-for-5 with a double and scored a run in a 5-0 win over the Brewers at American Family Field that ensured the Mets would only need one victory in Atlanta on Monday to play October baseball.
The Mets snapped a three-game skid and Martinez snapped a miserable 0-for-36 stretch to finally awaken, the team hopes, before it was too late.
The 37-year-old had not recorded a hit in nearly three weeks, his OPS plunging from .771 on Sept. 9 to .721 entering play.
At times, he looked lost at the plate; at times, he was the victim of some bad luck.
That luck turned in the series finale.
After flying out to the warning track in the first inning, Martinez escaped his career-worst drought in the fourth.
Martinez sent a perfectly placed ground ball down the third-base line that trampolined off the base itself and over the head of third baseman Joey Ortiz, a hustling Martinez sliding safely into second base.
As he looked toward the dugout for the air-slap of a celebration, just about all of his teammates had erupted.
“You could feel the dugout and how the guys were top step, right there, right behind him,” Mendoza said of the respected, 14-year major leaguer. “He’s a good hitter. He’s an elite hitter. This is the time for him to step up, and he did it today.”
Martinez, who entered play with just three hits in 54 September plate appearances, added a hard-hit single into left in the ninth inning for another good sign from a hitter who told Mendoza this week that he believed he had made a breakthrough with his swing.
Martinez good-naturedly declined to speak about his slump and its potential end after his first multi-hit game since Aug. 30.
When his bat has failed him, his words usually have helped in the clubhouse.
“We can’t put pressure on ourselves,” Martinez said ahead of a doubleheader in Atlanta, where the club’s postseason fate will be decided. “I’ve been saying this since we sucked and everybody kind of wrote us off. It’s like, ‘Dude, we don’t have any pressure. We weren’t supposed to be here. We just can’t get here now and all of a sudden put pressure on ourselves.’ ”
“It feels like the third or fourth time I’ve said this. This team just plays better that way.”
