FORT MYERS, Fla. — Earlier this week, Chris Sale advised the Herald that apart from his circle of relatives, Pedro Martinez might be his largest fan within the Red Sox group.
The Hall of Famer agrees, however explains that it goes deeper than that; he additionally sees them as kindred spirits, even twin flames.
“Every time I see him, I see myself,” Martinez says.
Anyone who’s seen the 6’6″ Florida lefty and 5’11” Dominican righty discussing a bullpen session could have some questions.
“I came to Boston pretty much with the same hype and same kind of expectations,” he explains, “I was also skinny.” Classic Pedro quip.
Famed Dodgers supervisor Tommy Lasorda was amongst those that thought Martinez was too small to be an MLB beginning pitcher, and relegated him to the bullpen within the early years of his big-league profession.
“I can totally relate to everything that goes on with [Sale]. From the moment he got here, the competitor he was. I knew about him, though,” Martinez mentioned. “He was no stranger to anybody about what he was doing and what he intended to do when he got to Boston. And he actually did it really well. And we got a championship with him, and he’s just a warrior out there. That’s exactly who I was. So everything he does, and the way he approaches the game is very common to the way I used to be.”
Sale got here to Boston in a blockbuster commerce with the White Sox. Between 2010-16, he threw 1,111 innings with a 3.00 ERA, 1.065 WHIP, and the power to restrict residence runs (2.5%) and walks (5.8%) whereas placing up towering strikeout numbers (27.9%). Opposing batters hit .224/.280/.352 in opposition to him throughout his South Side days. In 2012, he started a streak of seven consecutive All-Star seasons that stretched into his first two seasons with the Red Sox.
Martinez arrived in Boston in 1998, the reigning National League Cy Young with the gone-but-not-forgotten Montreal Expos. 1997 had been his second consecutive (and second profession) All-Star season, and he’d led MLB with a minuscule 1.90 ERA and 0.932 WHIP, plus 13 full video games; these days, a pitcher getting by one full sport in a season is one thing to jot down residence about.
By the top of the 2000 season, Martinez would have two extra Cy Young Awards. He got here near 4 in a row; in his first season in Boston, he completed runner-up to Roger Clemens, who’d left the Red Sox for the Blue Jays two years prior.
Sale additionally completed because the AL Cy Young runner-up in his first Red Sox season. After main MLB with a 2.45 FIP, 214 1/3 innings, and a career-high 308 strikeouts, his first (and to this point solely) 300-strikeout season, he got here in second to one in all his new teammates this yr, Corey Kluber.
Watching Sale pitch, “It’s like I’m watching myself in another body frame and in another person,” Pedro says, “But the attitude on the mound, the way he approaches the game, how aggressive and intimidating he is, is pretty much how I used to be.”
But he acknowledges one key distinction, too, “I was never very very very vocal out here where the media would probably find out, but inside the clubhouse I was, I was someone that took pride in keeping everybody together, keeping everybody as a unity, and Chris Sale does that as good as anybody in baseball.”
Leadership is available in many kinds. Down 4-0 within the seventh inning of Game 4 of the 2018 World Series, footage of Sale screaming and swearing within the dugout went viral on social media. “That kind of lit a fire under everybody, we didn’t wanna see him mad anymore,” Brock Holt mentioned after the Red Sox got here again to win the sport.
The 4 seasons since that championship haven’t been variety to Sale. After he signed a five-year, $145 million extension (with a vesting possibility for 2025) with the Red Sox earlier than Opening Day in 2019, he’s made 36 begins for a grand complete of 195 2/3 innings. All however 48 1/3 of these frames have been earlier than his April 2020 Tommy John surgical procedure.
Though the southpaw returned to the mound in August 2021, his profession has since been derailed a number of instances extra, first by a rib stress fracture that pushed his 2022 debut to July, then a fractured pinky within the first inning of his second begin, and at last, a damaged wrist that ended his season earlier than he may return. This is his first “normal” spring coaching since 2019.
“He got hurt, I’ve been there. He’s had success. I’ve been there,” Martinez mentioned.
Martinez by no means had Tommy John, a standard surgical procedure in in the present day’s sport, however he understands what it feels wish to be a competitor whose physique gained’t let him compete. During the 1999 postseason, Martinez’s strained again harm and unbelievable emergency aid look have been a focus of Boston’s newest try and reverse The Curse. The hip, calf, and hamstring accidents that plagued his Mets and Phillies tenures started occurring when he was about Sale’s age (he turns 34 in March).
Chris Sale is Pedro Martinez’s man, and vice versa.
Set the previous couple of seasons to the aspect for a minute and contemplate what a strong duo they’re: one of many orchestrators of the best comebacks in sports activities historical past, and a pitcher at present trying to mount a comeback of his personal. Jedi Master and Padawan is a becoming descriptor for the pitcher who as soon as wore a Yoda masks within the Fenway dugout.
“I’ll tell you, I absolutely love him dearly,” Martinez says. “Like he says, I’m a big fan. He’s not wrong when he says I’m probably his biggest fan here, because I am, and I’m not ashamed to say that I’m a fan of someone. But if that someone is going to be like Chris Sale, I’m extremely proud to be his fan.”
There’s one thing Martinez needs followers to grasp, too.
“I can relate to his struggles,” he reiterates, “Physically, mentally, I can totally relate to everything else. I just hope that many more people will probably stop to think about him as a human being.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com