Martin bounces back with career night

Richie Martin may only have eight hits in the season's final full month, but they've certainly been punishing ones.

Oakland's No. 7 prospect crushed a grand slam and drove in a career-high five runs as Class A Advanced Stockton sank Modesto, 10-8, at John Thurman Field.

The 20th overall pick in last year's Draft, Martin got a late start to his first full-season campaign after undergoing surgery to repair his left medial meniscus in April. After getting back on the field in late May, Martin's bat hasn't quite caught fire, but is showing signs of heating up as the season heads to its final stretch.

"We've been working diligently with him to create a physical approach that allows him to be on time, recognize pitches and make decisions on how to manage at-bats. In a word: timing," Ports manager Rick Magnante said. "That has really helped him in the last week or two to start recognizing pitches that he can swing at and being on time to put good swings on the ball. The dividends are starting to pay off. It's a bit of a work in progress. It's step one with him to get him in a better position to be ready to hit, for lack of a better word."

Martin entered Thursday night batting just .198/.289/.261 through 67 games this season, but he put his stamp on Stockton's victory early with a third-inning grand slam to left field that gave the Ports the lead for good.

"He just got a pitch to hit, and it was up in the zone and on the inner half," Magnante said. "He put a good swing on it, and it left the field, pretty much. He was opportunistic in that at-bat. His timing was good. His swing was good. The pitch was one that would leave the yard, and he got to it. It was good for us in terms that we got down early, and to bounce back with a grand slam home run, it's always a momentum changer for sure. It got us back in the ballgame."

Martin is 8-for-38 (.211) in August, but five of those eight hits have gone for extra bases. The shortstop is slugging .447 this month after registering a .173 mark in 28 July contests.

"The truth of the matter is he has a very good swing," Magnante said. "He's strong, he generates bat speed, and he's leveraged to contact. It's just about him getting in a position to give himself a chance to take a good swing at a good pitch. That's starting to happen with greater frequency now."

The former Florida Gator added a single to right in the sixth for his third multi-hit game in a week after not posting one since July 9. Martin batted just .144/.270/.173 last month, but already seems to have put that chapter firmly behind him, with further offseason work to come.

"It's preaching professionalism to him as well as all the players, to come out every day with a purpose, with some direction and some focus, a routine, working in the areas you need to improve on and staying the course," Magnante said. "He'll go to instructional league, and there, he'll be able to address some of the same things we're talking about now with him in a much more controlled atmosphere and environment where results aren't really a concern, where you're just working to make things better so that next year, he's able to be in a position to compete at the next level if that should be the case."

Seven different Ports hitters had multi-hit nights with cleanup hitter Sandber Pimentel going 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

Modesto second baseman Forrest Wall, Colorado's No. 10 prospect, went 3-for-5 with a double and two runs scored.