Editing Pedro Martínez (section)

===New York Mets===
[[File:Pedro Martínez 2008.jpg|thumb|left|Martínez pitching with the Mets]]
After Boston's [[2004 World Series|World Series triumph in 2004]], Martínez became a [[free agent]] and signed a four-year, $53 million contract with the [[New York Mets]]. In 2005, his first season as a Met, Martínez posted a 15–8 record with a 2.82 ERA, 208 strikeouts, and a league-leading 0.95 WHIP. It was his sixth league WHIP title, and the fifth time that he led the Major Leagues in the category. Opponents batted .204 against him.

Martínez started the 2006 season at the top of his game. At the end of May, he was 5–1 with a 2.50 ERA, with 88 strikeouts and 17 walks and 44 hits allowed in 76 innings; Martínez's record was worse than it could have been, with the Mets bullpen costing him two victories. However, during his May 26 start against the [[2005 Florida Marlins season|Florida Marlins]], Martínez was instructed by the umpires to change his undershirt. He slipped in the corridor, injuring his hip, and his promising season curdled. The effect was not immediately apparent; although Martínez lost the Marlins game, his following start was a scintillating 0–0 duel with Arizona's [[Brandon Webb]]. But after that, beginning on June 6, Martínez went 4–7 with a 7.10 ERA in a series of spotty starts interrupted twice by stays on the disabled list. A right calf injury plagued him for the last two months of the season. After Martínez was removed from an ineffective September 15 outing, television cameras found him in the Mets dugout, apparently crying.<ref>Curry, Jack (September 16, 2006) [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/sports/baseball/16mets.html Tears Shed by Martínez Are Not of Joy]. New York Times</ref> Subsequent [[MRI]] exams revealed a torn muscle in Martínez's left calf and a torn [[rotator cuff]]. Martínez underwent surgery which sidelined him for most of the [[2007 in baseball|2007 season]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060930&content_id=1691510&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb|title=Martínez shelved until next summer|author=Marty Noble|date=September 30, 2006|publisher=MLB}}</ref>

[[File:Pedro Martínez Peace.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Martínez with the Mets]]
On November 3, 2006, Martínez stated that if he could not return to full strength, he might end up retiring after the 2007 season. "It's getting better, and progress is above all what is hoped for", Martínez told the [[Associated Press]]. "To go back, I have to recover, I have to be healthy. But if God doesn't want that, then I would have to think about giving it all up." Martínez added, "It's going to be a bitter winter because I am going to have to do a lot of work. The pain I feel was one of the worst I have felt with any injury in my career." But by December 30, 2006, Martínez was more optimistic: "The progress has been excellent. I don't have problems anymore with my reach or flexibility, and so far everything is going very well. The problem has to do with the calcification of the bone that was broken with the tear, and that had to be operated on. You have to let it run its course." Martínez also reported bulking up as part of his recuperative regimen: "I've put on about 10 pounds of muscle, because that's one of our strategies."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061230&content_id=1768499&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb|title=Bulked up Pedro aiming for midseason|author=Marty Noble|date=December 31, 2006|publisher=MLB}}</ref>

On September 3, 2007, Martínez returned from the disabled list with his 207th career win, allowing two earned runs in five efficient innings and collecting his 3,000th career strikeout, becoming the 15th pitcher to do so. "I thought I was going to have butterflies and like that", said Martínez, "but I guess I'm too old." Martínez's comeback was considered a great success, as the right-hander went 3–1 in five starts with a 2.57 ERA. But his last start was a crucial 3–0 loss to St. Louis in the final week of the 2007 Mets' historic collapse; Martínez provided a good pitching performance (7 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 8 K) but his teammates failed to score.

Martínez became just the fourth pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts with fewer than 1,000 walks (in Martínez's case, 701). [[Ferguson Jenkins]], [[Greg Maddux]] and [[Curt Schilling]] had previously done likewise. Martínez also joined [[Nolan Ryan]] and [[Randy Johnson]] to become the third 3,000-strikeout pitcher to have more strikeouts than innings pitched, and is also the first Latin American pitcher to have 3,000 strikeouts.

His unexpectedly strong finish in 2007 raised hopes, but 2008 was a lost season for Martínez. He was injured just four innings into his first game of the season, an April 1 no-decision against the [[2008 Florida Marlins season|Florida Marlins]]. He later told reporters he'd felt a "pop" in his left leg. Martínez was diagnosed with a strained [[hamstring]]<ref>[http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080402&content_id=2484082&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym "Hamstring strain sends Pedro to DL."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080404115936/http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080402&content_id=2484082&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym |date=April 4, 2008 }}. Newyork.mets.mlb.com (May 24, 2013). Retrieved on December 21, 2013.</ref> and did not return to action for more than two months. Following his return, his fastball typically topped out in the 90–91&nbsp;mph range,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://fantasybaseball.usatoday.com/content/player.asp?sport=mlb&id=1741|title=Pedro Martinez Biography |work=USA Today|access-date=May 22, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100521015433/http://fantasybaseball.usatoday.com/content/player.asp?sport=MLB&id=1741 |archive-date=May 21, 2010 }}</ref> a lower velocity than he'd had during his prime but slightly higher than in recent seasons. Martínez finished the season on a low note, losing all three of his decisions in September en route to a 5–6 record, the first losing record of his career. (Martínez was 0–1 in two appearances in 1992.) His 5.61 ERA and 1.57 WHIP were also Martínez's worst ever, and for the first time in his career, he failed to strike out at least twice as many batters as he walked (87–44).

During his four-year Met contract, Martínez was 32–23 in 79 starts, with a 3.88 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP.