Not buying this spin on rotation

July 16, 2004|Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Columnist

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Pedro Martinez was 9-3 with a 3.67 ERA at the All-Star break. He's a three-time Cy Young Award winner, he makes more money than any pitcher in the history of baseball ($17.5 million this year), and he arrived at the ballpark last night with seven full days of rest since his last start.

So why wasn't Pedro starting the first game after the All-Star break?

"We set it up a while ago," said Sox manager Terry Francona. "I'm more comfortable pitching him [tonight] in the second game. We've kind of set this up. I can't probably give you every reason, there's probably a load of them. I like the idea of Derek [Lowe] coming back from the get-go. We wanted Schill [Curt Schilling] to pitch fourth, that was kind of an important one. We're trying to keep Wake [Tim Wakefield] in between them. There's probably a lot of reasons."

But not starting Pedro last night takes him out of next weekend's Fenway series with the Yankees.

Francona pondered the statement as if it had been delivered in French, looked up, and said, "OK, so what's your point?"

The Yankees. That's the point.

"Every game to me means the same," said the manager. "If we lost to the people in front of the Yankees, the Yankee series doesn't mean a lot. We just have to play. And if we pitch Pedro the game before and we don't think we can beat the Yankees with whoever's pitching, then that's not right. I don't feel that way."

Fine. But Pedro not pitching the first game after the break, thereby missing the Yankees, is a curious decision that frustrates many Sox fans. Now it'll be Lowe (nine hits in another shoddy 4 2/3 innings last night) in the Yankee series instead of Martinez.

"That's OK," Francona said. "I'm the manager. I can't manage according to the fans. If I did everything the fans wanted me to, this place would blow up. I've read these letters, some of them, and if I did what they wanted? . . . it's not physically possible. Anatomy-wise, you can't do it. That lineup card only goes so far up my [expletive -- he did not say nostrils]."

Fresh from his annual midseason Dominican vacation (any chance the Sox held him back a day because they were worried he might not return on schedule?), Pedro walked into the clubhouse at 4:30 and greeted his teammates as if he'd been gone for months. The ace was in a good mood.

Any reason he wasn't pitching the first game after the break?

"I have done it before," he said. "But I wasn't chosen to pitch in the first game. Whoever is chosen to pitch in the first game is going to pitch. It's not up to me, it's up to the manager. If he chooses me to pitch the second game, I'm going to pitch the second game. If it was the first one, I'd pitch the first one. I'm only an employee here."

But this means you will miss the Yankees.