Pedro Martinez, Boston Red Sox, June 8, 2002 v. Arizona Diamondbacks

pedro martinez
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Pedro Loses Fenway Duel to Schilling (now 12-1) Martinez Suffers First Loss of 2002 in 3-2 Defeat to Arizona

Saturday, June 8, 2002
Arizona Diamondbacks at Boston Red Sox
Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts

Pedro’s Line

Box Score and play-by-play

D-Backs edge Red Sox, 3-2
Ian Browne, mlb.com

In a battle of two of the game’s most dominant right-handers, Curt Schilling prevailed over Pedro Martinez on Saturday. The Diamondbacks chipped away just enough off Martinez to earn a 3-2 victory over the Red Sox before a packed house of 33,275 at Fenway Park. … The Red Sox still own the best record in baseball at 40-19 … Schilling bumped his gaudy record to 12-1 by going 7.1 innings and scattering six hits and two earned runs, and striking out nine.  “It was exactly what I expected,” said Schilling. “Packed and electric and loud.” And also as he expected, it wasn’t easy.

Curt Leaves No Doubt — Schilling Outpitches Pedro
David Heuschkel, Hartford Courant

The last time Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling faced each other was in the 1999 All-Star Game at Fenway Park. Back then, there was little doubt which pitcher was better. Three years later, there’s no doubt. … “It was packed, electric, loud, vulgar and everything that comes with Fenway fans,” Schilling said. “Just a fun place to play. … I had good stuff – good enough. I don’t think I ever felt like I was in a groove today.”

Schilling & Co. win duel vs. Martinez
Mark Gonzales, Arizona Republic

Curt Schilling and the Diamondbacks reached new heights Saturday – at the expense of three-time American League Cy Young winner Pedro Martinez. … Schilling extended his winning streak to nine games, although his streak of not issuing a walk was snapped at 165 consecutive batters (44 innings) in the eighth inning.

Sox can’t buck Schilling
Phil O’Neill, Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Curt Schilling and his world champion Arizona Diamondbacks squeaked out a win in a much-hyped showdown with the Red Sox that lived up to its billing and prompted rival pitcher Pedro Martinez to bare some doubts about his own career. Schilling became the majors’ first 12-game winner, and Martinez lost his first game of the season …

Pedro, Red Sox can’t charm Diamondbacks: Martinez suffers first defeat, 3-2
Michael Silverman, Boston Herald

The differences were relatively slim but, ultimately, the gap was so, so huge between Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez yesterday at Fenway Park. In a matchup of aces that could only have been improved upon if Martinez were in 1999-2000 form (which he admittedly is not), Schilling and the Arizona Diamondbacks came out on top against Martinez and the Red Sox, 3-2.

Schilling tops Pedro
Garry Brown, Springfield Union-News

As the baseball gods would have it, neither Curt Schilling nor Pedro Martinez brought his best stuff to yesterday’s marquee pitching matchup at Fenway Park. Somehow, it didn’t matter. Somehow, the two superstars pitched up to the expectations of a sellout crowd in a duel that had postseason written all over it.

Schilling outduels Pedro
Mike Bauman, mlb.com

One regular-season game doesn’t decide anything for a lifetime. But this one game reinforced the notion that the premier right-handed pitcher of the current century is Curt Schilling. The Great Big Battle of the Right-Handers unfolded at Fenway Park Saturday. Schilling vs. Pedro Martinez was the featured attraction not only of this weekend, but of Interleague play, period. Schilling got the better of it. And the more you watched and contemplated, the less surprised you were.

Pedro impressed by Schilling
Ian Browne, mlb.com

Pedro Martinez knows exactly what it feels like to be on top of that mountain of a pitcher’s mound Curt Schilling throws off of these days. That used to be Martinez. The Red Sox right-hander used to be the best. And it wasn’t that long ago.

Schilling’s work amazes Boston
Nick Piecoro and Mark Gonzales, Arizona Republic

It was his first career hit, so, naturally, it meant a lot to Red Sox slugger Brian Daubach. But now, four years later, it is beginning to mean even more. Daubach doubled off Curt Schilling in September 1998. … “I should cherish it a little bit more because at the time I didn’t realize what I got,” he said. “To see him throw the way he is now … he’s tough. .. That’s probably the toughest pitcher we’ve faced this year.”

Schilling proves thrilling — Arizona’s ace was up to the challenge
Mark Blaudschun, Boston Globe

The game had just ended, and the last of a sellout Fenway Park crowd of 33,275 were still filing out as Curt Schilling made his way from the Diamondbacks clubhouse to an interview room adjacent to the Red Sox clubhouse. “Wish you were with the Red Sox,” one fan shouted as Schilling, an ice pack strapped to his right shoulder, walked past him. “I was,” said Schilling with a laugh, referring to his start in the Red Sox organization 16 years ago. “Please come back,” answered the fan. Schilling could make a return trip to Fenway in October if the planets are in alignment to create an Arizona-Boston World Series.

Schilling subdues Red Sox
Art Davidson, MetroWest Daily News

When the Red Sox traded Curt Schilling during the 1988 season the deal was lauded locally. Some lamented that Boston parted with Brady Anderson, but the general consensus was that the price was worthwhile to acquire Mike Boddicker. Schilling was still an unproven minor leaguer when he was sent to Baltimore. Fourteen years later, Schilling seems to be improving with age.

Arizona’s Schilling is one Hall of a pitcher
Steve Buckley, Boston Herald

Unless Curt Schilling fires up his aging burners and puts together a string of 20-victory seasons over the next four seasons, he probably won’t be heading for the Hall of Fame. … Schilling has won 144 games during his vagabond 15-year big league career. He turns 36 in November. As such, he may not have enough time to put up the kind of numbers needed to gain entry into Cooperstown.

Aces live up to hype: Schilling, Pedro don’t disappoint
Karen Guregian, Boston Herald

Double-digit punchouts? Check. Heaters, as in 90-plus mph fastballs? Check. Nasty offspeed stuff? Check. Edge-of-your-seat drama? Check. Pedro Martinez vs. Curt Schilling? Well, based on the overwhelming evidence mounted yesterday, the two aces certainly came as advertised. Martinez and Schilling delivered the goods during Arizona’s 3-2 win, as the 33,275 fans on hand at Fenway Park were treated to a classic, old-time pitcher’s duel, just as hyped.

Schilling, Pedro make their moves
Rich Draper, mlb.com

There are rare occasions when Grandmasters meet each other eye-to-eye, brain-to-brain across the chess board in memorable, cerebral duels for the ages — or maybe just for a pleasant Saturday afternoon at a funky, old outdoor park. Bobby Fischer would have liked this one, even if it was his I.Q. and not his fastball that clocked into the high-100s.

Pedro suffers first loss
Sean McAdam, Providence Journal

“I believe I had good enough stuff to compete against those guys,” Martinez said. “They’re a good team. They’re very disciplined and they look a lot like the Yankees. They don’t fall for bad pitches. They do the job. They scratch and play this game hard. … In Toronto, my arm just felt kind of weak, just like the symptoms I felt last year before I got hurt. All of a sudden in Detroit … I was wondering if I was going to feel the same way. Those are things that most of you don’t understand because you don’t feel it. But believe me, having pain in the shoulder is not something easy to deal with. Anything that goes wrong with that shoulder, it’s not particularly easy for me to handle. I have to think. Sometimes I have to give away the focus in the game to focus on what going on in that shoulder.”

A slight dimming of Martinez’s star
Bob Ryan, Boston Globe

Back when he was universally acclaimed as The Best Pitcher In Baseball, Pedro Martinez always wanted to downplay his stature. “I’m just human, guys,” he would say after a routine three-hit, 15-K dazzler. We laughed. No longer. Right now, he couldn’t be more human, which is to say that he is struggling to make sense of his athletic mortality.

Weary ace has worry
Rich Thompson, Boston Herald

Pedro Martinez shoulders a heavy burden for the Red Sox and he’s uncertain if his frequently injured right shoulder can carry the load. Martinez (7-1, 3.28 ERA) openly confessed to hard feelings of uncertainty about this season and beyond after yesterday’s 3-2 loss to Curt Schilling and the world champion Arizona Diamondbacks at Fenway Park. … “After this season is over, I am not going to know what is going to happen. I am wondering, I don’t know. I am lost. I have to wait for each outing to come over and then from there I will take on whatever comes on.”

Pedro Struggling With Himself
David Heuschkel, Hartford Courant

His mood is often a barometer for his health. So when Pedro Martinez said he was in a bad mood after a 3-2 loss to Arizona Saturday, he was asked why. “Personal reasons,” said Martinez. Martinez shouted a profanity in the second inning when he missed badly with a curveball. “I just snapped. I kicked myself in the behind. But it wouldn’t take my focus away. I can get some of those. It depends on what side of the bed I wake up on that day.”

‘Lost’ Martinez feels uncertain
Garry Brown, Springfield Union-News

By the numbers, Boston Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez performed very well yesterday in his duel with that Arizona gunslinger, Curt Schilling. Heck, what do we want from the guy? He worked six innings, during which he walked two and struck out 10. He allowed seven hits, but one was a bunt and another was a crazy cue shot to third base on an all-out swing by Arizona’s No. 3 hitter, Luis Gonzalez.

Confidence of ace has taken a hit
Lenny Megliola, MetroWest Daily News

He is no longer a mystery. Maybe a bit of an enigma, but not a mystery. Pedro Martinez will tell you so himself … He reaches back for the 95-mile-per-hour fastball and it’s not there. He knows that the next pitch may bring pain, may put him on the DL again. He’s worried. He’s confused. And he pitches, hoping for the best. But we have to understand that the Best of Pedro may be mostly preserved on highlight film.

It’s curtains — Schilling’s effort closes down the Sox
Bob Hohler, Boston Globe

Once the most dominant pitcher in the game, Pedro Martinez yesterday reminded everyone after he was outdueled by Arizona’s Curt Schilling in a dandy of a midseason matchup, “There’s no crying in baseball.” … Yet the way Martinez waxed wistfully afterward about the pitcher he used to be – and may not be again – might have been enough to reduce even his hardiest fans to tears. … “The biggest adjustment I have to make is realizing I’ll probably have to deal with it the rest of my career – or for this year at least. I don’t even know if I’m going to make it to the second half. I am wondering. I don’t know. I’m like lost.”

Force wasn’t with them on this one — Sox don’t agree with crucial call
Chris Snow, Boston Globe

If Grady Little says it’s true, and Nomar Garciaparra says it’s true, it must be. Right? “I don’t even like to argue,” Little said last month on the topic of pleading his case with an umpire. “When I do come out and argue, they’ll know I’m right.” And Garciaparra? “Nomar,” said Shea Hillenbrand, “is not the type to question something that is unquestionable.”

State of Grace
Bob Hohler, Boston Globe

It didn’t take Mark Grace long on his first visit to this town to discover the delightful essence of Boston. “I went to dinner at Legal Sea Foods with my wife the first night we got here,” reports the Arizona first baseman. “I brought this” – he picks up his 2001 World Championship ring – “with me. The bartender/food server sees the ring and says, ‘Are you with the Diamondbacks?’ I told him who I was and he said, ‘You’ve got carte blanche here. Anything you want. You beat the [censored] Yankees!'”

D’backs closer turns back on Sox
Mark Murphy, Boston Herald

Byung-Hyun Kim had never heard of Luis Tiant, so the Arizona Diamondbacks closer doesn’t understand the significance of swinging back toward Fenway Park’s center field wall before lunging back toward home plate to deliver a pitch. But Kim, who picked up his 16th save – and second in as many games at Fenway – by preserving the Diamondbacks’ 3-2 win yesterday, does have a more modern-day equivalent. “Kevin Brown does that too,” the 23-year-old Korean said of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ starter, through an interpreter.

Baerga: Full blast
Rich Thompson, Boston Herald

Carlos Baerga ended a lengthy home run drought on a rare error by a master tactician. The Red Sox designated hitter bopped his first home run in three years off Arizona starter Curt Schilling in the first inning of a 3-2 loss to the world champion Diamondbacks yesterday at Fenway Park. Baerga’s last round-tripper occurred on Aug. 17, 1999, for Cleveland against Texas.

Schilling-Martinez II? Maybe in October
Alan Schwarz, espn.com

Yeah, OK. So they gave up 13 hits combined. Each had the gall to walk two batters, one of them the pitcher’s first free passes in a month. And an entire five guys crossed home plate. But this was still Pedro-Schilling at Fenway. A historic matchup in a venue echoing with history. … [O]f all the 20-win seasons by major-league pitchers since 1900, Martinez and Schilling stand 1-2 in strikeout-walk ratio:

 Pitcher              Team               W- L    K   BB  K/BB
1. Pedro Martinez    1999 Red Sox      23- 4   313  37  8.46
2. Curt Schilling    2001 D-Backs      22- 6   293  39  7.51
3. Fergie Jenkins    1971 Cubs         24-13   263  37  7.11
4. Cy Young          1904 Red Sox      26-16   200  29  6.90
5. Walter Johnson    1913 Senators     36- 7   243  38  6.39
6. Christy Mathewson 1908 Giants       37-11   259  42  6.17
7. Juan Marichal     1966 Giants       25- 6   222  36  6.17
8. Sandy Koufax      1965 Dodgers      26- 8   382  71  5.38
9. David Wells       2000 Blue Jays    20- 8   166  31  5.35
10. Sandy Koufax      1963 Dodgers      25- 5   306  58  5.28

Ramirez’s return rescheduled for tomorrow
Sean McAdam, Providence Journal

Manny Ramirez’s arrival in Boston has been postponed — yet again — but there is finally some good news regarding the Red Sox’ slugger. … Ramirez could be in his familiar cleanup spot sometime during the team’s upcoming road trip. That trip begins Friday in Atlanta and continues through June 23 in Los Angeles. … Even in defeat, Martinez reached another career milestone. With 10 strikeouts — for the fourth time this season, 55th time as a member of the Red Sox and 82nd time in his career — he now has 1,101 strikeouts with the Sox.

Pre Game

Little scoffs at today’s pitching-duel hype
Sean McAdam, Providence Journal

By his own admission, Grady Little is often disappointed by potentially great pitching duels. “You think it’s going to be a 1-0 game with both pitchers dominating,” said Little yesterday, a day before aces Pedro Martinez and Arizona’s Curt Schilling meet, “and then you look up and the score is 12-10 and both pitchers are gone by the third inning.” … Little said he’s seen signs that Martinez could be ready to throw a gem. “I see body language, a look on his face, with no concerns about anything.”

Schilling is armed and ready
Mark Blaudschun, Boston Globe

Curt Schilling’s numbers – 11-1 record, 2.81 ERA, winner of his last eight decisions (in nine starts) – suggest he has become the best of the best. .. “Everybody’s following them,” Schilling said. “They have three guys who are 7-0 or better and probably the most dominating starting pitcher in the game in Derek [Lowe].”

Not that he was slighting Martinez. “Pedro looks like he’s back on track,” said Schilling, who expressed dismay about the uncertainties surrounding Martinez. “He’s 7-0, his ERA is barely above 3.00. Sometimes people set the bar too high.” … Schilling, who will turn 36 in November, didn’t downplay the matchup against Martinez, but he didn’t hype it, either. “My No. 1 concern is that I show up. You don’t want to bring a water pistol to a gunfight. I know he’s going to have his ‘A’ game. It’s going to be electric.”

Heat is on this feverish pitch — It looks like beginning of another fall classic
Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe

Talk about your traditional rivalries. Arizona got statehood the same year (1912) Fenway Park was built. Never mind that. This is serious. World Serious. … Day 2 of the 2002 World Series preview is this afternoon at Fenway Park. Curt Schilling vs. Pedro Martinez at 1:15 p.m. Be there early. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. It’s apparent even to nitwit columnists, cynical fans, and junkyard dogs that the hakuna matata Red Sox are going to the World Series this year.

Coming up aces
Michael Silverman, Boston Herald

Grady Little was upbeat in regards to Pedro Martinez, who has scuffled at times in his last two starts, having a strong outing this afternoon opposite Diamondbacks starter Curt Schilling. “Having seen Pedro the last three days, I’m as optimistic about him as I’ve been all season. … I think you’re going to see a different guy (today). … I think in that outing in Toronto he got scared, reflected back on what happened to him last year and that scare took him into early in his start against Detroit. I think the fear is gone.”

This duel one for the aces
Karen Guregian, Boston Herald

Opponents can certainly bash the merits of interleague play all they want, but here’s one perk of the yearly American League-National League regular-season crossover that can’t be disputed: Pedro Martinez vs. Curt Schilling. … The last time these two hooked up was the 1999 All-Star Game at Fenway Park, as both started for their respective leagues. Martinez fanned the first four batters he faced on that memorable night. … “I faced Pedro when he was with the Expos. It’s no fun,” [said mark Grace]. “You’ve got to hit three of the best pitches in the game. … We just have to hope he doesn’t have his Grade-A stuff…”trouble.”

Pitchers await headline duel
Garry Brown, Springfield Union-News

When a marquee matchup comes along, the pitchers involved often try to play it down by saying, “It’s just another ballgame.” You won’t hear that from Curt Schilling of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who goes against Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox today in an interleague special at Fenway Park. As far as Schilling is concerned, it’s a big ballgame and he’s very much aware of its significance.

Aces High
Phil O’Neill, Worcester Telegram & Gazette

From the earliest days of baseball, and down through the years, fans have marveled over the great pitching matchups — Walter Johnson versus Babe Ruth, Sandy Koufax against Juan Marichal, Roger Clemens and Nolan Ryan.

Schilling-Pedro a classic battle
Mark Gonzales, Arizona Republic

Their reputations suggest that Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez will engage in a classic pitchers’ duel today worthy of national attention. … “I know I have decent numbers off him,” Luis Gonzalez said. “And I think if anyone else says they do, it’s true. The top pitchers stick out more than the average guys.” Gonzalez is a lifetime .387 hitter against Martinez dating back to the early 1990s when Gonzalez played for Houston and Martinez for Los Angeles. Mark Grace (.357) and Jose Guillen (.294) also have fared well against Martinez …

Schilling might be model for Pedro
John Tomase, Eagle-Tribune

If Pedro Martinez wants to know what kind of pitcher he could be in five years, he’ll get a sneak peek today. Opposing him is Arizona’s Curt Schilling, a one-time fireballer who overcame a frayed rotator cuff at age 29 to remake himself into the National League’s most complete pitcher, if not its most dominant (that honor goes to a certain towering teammate).

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