Throwback Pitcher Keeps Red Sox Alive

Leadoff batter Gerald Williams faced a 1-and-2 count as he settled into the box. The fastball came right at him, hitting his left hand.

He looked at his hand, then at the pitcher. Then he charged the mound.

And Pedro Martinez stood his ground.

The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, a slim 5-foot-11, took the 6-foot-2 Williams’ rush full-on, tumbling backward when Tampa Bay’s outfielder landed a right hand.

Martinez then got up and reclaimed his place as king of the hill: He retired the next 24 batters before the Devil Rays managed their only hit in the ninth in an 8-0 Boston win.

“Pedro’s kind of a throwback in a lot of ways,” Red Sox teammate Dante Bichette said. “You’re not going to show him up.”

Knock him down, suspend him, howl that he’s a headhunter, with his AL-high 14 hit batters and only 27 walks. Martinez remains unruffled.

He answers with more inside pitches and an intensity that pushes him toward his ultimate goal -- victory, even if it means occasionally suppressing his urge to fire back.

So after two pitches hit Boston’s Brian Daubach, whom the Devil Rays accused of cheap shots during that Aug. 29 melee, Martinez went for strikeouts not knockouts.

“I cannot afford to retaliate and be thrown out and act stupid,” he said.

It was different in April, when Martinez brushed back Cleveland’s Einar Diaz after the catcher hit two doubles on outside pitches. Charles Nagy hit Jose Offerman in retaliation and Martinez intentionally drilled Roberto Alomar in the backside despite being warned by the umpire.

Martinez was ejected and suspended five games.

Five Devil Rays were suspended this time, but no Red Sox -- despite Tampa Bay manger Larry Rothschild’s claim that Martinez must have hit Williams on purpose. Martinez denied that.

Now come the rematches.

Boston plays eight games against Cleveland, its top AL wild card competitor, and ends the season with three at Tampa Bay. There also are four games against Detroit, whose manager, Phil Garner, suggested that the best way to beat Martinez might be to get him ejected in a beanball battle.

Martinez’s challenge is to keep cool even if provoked. Without his 16-4 record and his major league leading 1.66 ERA, the Red Sox would have virtually no shot at the playoffs.

“He’s the best pitcher in baseball. Bar none,” said former teammate Mike Stanley, now with wild card rival Oakland. “Nothing fazes him and nothing can keep his sights off winning. A perfect example is what he did the rest of the way in Tampa Bay. You don’t want Pedro pumped up.”

Martinez’s brushback reputation comes from his Montreal days when he plunked 11 batters each in 1994 and 1995. In the next four years, he averaged slightly more than seven a season.

“His reputation is ridiculous,” said Jason Varitek, who caught Martinez’s one-hitter against Tampa Bay. “Maybe when he was a young kid he had a problem. Now it’s to the point one ball gets away from him, he’s headhunting.”

The bench-clearing brawl caught the eye of a Boston catcher of the 1970s, Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk. After the Red Sox retired his number on Labor Day, he said pitching inside like Martinez does used to be commonplace.

“I saw that Tampa thing the other day and I almost wanted to puke,” Fisk said. “That’s the only way to pitch. And that’s the way they used to pitch.”

Boston first baseman Rico Brogna agrees, even though he missed more than two months while with Philadelphia this season after being hit by a pitch from Montreal’s Matt Blank.

“He was just trying to set up the next pitch,” Brogna said. “I respect a pitcher’s ability, especially if he has good control, to pitch inside because it’s a battle during the at-bat between the pitcher and the hitter to say, ‘The plate is mine.’ Most of the time pitchers throw away, and a hitter feels very comfortable.”

Martinez’s supporters say batters crowd the plate because few pitchers throw inside.

“If you throw at a guy and he sees that ball there, he can get out of the way,” said Johnny Pesky, who played for the Red Sox in the 1940s. “I’d stick my coconut out if I had a helmet on like they do now.”

Today’s players “are more sensitive to inside pitches,” said Boston coach Tommy Harper, who played in the 1970s and ‘80s. “If we fought every time there was a ball inside, we never would have been able to play the game.”

Two days after the Tampa Bay suspensions, Atlanta’s Andres Galarraga was suspended for three games for a brawl after being hit Aug. 22 by Colorado reliever John Wasdin’s pitch. Both were ejected.

Umpire Tim McClelland said Martinez wasn’t ejected because he didn’t hit Williams deliberately. Devil Ray Greg Vaughn thought Martinez was getting star treatment.

“Some guys can do whatever they want to do and it’s all right,” he said.

Whether Martinez wants to keep batters off the plate or tries to hit them, the result is the same.

“He’s established himself so well that he doesn’t even need to throw that fastball inside because hitters have it in the back of their minds,” Brogna said.

So Martinez will keep throwing inside. And batters will crowd the plate at their peril.

“Pedro has a great approach that he’s going to pitch inside,” said Bichette, who remembers when his former Colorado teammate, Galarraga, was knocked down by Martinez.

“Galarraga got angry,” Bichette said, “but no one ever dug in against Pedro after that.”