academy sports

Baseball: Pedro Martinez Suffered Another Injury
By Julie Smith

Pedro Martinez went back to New York on Monday night for some medical tests after he suffered his second injury in the last two months. This time the diagnosis was a strained right calf that occurred during the warm up in the bullpen. But he still pitched and was tagged for six runs in just one ugly inning in the game where the New York Mets were defeated by the Phillies with a final score of 13-0.

Martinez had iced down his right calf following his Aug. 3 start in Miami. He was listed as day-to-day pending Tuesday's examination by the team's physician in New York. The other injury Martinez experienced this season was an inflamed hip. This was also originally deemed minor, but he spent most of July on the disabled list.

Martinez's injury will add a lot of emotion and suspense to the final seven weeks of the regular season since the Mets actually know they will have problems translating their runaway lead in the division into a world championship without Martinez, a three-time Cy Young Award winner.

Martinez's

fastball barely topped 80 mph due to an inability to push off with his right leg. He was flagged for a balk by first base umpire Eric Cooper to force home the run that made it 3-0. Martinez promptly clipped Chris Coste on the left elbow to reload the bases, before Abraham Nunez cleared them with a three-run double that skipped past Carlos Beltran.

Martinez's injury marked the second shortest outing of his career; he was knocked out after two-thirds of an inning on June 20, 1995, with Montreal against Houston. It also marked the first time in 372 career starts that Martinez had allowed six first-inning runs.

Martinez wanted to remain in the game, but the team's coach and training staff saw, there was something wrong with him, and they wouldn't let him stay out in the field.