Pedro Martinez Says The Yankees Don’t Hustle Or Look Like Winners
Former Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez is not impressed with what he is seeing from his former rival New York Yankees. The Yankees have the second best record in baseball, and are on pace to be only the fourth team since divisions were implemented in 1969 to win 100 or more games without winning the division. By the numbers, Martinez’s claims seem a bit spacey, but they do still have merit.
Certain Yankees, namely Gary Sanchez, as was discussed at the Inquisitr, have been called out for lack of hustle. However, Sanchez is still rehabbing an injury, so Martinez must have other players in mind. While he is professional enough to not call anyone out by name for not hustling, he certainly isn’t the only person bringing that issue to the table per USA Today. Saying they don’t look like winners is a bit more of a stretch, but he also has a point there.
Despite their record, the Yankees are beginning to appear a little listless, and definitely a bit beaten down and out of place. Teams they should be dominating, they are getting by against, and better teams like the Red Sox, they are fighting hard against, but not hard enough to avoid a series sweep. If anyone knows what a well-oiled Yankee machine looks like when it is running properly, it is Martinez. They are his “daddy” after all.
The Yankees don’t seem to have the energy of a winning team. I understand some key players are injured, but they don’t seem to be hustling out there.
— Pedro Martinez (@45PedroMartinez) August 22, 2018
Martinez did acknowledge the injuries to Sanchez, Sir Didi Gregorious, and Aaron Judge, but says that isn’t the reason they don’t look like winners. To Martinez, it’s about a team coming into whatever stadium they are playing in and having swagger. It’s about looking like no matter what the score or situation is, playing like you always expect to win. He feels the Yankees just don’t have that right now, as reported by the New York Post.
“When you see a team that goes out there with energy, you see they carry momentum, they hustle, and they’re happy to be out there competing.”
NESN said that while it is good to see Martinez hasn’t changed much since his playing days in Boston ended, they thought his timing in saying it was curious. The Yankees won in extra innings to extend their winning streak to four, and they cut the Red Sox lead over them back to single digits. Right now, they are winning and they do have momentum, swagger or not.
This is no way to speak about your daddy. https://t.co/jrNUmxBlDW
— x- Patrick Corrigan (@patcorr317PYI) August 22, 2018
Some Yankee fans have tweeted back at Martinez to remind him the Yankees are still his daddy, and some Red Sox fans have told Martinez to chill out a bit and not give the Yankees something to rally around. This is the 40-year anniversary of Bucky “Bleeping” Dent’s homer over the green monster, which can be viewed on YouTube. That season the Yankees clinched the A.L. pennant after going 25-3 down the stretch to erase a 14-and-one-half game deficit to the Red Sox. While that history will likely never repeat itself, why tempt fate by calling them out?
I’m a huge fan of Pedro Martinez but he should know questioning the effort and desire of professional athletes is a fool’s errand
— Erik Boland (@eboland11) August 22, 2018
