Red Sox Make Martinez Wait to Pass Marichal

Talk about pressure. The president of your native country chats with you before the game. About 100 family members, friends and fans fly in from Central America to see you pitch. Just about everyone else in your homeland is stationed by their TV sets and radios.

They all wanted to see Dennis Martinez become the winningest Latin American pitcher in major league history. They’ll have to wait at least few days longer.

Martinez, who tied Juan Marichal’s record last week by winning his 243rd game, was knocked out in the fifth inning and the Boston Red Sox went on to defeat the Atlanta Braves, 9-3, Tuesday night.

“I was a little bit nervous before the game,” said Martinez, who gave up nine hits and seven runs in four-plus innings. “There was a lot of excitement, a lot of anxiety to get it over with.”

The 43-year-old “El Presidente” was cheered on by the president from his native Nicaragua, Arnoldo Aleman, who met with Martinez before the game and confidently predicted he would break Marichal’s record.

Not on this night.

Aleman watched with disappointment from a Turner Field luxury box as Martinez’s prospects of going past Marichal, a Hall of Famer from the Dominican Republic, ended when Boston broke a 1-1 tie with a five-run fourth inning.

The loss wasn’t entirely Martinez’s fault. Two Atlanta errors led to four unearned runs, and the inning was extended by a questionable call at first base. But Martinez contributed too, giving up four hits and a walk.

“I’ll have to live with it,” he said. “It’s not going to go your way all the time. I’ve been in this game a long time. I’ve seen the good and the bad. This doesn’t surprise me.”

When the Red Sox began the fifth with back-to-back singles, Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox strolled to the mound to make a pitching change. Martinez willingly gave up the ball and, in trademark fashion, sprinted to the dugout to muted applause from the crowd of 43,121.

Martinez (2-3) dropped to 243-190 in a career that began in 1976, one year before teammate Andruw Jones was born. Marichal, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1983, had a 243-142 record in a 16-season career, mostly with the San Francisco Giants.

It was the first bad performance by Martinez in more than a month.

Since April 24, he was 1-0 with a save and a 1.11 earned-run average, giving up only four earned runs in 32 1/3 innings.