I'm an Indians fan but this blew me away - his velocity was down at least 10 MPH and he still was unhittable

On October 11, 1999 the Red Sox were playing the Cleveland Indians in the 5th and deciding game of the ALCS. Martinez had started game 1 and thrown 4 scoreless innings, but had to leave the game with a strained back. Reports for game five were that he might be available for a few innings, but Bret Saberhaghen was starting. The game was tied 8-8 in the bottom of the 4th, and Martinez came in to pitch. He finished the game, going 6 innings without giving up a hit, striking out 8 and walking 3. The Red Sox won 12-8.

Man....what a game. The air was sucked out of the stadium when Martinez came in.

The best performance I've ever seen was also Pedro. It was against the Yankees....I think in July of '99. He was so dominant that even though it was in Yankee stadium, the fans were actually cheering Pedro as he made Yankee after Yankee look like Mario Mendoza (Wily Mo Pena?) even at the height of their dynasty. His final line: 9 IP, 1 H, 17 K.

I agree Keith... Pedro in 99 ALDS was probably the sickest thing I've ever seen. That was October of my freshman year. About 3,000 kids at UMass rioted after that win, and I was right in the middle of it. Ahhhh.... college.

In my unbiased opinion, the 99 ALDS Pedro game gets my vote as well.

In my biased opinion, Game 7 of the 2001 World Series involved seven gutsy innings from Curt Schilling (who would have gone out tied if not for Soriano hitting a ball at his shoetops for a home run), a brief appearance from Miguel Batista (who did nothing noteworthy), and then everyone in the stadium started realizing who was warming up in the bullpen: Randy Johnson, who'd gotten the win in Game Six the night before and was now cranking it up to come in. He shut the Yankees down to close out the 8th and also in the 9th, the Sandman coughed up a 135-foot bloop single to Luis Gonzalez, and that was that.

#7

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores...id=199105010TEX

16 Ks and only 2 BBs against a very strong lineup!

Anytime you no hit a lineup that has Kelly Gruber in it... that's just special

notice the young and non-inflated JuanGon in that pic.

Dude you wanna know what is awesome? You copy-pasted that from Wikipedia and I wrote that ****ing paragraph!!!! That makes me happy. Also that's the only article I ever contributed to there.

Jack Morris, Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.

10 IP, 7 Hits, 0 R, 0 ER, 8 K's

Win gives Twins the World Series Title of the Braves

hard to argue that too much right there.

agreed

Come on, nobody else thinks that's funny?

i do nh

schill game 6 alcs

Good call. In the bottom of the 9th, when Tony Clark managed to get up as the series-winning run at the plate with 2 outs vs Foulke, I remember thinking "Oh God if he blows this Schilling isn't a hero."



I think the best pitching performance I've seen is either Pedro's 17K game vs the Yankees a month before they won the WS, or else his 1-hitter vs Tampa Bay. In that game (back in '00) Pedro hit the first TB hitter, Gerald Williams, with a pitch. I believe Williams had homered against Petey the last time they were matched up, and here was Williams' response:




That's not photoshopped or anything. He landed a pretty good punch before a big brawl broke out. TB pitchers retaliated like 5 times, and had EIGHT players and their manager ejected over the course of the game. Pedro, on the other hand, did not allow another baserunner until the 9th when he gave up a single.



Okay I'm also going to submit here my idea that Pedro is the greatest pitcher of all time, or at least of the modern era (post-1920). It's too hard to compare pitchers from pre-1920 because it was a quite different game, not only by the fact that they used a very different baseball.

Here are the stats (speaking only of 20th and 21st century)


Career W/L%: 2nd place

Career WHIP: 3rd overall, 1st since 1920

Career adjusted ERA+: 1st, by a wide margin.

Career K/BB ratio: 1st

He is also the active career ERA leader.

Single season stats:

WHIP: 1st place with .7373 That number is unreal. 2nd is Walter Johnson with .7803

adjusted ERA+: 1st place

That game was sick. Minus points for being against Tampay Bay though. I'm not sure if Pedro is the greatest of all-time, but if you compare just peak years and not necessarily career length, then it would be tough to argue against.

True it was TB, but he got ****ing punched in the face in the first inning, and nearly threw a no-hitter.

A fair argument against "greatest ever" is that his career isn't over yet, and his numbers will probably go down somewhat as he finishes it. But I think he is more than just "greatest peak." I think he's at least in the top 3 all-time.

That was another great game. But yeah, it loses points because it was against Tampa.

Pedro's not greatest ever, but his career isn't over yet. I don't think he'll make it though because of all the arm trouble and whatnot. I will say that his peak is better than anyone's. I don't think I'll ever see anyone as dominant as Pedro circa 99-00.

As much as I hate to say it, all things considered, Roger Clemens is...ugh...I don't even want to type it.

The greatest performance by a pitcher of all time? Don't mind if I do...

I believe it was August 4th, 1993. Nolan Ryan beat the living fucking daylights out of Robin Ventura when he charged the mound. Someone should add a picture. I don't know how to do things like that.

The headlock was priceless.

Real Answer: I'd probably go with the Pedro game against the Indians. It's probably one of the most legendary performances in any sport of our lifetime.

Wang

Not even close to Morris dude.

I can't really rate either Pedro or Roger higher than Walter Johnson or Lefty Grove etc.

But here's a good argument (which I am stealing/modifying from Sons of Sam Horn):

If you HAD to win one game, who would you want pitching for you, of all the pitchers who ever lived? You would want 99-00 Pedro. In some sense (more than just greatest peak IMO) that makes him the best ever.

Yeah, if I needed to win a game, Pedro's my man, but Roger's had a better career as a whole. What he has done for so long it what puts him over the edge.

I've seen both pitch many many times during their stays in Boston, and it's not even close who had more control over the game.

Aside: Any idea what Nolan Ryan wrote there before the Best Wishes?

If a tape ever surfaces, my pick will become Dock Ellis' no-hitter on acid. I'm certain that him diving out of the way of swinging bunts pecieved to be rocketing towards him is close to the funniest thing ever.

Don't mess with Texas.

Dave Stewart pwned Roger in big games

Yeah...well aware. Friggin' Roger.

Heh..."don't mess with Texas." Awesome.

Wasnt it harvey haddox whp pitched 13 perfect innings before losing on a homer in the 14?

Yeah....If I remember correctly, he made it through 12.

Pedro's taken a perfect game into the tenth (possibly 11th) before losing it as well.

seems like some people are arguing for greatest pitcher and others are arguing greatest pitching PERFORMANCE of all time.

I noticed that too, although I wouldn't consider Dave Stewart as one of the greats.

Not that this is an argument I can make, as I don't know much about him, but isn't Sandy Koufax often considered to have been simply amazing during his albeit short peak, and a default answer for "best durring peak years"? I do know he had 4 consecutive seasons with no hitters, including one perfect game.

We're trying to determine best one game ptiching performance...not best pitchers here.

Pedro's peak was better than Koufax's and it lasted longer.

I was at Randy Johnson's perfect game against the Braves awhile back. That was by far the best performance that I have ever seen live

Kerry Wood's record breaking strikeout performance againist the astros his rookie year. The most unbelieveable stuff I have ever seen. Not human. That slider was the most ridicoulous . No wonder his arm almost fell off, he's not even allowed to throw it anymore.

That was his curve ball that was moving like that...he didn't throw a slider during his rookie year. He picked that up as he got older, but you're right...that was a good pitching performance. He got screwed out of a no-hitter in that game because there was a blatant error in that game that was scored a hit.

Also Clemens 20K game in '86 (his first full season). I recently saw an interview where he was talking about that game....said he got stuck in horrible traffic and just made it to the park in time. They were about to announce a new starter. He said he knew he'd better pitch a great game and make everybody forget he was late.

Also interesting is that in the 8th inning one of the coaches told him that he had 18K. Clemens had no idea. I guess that coach wasn't superstitious about messing it up....and of course Clemens got 2 in the 9th.

Man, I was only 5 at the time, but I remember I did watch that game. Of course being only 5 I really didn't know the significance or the greatness of it.

The greatest pitching performance I've ever seen is Johan Santana's second half of the 2004 season. To all you Pedro lovers, I fart in your general direction.

I'm thinking of when I went to Jacobs Field to watch the Indians play the Yankees. Billy Traber pitched a 1 hitter vs. the Yanks in 2003. I thought that was amazing considering the yankees offense.

I definitely remember that one, he was absolutely incredible that year. He gave another stellar performance in the ALCS, as the Red Sox lost to the yanks in 5. Game 3 was their only win, but it was a complete game masterpiece by Martinez (either a shutout or one run allowed, can't remember).

Does anyone from LA want to nominate Jose Lima's complete game 5-hit shutout from the 2004 ALDS to stave off elimination?? I wasn't there..but I remember watching it on TV and thinking "who the F*CK is this guy and where did he buy that Jose Lima mask??"

I'm not saying it's the best pitching performance, but for one night....it truly was Lima-Time. His offspeed junk was rediculously nasty and the Cards hitters had no shot...almost to the point that I wouldn't be surprised if he was doctoring the ball. (I think during the game the Cards players had the ball checked...).

I was at a red sox game in oakland in 2003 where the matchup was Pedro and Hudson

Hudson threw a complete game 2 hit shutout.

other than that, in college baseball i saw Aaron Marsden throw a one hitter for my home town nebraska huskers.

Hudson was locked on in that game. It was obvious that the Sox were not going to score any runs that night.

I love red sox fans. game by game memory rules....

i have it too lol