IMAGINE BREAKING your leg and running faster, chipping a tooth and having a better smile, losing faith in your mate and having a stronger marriage.
It is all as illogical as the Red Sox possessing one of the AL’s best records. Boston seems to lose a vital player every few days and continues to win anyway. Neither the GM nor the players shows much respect for manager Jimy Williams, yet Boston generally plays hard and well. The Red Sox have a Curse more than eight decades old and, if anything, performed in the first half as if under a magic spell contrary to their history.
But the second half is here now. It began with Boston losing 4-2 to the Mets last night at Shea.
Nomar Garciaparra took early batting practice and was evasive about when he might be able to return from wrist surgery that has so far cost the entire season. Still, just as it looks as if the star shortstop is close to playing, Pedro Martinez, who has not started since June 26, will be out until at least late next month with what the team is reporting as severe shoulder tendinitis.
Being without two critical players plus also having Frank Castillo, Carl Everett, Bret Saberhagen, Pete Schourek, John Valentin and Jason Varitek on the DL should doom the Red Sox. But, so far, a combination of Manny Ramirez, terrific pitching depth and unlikely good fortune for this hexed franchise have kept Boston just 1½ games behind the Yankees and tied with Cleveland for the wild-card lead.
Even in defeat, the Red Sox revealed a bit of their star dust. Mike Lansing, with one homer previously, went deep off Al Leiter. Lou Merloni, with six RBIs previously, was double-switched in for Lansing and delivered a run-scoring double to knock out Leiter in the eighth.
Lansing and Merloni are part of the underwhelming platoon filling in for Garciaparra. The Red Sox used Chris Stynes as a No. 3 hitter, summoned Bill Pulsipher to get big outs and started knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, the co-ace with Hideo Nomo while Martinez is disabled.
Yet here they are haunting the New York teams anyway. They are the lone obstacle to another Yankee division title. And they are an example to the Mets of overcoming bigger problems without being destroyed.
But it will be tougher for the Red Sox to persist in this surprise state and battle the Yankees to the end with Martinez, at best, out until at least late August. Martinez leads the AL in ERA, strikeouts and domination, and he hovers as the scariest weapon in a short, October series. But now, who knows about Pedro or Boston in October?
After the always unhelpful Boston media officials informed that Martinez would not be speaking, Martinez did talk long enough to say “I feel a lot better” and to indicate happiness with team Dr. Bill Morgan’s post-examination assessment yesterday that after 7-10 days of strengthening, Martinez should be 4-6 weeks from a return if he stays on normal progression.
But Martinez did say if he did not feel right, “I will shut it down” and, when asked if he is optimistic that he will pitch in the majors again, Martinez said, “I’ll have to ask God that, only he knows.”
For much of the past two weeks, Martinez and the team have sent out conflicting signals about the extent of his injury and how long he might miss. The theory around the majors was Boston was downplaying matters so it could trade for another starter without overpaying. Morgan, however, said an MRI showed severe tendinitis, but no rotator cuff tear and the doctor said he expects Martinez to pitch like himself again this year.
Still, this is the third straight year Martinez has suffered shoulder problems and Morgan explained, “[Martinez] puts 150 percent into everything he does and pushes things to the limit.” The reedy Martinez depends on the whip-like viciousness of his precious arm. So did his brother, Ramon, who went from elite to journeyman after incurring a shoulder injury at a slightly later juncture of his career.
Williams said he does not worry about injured players, only those who can play. Wakefield said, Martinez “only pitches once every five days. What do we do the other four days? We’re winning.”
But that should become harder without Martinez as an every-five-day, bullpen-saving, indomitable security blanket. Then again, with the kind of season Boston is having to date, the loss of Martinez just might be what the Red Sox need to go on a long winning streak.