SEATTLE — Pedro Martinez spent the best years of his pitching life trying to get past the New York Yankees. He came close. He never quite got there. On Tuesday night, the Hall of Famer took another swing, posting a comment about the Yankees on social media that left even his own admirers puzzled.
Less than 24 hours later, the Yankees completed their season-opening road trip with the best pitching numbers any team has posted through six games in the history of Major League Baseball. If Martinez was looking to add bulletin board material to a clubhouse already bursting with focus, the timing could not have been worse.
Or better, depending on which side of the rivalry you occupy.
Pedro’s odd postgame remark
Martinez, the Boston Red Sox icon and one of the greatest pitchers of his generation, posted this comment on X on Tuesday night after the Yankees had already gone 4-1 on the road trip:
“I don’t think the Yankees are the totally dominant team they were last year.”
The statement raised immediate questions. The 2025 Yankees were not considered a totally dominant team by anyone covering the sport. Their starting rotation was gutted by injuries for much of the season. Their bullpen had extended stretches that were among the worst in the American League. They scraped into the wild card, got hot late, and lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS before reaching the World Series.
No honest assessment of that roster would reach for the word dominant. And yet Martinez, who understands pitching better than almost anyone in the game, appeared to suggest the 2026 version represented a step backward from a team nobody described in those terms.
The Yankees, collectively, did not need to say a word. Their Wednesday performance said it for them.
A road trip that shattered records
The Yankees closed out their six-game trip through San Francisco and Seattle on Wednesday by beating the Mariners 5-3. That result pushed their record to 5-1 and gave them the best mark in the American League.
The numbers behind the trip were not just good. They were historically singular. New York’s starting rotation allowed two runs in six games, a franchise record for the start of a season. The entire staff combined to allow only seven runs across the six games, an American League record for a season-opening stretch. Yankees starters posted a combined 0.53 ERA through six starts, the best figure by any team through its first six games in MLB history, per MLB.com.
Cam Schlittler delivered the exclamation point on Wednesday. The 25-year-old right-hander threw 6.1 scoreless innings, gave up two hits, walked nobody, and struck out seven. It was his second consecutive dominant start. He is the first pitcher in Yankees history to begin a season with back-to-back starts of at least five scoreless innings and at least seven strikeouts. According to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, no pitcher in the entire history of the league has done it either.
Paul Goldschmidt’s three-run homer in the sixth inning provided the big blow offensively. Ben Rice added an RBI double in the first and a 427-foot solo homer in the ninth. Manager Aaron Boone was asked about the pitching staff’s week afterward.
“What a week of pitching,” Boone said. “Credit to those guys along with Austin Wells and J.C. Escarra and the pitching group just coming up with a really good game plan, and those starting pitchers going out there and executing at a really high level.”
Veterans set the tone from day one
What makes the Yankees’ start more pointed is that it did not happen by accident. The leaders of this clubhouse spent spring training driving a message that has now carried into the regular season with force.
Giancarlo Stanton, speaking to The Athletic during the road trip, described the standard the veterans have tried to establish from the first day of camp.
“At the end of the day, it’s focus with it being everyday: late nights, cross-country, early mornings, whatever you want,” Stanton said. “Focus is the main thing that sways, with energy, as well. But low energy is low focus. It’s one and the same.”
Stanton also addressed the frustration of last year’s ALCS exit and how it is shaping this team’s approach.
“It’s important clearly from last year and we did a great job at the end of the year when we won, what, eight in a row or whatever, and it still didn’t get us where we wanted,” he said. “Take that energy across the whole year instead of letting up.”
New addition Ryan McMahon, who came over as part of the offseason roster build, pointed directly to the veterans as the reason for the team’s edge.
“Those three dudes,” McMahon said, referring to Stanton, Judge, and Goldschmidt, “do such a good job of making sure everybody is on the same page of what we’ve got that day.”
Aaron Judge himself echoed the team’s focus on the small details that determine division races.
“That’s what’s going to make a difference between winning a division or ending up tying and losing it,” Judge said.
Goldschmidt keeps it grounded
After all the records and all the noise, Goldschmidt offered the most measured read on what the week actually means for a team with 156 games left to play.
“Yeah, it’s a good week for us, but we know there’s probably still six months to go,” the veteran first baseman said. “We’ve talked about doing little things and playing the game and making those plays. It isn’t always about hitting a homer or something like that. There’s a lot of games to go. We’ll continue working and try to play well, and hopefully those things will pay off.”
Pedro Martinez made a name for himself by saying things with his arm. This week, the Yankees let their arm, their bat, and their scoreboard do the talking back.
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