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REVERSING THE CURSE,
PART 2
PEDRO
& TEK COME TO TOWN
Pedro and the Sox come out swinging
July 2, 1998 ... Nomar
Garciaparra, who hit a two-run home run in his first at-bat to extend
his hitting streak to 23 games, and Pedro Martinez the Sox a strong
performance in a 15-0 win over the Montreal Expos before 32,637 in
Fenway Park.
While his
teammates scored a season high in runs and matched a season high in hits with
20, the Red Sox ace made a strong case that he should be the choice to start the
All-Star Game by toying with the Expos, a once-proud team that now ranks among
the National League's worst. Martinez retired the first 13 Expos batters before
allowing a single by Brad Fullmer with one out in the fifth, and sat down an
inning later with a yield of two hits, no walks, and five strikeouts. After
giving up Fullmer's single, Martinez struck out the next two batters, Scott
Livingstone and Mark Grudzielanek, whose throwing error in the bottom of the
fifth opened the way for six Sox runs.
The rout
came at the expense of rookie Carl Pavano, the righthanded pitcher from
Southington, Conn., who long dreamed of pitching in Fenway Park, but not under
these circumstances. Pavano, who with Brian Rose once represented the bright
future of Red Sox pitching before being traded to Montreal in the Martinez deal,
gave up eight hits and six runs in four-plus
It's not
fair to compare many pitchers to Martinez, who has never won 20 games in a
season, but is now well on his way after his fifth straight win improved his
record to 11-2. His earned run average has now dropped below 3 again (2.87)
after his fourth straight start in which he has held the opposition to one run
or fewer. In his last 29 innings, Martinez has allowed just three earned runs,
an ERA of 0.93, and after striking out five Expos, he now has 142 strikeouts,
second in the league to Seattle's Randy Johnson. Martinez threw just 67 pitches
in six innings, 53 for strikes.
Outscored,
28-5, in the three-game set, the Expos once again displayed atrocious defense,
as the Red Sox rolled up eight unearned runs in the series.
Darren
Lewis, who made a wall-crashing catch in the second inning to take extra bases
away from Rondell White, had four hits, as did Mike Benjamin, who has hit in a
career-high eight straight games. Lewis and Benjamin also drove in three runs
apiece, as did Reggie Jefferson.
Until their
last at-bat, the Red Sox did not go down in order in a single inning in three
nights against the Expos, who had three hits tonight: Fullmer's single on an
0-and-2 pitch, and a double and single by Shane Andrews, the first hit off
Martinez, the second off reliever John Wasdin.
Ten Red Sox
batters paraded to the plate, with Troy O'Leary's two-run double and Lewis's
two-run single the big hits in the inning.
Garciaparra
had touched off the scoring by launching a two-run home run, his 12th, into the
left-field screen. The Red Sox shortstop is starting to approach some historic
turf. There have been 35 hitting streaks of 30 games or more in baseball
history, including Garciaparra's 30-game streak last season, an American League
rookie record. Only two players in big league history have done it twice: George
Sisler, 41 (1922) and 34 (1925), and Ty Cobb, 40 (1911) and 35 (1917). Sisler
and Cobb are both in the Hall of Fame. And neither of those players did it in
their first two seasons in the majors.
The Red Sox,
winners of six of their last eight, are now 18 games over .500 (50-32) for the
first time this season. They also won six of their last seven games against
their NL brethren, making their final record in interleague play 9-7. |
