Martinez Has Some Advice for Park

The advice was offered the night before Chan Ho Park made his most recent start, but it didn’t help.

Nine-year veteran Ramon Martinez encouraged Park to relax before he started Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He told Park that he was putting too much pressure on himself, and that he couldn’t be successful that way.

Park listened to Martinez, whom he admires, and he promised to stop beating himself up on the mound.

And then he pitched only 2 1/3 innings--his shortest outing of the season--in losing to the Diamondbacks, 8-5. Park said his confidence has never been lower.

The third-year pitcher is 4-3 with a 5.43 earned-run average, and Martinez said Park isn’t thinking clearly.

“Before he pitched, he was like, ‘I have to throw a complete game, I have to,’ ” Martinez said. “I told him to stop thinking like that, because you can’t control what happens in this game.

“If you try to do that, you’re only going to get frustrated. He told me he understood, but with the way he’s feeling now, I knew it would go [in one ear and out the other].”

Martinez said he believes Park’s problems are primarily psychological.

“He had a good season last year, and now he’s trying to figure out what went wrong,” Martinez said. “That happens to a lot of young guys, it happened to me.

“When you get like that, you don’t really listen to anybody. You feel a lot of pressure, so it’s hard to keep your mind on anything.”

Martinez overcame problems early in his career, and remains confident Park will too.

“With the team we have now, all he has to do is throw strikes,” Martinez said. “He doesn’t have to worry about giving up one or two runs, like the game is over, because this team can score. He just has to concentrate.”

TONIGHT

DODGERS’ DARREN DREIFORT (2-4, 3.65 ERA) vs. ASTROS’ SEAN BERGMAN (4-2, 2.76 ERA)

Astrodome, 5 p.m. PDT

TV--Fox Sports West 2. Radio--AM 1150, KWKW (1330).

Update--The Dodgers are 4-4 beginning today’s final game of a nine-game, 10-day trip. Only two weeks ago, Dreifort appeared to be in danger of losing his spot in the rotation. The first-year starter was 0-4 with a 4.61 ERA, and he was struggling to pitch more than five innings. But he is 2-0 with a 1.14 ERA in his last two starts since being reunited with catcher Charles Johnson, his teammate on the 1992 U.S. Olympic baseball team. Dreifort pitched his first complete game and shutout Friday in a 5-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Afterward, he credited Johnson for much of his recent success. “The guy calls a great game, and you don’t have to worry about [baserunners] with him,” Dreifort said. “It definitely helps when you have someone with his ability back there.” Pitching coach Glenn Gregson said Johnson’s presence has helped Dreifort, but he added that Dreifort has also helped himself. “This guy is an incredibly hard worker, and he’s very focused,” Gregson said. “He wants to be a starting pitcher because he likes the structure of that role, and he’s determined to be successful.”