ST. LOUIS -- If you're looking for numbers to explain what Jose Martinez is doing, why he's doing it here and just how big of a grain of salt his white-hot start should be taken with, one in particular stands out.
That's the exit velocity reading from his clothesline-like solo homer on April 12 against the Reds, a seared 113.7-mph shot that sent fans scurrying for cover beyond the left-field wall. The radar says more than the Cardinals first baseman's .329/.409/.526 slash line, basically because it suggests those numbers are real. And more than any other swing of Martinez's brief big league career, that big one in Cincinnati offered the best snapshot of why St.