Yesterday, I was feelin’ kinda Pedro. So I jotted down a few notes regarding my favorite Martinez Moments. And here they are.
5. Crushing in the Bronx: Pedro versus Rocket? Hell yeah, we’ll take a double dose of that shit. And the best of those mash-ups was at Yankee Stadium on May 28, 2000. Both starters went a grueling, ball-blistering nine innings. Pedro gave up just four hits while Roger gave up five. One of those, unfortunately for him, was a ninth-inning, two-run jack by Trot Nixon, whose greasy mug, I’m fairly certain, still haunts Roger to this day.
4. The Near No-No: Facing the Rays in August, 2000, Pedro plunked Angry Gerald Williams in the first inning and got tackled (Dan Duquette, speaking from the luxury boxes and flanked by ten armed guards, later called Williams a “thug.”) Pedro got even by reducing Tampa Bay to a Special Olympics team, retiring 24 batters in a row, 13 of them on strikeouts. The no-hitter was broken in the top of the ninth by former Sox John Flaherty, which makes perfect sense.
3. Size Matters Not: Over the first two innings of the 1999 All Star Game at Fenway, Pedro struck out five, including noted protein shake quaffers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa–both of whom looked like they’d have better luck tying a knot in a stream of piss than catching up to Pedro’s fastball.
2. Tossing Zim: Okay, there’s nothing funny about an old dude getting dropped on his ass. But watching Zimmer make like a rhino and hurl his aged, doughy body at Pedro during the 2003 ALCS stands as the single most surreal baseball moment of my lifetime. Closely followed by Craig Grebeck’s career.
1. Stomping the Injuns: Game five of the 1999 ALDS was a game we had absolutely no business winning. I mean, what kind of a deal do you have to make with the devil to see Troy O’Leary follow two Nomar intentional walks with a grand slam and a three-run homer? Over the first three innings, this one was absolutely exhilarating and mind-bogglingly hilarious as an astonishing fifteen runs were plated. It was set to be a bash-fest for the ages, until the bullpen doors swung open and Pedey’s fragile frame ambled to the mound, immediately silencing the crowd. Before Pedro, Cleveland had eight runs on seven hits off D-Lowe and Bret Saberhagen. After Pedro, they pulled an O-fer for the final six innings. Pound for pound, it may have been his greatest performance in a Red Sox uniform.
Put your own Petey love in the comments.
