Martinez, having not pitched in a game for 17 days, drew a masterpiece in Dodger Stadium, but then had to watch as the Phillies threw mudballs at it with a tragic comedy of errors, poor pitches and bad luck in the eighth inning.
It was a terrible 2-1 loss for the Phillies, who could have put their foot on the throat of this series with a win. Instead, they flew quietly home knowing how close they had come and how unlikely were the circumstances of the defeat.
"It wasn't something I like to watch," said Martinez, who took care of the first seven innings by himself and then watched the Phillies need five more pitchers to get out of the eighth. "But I've been there. It's not like we blew it away so bad. Just a couple of little things we should have done that we didn't do."
If his own time on the mound traveled in slow motion, the eighth was an excruciating torture trip. But, as Martinez said, he has seen it all before.
"I take the game as it comes at this moment," he said.
Before the game, manager Charlie Manuel said he was only expecting to get a maximum of 90 pitches from Martinez, who was skipped over during the division series and did not bounce back from lengthy outings at the end of the season. If the Phillies could get an effective five or six innings from Martinez, that was going to be great.
Seven scoreless innings? More than Manuel could have hoped for, and too good a performance to risk him further.
"To me, Pedro was done," Manuel said. "He did a tremendous job and took it actually farther than I anticipated. . . . He was gone. I think he was spent."
