Pedro’s last four playoff outings in New York:
1 World Series, 2009, Game 2: Pinned with tough loss after giving up homers to Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui.
2 ALCS, Game 7, 2004: Gave up two runs in one relief inning. Didn’t matter. Red Sox rolled, 10-3.
3 ALCS, Game 2, 2004: “Who’s Your Daddy” chant is born. Gives up three runs in six innings.
4 ALCS, Game 7, 2003: Grady Little left his ace in too long and Aaron Boone made history.
Yankee Stadium has been a house of horrors for Pedro Martinez in the postseason. He’s 0-2 with a 5.82 ERA in four playoff starts in the Bronx dating back to 2003.
But maybe those New York lights will inspire him, to borrow a line from Jay-Z, tonight as he attempts to push the World Series to a decisive seventh game.
“This is the kind of stage I deserve,” Martinez said. “I don’t want to die and then hear everybody say, ‘Oh, there goes one of the best players ever.’ If you’re going to give me props, just give them to me right now.”
If Martinez sounds cocky, then you’re not really listening. Sure, he relishes the attention, but it hasn’t always been like that. Coming from a small town — Manoguayabo — in the Dominican Republic, the 38-year-old has had to scratch and claw for everything.
“Everybody that grows up in the Dominican and didn’t have a rich life, it’s a survival,” Martinez said.
“I’m someone that wasn’t meant to be, and here I am on one big stage.”