You don't see many managers get fired in baseball after sweeping a series on the road. But it happened to Buck Martinez on Monday.

Which tells you all you need to know about how inevitable his firing was. It's been 100 percent inevitable since the day the general manager who hired him (Gord Ash) was booted into the talk-show-host business last winter and new GM J.P. Ricciardi showed up.

Even in spring training, Martinez often brought up his own tenuous job security without anybody asking. So he knew where his season was headed.

It was headed toward a beach house in New Jersey, not toward the playoff penthouse in October. It was only a matter of when he was going to be fired, not whether he was going to be fired.

Martinez somehow survived the great managerial purge of April, when four of his colleagues were joining Joe Kerrigan at the unemployment office. But all that really meant, according to sources close to Ricciardi, was that the GM saw no real reason to fire Martinez that fast -- in part because the Blue Jays had two starting pitchers on the DL, in part simply because Ricciardi hadn't figured out who the right replacement was yet.

Maybe Carlos Tosca, who was named Martinez's successor, will turn out to be that guy. But it's more likely that he'll just be evaluated for the rest of the year -- and nothing more.

That would give Ricciardi a better chance to pick his true manager of choice over the winter, when the possibilities aren't as limited. (Translation: Ken Macha, come on down; or, this being Canada, come on up.)

Buck Martinez is a bright, wonderful guy. He was a fabulous broadcaster. He'd be an asset to almost any employer anywhere in baseball. But before this weekend, his team had a worse record than the Devil Rays, despite vastly better talent.

It was clear the manager had lost his players. It was even more clear he'd lost any remaining patience from Ricciardi. When the Blue Jays traded one of Martinez's favorite players, Dan Plesac, a couple of weeks ago, the manager wasn't even informed of it until the GM called both Martinez and Plesac in to let them know the deal was already done.

It was ironic that the Blue Jays wound up sweeping the Tigers in the final three games of Martinez's managerial reign. But it's ironic, too, that Ricciardi uttered these words about his manager -- almost three months ago:

"It's not about wins and losses," the GM said. "If we win 75 games but our young kids get better and the mind-set changes, that's OK. If we only win 75 games, that doesn't mean he's going to lose his job. But we need to make strides if we're going to go where we want to go. Let's face it. He's the conduit between me and the players. So he's accountable, just like we're all accountable."

Monday, that account came due. If that surprised you, that can only mean you've been spending way too much time memorizing Cameroon's World Cup roster.

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com. You can email him at askespn@espn.com.