In Game 4 of the 1999 American League Division Series, the Red Sox routed Cleveland 23-7, forcing a deciding Game 5 in Cleveland on October 11.
Pedro Martinez posted a 2.07 ERA during a season in which the majors' average ERA was 4.71. Cleveland lineup's had scored 1,009 runs, one of only seven teams in the modern era to top 1,000 runs - and the only one since 1950.
Ian Browne has an oral history of that game:
Martinez: I thought I did something bad [in Game 1] because I heard it. ... I heard the pull. Pop. ... It was the back of my shoulder, the lat. I wasn't able to do a lot of work in between. Actually, the same day of Game 5, that was the first time I had touched a ball afterward. ...
Cleveland outfielder Dave Roberts: [W]e didn't expect him to pitch. ...
[Boston led 2-0, trailed 5-2, led 7-5, and trailed 8-7 -- all in the first three innings!]
Martinez: When I started seeing the game going in such a wild way, I just said, "I need to do something, and I need to do it now." ... [Manager] Jimy [Williams] said, "No. The orders I have is that if you can pitch, you're going to pitch toward the end of the game ... [Y]ou don't have my approval." I said, "No, I'm going to try it now." ... That's when I took off for the bullpen. ... I did it on my own.
[Boston GM Dan] Duquette: When he went out to warm up in the bullpen, that was like a scene out of "Rocky." ...
[Troy] O'Leary: When Pedro got up to start warming up, you could see their faces start to change. ...
Martinez: I didn't have the pop on the fastball. I couldn't do it. I was feeling the back of the shoulder. But I did throw a couple of changeups and I snapped a breaking ball, and it didn't bother me as much ...
O'Leary [hit a grand slam in the third inning and a three-run homer in the seventh]: I watch videos of it and see people in the stands, and their faces are just of disgust. ... They hated me in Cleveland for that. ...
Martinez: What was amazing was that the Cleveland Indians never realized that I was hurt. They thought I was going to be the 98[-mph] guy ... I never changed my approach, and neither did they. It was changeups, breaking balls, little cutters, changeups, and my velocity was never there. ... By the [sixth], it was getting tighter and tighter, but ... we started scoring runs ... I thought I was going to break down at one point because of how bad I pulled the muscle ...
[Jason] Varitek: When he sniffs blood, he goes. ...
Martinez: I got through the eighth inning and everybody is quiet ... [I went out for the ninth], see if I can get one out and if I fade, they're going to come in and help me. Thank God, first out, boom. Then second out and I'm really close. And here he is, Omar Vizquel. ... All I wanted was strike one and get the ball back right away. Strike two and get the ball right away. The last pitch was a cutter, coming down and in, and he swung right through it.
Duquette: What was really exciting was the silence in the Cleveland ballpark. Cleveland knocked us out in '95 and '98 [both times in the ALDS]. ...
Martinez: I've never been in more pain once the plane took off. That's when I knew I was really, really bad. I thought someone was stabbing me in the back. ... It was like having a knife going slowly through my back. I started screaming. The entire plane got quiet. The medical staff had to jump on me. ...
Martinez doesn't flinch when asked if Game 5 in Cleveland had an impact on the rest of his career.
Martinez: It did. That was the game that actually developed the rest of the shoulder problems for me. That's what got the 98 mph lowered to 90-whatever, whatever I was. ... I did more damage to my shoulder because of that. ... I don't regret it one bit. I'm extremely proud to have done it. I'd never suggest it to anybody with a bright future, but I'm so proud to have done it.
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