Tampa Bay’s new manager has never beaten Martinez
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – No one has to remind Lou Piniella of how difficult it is to beat Pedro Martinez.
A Piniella team has never beaten the Boston Red Sox ace, however the new manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays can’t think of a better time to end that streak than Monday’s season opener.
“He’s pitched extremely well. He’s extremely tough,” Piniella said Sunday. “But this is a new situation, a new year. Hopefully, we’ll have more success.”
Martinez was 10-0 with a 0.94 ERA against Seattle while Piniella was enjoying a highly successful stint as manager of the Mariners. The three-time Cy Young Award winner is 7-2 with a 2.29 ERA against the Devil Rays, including 2-0 with a 1.93 ERA last year.
Throw in the fact that Martinez is 3-0 in five opening-day starts for the Red Sox and will be facing one of the youngest and least experienced lineups in the major leagues, and it would be easy to understand Tampa Bay feeling overmatched.
But that’s not Piniella, who inherited a team that lost 106 games in 2002. He stops short of making predictions, but expects the Devil Rays to be noticeably better this year – even though they’ll be outmanned virtually every time they take the field.
“Our job is to win baseball games. Let’s not down play that,” Piniella said. “We’re not here to be a patsy for somebody.”
Tampa Bay lost 16 of 19 games to Boston last season, the most losses by one team to another since 1986 when the Pittsburgh Pirates lost 17 to the New York Mets. The Red Sox were 10-0 at Tropicana Field, where Martinez is 5-1 in seven career starts.
“Your best chance of beating him,” Piniella said, “is to go out and get a very good game pitched against him.”
That could be problematic for the Devil Rays, too.
Joe Kennedy, Tampa Bay’s opening-day starter, is coming off three straight disappointing outings in spring training, including last Wednesday when he allowed nine runs and 10 hits in 1 2-3 innings against the New York Yankees.
Overall, the 22-year-old left-hander yielded 18 runs and 32 hits in 14 2-3 innings spread over five starts.
“I think I’m throwing the ball well,” Kennedy said. “The numbers just aren’t there.”
Martinez was 1-3 with a 3.00 ERA in five spring training appearances, but the most important thing for the Red Sox is he heads into the season with no questions about the sore shoulder that bothered him last year when he nevertheless went 20-4 and led the majors with a 2.26 ERA.
Manager Grady Little said the Boston ace is throwing as well as he’s ever seen him.
“Pedro’s ready,” Little said, adding that the pitcher’s health is just one of the reasons why he feels the Red Sox are a better team than they were at this time a year ago. How much better, I don’t know. But we’re better.”
One thing the Red Sox didn’t get done during an otherwise very successful spring training is sign Martinez to a new contract. The pitcher said last month that unless Boston exercised his $17.5 million option for 2004 by the end of camp that he’d likely finish his career elsewhere.
Little said he doesn’t expect the situation to be a distraction.
“I can’t answer that question, but I don’t suspect that it will,” the manager said before a late-afternoon workout at Tropicana Field.
“This is one of the best pitchers in the game and he’s got a lot of pride. … I think he knows if he pitches like he’s pitching now, he’s going to be well taken care of.”
Facing Martinez is just the start of a tough stretch for Tampa Bay. The Devil Rays, who have never won more than 69 games or finished out of last place in the AL East, play 13 of their first 16 games against the Red Sox and Yankees.
Piniella tried to put a positive spin on the schedule.
“You’re going to have to play them some time,” he said. “You might as well do it early and hope their not hitting on all cylinders.”
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