Many were surprised by the spectacular performance put on by one-time Met Pedro Martinez. I wasn’t.
The 37-year old righthander looked more like the 27-year old version as he completely shut down a voracious Dodgers offense and held them to just two hits during seven shutout innings of pure vintage Pedro.
Martinez didn’t walk any batters as he unveiled his masterpiece, but unfortunately for him (and fortunately for us) he handed over a certain win to a shaky Phillies bullpen who couldn’t save Pedro’s gem.
Pedro performed well for the Phillies down the stretch. In his nine starts, he finished with a 3.63 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP, striking out 37 and walking just 8 in 44 innings pitched. I wasn’t happy about him joining the Phillies, but he did do all he could do to remain a Met at the time. It wasn’t his fault we chose to shun him.
Still, it was hard not to root for Pedro even though he was wearing the uniform of our arch enemies.
In the end I got just what I had hoped for, a masterpiece from Pedro and a loss for the Phillies. Small favors like this are the only things I have to look forward to in this otherwise somber post season.
