Martinez, one of the best pitchers of all-time and a World Series champion with Boston, is going to help kick off an incredible weekend at Fenway Park.
The Boston Red Sox enter play on Friday at just 0.5 games behind the New York Yankees in the battle for the top spot in the American League wild card race.
If Boston can end up controlling the series with New York at Fenway Park, they can end the weekend in the pole position, which would give them a guaranteed home series in the looming American League playoffs.
And they are pulling out all the stops in terms of hyping the crowd for the final series of the year with the longtime rivals, as Pedro Martinez will throw out the ceremonial pitch to Jason Varitek on Friday night.
The Pedro file
An 18-year veteran of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, New York Mets, Red Sox, and Philadelphia Phillies, Martinez is one of the best righties to ever play the game. He went 219-100 with a 2.93 career ERA, winning three Cy Young's and appearing in eight All-Star Games.
He also won a pitching Triple Crown, an All-Star MVP and a World Series, which was in 2004 with Boston.
The rivalry
Martinez had a prominent hand in the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry of the early 2000s. Then Red Sox-manager Grady Little left Martinez in too long in Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series, allowing New York to come back so Aaron Boone could hit the walk-off home run off Tim Wakefield and send New York to the World Series.
The Red Sox led 5-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning and appeared to be on the way to the World Series themselves, but Martinez was charged with three runs in the eighth inning to tie the game. He threw 123 pitches.
Martinez had also famously referred to the Yankees as his "daddies" earlier in that ALCS, making for one of the most famous soundbytes of the last quarter century.
Furthermore, Martinez and Dom Zimmer created one of the longstanding images of the rivalry, when Martinez threw him down to the ground in a brawl.
First pitch between the two teams is set for 7:10 p.m. ET. Lucas Giolito (BOS) will pitch against Luis Gil (NYY).