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| Tuesday, March 7 | |||||
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- Pedro Martinez's first pitch of the
exhibition season was a ball. His first outing was a loss. His
first impressions were obvious in the smile on his face.
He was healthy again. There was no sign of the injury below his right shoulder blade that plagued him in last year's playoffs. "Everything went fine. Those are not the results I would like," baseball's best pitcher said Monday. "I just wanted to see how I felt in a game because after last season I never faced a batter. This is the first time. It's a big test." Using mostly fastballs, Martinez allowed three runs on three hits -- a double, triple and homer -- while throwing 32 pitches in the first two innings. He got the loss in the Texas Rangers 13-6 win over the Boston Red Sox. There were two notable confrontations. In the first inning, Martinez faced Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez with one out and a runner on third. The Rangers' catcher edged Martinez for AL Most Valuable Player last season when two writers left Martinez off their ballots because they didn't think pitchers should get the award. Martinez won this much less important matchup, getting Rodriguez on a called strike on the outside corner. "I like challenges," Martinez said. "Pudge is one of the players I like to face and he's going to be one of the players that I want to face most of the time in spring training so I know how to get him out." The other matchup should have been more one-sided -- the AL Cy Young Award winner who was 23-4 with a major-league best 2.07 ERA and AL high 313 strikeouts vs. Luis Alicea, who has 36 homers in 10 seasons. Alicea sent the fifth pitch, a fastball that didn't go as far inside as Martinez would have liked, over the 20-foot wall in right field for a second-inning home run. "I could have gotten Alicea out, maybe, with some other pitches but that's not exactly what I want," Martinez said. "I don't want to get hurt trying to get Alicea out in spring training." For the most part, he stayed away from breaking balls. He didn't throw nearly as hard as he can and struck out just one but walked none. He threw one wild pitch. But the regular season doesn't start for another month. "His delivery was good. He wasn't trying to overthrow at all," Boston manager Jimy Williams said. "How much weight do you put into the first time out? Let's be honest here. Or the second time out? The main thing is he's healthy." "The more I keep throwing, the better I feel," Martinez said. "I felt like I could throw the ball hard but I didn't want to overthrow. I didn't want to overdo anything."
Indians 15, Yankees 1 The World Series champions have been outscored 49-16 and have not held a lead in any game this year. Sexson's second spring-training homer came in the fourth off reliever Mike Buddie. He added a two-run double during an eight-run fifth. Jaret Wright pitched two hitless innings in his spring debut. Wright, trying to hang on to the fifth spot in the Indians starting rotation, needed just 18 pitches to retire his six batters. "Even though it's spring training, you like facing good teams, and it's still the Yankees," Wright said. "It's always good to skate by that first one and get it out of the way."
Orioles 17, Dodgers 3 After signing a $15.6 million, three-year contract, Perez went 2-10 with a 7.43 ERA last season. "This is the first game," Perez said. "I'm still working. It's no big deal." All five games in Arizona were wiped out by rain Monday. In other Florida games:
Expos 11, Mets 6
Braves 12, Blue Jays 2
Astros 8, Cardinals 7
Pirates 11, Reds 4
Phillies 5, Tigers 4
Marlins 6, Royals 4
Twins 4, Devil Rays 1 | ALSO SEE The rights (and wrongs) of spring Exhibition roundup: Griffey smacks his first homer in Reds uniform |