Mariners
Notebook: Martinez takes a seat with sore toe

By Bob Sherwin
Seattle Times staff reporter

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With the games down to just a handful in Edgar Martinez's career, yesterday he got a self-induced day off. Now the question is, how many more games can Martinez play this season?

The longtime Mariners designated hitter, who is retiring after 17 seasons, banged a foul ball off his right big toe Saturday and sat out the final game of the series against the Oakland Athletics.

"No matter what, he needed a day off." Mariners manager Bob Melvin said before the game.

Martinez admitted the toe still is quite sore, adding, "I couldn't do anything today. We'll see how I feel tomorrow and go from there."

He will be re-examined today and his X-rays will be reviewed. If it is found that he has a fracture, what will he be allowed to do over the final two weeks? Can he play in any games? Or will it be similar to Nolan Ryan in 1993, when he ruptured his elbow tendon in his penultimate start — in Seattle — and was unable to finish his career in front of his home fans in Texas?

"He has a way of rallying. If anybody knows how to play in pain, it's Edgar," Melvin said. "It's his push-off leg. You need it, but Edgar knows how to play with bad legs, bad feet, bad everything.

"He knows how to make the adjustment. I've never been around anyone who is better at making adjustments due to injury," Melvin added. "Since I got here, I've been most impressed with what he has to do to prepare for a game."

Martinez's injury is somewhat of a departure for him. In the past, it has almost always been his left leg that betrayed him. He was on the disabled list three times in 1993 with left-hamstring problems, had a left-thigh injury in 2001, hurt a left-knee tendon in 2002 and missed games in 2003 when he banged a foul ball off his left toe.

"Nothing surprises me anymore," said Martinez, reluctant to talk about the X-rays or the extent of the injury.
 
Lost opportunities

Starter Bobby Madritsch had yet another splendid effort spoiled when the Mariners couldn't generate more than one run yesterday.

"He has a good idea when he needs to elevate, when he needs to go away," Melvin said of Madritsch, 5-3 with a 2.99 earned-run average. "He's very aware of what's going on out there. Sometimes he has to back off a little bit because he wants to go harder, harder, harder. But he has learned his lessons here already."

What irritated Melvin was how his hitters have consistently failed to come through this season.

"You look at our runs scored and RBI (runs batted in) and it's embarrassing," Melvin said. "We're last in both categories by a plenty good margin. The reason is we're not getting hits when we need to. We had plenty of opportunities to win that game today. We didn't come up with the big hit; they did."

With the score 1-1 in the fifth inning, Eric Byrnes doubled with two outs.

"Then Eric Chavez comes up with the big hit (an RBI single) for them," Melvin said. "That's what we didn't do. We had plenty of opportunities to score runs but didn't."

Ichiro's singles record

As far as singles are concerned, Ichiro officially has hit more in one season than any player in major-league history. He broke his American League record of 192, set in 2001, and this week surpassed the big-league record of 198 set by Lloyd Waner in 1927. Ichiro now has 200.

However, there is still one more player to chase down. Wee Willie Keeler had 206 singles in 1898. Statistics before 1900 are kept but not officially recognized. Nevertheless, Ichiro can make it moot with seven more singles in his final 13 games.

Another point of interest involving Ichiro involves his 236 hits. He reached the 200-hit level on Aug. 26 in game No. 126. Since that time — and it has been 24 days — no other player has reached 200 hits. Texas' Michael Young and Florida's Juan Pierre each have 199.

Notes

• RHP Joel Pineiro, who has been sidelined with an elbow problem since July 27, will test the arm today with a throwing session. If he progresses well, the club would like to give him a few innings in the Arizona Instructional League this fall.

• Three Mariners are expected to play winter ball in Venezuela. RHP Clint Nageotte, who has been on the disabled list with back problems, LHP Matt Thornton and 3B Justin Leone, coming back from a broken wrist, will play for Lara.

• The M's, 37-42 at home, will finish with their first nonwinning home record since 1994 (22-22). Their last losing home record was 38-43 in 1992.