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SAVING FENWAY, MORE PEDRO
AND A FRUSTRATING SEASON
Pedro wins his 10th
July 18, 2000 ... It
appeared that Pedro Martinez came momentarily unraveled tonight at
Fenway Park while Montreal Expos slugger Vladimir Guerrero, was
stalled in the on-deck circle. Then Pedro walked Guerrero to put the
tying run on second base with two outs in the eighth, prompting a
visit from manager Jimy Williams. But the Sox ace dealt with his
knotty problem much more swiftly than Guerrero, needing just one
pitch to dispense of Lee Stevens on a tapper to first.
That would
be Pedro's 128th and last pitch of the night in a 3-1 Red Sox win over the Expos
that ended a personal victory drought of Biblical proportions: It had been 40
days and 40 nights between wins for Pedro, who gave up just five hits, walked
three, and fanned a dozen to run his record to 10-3 while lowering his major
league-best ERA to 1.49.
The Sox,
winning for the fourth straight time and fifth time in six games since the
All-Star break, remained a game behind the first- place Yankees by sweeping the
Expos, continuing an odd pattern of behavior with their Quebec cousins. In the
four years the teams have met in interleague play, the home team has swept in
alternating years: the Sox this year and in '98, the Expos in '97 and '99.
The Sox were
playing without sore-handed Carl Everett, given a night off by Williams even
though he's expected to be given an unscheduled vacation any day now by Major
League Baseball disciplinarian Frank Robinson. But in his absence, Darren Lewis
played center field with his usual aplomb, crashing into the wall to make a
leaping catch in the second, then popping a suicide squeeze bunt among three
Expos to score Bernard Gilkey with the go-ahead run in the bottom of the
seventh.
The
seldom-used Gilkey had opened the inning by lining a ball off Expos starter
Javier Vazquez that caromed into short right field for a double. Another
itinerant starter, Ed Sprague, who had singled and scored the first Sox run in
the second, then lined a ball to right that was caught but advanced Gilkey to
third. Lewis ran the count to 1-and-1 when Vazquez uncorked a fastball that was
eye level and outside as Gilkey broke for home.
Lewis
returned to the dugout for a reception usually given a player who has hit a home
run. Nomar, who later would double and score on Troy O'Leary's double for an
insurance run in the eighth, thrust both fists in the air and couldn't wait to
greet Lewis. |
