WASHINGTON – Two days from now, Pedro Martinez will take the mound for the Mets against the Pirates.
That’s why four days from now, he won’t take the mound at all for the National League against the American League.
Martinez announced yesterday he won’t be going to Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Detroit, citing his unavailability to pitch in the game as the reason why.
“I just decided to actually offer my opportunity for somebody else to actually participate and bring the National League an opportunity to win,” Martinez said. “Since I’m going to be pitching on Sunday, we decided that it’s not going to be in the best interests of myself and the organization to actually go out there, sit down and actually see everybody else compete.”
Martinez could have made the trip to Detroit for the two-day event, even if he couldn’t pitch. But he said he didn’t see the logic in that.
“If I couldn’t pitch, it makes no sense for me to occupy that place,” he said. “Obviously, I’m going to pitch on Sunday. Normally [Tuesday] would be my side day. But we don’t normally take it 100 percent, so I don’t know what really it would be like if I went to compete.”
GM Omar Minaya said yesterday the Mets were fine with whatever Martinez wanted to do.
Martinez said he was “fine physically,” noting, “If I was able to pitch at least a day before or two, without a doubt I would have loved to go.”
Martinez, who’s 9-3 with a 2.80 ERA, said he was undecided whether he would return to the Dominican Republic for the time off. With him absent from Detroit, though, a reporter joked that now Carlos Beltran, who will be at the All-Star Game for the Mets, along with Mike Piazza, might not hit a home run. Beltran has hit eight of his nine homers this season in Martinez-pitched games.
“I’m predicting he’s going to hit one,” Martinez said.
Phillies closer Billy Wagner was named to replace Martinez on the NL squad.
Martinez has been named to the All-Star Game seven times in his career and has pitched three times. The last time he did was in 1999, when as a Red Sox he won MVP by striking out five in two scoreless innings in Boston.
But if the NL is to win the home-field advantage in the World Series, it will have to get by without that type of Martinez performance. Martinez, who benefited from the advantage last year with Boston, noted that it helped out the Red Sox.
“It’s a big advantage,” he said. “We were able to manipulate the rotation and do different things in different ways. We didn’t have to rush traveling or send somebody ahead. It was real important for us. So I’m hoping for the same thing.”