Best pitcher in baseball? Pedro out-duels Lincecum

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The supposed "best pitcher in baseball" should be embarrassed by the fact that he got out-dueled by someone 12 years older than him.

37 year-old Pedro Martinez somehow found a way to turn back the clock and pitch like it was 1999 all over again and led the Phillies to a 2-1 victory over Tim Lincecum and the Giants. Pedro had his best outing of the season, going 7 innings deep and giving up only 1 run on 5 hits while striking out 9. It was a good enough performance to allow the Phillies to beat Lincecum, the likely Cy Young winner in the National League, despite his 11 strikeouts and 4 hits allowed.

The win capped an impressive series win for the Phillies over the Giants. Two of the three games turned into pitching duels and the fact that the Phillies won both of those duels is impressive. What's less encouraging was the Phillies offense which was MIA the entire series. The Giants do have excellent pitching but the Phillies only faced one of their two aces and still managed only 3 runs in 3 games. The starting pitching bailed out the offense in this series, a nice sign but hopefully not something that has to happen routinely.

The Phillies seemingly already got what they paid for in Pedro Martinez. He's a veteran pitcher who pitches to the situation in the game; if the Phillies have a big lead he doesn't strain himself but when the game is close he buckles down and gets the job done. The fact that he outpitched Tim Lincecum tonight proves that he belongs in the rotation, at least for the rest of the regular season. It will be interesting to see how Pedro does when he is called on from the bullpen in the postseason. If he pitches as well as he did tonight in a game that had a postseason feel to it, the Phillies will be just one step closer to another title.