August 12, 2004: Pedro Martínez strikes out 10 Devil Rays batters in shutout

Throwing a complete game had become a remarkable event by 2004. In the entire season, Boston Red Sox pitchers threw a total of only four complete games. Curt Schilling had three of them, and Pedro Martínez threw this one, on August 12 at Fenway Park against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.1

Martínez, in his seventh season with the Red Sox, came into the game with a 12-4 record. He had led the majors in earned-run average in five of the past seven seasons, but his 2004 ERA of 3.94 coming into this game was significantly higher than his stellar 2.20 mark from 1997 through 2003.  

The Red Sox were in second place in the American League East Division but 9½ games behind the New York Yankees. Tampa Bay was in fourth place, nine games behind Boston. Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella’s starting pitcher was 6-foot-9 left-hander Mark Hendrickson (8-10, 4.24), who had spent four seasons in the National Basketball Association before turning to baseball full-time in 2000. The Thursday afternoon game was the last of a four-game visit to Fenway; the Rays had won the first game but lost the second and third.

Rays left fielder Carl Crawford, selected for his first career AL All-Star team a month earlier, singled to lead off the first and was sacrificed to second. Martínez, however, got the next two batters to ground out, short to first, stranding the speedy 23-year-old Crawford, who went on to lead the AL in steals and triples.

Boston third baseman Kevin Youkilis was in his first big-league season, getting playing opportunities after injuries to 2003 AL batting champion Bill Mueller cost Mueller six weeks in midseason.2 Youkilis was leading all AL rookies with a .383 on-base percentage heading into this game.

Youkilis gave Martínez all the offense he needed by homering to left field with one out in the first. It was a towering drive that even went over the Sports Authority sign erected above the Green Monster seats. Youkilis’s seventh home run of his rookie season put the Red Sox ahead 1-0.

In the second inning, Martínez got a groundout, struck out right fielder José Cruz, then induced a popup to the first baseman. He breezed through the third on eight pitches, getting a groundout and striking out the next two batters, both swinging.

Hendrickson had retired the Red Sox in order in the second, but they added two more runs in the third. Second baseman Bill Mueller hit a ground-rule double that hopped into the right-field seats. After first baseman Dave McCarty struck out on three pitches, center fielder Gabe Kapler swung at the first pitch and singled past Hendrickson and up the middle into center, scoring Mueller. Youkilis grounded out, Kapler taking second. After the count ran to 3-and-0, left fielder Manny Ramírez was walked intentionally. The DH, David Ortiz, hit a single that took an unusual hop and eluded first baseman Aubrey Huff,  going into right field and scoring Kapler. The Red Sox led, 3-0.

Tampa Bay stirred in the fourth when shortstop Julio Lugo singled, and Martínez hit Huff with a pitch. There were runners on first and second with nobody out, but a pop fly behind second base, another strikeout, and a fly ball to left ended what could have been a mounting threat. Mueller and McCarty both singled for the Red Sox in the bottom of the inning, but nothing came of it.

Second baseman Rey Sánchez was the only Ray to reach in the fifth, with a single to right. Boston then pushed the lead to five runs on four straight hits. Singles by Ramírez and Ortiz and an RBI ground-rule double by right fielder Kevin Millar that hopped into the left-field seats made it 4-0.

Catcher Jason Varitek singled past short and to center, scoring Ortiz. Millar tried to score, too, but was thrown out at the plate. Varitek took second on the play.

Piniella made a change and right-hander Lance Carter relieved Hendrickson. Orlando Cabrera greeted Carter with a single to center, but Varitek was thrown out at home plate on what was a back-to-back assist for center fielder Rocco Baldelli. The two outfield assists gave Baldelli nine for the season.3 The inning was over, but Boston led, 5-0.

Huff singled in the top of the sixth but was the only Ray to reach base, and the Red Sox added one more run in their half. Mueller led off with a double to left and McCarty walked. Kapler fouled out to the shortstop. Youkilis singled to left, loading the bases. Ramírez flied out to right field, not deep enough to produce a run, but Ortiz followed with a single to right that brought home the sixth Red Sox run.

At this point, Martínez had struck out five and walked no one. He’d given up four singles, but Tampa Bay was without a run. Cruz singled into right to lead off the seventh, but catcher Toby Hall hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Pedro struck out Sánchez for the third out.

Carter pitched around a two-out walk to Mueller to keep the Red Sox scoreless in the seventh. On a total of 11 pitches in the top of the eighth, Martínez struck out third baseman Damian Rolls, got Crawford to fly out to right field, and struck out Lugo. 

Danys Báez relieved Carter in the eighth. He got a groundout, a fly out, and then—on his 10th pitch to Manny Ramírez—yielded a double down the left-field line. Ortiz flied out to center.

Heading to the top of the ninth, Pedro Martínez had thrown only 89 pitches. There was apparently no thought of pulling him.

Leading off, Huff doubled to center. In his fifth season in Tampa Bay, Huff had set a new record for the seven-season-old franchise with his 604th base hit as a Ray.4 But he got no farther. Pedro struck out Baldelli. The Rays’ DH, Tino Martinez, popped up to Mueller at second base. Cruz struck out swinging for the final out.

Plate umpire Brian Runge had no tough third-strike calls. Every one of Martínez’s 10 strikeouts was on a swinging strike.

“He’s nasty,” Rays catcher Hall said after Martínez’s gem. “He knows where to put it. He knows how to subtract. He’s Pedro Martínez.”5 Manager Piniella agreed: “He’s not the power guy he used to be, but he pitches. He was in full control out there.”6

Martínez cited the weather as responsible for his shortcomings earlier in the year; he was a much better pitcher when the weather was hotter. Early on, “the weather was worse than I have ever faced before. It wasn’t just cold; it was too cold. … [Y]ou can’t feel the ball.”7 This day, it was 82 degrees. The game attracted a sold-out ballpark of 34,804.  

Martínez had thrown a shutout, improved his record to 13-4, allowed six hits, struck out 10 batters, and walked no one. Only two batters saw a count go to three balls. It was the 16th shutout of his career, the first since an 8-0 one-hitter against the Rays on August 29, 2000. It was the 97th game he had thrown with 10 or more strikeouts, tying Sandy Koufax for fourth place. His career-to-date total was 2,590, this one game edging him past both Bob Feller and Warren Spahn.8 

The Red Sox had won seven of their last 10. This win, coupled with a loss by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, gave them sole possession of the AL wild-card slot. “We’re starting to jell right now. We’re playing good baseball,” said Kevin Millar. “This is the right time when you want to play well. And Pedro set the tone.”9

There was a long way to go, but by season’s end the team had narrowed the gap behind the first-place Yankees to three games. Their 98 regular-season wins constituted one of their best seasons in franchise history; only four times had the Red Sox won as many games. They qualified as the AL’s wild-card team, swept the Angels in the Division Series, beat the Yankees in a historic seven-game ALCS, then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

Pedro Martínez had lost only once in his most recent 15 starts. He was 7-1 at Fenway Park. He then won three of his next four decisions but lost his final four starts, finishing at 16-9. He capped his Red Sox career with a win in the ALDS and a 4-1 victory over St. Louis in Game Three of the World Series, throwing seven shutout innings and allowing just three hits. 

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by John Tierney and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and video of the game at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4QNH3lNuJA. Thanks to Jay Caldwell for supplying Tampa Bay Times material.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200408120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2004/B08120BOS2004.htm

Notes

1 Schilling’s complete games were a 9-1 win at Fenway Park over the Royals on May 8, and road wins on July 3 (6-1 against Atlanta) and August 3 (5-2 against Tampa Bay.)

2 Coming into this game, second baseman Mark Bellhorn was on the disabled list and Mueller played second base, with Youkilis at third.

3 Baldelli finished the 2004 season with 11 assists. Of Red Sox third-base coach Dale Sveum, Baldelli said, “If he’s going to keep sending guys I have to keep throwing them out.” Damian Cristodero, “New Rays Hits King Keeps It in Context,” Tampa Bay Times, August 13, 2004: Web Edition. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=NewsBank&docref=news/132A80A03A0CB3D8&f=basic, accessed July 24, 2022.

4 Cristodero, “New Rays Hit King Keeps It in Context.”

5 Damian Cristodero, “Pedro vs. Rays a Mismatch Again,” Tampa Bay Times, August 13, 2004: 3C. Huff said, “He may have lost a little zip on his fastball over the years, but for whatever he’s lost he seems to have made up for it with his offspeed stuff. He kind of puts you to sleep with that offspeed stuff and throws a fastball in there to keep you off balance. He’s a lot better pitcher than he was when he was just a thrower.”

6 Associated Press, “Martínez Strikes Out 10; Shuts Out Devil Rays.” Washington Post, August 13, 2004: D7.

7 Bob Hohler, “Filling In a Blank,” Boston Globe, August 13, 2004: F1, F6.

8 As of July 24, 2022 Martínez ranked 15th.

9 Dan Shaughnessy, “Plan on Them Being There,” Boston Globe, August 13, 2004: F6.