The Yankees are still Pedro’s daddy. Granted, the Bombers didn’t exactly reassert their paternity with an exclamation point in Game 2 of the World Series last night at Yankee Stadium.
The result, though, was still the same for Pedro Martinez: more postseason frustration against the Yankees as they topped his Phillies, 3-1, to even the series at 1-1 — in what might have been Pedro’s final major-league appearance.
He has strongly hinted he will hang them up if the Phillies go on to win their second consecutive World Series.
Despite battling a virus, the three-time Cy Young winner was mostly terrific in his first Fall Classic appearance in five years. But the Yankees’ A.J. Burnett was just a little bit better.
“That’s all I could do for today,” said Martinez, who had been ill the previous two days. “I don’t feel that I saved anything. I felt I did everything I could do to beat those guys. You just have to give them credit. It’s just a loss.”
While Martinez turned back the clock for the second time this month with six-plus innings of three-run ball, striking out eight and walking just two in 107 pitches, he was the victim yet again of poor playoff run support from the Phillies.
As a result, virtually the only two mistakes Martinez made — solo homers by Mark Teixeira in the fourth and Hideki Matsui in the sixth — proved his undoing.
That’s because Burnett couldn’t have been more impressive in outdueling Martinez in a slow-paced affair filled with strikeouts in the early going.
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel had been second-guessed for dusting off the 37-year-old, whose only previous appearance this postseason had been 13 days earlier in Los Angeles against the Dodgers in the NLCS.
Even though Martinez had been incredible that day, allowing just two hits in seven scoreless innings of an eventual 2-1 Phillies loss, his age and career 1-2 record with a 4.72 ERA in the playoffs against the Yankees entering last night prompted much second-guessing.
But Martinez’s command was excellent, and the Yankees were constantly fooled by his breaking pitches and changeup as he retired nine of the first 11 batters to quiet the Yankee Stadium crowd.
“Pedro did a tremendous job,” Manuel said. “He changed speeds, and he definitely moved the ball around, and he was aggressive. He wasn’t afraid to throw inside to some of their big hitters, and he pitched a good game.”
The “Who’s your daddy?” chants returned with a vengeance after Teixeira homered to right to open the fourth and tie the game 1-1, then picked up again when Matsui took a curveball deep two innings later.
That would be enough to spell defeat for Martinez with the Phillies’ bats once again anemic — at least in the postseason — with Pedro on the mound.
If this was indeed Pedro’s swan song, the Yankees once again had the upper hand.