Tim Brown: Martin seeks light amid power outage

LOS ANGELES – The rub of it is, Russell Martin is living right.

And now he’s hitting .238.

He gets his sleep, eats like a grown-up.

And now he’s slugging .280.

He found a nice girl, goes home to her every night, couldn’t be happier.

And now Joe Torre has to bat him eighth.

He’s calling games and receiving the ball as well as ever, leading a pitching staff that has no business leading the league in ERA, but does.

And now he’s an offensive black hole. Among the darkest in the league, really.

Don Mattingly asks him to keep his weight back and trust his hands again, and believes it’s coming. And Torre tells him in the meantime it’s enough to be the starting catcher for the team with the best record in the game, that there’s plenty of value in that.

“But, still,” Martin says.

But, still, the man was an All-Star. Was a Silver Slugger. Hit 19 home runs one year.

Was a threat.

Then he spent the past year, 144 games now, batting .251 with an OPS of .691, reserve middle-infielder numbers. He spent the past month batting .195. He hasn’t hit a home run since September. The baseball has spent the entire season in on his hands, on the last couple inches of his bat, fastballs on him faster than they should be.