Byline: PETER SCHMUCK Baltimore Sun
Pedro Martinez looked perplexed, which probably is a pretty good way to look after you pitch great twice in a row and come away with nothing to show for it.
The Boston Red Sox ace has given up just one run in his first 15 innings, but the bullpen has come unraveled in each game -- giving up a total of six runs in two ugly ninth innings.
``There is nothing I can do after I go seven or eight innings,'' Martinez said last week. ``There is nothing you can do. You just have to hope someone comes after you. You just pray to God that they do the job.''
This does not register as a ringing endorsement of the new-look Red Sox relief corps or the front-office decision to go into the 2003 season without an established closer.
Martinez, who will face the Orioles today in the Red Sox's home opener at Fenway Park, was skeptical about the closer-by-committee arrangement from the start, but continues to express halfhearted confidence that it will work.
``I have to be confident,'' he said. ``There is no other way for me to go. I have to trust my teammates and my manager. There is nothing else to do.''
The fans and media in Boston also are getting a little uncomfortable as the club's quick 4-1 start has melted away and the bullpen continues to give up too many late-inning runs. Red Sox relievers entered Thursday night's series finale against the Toronto Blue Jays with a 6.55 ERA.
There is some suspicion in Boston that the front office may have outsmarted itself. This is, after all, the team that turned convention on its ear by hiring 28-year-old GM Theo Epstein and adding new-age baseball statistics guru Bill James to the brain trust.
``We're not trying to reinvent the wheel or think outside the box,'' Epstein said. ``We just want to win. During the off-season, we were just looking at what was available. We couldn't alchemize a dominant reliever in the off-season.''
The Red Sox felt they could achieve an acceptable level of success in the late innings with a combination of pitchers that includes veteran right-handers Chad Fox, Mike Timlin, Ramiro Mendoza and Bobby Howry and left-hander Alan Embree. It has yet to work out as planned.
Embree and Fox gave up five runs in the ninth inning on opening day to spoil an outstanding performance by Martinez. Fox walked in the winning run in the ninth inning of the other Martinez start. Mendoza, who came over from the Yankees with much fanfare, has given up eight earned runs in his first six innings.
Timlin has been the most dependable veteran, allowing just a run in his first three appearances. ``We're a little bit concerned, and rightfully so,'' said manager Grady Little, ``but we also have confidence they'll get it straightened out very quickly.''
Epstein said it's a bit too early to panic, but he's not surprised Red Sox fans already are on alert.
``I think it if was any other city but Boston, where they ask you a thousand questions about why you don't have a bullpen, it would just be a bullpen waiting for someone to emerge,'' Epstein said. ``We'll be fine. The success or failure of any bullpen will come down to how your relievers pitch. Usage patterns might affect a game or two.''
