“Wow” proclaimed Ramon Castro, Pedro Martinez’s batterymate, in response to Martinez’s performance in the Mets’ recent spring win against the Tigers.

At 36, following last years late return from a rotary cuff surgery, Martinez is happy when he doesn’t have to ice his arm after a game. Of course it also helps to stick it to your opponent while feeling good. He pitched four shutout innings. He allowed four hits and struck out four. And in the end, the Mets beat the Tigers 7-4.

His pitching velocity is much stronger than in the past. But Adam Ruibin of the Daily News notes:

“Martinez has been frustrated by preoccupation with his fastball velocity, consistently noting that pitching is the art of location and changing speeds . . . But even Castro . . . was compelled to mention the extra life. It was especially evident in a bases-loaded strikeout of Ramon Santiago . . . Martinez then retired Freddy Guzman on a tapper to first base to end that threat unscathed.”

Who knows. Maybe his training stunt of pitching with his eyes shut paid off. I don’t know, but you can’t argue with results.

This may be a beautiful season for a star veteran with a little more heat in his arm. We may all need to buy our Mets tickets quick to see it for ourselves.

Tags: Mets, Pedro Martinez, Pitching, Spring Training, Tigers

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 10:00 am and is filed under mets tickets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.