Yankees are no match for Martinez

Pedro Martinez and the Boston Red Sox turned the most anticipated pitching matchup ever at Fenway Park into a historic trashing of the New York Yankees.

Pedro Martinez and the Boston Red Sox turned the most anticipated pitching matchup ever at Fenway Park into a historic trashing of the New York Yankees.

Martinez dominated for seven shutout innings while the Red Sox roughed up Roger Clemens in sending the Yankees to their most lopsided loss in postseason history, 13-1 on Saturday in Boston in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

"You never let up against the Yankees," said the Red Sox manager, Jimy Williams.

Beaten in two tense, one-run decisions at Yankee Stadium, Boston returned home to a delirious crowd and cut New York's edge in the best-of-7 series to 2-1.

"I had no doubt we would shift and have a carry-over coming back here," said Martinez.

The Red Sox ended their 10-game ALCS losing streak and their fans reveled, chanting "Where is Roger?" near the end. New York had its post-season winning streak stopped at 12, tying its own record set by the Murderers' Row teams of 1927, 1928 and 1932.

"This is not the way we play Yankee baseball," owner George Steinbrenner said in the clubhouse. "We've got to get this out of our system."

"I knew what I was up against," Clemens said. "I'm disappointed. He flew up here today, not feeling well, and obviously I wanted to make a better showing with him in the building," Clemens added, referring to the owner.

Game 4 will be Sunday night with Bret Saberhagen starting against New York's Andy Pettitte.

Martinez set a Red Sox post-season record by striking out 12 and allowed just two singles. Baseball's top pitcher in 1999, he nearly reprised his effort at New York on 10 September when he struck out a record 17 Yankees in a one-hitter.

"He's an artist out there," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "He has a baseball instead of a paint brush."

Rather than "Cy Old vs. Cy Young" - as the bumper stickers billed it - the only duel that developed was between the Boston batters, seeing which one could connect best against Clemens and the Yankees.

The Red Sox finished with an ALCS-record 21 hits, 10 for extra bases. John Valentin homered and drove in five runs, and Nomar Garciaparra and Brian Daubach also homered.

"I don't think it's a Roger thing to us," Valentin said of his former teammate.

Garciaparra went 4-for-5 with a home run and a double, driving in three runs. It was as if Boston took out nearly a whole century of frustration against the New Yorkers in one afternoon.

"The score's irrelevant," Garciaparra said. "We want to keep playing."

Once the most popular player at Fenway, The Rocket was hooted off the mound by the 33,190 fans after Mike Stanley singled to start the third. Hideki Irabu relieved and served up a two-run homer to Daubach that made it 6-0.

While Clemens showed signs of strain, sweating and shaking off his catcher, Martinez appeared perfectly at ease with the pressure of a big game. Sitting back in the dugout, he tapped his feet to the music played over the sound system.

He even chuckled a bit after throwing a slow curve that had Chuck Knoblauch ducking. "I thought it was funny that he was running like it was a fastball for his head," Martinez said.