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“DIARY OF A WINNER”
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THE ALL STARS
& PEDRO'S HISTORIC YEAR April 25, 1999 ...Jimy Williams popped out of the dugout and walked toward the mound. Pedro Martinez stood on the hill and waited. The Red Sox led, 3-2, there were two outs in the ninth, and Martinez had just surrendered an RBI single to Wil Cordero. The crowd booed when Williams walked out, then hushed when he stood talking to his pitcher. Instead, Williams spun on his heels and ran to the dugout. And then Martinez struck out David Justice with his 137th pitch of the day, a 95 mile-per-hour fastball, to seal a Red Sox Sunday matinee victory over the vaunted Cleveland Indians. In his last outing in Detroit, Martinez was lifted in the eighth inning of a 1-0 victory. The Dominican righty was furious. He wasn't coming out this time. He stuck around for his first complete game, improving his record to 4-1 with a 2.21 ERA. This was the rubber game of a crucial early season series that could have long-term impact on the Sox' fortunes. They were reeling when they returned home from Detroit, and seemed to find new purpose after two melees in a 7-6 loss Friday night. The Sox scored a season-high nine runs in a Saturday victory, then rode their ace home in the finale. Pedro was staked to a 1-0 lead in the first. Hitting against star Cleveland rocketman Bartolo Colon, Jose Offerman led with a Wall double and scored when Jeff Frye punched a double down the first-base line. Frye went to third on a ground out, then tried to score when Reggie Jefferson grounded to second. He was erased on a nice throw by Roberto Alomar. It looked like we might be in for another 1-0 Pedro victory, but Cleveland's backup catcher, Einar Diaz, led off the sixth with a double to right-center and cruised home on Kenny Lofton's hard single up the middle. Lofton was sacrificed to second, then doubled off by Damon Buford, who made a nice sliding catch of Robbie Alomar's pop into shallow center. Buford's catch was one of several nice plays in Martinez's defense. Troy O'Leary made a leaping catch in front of the Wall in the eighth, and Buford made another sliding grab in the ninth. Colon left after retiring Nomar Garciaparra with his 124th pitch to end the sixth, then the Sox won it with a pair in the seventh off righty reliever Paul Shuey. Stanley hit a monstrous double off the Wall in center. O'Leary was intentionally walked after Shuey fell behind, 2-0, then Buford fought off a 1-2 pitch and dumped a bases-loading single to right. Jason Varitek was next and he cracked a two-run double inside the first-base bag to make it 3-1. That's all Martinez would need. Jim Corsi and Derek Lowe were ready after the Sox went down in the eighth, but Martinez emerged from the dugout, which ignited the fandom. With one out he surrendered a double to Manny Ramirez, then came Cordero's two-out, RBI single. That's when Williams went to the mound. Jason Varitek had three hits, and he had bunted for one of them, and his two-run double in the seventh inning was the winning hit in the Red Sox. Varitek, after going 3 for 4, is hitting .333 lifetime against the Indians (6 for 18), with his biggest blow the double down the right-field line with the bases loaded in the seventh. Before Varitek's bases-loaded hit, the Red Sox were only 3 for 19 this season in such situations. And Varitek had entered yesterday's outing having gone 0 for 9 in the first two games of the series. |
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