Red Sox Blast Rocket

It would be impossible to create a more sublime setting for October baseball than Fenway Park on Saturday--a gorgeous New England afternoon, 73 degrees, barely a cloud in the sky and a fired-up capacity crowd in a tradition-filled stadium.

Onto this resplendent canvas, Pedro Martinez painted what most would consider a masterpiece, outdueling Roger Clemens--and then some--to thrust the Boston Red Sox right back into the American League championship series against the New York Yankees.

His trademark blazing fastball in temporary storage because of a back strain, Martinez was still brilliant, giving up two hits in seven innings and striking out 12 to lead the Red Sox to a 13-1 thrashing of the Yankees in Game 3 before a Fenway crowd of 33,190.

“He is an artist out there,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said, “except he has a baseball instead of a paint brush.”

Listening to Martinez, though, you’d swear he spent the afternoon finger-painting. The diminutive Dominican, who has now thrown 17 scoreless playoff innings, was unimpressed with his performance, which couldn’t have made the Yankees feel any better.

“I had nothing the whole game,” Martinez said. “I didn’t feel good at all. I didn’t have a fastball, I didn’t feel like I had a good breaking ball or a good changeup. I just managed to spot the ball well and, I don’t know, mix them in there, see what happens. My team picked me up, big time.”

There is no disputing Martinez’s last statement. The Red Sox shredded Clemens and several relievers, setting ALCS records for hits (21) and extra-base hits (10). John Valentin, Brian Daubach and Nomar Garciaparra each hit two-run home runs, Garciaparra had four hits, and Valentin, Jose Offerman and Trot Nixon had three hits apiece.

The Sox have scored 45 runs in three home playoff games, Valentin now has four homers and 17 RBIs in eight playoff games, and Garciaparra is hitting .480 with four homers and nine RBIs in the postseason.

Boston trails the best-of-seven series, 2-1, with Red Sox right-hander Bret Saberhagen scheduled to face Yankee left-hander Andy Pettitte in Game 4 tonight.

“We had to win today,” Valentin said. “Going down, 3-0, against the New York Yankees would have been almost impossible to come back from. It would have been like going down 2-0 to Cleveland.”

Saturday’s game was billed as the Battle of Beantown, a clash of titans featuring Martinez, Boston’s new favorite son and a sure bet to win the 1999 AL Cy Young Award, and Clemens, the former Red Sox prodigy who won three of his five Cy Young awards in Boston before leaving after a bitter contract dispute with the Red Sox front office after the 1996 season.

It looked more like Cy Young vs. Cy Old.

Martinez’s fastball, normally in the 96-mph range, topped out at 91, but just as he did during his six-inning, no-hit relief effort in Game 5 of the division series-clinching victory over Cleveland on Monday night, Martinez baffled the Yankees with his changeup and slow curve, each of which hovered in the 79-mph range, and his pinpoint cut-fastballs.

Of his 12 strikeouts, eight came on off-speed pitches, one of which fooled Ricky Ledee so thoroughly in the second inning that Ledee swung at a ball that bounced a foot in front of the plate.

“Not only can Pedro throw the ball to a certain spot, he can make it move,” Red Sox pitching coach Joe Kerrigan said. “He sinks it, rises it, cuts it. He’s a magician with the ball.”

Martinez’s 12 strikeouts broke a Red Sox playoff record, previously held by Bill Dinneen, who struck out 11 in Game 2 of the 1903 World Series against Pittsburgh, and Smokey Joe Wood, who struck out 11 in Game 1 of the 1912 World Series against the New York Giants.

Martinez also struck out 17 Yankees in a one-hitter on Sept. 10, but that was when he had his best fastball. Without that weapon this past week, it’s as if Martinez has reinvented himself.

“Every time I watch him,” Saberhagen said, “I just sit back and marvel.”

Martinez didn’t marvel Saturday. He grimaced.

“I am hurting on every pitch I throw, and I am not lying,” he said. “If you were the one hurting like I am hurting, you won’t be pitching unless you have the heart like I do. I don’t think [my back] is nearly as good as it could be . . . so I had to pretty much just mix my pitches and try to catch them guessing wrong and hit the spots.

“That was the key, hitting the spots. When they were looking for a changeup, I threw a little cutter in. When they were looking for the breaking ball, I was throwing a little sinker away. The hardest I could probably throw today was 89 [mph].”

Clemens beat Martinez on the radar gun, some of his fastballs hitting 94 mph, but he was a shell of his former self, getting bombed for five runs and six hits in two-plus innings. Offerman drilled his second pitch of the game off the wall in right for a triple, and Valentin popped a homer into the screen above the Green Monster in left-center for a 2-0 lead.

Struggling with his command, Clemens was rocked for two more runs in the second and another in the third, when he was pulled for Hideki Irabu, who took a 4 2/3-inning, 13-hit, eight-run beating but saved the bullpen some wear and tear.

Clemens took the mound amid chants of “Rog-er, Rog-er,” and by the seventh inning of the blowout, Sox fans serenaded the Yankees with a robust chant of: “Where is Roger? Where is Roger?”

The answer at the time was in the clubhouse, the outcome of the most lopsided game in ALCS history having long since been decided.

“It was such an adrenaline rush hearing our fans,” Red Sox center fielder Darren Lewis said. “They were so loud and enthusiastic, it was like you were on a natural high out there. We loved it.”