Russell Martin Stars in Yankees Victory Over Orioles BALTIMORE - Yankees catcher Russell Martin spent much of Sunday flinging himself to the ground to block pitches around home plate. He slid to the dirt in the same area as part of a desperate attempt to try to score a run - even if he was tagged out. And in the grass in front of home plate, he flopped face-first as he threw the ball to get what proved to be a crucial out. And then in the final inning of the first game of the American League divisional series game between the Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles, Martin, an unsung cog in a batting lineup that has needed his power lately, smashed a long home run that was the go-ahead run in a tense, tied game. But long before Martin lifted a 2-0 fastball from Baltimore closer Jim Johnson into the left-field stands, he had been a recurring and pivotal part of a back-and-forth game at Camden Yards. The Yankees scored four more runs after Martin's homer, coasting to a loud 7-2 victory, but it was the quiet, little things that Martin did piece by piece that kept the game close as the Orioles were knocking at the door and the Yankees were busy stranding base runners. "Whether I help the team win offensively or defensively," Martin said after he had done both, "I am happy." Or, as Yankees starter C. C. Sabathia said of Martin afterward: "The awesome thing about Russ is that his attitude never changes. He struggled at the plate early this season but he didn't let it get to him. It never affected anything else. As if a microcosm of his season, Martin on Sunday was 0 for 2 in his first two plate appearances, but he soon made two essential plays in the fifth inning that kept the game tied. Martin had made an acrobatic play in the field that very likely saved a run in the fifth inning and then blocked an erratic pitch by Sabathia in the same inning that certainly prevented another run. By the beginning of that inning, Martin's uniform was already soiled with dirt. With Sabathia pounding the lower half of the strike zone all night - and frequently purposely missing with changeups in the dirt to lure wayward swings from the Orioles - Martin was forced to stop dozens of pitches that caromed short of the plate. But in the fifth, Baltimore's Chris Davis led off the inning with a single. His teammate Lew Ford then dribbled a ball in front the plate that quickly rolled 15 feet from home plate toward the pitcher's mound. It was in no man's land - not far enough for Sabathia to make the play but seemingly too far for a catcher to chase it down in time to make the throw to first base. "I had already conceded that it was going to be a hit," Sabathia said. Martin bounded from his crouch and gave chase anyway. "The ball kept getting farther and farther away from me," he said, smiling. And when I got to it, the ball was pretty wet from the rain in the grass. I just threw it as quickly as I could. Martin grabbed the ball with his right hand on the run, turned toward first and made an acrobatic throw as he tumbled to the ground. The throw bounced, but it was on target and Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira gobbled it into his glove for the first out of the inning. "It was a big play and definitely changed that inning," said Martin, who was not done in his service behind the plate in the inning. Robert Andino singled in the next at-bat, but a potential Orioles rally was already diminished. With the left-handed-hitting Nate McLouth up next and Andino at first and Davis at third base, Sabathia threw a 2-2 pitch so wide and low of the plate that it bounced in the batter's box opposite McLouth. Martin leapt sideways and stopped it with his body, preventing Davis from scoring. After walking to lead off the seventh inning and advancing to third base, Martin was tagged out at home trying to score on a ground ball by Ichiro Suzuki. Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters made a great scoop of Andino's poor throw in the dirt and tagged the sliding Martin just before he reached home plate. But when Martin led off the ninth inning, he confidently awaited Johnson, who had just entered the game. The Camden Yards crowd greeted Johnson with a thunderous ovation. But Martin, who hit a career-high 21 home runs during the regular season and batted .242 after the All-Star break (he hit .179 before the break), drilled the reliever's third pitch of the game deep to left. His uniform dirty on the front and back, Martin speedily rounded the bases before he was mobbed by teammates in the Yankee dugout. About 20 minutes later, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi just snickered when asked about Martin in his postgame news conference. "He does a lot of things for us every night when he goes out there," Girardi said. And he packs a lot of power. Just a huge hit tonight. It was Martin's third game-winning home run this season in the ninth inning or later. Asked about those pressure situations on what was now an early Monday morning, Martin, who had taken the time to scrub away the Camden Yards dirt he had rolled in for more than three and a half hours, grinned. "I just like being in those situations," he said.