Martinez Is Quiet, Before the Big Storm

Pedro Martinez continued his policy of ducking interview-room sessions before his playoff starts, a postseason practice by the next day’s starting pitcher that Major League Baseball leaves to the teams to enforce. The Red Sox have bowed to Martinez’s whim before both of his starts.

Martinez has taken a lot of abuse for his “call the Yankees my daddy” observation, particularly in New York, where T-shirts proclaiming, “Hey Red Sox, who’s your daddy?” hang in many storefronts.

On Tuesday night, the Red Sox sent Kevin Millar to the interview room in Martinez’s place, and Millar sought to explain Martinez’s sentiment and the reaction to it.

Said Millar: “Well, I’m his daddy, not the Yankees. So, he answers to me first.”

When the laughter fell, Millar later added, “All of the articles, ‘your daddy’ this, ‘your daddy’ that. There’s only one way to do it, and time will tell. He goes out and wins the game and throws the way he’s capable, it looks like he’s a genius. It was kind of funny. I don’t know where it came from, because I thought I was his daddy ... and he left me.”

Martinez did report to the foul line during Tuesday’s pregame introductions, a tradition he skipped last week in Anaheim.

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Watching Fox’s lead-ins to the series Monday and Tuesday nights, you’d think the network was promoting a World Wrestling Entertainment event, what with all the fists flying, benches emptying and replays of former Yankee bench coach Don Zimmer getting thrown to the ground by Martinez.

Yankee Manager Joe Torre did not think such an emphasis on violence affected the players, “but you’re inciting the fans in my mind,” he said before Game 1. “I know I feel sort of safer on the field than maybe the fans are because of the emotions, and they are sitting next to each other and they are agitating each other and all of that stuff.

“So, to me, it’s not something I’m proud of. I guess they are figuring they want to get people so interested, just like some of these computer games where you have guys sliding into second and punching the second baseman when he gets up. I think that’s disgraceful that we have licensing things going on in Major League Baseball that promote violence and things that should not be part of this.”

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The themes of the postgame Red Sox clubhouse centered on eating, getting out and coming back today.

They had stood beneath the nasty songs that billowed from the right-field bleachers and the stadium-wide rhetorical question “Who’s your da-dee?” that promises to be today’s theme.

“I keep hearing those nice chants out there,” center fielder Johnny Damon said with a smile. “I think he’s going to show up tomorrow.”

That would be Martinez, who was 1-2 with a 5.47 earned-run average in four starts against the Yankees this season after winning 10 of 12 previous starts against them.

“We’ll be back out there tomorrow,” Millar said.