Martinez, Clemens Put on Quite a Show

It was a game worthy of being played in October instead of May with Boston’s Pedro Martinez and New York’s Roger Clemens in a brilliant pitcher’s duel Sunday night at Yankee Stadium that had a postseason feel about it.

One mistake was all it took to settle it. Locked in a scoreless battle, Clemens gave up a home run to Trot Nixon in the ninth inning and the Red Sox went on to defeat the Yankees, 2-0.

Nixon hit his two-run homer into the right-field bleachers and Martinez (8-2) survived a bases-loaded jam to complete a four-hit shutout. His brother, Ramon, was the first one out of the dugout to congratulate him.

Clemens (4-5), working on a three-hitter with 13 strikeouts, had two outs in the ninth when Jeff Frye hit a ball up the middle that glanced off the palm of his glove and then bounced off his stomach for an infield hit. That brought up Nixon, who had tripled in the seventh.

“It was a fastball up,” Clemens said. “I’d like to elevate it letter high. He got it. You don’t want to walk anybody in that position.”

Martinez, meanwhile, had retired 10 consecutive batters and had a three-hitter going into the ninth. But he hit Chuck Knoblauch leading off and then Derek Jeter followed with his third hit.

Martinez, who lowered his earned-run average to 1.05, admitted he was getting tired.

“I felt a little exhausted,” he said. “My chest was hurting a little bit and I was coughing a lot. I tried to crank it up a little.”

He struck out Paul O’Neill but then Bernie Williams sent Nixon to the running track in right field for his long fly ball. The Yankees thought it might be going out but Martinez wasn’t worried.

“I knew he didn’t hit it good enough,” he said.

With two out, he hit Jorge Posada to load the bases. But with the tying runs in scoring position, Tino Martinez grounded out to end it.

Tampa Bay 14, Seattle 4--Mike DiFelice homered to start an 11-run eighth inning--the biggest in Devil Ray history--and help end a losing streak at four games.

Jose Guillen hit a pair of two-run doubles in the inning and Ozzie Guillen added a two-run double. The Devil Rays got 10 hits off Jose Mesa (2-4), who was ejected later in the inning for throwing close to DiFelice and was relaced by John Mabry.

DiFelice batted against Mesa later in the inning and walked on four pitches. Ball four was an inside fastball, and Mesa was ejected by plate umpire Dana DeMuth. Mesa gave up nine runs and seven hits while getting only one out.

John Mabry became the second Mariner position player to pitch in a game, joining infielder Manny Castillo, who did it on June 26, 1983. Mabry got two outs, giving up two runs and three hits.

Cleveland 12, Chicago 3--Travis Fryman homered during a five-run sixth inning and the Indians salvaged a victory in their three-game series at Chicago.

The victory moved the Indians to within 1 1/2 games of the White Sox in the Central Division.

Toronto 12, Detroit 7--Carlos Delgado hit two homers and drove in five runs at Detroit to give rookie Clayton Andrews his first major league victory.

Delgado gave the Blue Jays an 8-6 lead with a two-run homer in the sixth, making a winner of Andrews (1-1), who pitched four scoreless innings after taking over to start the fourth inning. Delgado hit a three-run homer in the eighth.

Oakland at Baltimore, rain--The game was postponed by a steady rain that was expected to continue through today. A makeup date will be announced later this week.