mid-season normal
Pedro Martinez is regarded as one of the best pitchers in major league baseball these days, and is a guaranteed future Hall of Famer. He’s a strikeout maestro, currently ranked 5th in active pitchers and 15th historically. He came off a two-month medical rehab yesterday, and pitched a quality-but-not-Pedro-quality game, allowing three runs, walking three and striking out three. Three strikeouts it would seem, is considered “mid-season normal” for Pedro Martinez. MLB reports:
The modest performance spoke for itself — six innings (109 pitches), seven hits, three runs, three walks, three strikeouts. His final 11 batters produced five of the seven hits. But he pitched out of trouble in the fifth and sixth innings. He allowed two runs in the fifth after the first three batters reached base. The first two reached base in the sixth. But neither scored.
“He saved his best pitches for when they put runners on base,” Castro said.
In that regard, Martinez was mid-season normal.
His stamina and velocity — he was at or close to 90 miles per hour on most of his fastballs — were good.
“He looked good. I don’t think he looked bad at all,” Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel said. “He was still throwing 90 miles an hour. I think at the beginning of the game he had a problem hitting his spots, but then he settled down a little and started pitching better.”
The more uplifting development was this, in Martinez’s words: “I came off the field in the same shape I went on.” No trace of a problem, he said. The left hamstring that betrayed him before he reached the fifth inning in April behaved properly. It even allowed Martinez to make a trip around the bases. He scored one of the Mets’ eight runs in the fifth inning and had two hits.
trackback to the game wrap considered mid-season normal