Martinez happy with simulated game
By Howard Ulman, Associated Press, 03/07/01
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The setting was strange for Pedro Martinez -- a nearly empty stadium and players from the lower minors batting against him.
One thing was familiar -- his outstanding pitching.
The Red Sox ace who draws sellout crowds to watch him mow down baseball's best hitters threw 49 pitches in a simulated game Wednesday in his first spring training outing.
The first pitch was a called strike. The last, 39 minutes later, was a foul tip that catcher Scott Hatteberg caught for a strikeout that capped Martinez's three-inning stint.
"That's good. That's good," pitching coach Joe Kerrigan said, ending Martinez's exercise. He put his hand on Martinez's head in the dugout and said, "49, perfect."
It wasn't quite perfect.
The two-time defending Cy Young award winner allowed a double and triple to two of the first three batters that produced a run. But he retired all nine hitters he faced after that, three on strikeouts. He was happy with his fastball and curve and felt he could have pitched longer.
"I felt pretty good. I felt strong," Martinez said. "I was a little bit erratic but I should be OK by the next time I come out."
He wanted his first session against batters to be a simulated game and it just so happened that he was spared a 127-mile bus trip north to Clearwater where Boston played Philadelphia on Wednesday, his scheduled day to throw.
But he hadn't pitched in a game in more than five months, back to Sept. 26 when he beat the White Sox in Chicago. He had thrown off a mound just four times in spring training.
"I would say I was pretty good today considering the time away" from game conditions, Martinez said. "I wanted to just play it safe and whatever I was doing wrong, do it here in practice and, by the time I face a real batter, I'm a little bit sharper."
Each team had nine hitters and fielders as in a regular game. But it all revolved around Martinez. When Brian Esposito fouled out on the first pitch for the third out of the second, Kerrigan had him face one more batter so he could get in more work.
"It's a good environment to work in his first time out," Kerrigan said.
Martinez is scheduled to make his first start Monday in a home game against the Montreal Expos and could throw about 65 pitches.
He threw mostly fastballs at the start Wednesday then put three curves together and three changeups together.
One changeup baffled catcher Bryan Barnowski, a Gulf Coast League all-star last year. With a 2-2 count, the righty hitter looked at a high pitch that started outside then came back over the plate.
"He threw me two curveballs, then he came back with a changeup I've never seen before," Barnowski said. "I went back to the dugout and my teammates asked me what the pitch was. I said, `you tell me.' "
Nate Tebbs led off against Martinez with a double that hit first base and rolled down the line. One out later, Mark Fischer tripled to right-center.
Martinez wasn't worried. He was just trying to get comfortable with his fastball against hitters.
"I'm not trying to fool anybody," he said. "If I want to fool them, I know how to do it."
He threw more breaking balls in the last two innings and said his fastball was more than 90 miles per hour. But he said his changeup needs work and he has to slow his delivery.
"He looked great to me. He's throwing as hard as I've seen," said Hatteberg, who participated in simulated games in the minors. "We just didn't have a guy making $15 million on the mound."
The game ended the way most of Martinez's games do. Tony Blanco's two-run homer in the second gave the pitcher with a 60-17 record the past three years, but subpar run support, a 2-1 victory.
"I ended up winning the game," he said. "Not too many (runs) but I got one more than the other team."
