Martinez Reflects After 100th Victory

On the night he won his 100th game, Ramon Martinez grinned when asked if he remembered his first major-league victory.

“It seems like yesterday,” he said after defeating the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5, on Monday. But he knows it wasn’t. Not in terms of time since that first win came on Aug. 29, 1988, a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Expos.

And not in terms of style.

“I was just a thrower,” he said of his first year in the majors. “I was trying to show everyone I could pitch in the major leagues. As a rookie, I was trying to blow the fastball by everybody. I was trying to show everybody what I had.

“Now I realize, to win, you don’t have [to do that]. I feel better about myself now. The hitters didn’t know me then. They know me now so I’ve got to bring different things.”

Dodger pitching coach Dave Wallace said the thing that impresses him most about Martinez is his consistency.

“Sometimes he will walk four or five and sometimes he doesn’t walk any,” Wallace said. “But, when he’s pitching, you look out there in the seventh inning and 85%-90% of the time, you have a chance to win the game. That’s all you can ask for.”

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Todd Hollandsworth, who went 0-for-5 on Sunday, was replaced by right-handed hitting Chad Curtis in the leadoff spot for Monday’s game against left-hander John Smiley. Hollandsworth is expected to be back in the leadoff spot tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals.