The Cardinals will not have their best hitter, Jose Martinez, when the Chicago Cubs and ace left-hander Jon Lester show up here Friday night.
Martinez will go on paternity leave beginning Thursday. The baby, a girl who will be named Alana, will be induced and born in Venezuela. The slugging first baseman, who entered Wednesday's game leading the club in all three Triple Crown categories _ hitting .322 with 10 homers and 42 runs batted in _ will fly five hours to Caracas through Miami and rejoin the team for Monday night's game in Philadelphia.
He joked that first-base coach Oliver Marmol "hasn't talked to me" since he heard that Martinez was leaving. And Martinez admitted he would like to be a part of the three-game Cubs set.
"It's an important series, but you cannot figure out what God decides," Martinez said.
"Babies take precedence," said manager Mike Matheny. "It's a big series for us, but that's a monumental life occurrence. The doctor set that date, not the baseball schedule."
Martinez has a 4-year-old son, Matthias, whom he has been trying to get out of Venezuela and to the United States for the past year.
"There's been a lot of situations," Martinez said. "But every time I go across those lines, it's about playing baseball and just perform. When the game is over, then that's you start worrying about the other stuff.
"But, it's a blessing to have a (baby)."
There have been notable Venezuelan players who have been crime victims there but Martinez said he did not perceive himself to be in any danger on this brief trip. The travel part is not dangerous, he said. "But to be there. One hundred percent. Everybody knows what's going on in Venezuela but if you're pretty smart about it and not doing some crazy stuff over there, you're going to be all right," he said.
Martinez said he probably would marry Alana's mother after the season. He did not identify the mother other than her first name, Maryo, for security reasons. But he said his son was very excited to be a big brother.
"He laughs every time I tell him," said Martinez, who added that his former wife, mother of his son, had been very understanding about the new arrival.
Martinez will be replaced on the roster by Luke Voit, whose recent option to Memphis was moved to Class AA Springfield, where he will play two games before joining the team here for Friday's game.
