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| Posted By | Discussion Topic: When it's over... | ||||
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| TeenWeek what's a status? | posted on 09-10-2001 @ 7:54 AM |    | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Oct. 00  | Martinez won't pitch unless Red Sox contend again -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press NEW YORK -- Pedro Martinez sat in front of his locker and stared ahead. His season is over and Boston's is pretty much finished, too. The three-time Cy Young Award winner, his pitching diminished by shoulder pain, won't start again this season unless the Boston Red Sox get back into playoff contention. "Talking with him yesterday, he said if this was a playoff scenario, he could still pitch," manager Joe Kerrigan said Sunday before his team's latest loss, 7-2 to the New York Yankees. Martinez says he has a slightly torn right rotator cuff. Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette said last week that the most important arm in New England was healthy enough to pitch and that he owed it to the fans. Since he was activated on Aug. 26 following two months on the disabled list, Martinez has allowed five runs and 12 hits in 13 innings. Against the Yankees on Friday, he lasted just three innings and left, saying his arm felt heavy. His velocity, according to Yankees' batters, was down considerably. He talked it over the next day with Kerrigan, who was Boston's pitching coach before he became manager last month. "We were basically in agreement," Kerrigan said. "We thought it was the right decision to make." He wouldn't say outright that Martinez wouldn't pitch again this year. "I think that would be sending the wrong message to our team if we did that, saying our season's over, that we have no chance at all," Kerrigan said. But he said Martinez would pitch again this year only if the Red Sox draw within two or three games of a postseason berth going into the final week of the season, an almost inconceivable scenario. Boston has lost 13 of 14, dropping 13 games behind the AL East-leading Yankees with 21 games to play and 13 behind of Oakland in the wild card race. When Kerrigan took over after Jimy Williams was fired Aug. 16, the Red Sox were two games back in the wild card. They've gone 7-16 since, a spectacular slide filled with turmoil such as Sunday's midgame removal of Izzy Alcantara for failing to run out a popup. "I'm getting a little tired of being embarrassed," said Kerrigan, who called a pregame meeting for Monday. Martinez had been the biggest constant for the Red Sox in recent years, counted on to shut down opponents every fifth day. But he is 7-3, his fewest wins since 1992, when he came up to the major leagues and made two appearances with the Los Angeles Dodgers. His 2.49 earned-run average in his 18 starts is his highest since 1998, and he is winless in seven straight starts for the first time since the first seven of his major league career. He wouldn't discuss his status with reporters. He didn't arrive at the visitor's clubhouse in Yankee Stadium until just before the Red Sox took batting practice and the room was closed to press. After the game, when he was reporters come out of Kerrigan's office, he slowly got up from the chair in front of his locker, got rid of his food and walked into a players' only area. Martinez's spot in the Red Sox rotation will be taken over by reliever Derek Lowe, who pitched the eighth inning against the Yankees on Sunday. Lowe, scheduled to start Wednesday at Tampa Bay, will be limited to three innings or 45 pitches against the Devil Rays and probably will get a total of four starts. "It's a good opportunity," said Lowe, who last started in 1998, his first full season with the Red Sox. "I've got to just go out there and try to pitch effectively and work hard in the offseason." Lowe, who has blown six of 30 save chances this year and allowed eight of 27 inherited runners to score, has made just 19 of 295 major league appearances as a starter. Kerrigan said he'd be good at it because he's a ground-ball pitcher. "I don't take this as, 'You have a spot next year,"' Lowe said. "I think I'll go into spring training next year as a starter. I'm saying I'll have to win a spot on the rotation." Kerrigan also said shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, on the disabled list since Aug. 27 because of a sore wrist following surgery, won't play either unless Boston gets back into contention. Mike Lansing, playing in place of the two-time defending AL batting champion, will return to Boston on Monday for an MRI exam of his left knee, which he bruised Saturday.  | ||||
| Tequila Fez claims this land in the name of Portugal! Why worry about the train if it never makes it around the tracks?? IrishAlkey wuz here!!! | posted on 09-10-2001 @ 11:40 AM | | |||
| O&A Board Veteran Registered: Jan. 01 | quote: So he is calling it quits for the year  AOL/AIM - oanda1027fm | ||||
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