You don’t need us to tell you that Pedro Martinez in his prime was one of the most dominant pitchers in Major League Baseball history. But we’ll give you more proof anyway.
The former Boston Red Sox pitcher’s best two seasons came in 1999 and 2000, when he ran through monster offenses at the height of the Steroid Era en route to back-to-back Cy Young Awards.
One of the best teams of that era was the Cleveland Indians, who boasted a murderer’s row of sluggers like Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Roberto Alomar, Kenny Lofton and David Justice. But when Martinez took the mound on June 8, 2000, he absolutely baffled one of the best lineups in baseball.
Pedro allowed just one hit that day, striking out 10 Indians batters over eight innings and issuing only one walk. According to FiveThirtyEight, Martinez’s June 8 outing ranks as the best individual performance by a starting pitcher in baseball’s modern era (since 1911):
FiveThirtyEight’s “Pitcher Score” is a product of the statistics website’s Elo ratings and takes into account a pitcher’s previous track record as well as the strength of his opponent.
Those two factors alone created a perfect storm on June 8 for Martinez, who entered the game with a microscopic 1.05 ERA that dropped to 0.95 after his gem. The Indians, who went on to lead the American League in 2000 with 950 runs scored, reached base just three times against Pedro. In six separate innings, Martinez set a lineup dotted with perennial All-Stars down in order.
Martinez has had plenty of other amazing outings — too many to list here — but according to the numbers, nothing will top the summer night at Fenway Park in which he reduced an historically potent lineup to chump change.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
