Girardi Delivers a Message to Martin After a day off in Detroit, spent ruminating over recent trends with his pitching staff, Manager Joe Girardi called catcher Russell Martin into his office at Comerica Park for a short meeting before Martin went behind the plate last Saturday. The results of that brief encounter were seen on the field over the ensuing four games that Martin caught. Girardi encouraged Martin to do a better job of calling pitches, and after that the Yankees starters went 3-0 with a 1.15 earned run average. "Joe called me in the office and he said, "I think you can do better, I think you can do better behind the plate,"" Martin recalled. "I was like: "O.K., fine. You're right. And I started doing better. Girardi agrees with his catcher's assessment that he has improved in his recent pitch-calling duties, and said he believes Martin deserves significant credit for the starters" recent run of success. "Absolutely, yes, I do," Girardi said. I think he's done a tremendous job. He's been a big part of that. Neither Martin nor Girardi wanted to discuss the specific tactical elements of what Girard wanted to see from his catcher. But it all related to Martin's pitch calling. In general, Girardi felt the hitters during the Angels hitters, in the games before the Detroit series, looked too comfortable at the plate. The right-handed sluggers, in particular, seemed especially settled. The Angels scored 19 runs and took two out of three games in the series and the right-handed hitters Albert Pujols, Mike Trout, Mark Trumbo and Howard Kendrick went on a tear, combining to go 21 for 49 (.429) with 5 home runs. Girardi wanted to change that. "He gave me a little bit of direction," Martin said. He was very encouraging. It was only two or three minutes. He said, "I think you need to start doing a couple of things, I think you need to start throwing inside more." He was right. So Martin went to work implementing the new approach in his first game in Detroit. On Saturday, Hiroki Kuroda started and allowed two earned runs in seven innings in the Tigers" 4-3 victory. On Sunday, Phil Hughes allowed only one run in his complete game, and struck out eight as the Yankees won, 5-1. On Tuesday at home against the Rays, Andy Pettitte was masterly, striking out 10 as he allowed two runs in seven and one-third innings to lead the Yankees to a 7-0 victory. On Wednesday Ivan Nova went eight innings, allowing one earned run in eight innings as the Yankees won, 4-1. Martin did not catch Thursday because C.C. Sabathia pitched and the backup catcher Chris Stewart has been asked to catch all of Sabathia's games for now. Martin said he was in full agreement with Girardi's assessment that he needed to call for more pitches inside and change the patterns more. "I think it makes a difference," Martin said. Sometimes we can get into patterns, and hitters recognize that. So when you change the way you're pitching, you kind of just throw them off balance a bit, and it can frustrate them and get them out. Girardi was a catcher during his 15-year career, and is attuned to a catcher's responsibilities - the most important being pitch selection. Girardi knows that catchers can be sensitive about criticism in that area, because it can sometimes be a source of dispute between the pitching staff and the catchers. "I've been on the other side of it," Girardi said. A lot of times it's the way you present it to them. It's a touchy subject and you have to be careful how you approach it. We talked about a few things, and he's been great. Martin said he was pleased with the way Girardi delivered the message, especially the way he stressed that he knows how good Martin is and how much confidence he has that he can improve. "He was kind of encouraging me and letting me know he really thought I could do better," Martin said. "I said, "Yeah, you're right." He wanted me to do better. So I have. But over all, Martin said the credit belonged to the men throwing the pitches. "Our starting pitchers have been awesome," he said.