‘As good as it gets’: Pedro Baffles Yankees
Paul O’Neill challenged the narrative.
The box score showed Boston defeated New York, but he didn’t blame his team.
“We didn’t get beat by the Red Sox,” the right fielder said. “We got beat by Pedro Martínez.”
On Sept. 10, 1999, Martínez struck out 17 New York batters en route to a 3-1 victory at Yankee Stadium. It remains the most strikeouts by one pitcher in one game against the Yankees in history.
From the start, it was clear offense would be hard to come by. Martínez entered the game with a 20-4 record and a 2.26 ERA. His counterpart, Andy Pettitte, had a 12-10 mark and a 4.66 ERA.
Both starters faced the minimum in the first inning. Yankees leadoff hitter Chuck Knoblauch was hit by a pitch but was later thrown out trying to steal.
Pettitte briefly held the early edge after Martínez made his only mistake of the game in the second inning. The Boston ace left a 1-1 fastball over the middle of the plate, and New York designated hitter Chili Davis deposited it over the right field wall.
That swing produced the Yankees’ only run – and their only hit – of the night.
After the home run, Martínez retired the next 22 batters in order. With three strikeouts already recorded in the first two innings, he added two in the third, three in the fifth, one in the sixth, three in the seventh, two in the eighth and three more in the ninth.
The final 11 batters failed to put the ball in fair-territory – nine went down on strikes.
“That’s the greatest game I’ve ever seen pitched anywhere, and I’ve been in the game for 26 years,” Boston pitching coach Joe Kerrigan told the Daily News. “It seems like every two weeks somebody asks me if that was the best I’ve ever seen him pitch and I say yes. Two weeks later, somebody else asks the same question and I say yes again.”
Martínez, regarded as one of the most fearless pitchers in baseball history, mowed through a star-studded Yankees lineup: Knoblauch, Derek Jeter, O’Neill, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, Davis, Ricky Ledée, Scott Brosius and Joe Girardi. Even Darryl Strawberry pinch-hit in the ninth.
“I didn’t really have a plan,” Strawberry told The New York Times. “I had no clue.”
But hardly anyone did. The Martínez mystery baffled hitters all night, and every Yankees batter struck out at least once.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a guy pitch like that in one game, especially against a lineup like that,” Red Sox manager Jimy Williams told the Daily News. “I mean, that was a special game... They’ve got those kinds of hitters over there, and to pitch like that. I’ve never seen a guy pitch like that.”
Martínez continued his dominance and posted a season for the ages. He finished 1999 with a 23-4 record, a 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts, earning the pitching Triple Crown.
Martínez was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015.
“It doesn’t get any more special,” Martínez told the Daily News after his gem against the Yankees. “That is as good as it gets.”
Noah Douglas was the 2025 communications intern in the Frank and Peggy Steele Internship Program for Leadership Development
