CLEVELAND -- And now for three bits of terminology you undoubtedly
have never read in the same sentence ever before:
Big game ... Cleveland ... September.
Yes, the last time there was an important game by the lake this time
of year, Bernie Kosar was playing in it. But that would be a different sport.
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Pedro vs. the Indians
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In 12 games vs. the Indians since joining the Red Sox in 1998, Pedro Martinez
is 8-0 with a 1.47 ERA
(* playoff game): |
|
Date
|
IP
|
R
|
H
|
BB
|
SO
|
Dec.
|
|
4/17/98
|
9
|
2
|
4
|
0
|
12
|
--
|
|
7/15/98
|
9
|
0
|
4
|
2
|
9
|
W
|
|
7/21/98
|
7
|
4
|
7
|
4
|
3
|
W
|
|
9/29/98*
|
7
|
3
|
6
|
0
|
8
|
W
|
|
4/25/99
|
9
|
2
|
7
|
1
|
10
|
W
|
|
5/29/99
|
8
|
2
|
5
|
0
|
9
|
W
|
|
8/3/99
|
5
|
1
|
3
|
1
|
7
|
--
|
|
9/15/99
|
7
|
2
|
8
|
1
|
14
|
--
|
|
10/6/99*
|
4
|
0
|
3
|
1
|
3
|
--
|
|
10/11/99*
|
6
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
8
|
W
|
|
4/30/00
|
7
|
0
|
5
|
3
|
10
|
W
|
|
6/8/00
|
8
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
10
|
W
|
|
Totals
|
86
|
16
|
53
|
17
|
103
|
8-0
|
The last time the Indians played a meaningful game this time of
year, Mudcat Grant was probably pitching in it.
The year was 1959. The Indians were finishing five games behind the
White Sox in the American League. And from that point until, well, Tuesday,
September baseball in Cleveland was hard to distinguish from March baseball
in Winter Haven or Tucson.
"I've never been in Cleveland where the games meant anything in the
last month," Sandy Alomar Jr. was saying Wednesday night -- a night when the
Indians won a game they absolutely, positively had to win, pummeling the Red
Sox 10-3, knowing that their favorite right-hander, Pedro Martinez, awaited
for their offensive pleasure Thursday.
"In 1993," Alomar said, "we stunk so bad, the games meant nothing.
You played for your stats. And from then on, we were so many games ahead, we
were riding a dead horse. We were basically cruising, waiting for the
playoffs."
So what's been taking place at Jacobs Field this week is a
phenomenon that's practically as difficult for the average Cleveland
resident to identify as a World Series trophy.
You can't call it a pennant race -- because the White Sox rendered
that term defunct many weeks ago.
But you can call it a wild-card race. And Wednesday was an evening
that went a long ways toward advancing the Indians' chances of winning it.
The A's lost. The Blue Jays lost. And the Red Sox pitching staff was
cooperative enough to self-destruct, right there at Jacobs Field -- much to
the enjoyment of Manny Ramirez (four more RBI) and his fellow batsmiths.
What all that meant was that the Indians led Oakland by 1½, Boston by three
and Toronto by four.
If this game was a test, the Indians passed. And these days, it's
all one giant edition of the baseball S.A.T's for a team that had gotten
used to clinching its division somewhere around St. Patrick's Day.
Three games with the Red Sox this week in Cleveland. Then four in Yankee
Stadium. Then five in Fenway. Phew.
"These games are the most important games of the year for us," said
reliever Paul Shuey. "We're going to find out whether we can hang through
the tough times. If we do, I think this team has a chance to go somewhere in
the postseason.
"For us, for the mental side, if we can take five of eight from
Boston and three of four from New York, I think like we'll feel like we
belong in the playoffs, that we've got something we can do and go from
there."
But this easily could have been a different kind of tale. Had the
Indians lost Wednesday, that lead over Boston would have been down to a game
-- with their good buddy Pedro waiting right on the horizon.
"And Pedro would be a great closer," Shuey said. "If you lose the
first two games, you're looking straight into the teeth of a sweep with him
going. Now we can start believing we can beat Pedro 2-1, or something."
Oh, there's a chance they would have beaten him after losing the
first two, too. But there's also a chance Art Modell could be elected mayor.
That would be a slim, slim chance. Slimmer than Calista Flockhart, even.
The bad news is that the Indians have never beaten Pedro. He's 8-0,
1.47 lifetime against them, counting the playoffs.
The good news is that the Indians have scored against him. In fact, they
scored against him as recently as four outings ago.
Of course, he was hurt in that one. In the three appearances since,
he's pitched 21 straight shutout innings, allowed exactly six hits and
struck out 28.
"So I don't think you want to be losing two games to a team," Alomar
philosophized, "and then have to face Pedro the next day."
Pedro, meanwhile, has no love affair going with the Indians or their
hometown, either. He revealed Tuesday that when he was warming up during
Game 5 of last year's division series -- the game in which he sealed the
series with six hitless innings of surprise relief -- he was showered with
racial slurs, and even a death threat, by fans sitting near the bullpen.
Asked what he expected when he took the mound Thursday, he replied:
"I expect whatever. I remember being told when I was warming up in the
bullpen for the playoff game that I was going to get shot if I got to the
mound. That came from fans who probably wanted me to just get out of there
or panic."
Martinez admitted he never told the Red Sox or any baseball
officials about the death threat. He also admitted he may have taken it more
literally than it was intended. But he said other fans screamed at him, "Go
back to your country," and, "You don't belong in America." And he said they
called him a "beaner" (as in someone from the world of rice and beans).
"It's the first time I ever heard those things," Martinez said. "And I heard
them here in Cleveland. But I also understand it was a playoff game. There
were a lot of people upset because of the success I had against this team.
They saw that their chances were more limited if I came in."
But he is Pedro. He rises above it all. And he promised to rise
again Thursday, as well.
"Never do I care what the crowd does, not here, not in Fenway, not
in Yankee Stadium, nowhere," he said. "Fans are out there to have fun and
watch what happens. I am inside the field. And I don't care what they do,
and I don't care how they feel. I just care about my game and give the fans
what they deserve -- a good game of baseball."
If that's all they get Thursday, it would almost be a relief. Last
time Pedro faced the Indians in Cleveland (April 30), he drilled Roberto
Alomar, got suspended and inspired a wave of bad blood that may or may not
have passed.
But Martinez said he and Alomar had negotiated a peace pact since
then -- had even given each other a hug or two -- so this feud was deader than
the Twins' playoff chances.
"I saw Robbie at the All-Star Game and we talked, like always," Pedro said.
"He said it was the right thing to do when I did it and I did it right. He
told me that personally, in front of some other guys."
And Martinez said he and Alomar ran into each other again Tuesday in the
weight room, and they talked again for several minutes.
"We hugged each other, we talked ... just like always," Martinez said.
"Robbie understands what I did. There was nothing wrong doing it the way I
did it."
But that doesn't mean the war won't erupt anew when they meet again,
either. At any rate, the crowd at the Jake figures to be into this tussle a
lot more than it seemed to be revved up for the first two games of this
series. Then again, people in Cleveland are more familiar with obscure
weather fronts than they are with big September baseball, so forgive them.
"It's funny," Shuey said. "When we played Chicago, that was a
playoff atmosphere. But these games with Boston -- people haven't been as
into it. And these games are much more important. It will be interesting to
see how people act (Thursday)."
But it might be more interesting to see how the Indians act. They
had no trouble beating up on the Tomo Ohkas, Sung Lees and Hector Carrascos
who appeared on the mound Wednesday. But Pedro won't resemble any of them.
Russell Branyan smoked a second-inning homer off Ohka (his 15th in
the big leagues this season, in just 138 at-bats). And David Segui mashed a
435-foot bomb off Carrasco in the seventh, over the forest beyond the
center-field fence, in the midst of a four-run inning that put this game
away for good.
Afterward, Segui made it clear he enjoyed the homer more than he
enjoys the whole wild-card, scoreboard-watching scene.
"I don't even know who the hell I'm supposed to be watching, to be
honest with you," he said. "I figure if we win, it doesn't matter what
everyone else does. Maybe the last couple of days, I'll worry about it. But I'm
not smart enough to do all the math now and figure it out."
Math never used to be a problem in Cleveland this time of year. But
it's big on this September's curriculum. And who knows? For this team, maybe
that's a good thing.
"We'll see," said Kenny Lofton. "How many years did we win the
division easy? We found out that don't get you no World Series championship.
So we might as well do something different."
They can start by beating their pal, Pedro. They can't get much more
different than that.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com. | |
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