PHILADELPHIA — This is the way it has to be for the Yankees. They will get the chance to win the World Series at home. They can spear the frog.
Pedro Martinez is that frog.
Before his Game 2 start, Pedro was waxing poetically about his career and what it means to pitch in Yankee Stadium.
“Coming to Yankee Stadium for somebody like me who has, as we say, frog’s blood, it doesn’t mean much more than 27 outs and nine innings,” Martinez said in Spanish, indicating that he was one cold-blooded Pedro, unfazed by pitching in the new $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium.
“When I was younger, you could have expected a more volatile reaction, but now, I’m like a war veteran who’s not fazed by bullets whistling by his ears.”The baseball bullets will be whistling come tomorrow night at the Stadium in Game 6. So will the “Who’s Your Daddy” chants.
This isn’t about 27 outs; it’s about the Yankees’ 27th World Championship. This is the road they must travel.
You didn’t really expect A.J. Burnett to step it up big time last night on three days’ rest, now did you? Burnett and the Yankees were beaten 8-6 at Citizens Bank Park by Pedro’s Phillies.
Pedro already is in a playful mood. Last night he waved off reporters in the clubhouse after the game and then as we all stood by the exit he ducked out, then opened the door and said, “I’ll be back.” He looked at me, smiled and said, “It’s like waiting for Manny, you remember what that was like.”
That meant goodbye.
The Yankees know they have to come out strong against Pedro. Their legacy is on the line. Nick Swisher gave the perfect one word description of what Yankee Stadium will be like at first pitch: “Rocking.”
The Yankees have never fully recovered from the last time a Pedro team showed up at Yankee Stadium trailing 3-2 in a series. That was the 2004 Red Sox and the Yankees produced the Greatest Choke on Earth, as they went on to drop four straight to Boston under another manager named Joe.
If the Yankees somehow manage to blow this, they will be forever tortured as the Biggest Chokers with the Biggest Salaries. That is what is at stake if there are collapses in Games 6 and 7.
When the Yankees came back home with a 3-2 lead against the Angels, Torii Hunter said all the pressure was on the Yankees. But no one really believed that, you knew the Yankees would beat up Joe Saunders and the Angels. The Angels played scared against the Yankees. So did the Twins.
The Phillies don’t play scared.
This Pedro is a much different animal than the 2004 version. Trickery is his friend and the pressure really is on the Yankees as one of their oldest rivals will be staring them down. Pedro lives for the big stage. He allowed all three runs in the Yankees’ 3-1 victory in Game 2 as home runs by Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui did him in that night.
Johnny Damon said he expects Pedro to change tactics to keep the Yankees off balance.
“He’s probably going to change it up a little bit, it’s tough for a pitcher to attack us with the same stuff after we just saw him,” Damon said after last night’s loss.
Remember, when Pedro walked off that field that night he had a big grin on his face. Imagine if he walks off that field tomorrow night with the lead.
It’s Pedro against Big Game Andy Pettitte on little rest. That’s a fair fight and Pettitte said he was up to it as he marched out of Citizens Bank Park.
“I’m plenty up to it,” Pettitte said. “It will be fun.”
It’s up to the Yankees to put an end to Pedro and the Phillies.