Martinez improves to 10-0 against M’s

By Larry LaRue

The News Tribune

BOSTON – They have faced him in the twilight and in darkness, on hot days and cold nights.

On Saturday, the Seattle Mariners faced Pedro Martinez in the mist – and they still haven’t beaten him.

After a two hour, five minute rain delay, all the Mariners needed to see was a nine-pitch, three-strikeout first inning to know where this one was headed.

Like every other decision that’s involved Martinez and the Mariners, the game wound up a Boston Red Sox victory, 4-1.

“Well, we learned one more thing about him today,” John Olerud said. “He’s tough when he’s wet and cold, too.”

It was a miserable day for hitting no matter who was on the mound, a cold, breezy, wet afternoon in Fenway Park that Martinez sailed through as if he had an early supper engagement.

Seattle got its first hit in the third inning, it’s only run in the fourth – when Ruben Sierra drove an inside fastball over the fence into the Boston bullpen.

If the home run bothered Martinez, it didn’t show. By the time he turned a three-run lead over to the bullpen after eight innings, he’d used 99 pitches to do what he has always done against the Mariners.

Win.

“He’s 10-0 against us,” manager Lou Piniella said. “I guess you could say we’re due. You give him a couple runs early, he gets even tougher.”

Against James Baldwin, who lost his last start against Boston and Martinez, the Red Sox got two first-inning runs. They got more – one in the second, another in the fifth – but those first two runs would have been enough.

“We had a couple of shots where one hit might have gotten us right in the thing,” Mark McLemore said. “And whenever we got that shot, Pedro got out of trouble. He made the pitch every time he had to.”

The tone for what would become his 138th career win was set before most of the Fenway Park crowd had the chance to dry their seats.

Ichiro Suzuki lead off the game. Martinez threw three pitches, all strikes, and Suzuki was gone.

McLemore followed Suzuki. Three more pitches, all strikes, and McLemore sat down.

Sierra came third. Three pitches. Three strikes.

Have a nice day, fellows, Mr. Martinez is on duty.

“Was it a day conducive to hitting? No, it was miserable,” manager Lou Piniella said. “But you can’t choose the weather.

“And let’s be perfectly honest. Pedro Martinez is the best pitcher in baseball – and he’d pitch well if he were in the Mojave desert or an igloo in Alaska.”

Good as he was, Martinez left himself vulnerable three times in eight innings, and not once did the Mariners make him pay.

“You get pitches to hit, you just never get the same pitches to hit,” Olerud said. “He throws that fastball 95-96 miles an hour, then that cut fastball that moves and that changeup. He throws them all for strikes, and once in a while he’ll throw his breaking pitch.

“He’s got a great breaking pitch, too – he just doesn’t need it very often.”

Down 3-0 in the third inning, Carlos Guillen singled, took third base on Suzuki’s two-out single and then watched as Suzuki stole second base. A single might have scored two runs.

McLemore flied out.

“You got to bring your ‘A’ game against Pedro, and sometimes your ‘A’ game isn’t enough,” McLemore said. “I enjoy facing him. This game is about competition, about playing the best, and he is the best.

“He’s had success against me. He’s had success against this team. He’s had success against everybody.”

McLemore led off the sixth inning with a single but was erased on Sierra’s double play ground ball. Bret Boone then singled, and Olerud grounded out on a good changeup.

“It’s hard to wait when you’re thinking about that fastball in on your hands,” Olerud said.

The Mariners had one final little shot in the seventh inning when Mike Cameron was hit by a pitch, took second when Guillen grounded out. At least it was a runner in scoring position.

Ben Davis lined out to first, and Jose Offerman threw to second to double off Cameron.

And that was that.

Martinez has now made 10 career starts against Seattle and never lost, compiling a 0.94 earned run average in 77 innings.

“That first inning, it was still misty out there, and our guys came back to the dugout shaking their heads,” batting coach Gerald Perry said. “Pedro is nasty under the best of conditions. But Pedro Martinez in the mist?”