Martinez Amassing Big Numbers

Count Pedro Martinez’s numbers any way you like and the answer is the same: unbelievable.

A 0.95 ERA, a .152 batting average by opposing batters--both major-league bests--and .044 with runners in scoring position. Four earned runs in his last 57 innings. Just 17 hits in his last 41 innings. And one very impressed pitching coach.

That ERA?

The next lowest in the American League is 3.07.

“This is something we’ll not see in our lifetime again so enjoy it,” says pitching coach Joe Kerrigan.

Rub your eyes, check your eyeglass prescription and squint all you want as Martinez winds up and throws one of his four exceptional pitches. Watch him stand expressionless, as if he expected it all along, while another batter swings, misses then trudges back to the dugout shaking his head.

“It’s unbelievable?” Martinez says with his childish smile, “Don’t believe it then.”

It’s understandable if you don’t, especially in a hitters’ era with home runs flying out of ballparks. He’s allowed three in 85 1-3 innings.

In the latest installment of “Did Pedro really do that?” he allowed one hit in eight innings in Thursday night’s 3-0 win over Cleveland, extending his scoreless streak to 22 innings. He struck out 10, walked one and said he wasn’t fully recovered from bronchitis and a sore muscle in his left side.

In the previous episode, he allowed four hits, struck out nine and walked one in a 2-0 complete-game win over the New York Yankees and Roger Clemens.

Philadelphia got lucky. Martinez was supposed to pitch against them last Saturday but skipped his turn because of his muscle problem.

Even Martinez’s critics praise him. Cleveland’s Omar Vizquel was outspoken after an April 30 game in which Martinez, a staunch advocate of protecting his teammates, was ejected for hitting Roberto Alomar with a pitch after Boston’s Jose Offerman was plunked.

“He was masterful,” Vizquel said after going 0-for-4 with a strikeout Thursday. “It was a pleasure to be on the field against him.”

Standing in the batter’s box, though, can be like trying to hit a pea with a toothpick. Martinez leads the AL with 114 strikeouts.

Check out some other numbers.

Martinez is 9-2 and both his losses were by one run. He’s allowed 4.75 hits per nine innings in his 11 appearances. The ERAs of 18 of the other 29 teams are higher than that.

Combine that with his last 11 outings of 1999, including three post-season games, and his statistics are more eye-popping.

In those 22 games in which he pitched 158 1-3 innings, his nine-inning averages are 13.3 strikeouts, 1.7 walks and 4.43 hits, less than one every two innings. He’s also 17-2.

He’s allowed only 14 earned runs in that span, an ERA of 0.80. The major-league record is 1.12 set by Bob Gibson in 1968. The AL mark of 1.14 by Walter Johnson has stood since 1913.

“I’m only a human being. I’m not anything special,” Martinez says. “I don’t have the greatest numbers ever.”

He does have four outstanding pitches, usually using the same motion so batters don’t know what terror they’ll encounter.

“He was throwing his fastball, his breaking ball and his changeup over whenever he wanted to,” Cleveland manager Charlie Manuel said. “When he wanted to miss, he did that, too.”

Martinez, who stares at batters after he strikes them out, is fiercely competitive.

“There’s plenty of times I’m amazed,” Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek says, “especially crunch time. When teams have a good opportunity to score a run, he doesn’t make a mistake.”

Opponents are 2-for-45 against him with runners in scoring position.

“He puts the ball exactly where he wants to and he does it so consistently,” Red Sox manager Jimy Williams says.