Nowhere in the annals of baseball from the last 100 years has any player recorded a pitching line like the one Carlos Martinez, a St. Louis Cardinals right-hander, delivered at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. And only once in the last 60 years has anyone come close.
For five and one-third innings, Martinez was virtually unhittable: His electric stuff resulted in 11 strikeouts, including the first eight outs he recorded, and his erratic control resulted in eight walks that gave the Yankees an early 1-0 lead even though they did not put the ball into play until the third inning.