Pedro Martinez had been under the weather for the past few days, but he wanted the baseball last night and nobody was going to deny him the opportunity.
Charlie Manuel knew it and should have taken Martinez out earlier rather than later in the second game of this World Series.
You’ve got to give Martinez a lot of credit for another outstanding start.
He allowed only three runs in seven innings of work, but the question everyone is askind is should Charlie Manuel have sent him out there for the seventh inning.
Knowing all of the situation about his illness and the fact that the Phillies had their bullpen up in the fifth inning, Martinez should have been done after six.
Martinez had thrown 99 pitches at the end of six innings. Maybe Manuel was influenced by his decision in the Dodgers series to pull Pedro after seven innings.
He stayed with Pedro in the seventh and things didn’t work out.
“He said he felt good,” Manuel said. “He said he was fine . . . The bottom of the lineup was up and everything, and I thought he hadn’t lost anything.”
Pedro admitted that he told Manuel he wanted to go back out there, but he also talked about not being full strength because of the illness.
“I said I never felt as strong as I would like to because I’ve been under the weather the last two days,” Martinez said. “That’s not an excuse. But I didn’t feel quite as strong. I haven’t been eating right. I had very little sleep. But, I felt good enough to make pitches and that’s what I told them. … They trusted that and left me in there the last two innings.”
Manuel should have taken Martinez out after the sixth inning.
