“Sometimes good, sometimes bad.”
Every hitter has a batting cycle. They just differ in how big or small the bend is. NC Dinos foreign-born Jason Martin is the former. He’s been turning heads since the exhibition games. Until his final game against KT on March 28, when he went 1-for-22, he was in a severe slump.
The beginning of the season wasn’t great either. He had lingering injuries and didn’t adjust easily to the fastball-oriented pitching style of KBO pitchers. He batted .222 in April and .239 in May. Then, from June to August, he bombed the KBO. He hit .304 with three home runs and 15 RBIs in June, .359 with five home runs and 20 RBIs in July, and .300 with four home runs and 23 RBIs in August.
But as temperatures began to drop, so did his hitting. September-October total: 123 at-bats, 30 doubles, .244 batting average, 3 home runs, 23 RBIs. When he was hitting well, he was able to handle all pitches and conditions, but there were times when he couldn’t hit the ball at all.
He was clearly having fun with the increased arm height, which helped him to react to the high course instead of being fooled by the low ball. It’s a departure from the recent trend of lowering your arm height to get to your hitting point faster, but Martin adjusted his arm height as the situation dictated. And then he lost his groove again and his average dropped.
He was the Triple-A Pacific Coast League home run leader in 2022, but he’s not an extreme one-hitter. He ended the regular season hitting .283 with 17 home runs, 90 RBI, 55 runs scored, 15 doubles, an OPS of .815 and a slugging percentage of .317 in 118 games.
In the postseason, he continued his regular-season slump. In the wild-card deciding game, he went 0-for-4 and produced one RBI on a sacrifice fly. In the semifinals, he was 2-for-8 with two RBIs through two games, but then he went 4-for-4 with two RBIs in Game 3 on May 25.
Trailing 4-5 with runners on first and second in the bottom of the second inning, SSG right-hander Noh lined a slider up the middle and connected with a spectacular towering arch. For a moment, her knees buckled. She used all her strength to drive it to center field, and it was the game-winning hit that sent NC into the playoffs.
Martin isn’t the only player in the NC lineup who can deliver a one-hit wonder, but he’s the only one who can do it in the playoffs against the KT Wiz. KT lost Kang Baek-ho to injury, but they 스포츠토토 still have Park Byung-ho, Jang Sung-woo, and Anthony Alford, who are basically one-hit wonders. NC will need Martin to break out and take down the KT mound.
“In the second inning, I had the bases loaded and the ball was in the zone, the location I wanted, so I took a good swing. Hitting can be good and bad, and it’s good to see it in the postseason. My teammates and coaching staff helped me after the early season adjustment. The one-three hitters have been so good all season. They were always able to get on base and score runs. The challenge is to win the Korean Series. We can do it.”