Growing up a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan, I have never seen a pitcher more electrifying than Pedro Martinez.
As hard as it might be to believe, when Pedro entered the league he was a paper-thin and paper-light 5-foot-10, 146 pounds. He was tiny. His first year in the majors he only started two games for a Dodgers organization that didn’t believe in him, despite putting up big numbers: 107 innings pitched, 119 strikeouts, 76 hits, and five homers allowed.
He had a killer repertoire from the start, with a 97 mph fastball that exploded the second it reached the plate, a curveball that made batters knees buckle, and a changeup that would eventually develop into one of the greatest pitches of his generation. Along with Randy Johnson’s slider and Mariano Rivera’s cutter.
Yet, Dodgers owner at the time Tommy Lasorda and others in the Dodgers organization didn’t believe his small frame could withstand the rigorous 162 game season.
At the end of Pedro’s rookie season, then-Montreal Expos GM Dan Duquette acquired Pedro Martinez. To say the least, the Montreal media howled at the trade. Some columnists going to say that the Martinez deal was “rotten to the core.”
They were wrong.
Pedro’s second start as an Expo, on April 13, 1994, Martinez fired 7.1 perfect innings against the Reds. However, against the second batter of the eighth inning, Pedro missed inside with a fastball nailing Reggie Sanders in the shoulder. The two had been smack talking earlier in the game, but it’s doubtful Martinez intentionally hit Sanders. Martinez was five outs from a perfect game. But Sanders didn’t really reason with that logic, and charged the mound in a dugout clearing brawl.
That early April start serves as a good indication of Pedro’s early flashes of dominance with a little dash of occasional wildness, all colored by widespread accusations of headhunting batters.
From there, Pedro never looked back. In 1996, he struck out 222 batters in 216.2 innings and appeared in his first All-Star team. The next year, in 1997, Pedro led the league with a 1.90 ERA (Earned Runs Allowed) and posted 13 shutouts and 305 strikeouts.
After the 1997 season, the same GM that had originally acquired him in Montreal, Dan Duquette, then the GM in Boston, swooped in and brought him to Boston. (Duquette was eventually fired by the team in 2002, but he was a huge part of Boston winning the World Series in 2004. He brought in players like Tim Wakefield, Johnny Damon, Jason Varitek, Manny Ramirez, Derek Lowe, Kevin Youkilis, and Jon Lester. Wow.)
Pedro Martinez is a player who will forever live in Boston immortality, along with Bill Russell, Bobby Orr, Larry Bird, and eventually Tom Brady.
Sandy Koufax, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, and all other all-time greats in their prime were all impressive. But no pitcher was better at the height of his career than Pedro was in 1999 and 2000. During the heart of the PED (Preforming Enhancing Drugs) steroid era, Pedro in those two seasons ran a 1.90 ERA across 430.1 innings, struck out 597 batters, walked 69, and allowed just 288 hits and 26 home runs. Pedro’s league-adjusted ERA in the year 2000 was by far the best in 120 years.
All of those stats were during a time where everyone was amped up on steroids! It was just ridiculous the numbers he put up those 2 years. In the year 2000, only five American League pitches finished the year with an ERA under 4.00, and Pedro had a 1.74.
You can’t identify a single highlight from Pedro’s tenure in Boston that will some it all up, there’s too many.
I tried to break it down into 5 of my favorite moments:
1. World Series Win (October 26, 2004)
We did it. Holy crap we did it. That 2004 postseason was something Major League Baseball will never forget. Unfortunately, that World Series was also the last time Pedro wore a Red Sox jersey. But Red Sox Fans will never forget the part he played delivering the Red Sox their first championship in 86 years.
2. 17-Strikeout game at Yankee Stadium (September 10, 1999)
Martinez went into hostile territory in Yankee Stadium and struck out 17 batters, setting a career-high in strikeouts. He allowed only one hit in the game, but was otherwise untouchable.
3. Almost Perfect Game (August 29, 2000)
This isn’t generally how any pitcher would want to start off a game, but one of Pedro’s greatest games began when he drilled the
4. 1999 ALDS, Game 5 (October 11, 1999)
Martinez shook off an injury he was battling to toss six no-hit innings in relief to help the Red Sox advance to the ALCS. Pedro later admitted that he put his career I jeopardy by pitching through that injury, but was willing to put everything on the line because it was the postseason.
5. All-Star Game at Fenway (July 13, 1999)
Martinez became the first pitcher in All-Star Game history to strike out the side in the first inning, retiring Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, and Sammy Sosa. Martinez began the second inning punching out Mark McGwire for his fourth straight strikeout before ending the streak with a base hit from Matt Williams. The inning ended in a strikeout and retired the rest of the batters.
