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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE "IDIOTS" REVERSE THE CURSE September 29, 2004 ... The Sox tried for a second straight night to overcome a shaky outing by their starter, this one the inimitable Pedro Martinez. But this time the Sox fell short, bowing to the Devil Rays, 9-4, before 21,274 at Tropicana Field to help the Yankees reduce their magic number to clinch the division to one. The Sox need to sweep their final four games in Baltimore and hope the Yankees go 0-4, which would give the Sox their first division title since 1995 via the tiebreaker since they won the season series, 11- 8. Otherwise, one Sox loss or Yankee victory guarantees the Sox start the Division Series on the road as the wild card. The Rays may not be Martinez's daddy, but they had their way with him nonetheless, knocking him around for six runs (five earned) on 10 hits, a walk, and a hit batsman just five days after his infamous collapse against the Yankees in the Fens. Martinez hit a season-high 96 miles per hour on the radar gun, but he lasted only five innings as he fired a whopping 109 pitches and allowed the leadoff batter to reach base every inning he pitched. The loss, in his final appearance of the regular season, dropped Martinez to 2-4 with a 4.95 ERA in September, ending the chance he harbored at the beginning of the month to contend for his fourth Cy Young Award. He finished the season 16-9 with a 3.90 ERA, his highest ERA in 12 full major league seasons. And he lost a fourth straight start for the first time since dropping the first four of his career with the Dodgers from Sept. 30, 1992, to April 8, 1994. After Martinez stuck the Sox in a 6-3 hole through five innings, the Rays put the game out of reach when Tino Martinez tagged Alan Embree for a three-run homer in the eighth, with two of the runs charged to Byung Hyun Kim. The defeat snapped a four-game winning streak for the Sox as they lurched to the brink of elimination in the division. The outcome left them relieved they secured a consolation berth. Adam Hyzdu launched a solo home run, the first long ball of his Sox career. But other than Nixon's homer, David Ortiz's RBI single, and Bill Mueller's sacrifice fly, the Sox lacked the strength to overcome Martinez's latest lapse. Keeping with his plan to selectively rest regulars while fielding a competitive team, Francona started last night with Johnny Damon and Kevin Millar on the bench. Jim Beattie, vice president of player personnel for the Orioles, acknowledged to the Washington Post that the O's placed the call to the commissioner's office that resulted in Major League Baseball banning Johnny Pesky from the Sox dugout at Fenway Park. |
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