BOSTON – What some called The Best Post-Season Pitching Match-Up Of The Century quickly developed into a battle of finesse versus power late yesterday afternoon at Fenway Park, where Pedro Martinez proved there is more to pitching than throwing gas.
Hyped to the max, the Roger Clemens-Martinez conflict never developed, thanks to Clemens not being able to avoid the barrel of the Red Sox bats with a fastball that began up in the zone and finished in the ozone.
Clemens, the poster boy for high-octane heat, was outclassed by Martinez, who was forced to use his off-speed arsenal since he isn’t fully recovered from a back problem.
Simply, the best pitcher in baseball and AL Cy Young lock killed the Yankees delicately, working the first seven innings of a 13-1 Red Sox spanking in front of 33,190 delirious Fenway Park denizens who reveled in watching Clemens get his lunch stuffed down his throat.
“When he needed his fastball, he reached back and got it,” Red Sox pitching coach Joe Kerrigan said of Martinez, who allowed just two singles. “But he was using his soft stuff instead of his hard stuff. With him, it’s pick your poison.”
On Sept. 10, Martinez limited the Yankees to one hit and fanned 17 at Yankee Stadium by mixing in aspirin-sized fastballs and tantalizing changeups. Yesterday, Martinez was dealing mostly changeups and an occasional curve.
“He did the best he could with the stuff he had,” said Bernie Williams, who was the first of Martinez’ 12 strikeouts in the opening frame. “He wasn’t overpowering as far as his velocity, he wasn’t 94 to 95 mph, but he had great command of his changeup.”
Making Martinez’ job easier was the Red Sox collecting an ALCS-record 21 hits. John Valentin, who hit a two-run homer into the net above the Green Monster in left in the first inning, went 3-for-6 and drove in five runs. Brian Daubach and Nomar Garciaparra also went deep.
Scott Brosius accounted for the Yankees’ lone run with a homer off Tom Gordon in the eighth.
Far at the opposite end of the pitching spectrum, Clemens stood on the mound he called home for 13 years and was stark naked without a forkball and with a 96-mph fastball he couldn’t coax into going south of the Red Sox belts.
After getting ahead of Daubach, 0-1, with a runner on first and no outs in the third, Clemens was lifted for Hideki Irabu, who immediately gave up a two-run bomb.
In two-plus innings, Clemens was rocked for five runs and six hits. The two-run homer he gave up to Valentin in the first was an early sign that the Rocket’s first post-season appearance in New England’s living room wasn’t going to be much.
“I think I know a couple of those guys over there in the opposing dugout too well,” Clemens said. “I think a couple of them are too comfortable against me. I have to make some changes there.”
With the Red Sox trimming the Yankees’ lead in the best-of-seven series to, 2-1 going into Game 4 tonight, the prospect of having the same pitching matchup in Game 7 can’t be comforting for the Yankees. First, they haven’t scored a run on Martinez in 18 innings. Second, he has baffled them with gas and off-speed stuff. Third, since Joe Torre said Clemens wasn’t bothered by a physical ailment, Torre would give the ball to the Rocket for a Game 7.
“When we set the pitching up, we made decisions, one and five, two and six, three and seven,” Torre said. “We have no reason to change that.”
David Cone chatted briefly with Clemens in the dugout and later in the clubhouse and came away believing the savage beating didn’t dent Clemens’ psyche.
“He wasn’t on suicide watch,” David Cone said of Clemens. “I told him, ‘Next time, it will be your turn, you will get the last laugh. He seemed to like that.”
Sitting in a box behind home plate, George Steinbrenner didn’t like anything he saw. In addition to watching Clemens get spanked, The Boss didn’t see his hitters adjust to Martinez, had to sit through Hideki Irabu getting torched for 13 hits and eight runs, and couldn’t help noticing the Yankees making three errors.
The Red Sox’ 2-0 lead swelled to 4-0 in the second when Valentin drove in one run and Garciaparra another. After Irabu replaced Clemens, the beating was on.
As for Martinez, he impressed Steinbrenner, who was ticked at then-GM Bob Watson when the Red Sox were able to acquire the best pitcher in baseball for two minor leaguers, one of whom Watson dealt to the Red Sox for Mike Stanley late in the 1997 season.
“In my 25 years, he may be the best I have ever seen,” said The Boss about a pitcher who admitted he was as naked as Clemens looked.
“In the first inning, I had exactly what I had the whole game, nothing,” Martinez said. “I didn’t have a fastball. I didn’t feel like I had a good breaking ball or a good changeup at all. I just managed to spot well.”
And prove for the umpteenth time that a well-placed pitch, no matter the speed, will take you farther than one thrown with tremendous velocity that stays in the middle of the hitting zone.