The curse is over. The Bronx Bombers are doomed. The dead ball era is back.The reason: Pedro Martinez.
By now, any contending team's locker room should come to a screeching halt when Sportscenter highlights show footage of the Dominican Dominator.
October baseball is literally at the will of the Red Sox's ace. Even though the Red Sox are a few games behind the front-running Indians and Yankees, they have stealthily slipped into a comfort zone that makes them the sleeper pick to win it all.
In the American League, it has basically come down to a four-team race, which includes the Yankees, Indians, Rangers and the Red Sox. But each of the four teams has a less than desirable record against each of the three other teams that will be contending for a spot in the World Series.
The Red Sox are 20-13 against the Yankees, Indians and Rangers. The Yankees and Rangers are hovering around five hundred ball against division and wild card leaders and the hard-hitting Indians have almost the reciprocal record of the Red Sox against such teams. Still, this is only the beginning of the nightmare for these teams.
Pedro Martinez not only has regained the spark he had earlier in the season but has acquired an even more intense focus for pitching in big games during the past month.
Martinez has pitched the lights out in his last five games. During this span, he's reached the double-digit mark in strikeouts every time while averaging 14.4 strikeouts per game.
There's not one person in Yankee Stadium who didn't feel the chills when Martinez calmly took the mound on the world's largest baseball stage and dealt the Yankee sluggers nothing but heat " he struck out 17 batters.
The New York fans even began putting up 'K' signs to commemorate his performance. In two appearances versus the Yankees, Martinez has posted a 1.69 earned run average while winning both games.
If the Yankees and the Red Sox should meet for the ALCS, Martinez would pitch at least two times with a possible relief appearance in game six or seven.
Martinez has also owned the Indians. The Red Sox have won two out of three games that Martinez has pitched against the Indians. In his most recent outing, Martinez struck out 14 tribesmen in seven innings.
Coupled with the Red Sox' stellar play against good teams and the Indians' poor record against playoff foes, the Indians playoff-bound mindset (which was basically handed to them during spring training) might go to waste in the first round of the playoffs.
The fact that Pedro Martinez will most likely pitch twice in the five-game series makes it very difficult for the Indians to look beyond any first round action.
Texas doesn't have it much better. Their only claim is that Martinez has beaten them only once. But then again, he's only pitched against them once.
Any way one looks at it, Pedro Martinez is extremely dangerous in any short series.
He's the best power pitcher who actually knows how to pitch. Martinez has the best changeup in the American League and an overriding fastball that puts holes through hitters' bats.
His movement is incredible. He has batters swinging at pitches that end up hitting the batter when they miss.
He's the type of pitcher the Boston Red Sox have been waiting for since 1918 when they last won the Series.
Great pitching still beats great hitting. Any team who faces Martinez in his own backyard with the Fenway crowd roaring behind every pitch will have his hands full. It's going to be a very long playoff series for anyone who faces the Red Sox this fall and a very, very exciting time for baseball.
-Stuart Yee is a sports columnist and he wishes Greg Vaughn was a Dartmouth alum.
