Posted by Bill Baer on Friday, September 4, 2009 at 3:07 am

Pedro Martinez was in vintage form last night in his start against Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants. The future Hall of Famer out-dueled the reigning National League Cy Young winner with seven strong innings in which he allowed only one run (a lead-off home run to Eugenio Velez) and five hits. He struck out nine and walked none; his stuff was impeccable. Lincecum, however, still pitched a great game, allowing two runs on four hits in seven innings while striking out eleven Phillies and walking only one.

Pedro’s weapon against the Giants’ left-handed hitters was his devasting change-up and his patented two-seam fastball.

This is his pitch movement against the Giants’ left-handed hitters:

Against the Giants’ right-handed hitters:

What I was really interested in, though, was his pitch sequencing in at-bats that ended in a strikeout. I made this to help illustrate (click to enlarge):

As you can see, eight of the nine strike threes came on a fastball of some kind (four-seam, two-seam, or cut). The first four strikeouts started with something off-speed. As the game progressed, Pedro relied more and more on his fastball: 14 of the 16 pitches thrown in the last three strikeouts were of the fastball variety, including 10 four-seamers.

More impressively, eight of the nine strike threes came on swing-and-misses. Aaron Rowand was the only one to get a backwards K.

Some other observations:

• Pedro never started off an at-bat that resulted in a strikeout with a two-seam fastball. It was either a slider, a change-up, or a four-seam fastball. He mostly threw his two-seamer as the second or third pitch.
• He used his change-up to start off or end an at-bat. Only twice did Pedro throw a change-up following the first pitch and one of those preceded a change-up.
• Ignoring the two-seamer that struck out Ishikawa, Pedro always threw another fastball following a two-seamer, usually a four-seamer.
• His cut fastball was used to set up his four-seam fastball, just like his two-seamer. Ignoring the cutter that struck out Edgar Renteria, Pedro followed up a cut-fastball with a four-seamer.
• In these strikeout at-bats, Pedro threw 13 breaking balls out of 43 pitches (30%). He threw 21 four-seamers (49%), 5 two-seamers (12%), 4 cutters (9%), 7 change-ups (16%), 5 sliders (12%), and 1 curve (2%).

Overall, Pedro induced 15 swinging strikes, 11 of which came on fastballs (73%). Looking at batted balls, he induced three fly balls, a line out and a pop out, and seven ground balls (58%).

These are very good signs from someone who may not even be in the Phillies’ post-season starting rotation. That will change, however, if he continues to pitch this well