Martinez becomes unlikely hero for Phillies

NEW YORK - You play 162 games over six months and you are bound to win some and lose some in a variety of ways.

There is also likely to be an evolution of the way players are used and who contributes at any given time during the course of the long season.

The good teams keep winning regardless of the circumstances, and, after the Phillies took another three-game series by beating the New York Mets, 8-5, Sunday afternoon at Citi Field, you can continue to call them the best team in baseball.

Since matching a season high with four straight losses in early June, the Phillies have gone 25-11 and won 10 of their last 11 series. Despite losing players such as Roy Oswalt, Shane Victorino, and Placido Polanco to injuries, they have taken two out of three games in seven straight series.

The Phillies had the unlikeliest of players to thank for the weekend wins over the Mets.

While two aces - Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee - rested after their All-Star Game appearances and the other one - Cole Hamels - lost again Saturday to the team that typically gives him fits, Vance Worley and Kyle Kendrick combined to allow two runs in 121/3 innings. They were each rewarded with victories.

And while Chase Utley and Ryan Howard went a combined 2 for 22 in the weekend series, John Mayberry Jr. and Michael Martinez combined for nine RBIs to trigger the offense in the two wins. Martinez delivered the biggest hit in the series finale, a three-run home run over the right-field wall in the top of the fifth inning.

The diminutive utility man came through by turning on a 2-0 fastball from Mets starter Mike Pelfrey. It was the first home run of Martinez's major-league career, and the 28-year-old rookie wore a huge grin afterward.

"It felt good," Martinez said with the help of third base coach Juan Samuel's translation. "It was a very close ball game, 1-0, and with that home run I gave us some breathing room. I'm not a power hitter, so I was surprised the ball left the yard."

Mayberry and Martinez also combined for seven hits and four RBIs the previous Sunday in a rout of the Atlanta Braves, so maybe Phillies manager Charlie Manuel should stick to an NFL schedule with those two.

"That's what it takes," Manuel said of the unlikely contributions. "This year, that is definitely what it takes for us. If you go down and see our batting averages and you see .240, .240, .240, .230, .220, and things like that, we better have somebody coming up big different days because that's what it is definitely going to take when you're hitting low like that.

"That's definitely not consistent. If we got anybody who wants to hit .300, they can. I'm definitely not stopping them. Believe me, I'm pulling for every one of them. That home run Martinez hit today, it surprised me, but I was pulling like hell for him."

If you were to rank the weekend's unlikely heroes, Martinez would top the list.

Kendrick, despite the fact that he's not overpowering, does know how to get a ground ball when he needs it, and he has a solid big-league resumé, especially for a long reliever and/or fifth starter. Worley, despite not making the team out of spring training, has been on a roll for quite some time. And Mayberry, despite struggling to stick in the big leagues, is a former first-round pick of the Texas Rangers.

Martinez? He's listed as 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds in the Phillies media guide and was selected in the Rule 5 draft at the winter meetings in December. There was no guarantee that he would make the team out of spring training, but it's a great bet now that he's here for the remainder of the season.

The native of the Dominican Republic did not sign a professional baseball contract until the age of 22. The best players from Latin American countries typically sign at 16, but Martinez was still interested in playing professional basketball at that point in his life.

He said his flirtation with basketball has helped with his agility as a baseball player. That, too, was on display in the bottom of the ninth when he handled a sharply hit grounder at third by Ronny Paulino and threw to first base for the game's final out. Things had become a little messy for the Phillies bullpen at that point.

"He's an energy player," Manuel said. "He's got a chance to be a real good utility player. He can play a lot of positions. He's a switch-hitter, and that makes him kind of attractive. He's 28, and this is his first shot at the major leagues. That doesn't mean he can't play. Maury Wills was 29 or 30 or something when he first came up, and he played a long time, so that's not criticizing him."

Wills actually reached the big leagues at 26 and played until he was 39. Martinez will turn 29 in September. His age was just a number Sunday, and it was not nearly as important as the number three. That was how many runs he provided with one fifth-inning swing.

Contact staff writer Bob Brookover at bbrookover@phillynews.com or @brookob on Twitter.