Jeter Strikes Back: Finds Way to Solve Martinez' Mastery
Boston Herald, June 21, 2000
by Rich Thompson
New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter spent most of yesterday afternoon thinking about the man Red Sox manager Jimy Williams would be sending to the mound later that evening.
The prospect of facing Sox ace Pedro Martinez in Fenway Park was daunting for Jeter, especially after the 22-1 drubbing the Yankees inflicted on the Red Sox Monday night.
When the specter of Martinez arrived with Jeter's lunch, it was too much.
Jeter's one-out, solo home run into the left field screen in the top of the fourth inning was all the offense starter Andy Pettitte (7-3) and stopper Mariano Rivera would need to beat the Sox, 3-0, before 33,909 Fenway faithful.
``Me and Tino (Martinez) went to lunch (yesterday) and we ordered a pizza,'' said Jeter. ``The chef, he cut out Pedro's name in pepperoni on it. We know that he's a great pitcher, everybody knows Pedro is Pedro. He's a great pitcher, but today we were able to score a few runs.''
And the pizza?
``It was good,'' said Jeter.
Martinez' success against Jeter in their two previous meetings this season was with the inside fastball. Martinez throws that pitch better than anybody in baseball, but Jeter was on the lookout for it early in the count.
``It was a fastball inside and I got a good swing on it,'' said Jeter on his second home run in two nights. ``I got it up in the air and it was able to go over the wall.
``It was just a pitch inside, it wasn't a situation where he was trying to hit me.''
Jeter wasn't the only member of manager Joe Torre's crew to put one out of the yard on Martinez, who fell to 9-3. Clean-up hitter Bernie Williams had a brief encounter with Martinez' first pitch fastball in the seventh and deposited it over the wall. The Yankees No. 3 hitter, Paul O'Neill, did a similar trick on an 0-1 pitch in the eighth that went 395 feet into the Red Sox bullpen just as Rich Garces was starting to warm up.
The Yankees' No. 2, 3, and 4 hitters understand that Martinez' M.O. is to get ahead of the hitters. That's why all three home runs were early in the count.
``There are times when he gets in trouble and pitches out of it, so sometimes home runs are the only way,'' said O'Neill. ``But you can't go into a game thinking you are going to hit home runs off Pedro Martinez.''
Home run hat tricks off Martinez are as common as shark attacks in Lake Winnipesaukee. Even in the loss, Martinez pitched eight innings, allowed three earned runs, one walk and struck out nine. That could have been good enough if he got any semblance of offensive support.
``It doesn't happen very often and we were having good at-bats,'' said Jeter. ``We went into the game with a lot of confidence, we are capable of doing that, but you don't go into a game against Pedro Martinez expecting to hit three home runs.
``I don't know when the last time he gave up three home runs or if he ever has. But we've been having good at-bats the past couple of weeks and when you have good at-bats, good things are going to happen.''