In 1999, Major League baseball saw the Triple Crown get done by a pitcher. Pedro Martinez recorded what baseball historians like to call the pitchers Triple Crown. Martinez led the league in wins with a 23-4 mark, strikeouts 313, and ERA with a 2.07. In 213 1/3 innings pitched Martinez recorded a strikeout rate of 13.2 per 9 innings an astonishing total. While his playoff season didn't last as long as Red Sox fans had hoped for, he threw 17 scoreless innings in the playoffs including six innings of no-hit ball in relief in the deciding game 5 of the ALDS verses Cleveland. On top of winning the American League Cy Young Award he won the All-Star Game MVP by striking out 5 of the 6 batters he faced. But, what really put a bad taste in his mouth individually was coming up short in the AL MVP Award. Though, he finished in second place, Martinez led in first place votes but still came up 13 points short to the MVP Ivan Rodriguez. Two writers ended up not voting at all for Martinez which ultimately costed him the award, which got Martinez pissed especially when he found out that one of the writers was from New York. Pedro's 1999 season was listed as one of the best pitching performances for a season in league history, his 2.07 ERA was nearly a run and a half lower than the No. 2 man on the list.
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