Canadian club? Martin has a double

By Ben Bolch

June 22, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

TORONTO —

The busload of 40 friends and family members who had made the five-hour trek from Montreal didn’t get much face time with Russell Martin the last couple of days.

There was some postgame chitchat, a few autographs and that was about it.

“It’s the season, so I’m not on vacation right now,” the Dodgers’ catcher said. “That’s what I told them.”

Martin’s itinerary includes plenty of other enticements. There are meaningful games nearly every day and soon, perhaps, an All-Star game to attend in San Francisco.

The Canadian who described playing in his native country as “surreal” continued his dreamlike season Thursday at the Rogers Centre, driving in the winning run during the Dodgers’ 8-4 comeback victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Two days after hitting a homer in his first game on home soil, Martin drove in the winning run with a bases-loaded, two-run double in the eighth inning. The Dodgers scored six runs in the inning to secure their first interleague road series victory since taking two of three games from the Angels in July 2004.

“It feels good anywhere if you come up with a big hit to take the lead,” Martin said, “but it feels even better when you’re at home in Canada.”

Jeff Kent hit a two-run homer and starter Chad Billingsley pitched 3 2/3 solid innings for the Dodgers, who pulled to within half a game of San Diego and Arizona in the National League West.

Manager Grady Little had hoped to get 60 pitches from Billingsley in his first start since moving out of the bullpen to take Jason Schmidt’s spot in the starting rotation. But after Billingsley breezed through a one-two-three third inning to bring his pitch count to 58, Little allowed the right-hander to face three more batters in the fourth.

Billingsley walked Frank Thomas to open the inning before retiring the next two batters and giving way to Mark Hendrickson after reaching 70 pitches.

The reliever got out of the inning but gave up Gregg Zaun’s sacrifice fly in the sixth inning that gave Toronto a 3-2 lead.

The taut game quickly turned tumultuous for the Blue Jays when reliever Casey Janssen failed to retire any of the six batters he faced in the eighth. The former UCLA standout entered with one out in the inning and promptly surrendered a single to Nomar Garciaparra and a double to Kent before intentionally walking Luis Gonzalez to bring up Martin.

“You know in that situation he’s going to have to throw strikes sooner or later with the bases loaded,” Martin said. “I was just waiting for a pitch that I could do something with.”

Martin got the pitch he wanted and drove it to right field to put the Dodgers ahead, 4-3, and pave the way for four more run-scoring hits.

“He had it in his mind he wasn’t going to be overanxious, and he got good results,” Little said of Martin.

Returning to the domed stadium where he had played as a youngster delighted the second-year Dodger who has grudgingly accepted that he will never play in his hometown now that the Montreal Expos have moved to Washington.

He conducted interviews in English and French before the series opener and was surrounded by a horde of local media in the clubhouse after each game.

“It’s a place where I played when I was a kid and stuff, so having this opportunity was awesome,” Martin said. “We won a couple of games and I had a couple of hits, so it was definitely a good time for me.”

Is all the attention getting to be too much for a 24-year-old who has become perhaps his team’s most indispensable player and leads all National League catchers in All-Star voting?

“I feel fine with it,” Martin said. “Whenever I get overwhelmed, I’ll let you guys know, I promise.”

ben.bolch@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Starting over

A look at the Dodgers’ rotation with Jason Schmidt sidelined:

OPENING DAY...

Pitcher: Career W-L

Derek Lowe: 100-82

Randy Wolf: 69-60

Jason Schmidt: 127-90

Brad Penny: 72-62

Brett Tomko: 89-80