- There are games that tell the story about you,
about your heart, about your desire, about your guts.
There are games that make you or break you.
When it came to pitching,
quickly realized my abilities seemed to be ahead of my age.
So I thought my best chance to become a baseball player
was through pitching.
At 17 years old,
I had the responsibility to represent
my mom, my dad, our values.
For my parents to raise six kids
with the minimum salary in the Dominican.
My family's future
was something I did not want to negotiate with anybody.
- [Announcer] And with those numbers,
everybody in baseball is well aware of who he is.
- The label that I got was that I was too small
and that I wouldn't make it.
- [Announcer] Swing and a miss, goodbye.
That's three consecutive strikeouts for Pedro Martinez.
- Everything is put together based on command.
I relied on getting ahead and command
in the area where I wanted to throw the fastball.
They didn't have to deal with me physically.
They had to deal with what I did with the ball.
The ball could give you the appearance to be slower,
because of the spin rate, but you have to rely on command.
If you don't have command,
the strategy is pretty much wasted.
The job I was handed to do,
sometimes I felt like I had no way out, but to go forward.
- [Announcer] Back to Jacobs Field, here in Cleveland.
Fans are packed in for Game 5.
The deciding game. Winner take all.
Winner get a chance to go to the ALCS
to take on the New York Yankees.
And it's not a shoulder.
It's a pulled muscle under the right shoulder blade,
and what will determine
whether Pedro Martinez pitches tonight or not.
- I went really early.
The pain was there.
I spent at least three hours
trying to get some of the pain to go away.
But I just couldn't.
I started getting worried about my situation.
- [Announcer] Jim Thome.
- Who knows if career-ending kind of surgery
might be around the corner.
They had scored eight runs in three innings.
And my team is trying to battle back.
- [Announcer] Jim Thome - his second of the night.
- I knew that Bret
wasn't able to hold the Cleveland Indians, at that point.
Not the way he was feeling.
- [Announcer] So you get the moment for Martinez,
just support for the veteran Saberhagen, a 35-year-old....
- The words he had for me,
"You are one of the best pitchers in all of baseball
and you're young.
Baseball needs you.
Don't worry, kid. Just hold on.
You're too valuable. Just do as they tell you."
And I'm talking to the coach and they're telling me,
"No. We want you for the future."
And I said, "The future is now.
I need to do something for my team."
And that's when I decided, "You know what,
Jimy, with all due respect, I feel like I can throw.
Can you give me an opportunity
to be on the mound by myself?"
And he says, "Of course."
- [Announcer] We head to the bottom of the fourth inning
all tied, 8-8.
Pedro Martinez will come on
and he'll face Sandy Alomar, here.
- Boston, through the history of baseball,
had so many heartbreaking moments.
Is this gonna be the year?
Am I gonna be able to throw these pitches
without really having something horrible
happen to my shoulder, happen to my career?
My catcher told me, "We're all with you."
Every one of those guys that I had,
they knew I was risking everything
to be out there with them.
- [Announcer] Early in the count.
Pedro does not seem to have his good fastball
and his arm angle is not what we're used to seeing.
- When I came out of the bullpen,
they knew I was hurt.
But they didn't expect me to be that bad.
To just rely on breaking balls.
To use my craft to get by them.
I kept the same mentality as if I was throwing 98
with a nasty changeup.
The way I spin the ball, that day,
was the key to success.
- [Announcer] Jim Thome, two at bats, two home runs.
Now with the 16 home runs,
Jim Thome has moved ahead of Babe Ruth.
- I was aware what Jim Thome meant to that team.
- [Announcer] And he's up there with a runner at first
and one out.
The pitch to Thome backs him away.
And a good spot for Jimmy here, at 2 and 0.
Ramírez at first, tied 8-8.
This one in the dirt.
- My mental aspect of the game
went through the roof.
- [Announcer] Full count.
- From the first moment you land on the field,
everything you were able to accumulate in your heart,
that's what I pretty much thought of.
My career, my legacy, my family, everything came into play.
This is what I was made for,
this is the moment that calls for me to be special.
This is the time to prove it.
- [Announcer] And he's out.
- After I got through the heart of the order
it was like, "Advantage Pedro."
- [Announcer] Hard hit right at Garciaparra.
Two up, two down. Two games to none,
the Boston Red Sox have come storming back,
and they are in the American League Championship Series!
No hits allowed by Pedro Martinez.
- And that was a moment that I think
marked the organization,
marked every player playing with me.
It was really important
that I showed everybody what I was made of
and the kind of passion I had and respect for my teammates.
Love for my teammates.
When I don't feel like I'm as strong,
that's where your faith needs to rise.
Your heart needs to show up.
Moments like that influence everything you can do in life.