May 12, 2000: Pedro Martinez throws second consecutive ‘pitcher’s cycle’ for Red Sox

Boston Red Sox right-hander Pedro Martínez threw his sixth career “pitcher’s cycle” on May 12, 2000. The concept of a pitcher’s cycle was devised by SABR researcher Herm Krabbenhoft, who presented it in the Fall 2024 Baseball Research Journal.1 It consists of a pitcher striking out batters from all nine batting slots, not necessarily sequentially, during the course of the game. To accomplish the feat, a pitcher obviously needs to dominate – to strike out at least nine different batters and not miss one slot in the batting order.2

Martínez’s first such cycle had been in a 13-strikeout outing for the Montreal Expos on August 20, 1997. After being traded to the Red Sox before the 1998 season, he had three more in 1999 – on June 4 against the Atlanta Braves at Fenway Park (16 strikeouts), and then back-to-back cycles on September 4 in Seattle (15 strikeouts) and on September 10 at Yankee Stadium (17 strikeouts).3 In 2000 he achieved the cycle on May 6 during a 17-strikeout game against the visiting Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Though he’d whiffed 17 and walked only one, Martínez lost that game, 1-0, outpitched by Steve Trachsel, who threw a three-hit shutout.4 He had also lost the 1997 game for the Expos, 6-3, to the St. Louis Cardinals. He won the other three.5

The 2000 Red Sox were 19-12 and in second place in the American League East Division, 2½ games behind the New York Yankees, when Martínez faced the Baltimore Orioles in the second game of a four-game series at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Orioles were in fourth place, seven games back. The 28-year-old Martínez, who had won Cy Young Awards in two of the three previous seasons, entered the game with a 5-1 record and a 1.22 ERA in ’00, with the only blemish on his record the hard-luck loss to Trachsel and the Devil Rays six days earlier.

Starting for Mike Hargrove’s Orioles was 23-year-old right-hander Sidney Ponson, in his third major-league season. The first three Boston batters hit singles – José Offerman, Darren Lewis, and Trot Nixon, whose hit past diving second baseman Delino DeShields drove in Offerman from second base. Brian Daubach grounded into a force play, short to second, as Lewis scored. Jason Varitek hit into a 6-4-3 double play, but the Red Sox had a 2-0 lead. They added a third run in the top of the second on a walk, single, and a two-out single to center by Offerman.

Martínez had a perfect game through the first four innings, facing 12 Baltimore batters and retiring each one. In the bottom of the first, he struck out the Orioles’ leadoff batter, Brady Anderson, and the third batter, B.J. Surhoff. In the second, he struck out cleanup batter Albert Belle and the sixth-place hitter, first baseman Jeff Conine. In the third inning, he struck out the seventh and ninth batters, catcher Greg Myers and shortstop Mike Bordick. He struck out no one at all in the fourth, but still retired the side in order.   

In the top of the fifth, Boston bumped up its lead to 4-0 on a one-out solo home run by Offerman onto Eutaw Street in right field. Both Belle and Conine singled off Martínez in the bottom of the fifth, but no one scored. Myers struck out again, but of course that didn’t help with the cycle.

In the sixth, Martínez struck out Bordick again, got Brady Anderson to ground to first base unassisted, then struck out the number-two batter in the order, DeShields.

Ponson had allowed only a single in the sixth and pitched a clean seventh. After the seventh-inning stretch, Surhoff grounded out, second to first, and Belle popped up to shortstop Donnie Sadler. Batting fifth in the Orioles order was 41-year-old designated hitter Harold Baines, later to join Martínez in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Baines struck out looking on three pitches.

Thus, through seven innings. the only batter in the Baltimore batting order who had yet to strike out was the number-eight man, third baseman Mark Lewis.6 Martínez had retired Lewis on a fly out in the third and a groundout in the fifth.  

The Red Sox added to their lead in the top of the eighth, Ponson still working. Daubach doubled into right field, the ball under and glancing off Conine’s glove as he dove toward the line by first base, the ball then skittering into right field. Daubach attempted to advance on Varitek’s grounder to short, but Mark Lewis tagged him out at third. Troy O’Leary singled to right, Varitek taking second. Mike Stanley singled to center, driving in Varitek. Boston’s lead was 5-0.

In the bottom of the eighth, Martínez struck out Conine swinging. He struck out Myers for the third time, also on a swinging strike. And he struck out Mark Lewis, also swinging. Pedro Martínez had recorded strikeouts against all nine spots of the Orioles’ batting order – giving him another pitcher’s cycle.    

He had apparently won over some fans in Baltimore. The Sun wrote, “As he struck out six through three innings, he took the breath away from the crowd. By the eighth inning, his outing had become impressive enough for the crowd to shamelessly cheer each of his K’s.”7

In the top of the ninth, Calvin Maduro relieved Ponson, who had thrown 112 pitches. After Sadler flied out to center, Offerman singled up the middle and into center for his fourth hit of the night), Darren Lewis singled off the wall in left (his third hit), and Nixon singled to right-center, driving in Offerman. Daubach then made it 9-0 with a three-run homer, golfing a low pitch over the seats in right field.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, with Martínez having thrown only 102 pitches, and having allowed just two hits, manager Jimy Williams left him in the game. Bordick struck out swinging, Anderson popped up to short, and DeShields struck out, swinging. Twelve of Martínez’s 15 strikeouts had been on swinging third strikes. He hadn’t walked a batter. The only two Orioles to reach base were on the singles by Belle and Conine in the fifth inning.

The two base hits were both legitimate hits, but neither was crushed: “a well-placed single by Albert Belle that bounced beyond the reach of second baseman Jose Offerman and a bloop hit by Jeff Conine that fell in front of center fielder Darren Lewis,” summarized the Boston Herald.8

The 15 strikeouts, added to the 17 in his previous game, reportedly “allowed him to tie Luis Tiant’s 32-year-old [major-league] record for strikeouts in consecutive games (32).”9 Martínez had now allowed just one earned run in his last 26 innings.

Martínez had noticed the change among the crowd. After the game, he said, “I feel really happy to see that people here appreciate what’s good. Not only are they rooting for their team, they’re also rooting for the good things that happen in baseball. They recognize them. It’s really nice to see that. I can tell now that this is a baseball town.”10    

Catcher Varitek said, “That’s the best display of pitching I’ve ever been a part of, period.”11 “That’s as dominant as I’ve ever seen him,” agreed opposing manager Hargrove.12 Boston Globe reported Michael Holley noted, “He was behind in the count only twice.”13

Martínez improved his season won-lost record to 6-1, and his earned-run average to 1.01. He had been 23-4 the year before, with a majors-leading ERA of 2.07. He finished the year 2000 with another Cy Young Award, 18-6 with a major-league-best 1.74 ERA. This shutout was the first of four during 2000, a mark that also led both leagues. Martínez had six other starts in which he gave up zero runs, though not going the requisite distance to earn a shutout. With his fifth pitcher’s cycle with the Red Sox, he became their all-time leader in PCs (Roger Clemens also having achieved four with the Red Sox). Martínez held the team mark until Chris Sale tied and surpassed it 2019. Through the 2024 season, Sale’s six PCs are still the most by a Red Sox pitcher.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Harrison Golden and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Pedro Martinez, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and a video of the game on You Tube. Thanks to Herm Krabbenhoft for looking over an early draft of this article.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL200005120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2000/B05120BAL2000.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqfN5Jebt_0

Notes

1 Herm Krabbenhoft, “The Pitcher’s Cycle – Definition and Achievers (1893-2023),” Baseball Research Journal, Vol. 53, No. 2 (2024), 34-43. https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-pitchers-cycle-definition-and-achievers-1893-2023/.

2 Krabbenhoft identified 483 recorded pitcher’s cycles in major-league games from 1876 through 2023.

3 The June 4 game was an 11-1 win against Atlanta. The September 4 game was a 4-0 shutout in Seattle. On September 10, he earned a 3-1 win at Yankee Stadium.

4 Martínez had been 5-0 coming into the May 6, 2000, game, but lost the game in the eighth inning when a two-out single, stolen base, and then another single gave Tampa Bay the only run of the game.

5 In all, Martínez had six pitcher’s cycles in his career, but the all-time leader is Randy Johnson, with 21. Two of Martínez’s cycles were “super pitcher’s cycles” – in which he not only struck out one batter from each of the nine slots in the batting order but also struck out at least one batter in each of nine innings. Those were games on June 4, 1999, and May 6, 2000.

6 Lewis was at third in place of 39-year-old Cal Ripken Jr., who was sidelined with an inflammation of nerve roots in his lower back.

7 Joe Strauss, “Martinez Leaves O’s Adrift, 9-0,” Baltimore Sun, May 13, 2000: 6C. Strauss did note in his column that Martínez had struck out every batter in the lineup at least once.

8 Tony Massarotti, “Message in a Throttle,” Boston Herald, May 13, 2000: 43.

9 Joe Strauss, C1. Tiant’s feat was for the Cleveland Indians on June 29, 1968, and July 3 with 13 K’s against Boston and then 19 K’s in a 10-inning shutout of Baltimore on July 3. Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe noted that both Nolan Ryan (1974) and Randy Johnson (1997) shared the record.

10 Ken Rosenthal, “Fans along for the Ride at Pedro’s Playground,” Baltimore Sun, May 13, 2000: 6C. Rosenthal added a note: “The Orioles in the past 10 games have allowed more earned runs (72) than Martinez has allowed since the start of the 1999 season (55).”

11 Jeff Horrigan, “Pedro Back in Big Way,” Boston Herald, May 13, 2000: 42.

12 Gordon Edes, “Martinez Waits Turn and Strikes,” Boston Globe, May 13, 2000: G1.

13 Michael Holley, “It’s Simply Great Stuff,” Boston Globe, May 13, 2000: G6.