Martinez will start for Phillies in Game 3 tonight

DENVER - The story? Heck, you won't find many better ones this postseason.

Five years after his last playoff start, Pedro Martinez returns to the mound tonight, his manager having decided yesterday to entrust him with the pivotal third game of this best-of-five National League Division Series. He is one of the greatest active pitchers in the game, a man who has won a World Series and three Cy Youngs, while time and time again displaying a knack for elevating his game to match the moment.

He has overcome shoulder surgery and a balky groin and numerous other personal challenges to return to a land that has eluded him since his glory days with the Boston Red Sox.

Back in August, after his first start with the Phillies, Martinez sat in a conference room at Wrigley Field and raised the possibility of such a moment.

"A cold-blooded person that doesn't matter how big the game is," he described himself at the time.

But good stories and August proclamations don't win playoff games. And while there is little doubt Martinez will be cold-blooded - along with everyone else on a night when the game-time temperature is forecast to be in the mid- to high-20s with a wind chill in the teens - there is plenty of it surrounding his ability to again perform in October.

Since Sept. 13, when he threw 130 pitches in eight scoreless innings of a 1-0 win over the Mets, Martinez has started only two games, throwing 140 pitches in seven innings between them. He has allowed six runs on 13 hits, two of them home runs that came in the regular-season clincher against the Astros on Sept. 30.

Since that self-described "tune-up" 10 days ago, Martinez has not appeared in a game. He has thrown off the mound several times and worked extensively with the softball he tosses between starts, but he has not faced any hitters.

"I've done enough throwing," Martinez said. "I think the softball that I have is about to run away from me, because I've been keeping my hands on that softball too much for too long. But I have been trying to get as much of a feel for the ball as I can.

"It's hard, because it doesn't matter how much you throw in the bullpen, how much you practice. The intensity of the game and the quality that those hitters put up against you is totally different. But I have been trying to stay sharp. I would have loved to have pitched a little bit in between, but that's not the case right now. I just have to go and do whatever I can at the time I have."

From manager Charlie Manuel's perspective, Martinez should be able to give the Phillies 85 to 100 pitches. But innings, not pitches, is the key determinant for a team that used six relievers, including potential Game 4 starters Joe Blanton and J.A. Happ, in a 5-4 loss to the Rockies on Thursday that evened the series at 1-1.

In his final regular-season start, Martinez threw 84 pitches in four innings. In that 130-pitch outing against the Mets, he threw 89 pitches in his first six innings.

Martinez, as he always does, effused confidence yesterday, but also acknowledged the uncertainty facing a 37-year-old pitcher who will be performing at the end of a 10-day layoff in freezing temperatures.

He said the stiff neck he suffered in the third inning of a start against the Braves on Sept. 19 - the result, he says, of a rib that popped out of place during an at-bat - is no longer an issue. But how well will the rest of his body respond to the cold weather and high altitude? How will the elements, which could include snow flurries, affect his grip? And how will the effect on his grip affect his devilish changeup, which he has relied heavily upon since signing with the Phillies in mid-July? Will he have control of his curveball, a pitch often victimized by the thin air at Coors Field?

In four career starts at Coors Field, Martinez is 1-2 with a 4.97 ERA and has allowed seven home runs.

"We don't really know," Martinez said when asked how deep into the game he can pitch. "But I feel really good physically. I'm looking forward to going out there. Hopefully get a normal start, use my experience to my advantage and try not to waste too much energy and too many pitches. Hopefully, I'll have the feeling for the ball and hopefully be able to give my team what they expect, which is a quality outing and win."

The chief attribute Martinez will bring to the mound tonight - experience - cannot be quantified. Ten years ago, almost to the date, Manuel witnessed it firsthand while a member of the Indians coaching staff. In Game 5 of a 1999 ALDS series against the Red Sox, Martinez pitched six scoreless, hitless innings of relief against Cleveland, leading them to a 12-8 victory.

"His velocity was about 84, 86 miles an hour . . . and he pitched a heck of a game that night," Manuel said. "And it was cold that night. But at the same time, he had tremendous command and he did a heck of a job."

He also was 27, still very much in the prime of a Hall of Fame career. Tonight, however, the Phillies are counting on him to summon some of that old magic.

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David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese.