25 years ago, Pedro struck out 5 of 6 in the ASG ... but one guy got on base

Twenty-five years ago, Pedro Martinez was transcendent.

By the 1999 All-Star break, he led all qualified pitchers in wins (15), strikeouts (184) and ERA (2.10). He'd go on to win his second of three Cy Youngs. And he did it in a season that was mostly about the hitter: The league broke the record for the most homers hit and featured the first team to ever reach 1,000 total runs.

Pedro, of course, was selected to start the All-Star Game at his home stadium of Fenway Park. With the crowd behind him, he was maybe at his best against some of the most premier sluggers and hitters to ever play the game. He became the first pitcher to ever strike out the side in a Midsummer Classic and then proceeded to strike out five of the six batters he faced.

But one batter, one man, through a will and desire not to go down like the others before him, somehow reached base.

"I was just trying not to be counted among the guys," Matt Williams told me over the phone. "And it worked. I got on base."

Williams, a five-time All-Star who's now third-base coach with the Giants, remembers seeing the first few guys go down on strikes and just thinking the National League was in trouble.

"You could tell, you could see it," Williams said. "It's one of those moments in the game where you've got supreme confidence on the mound with great stuff in front of his home folks. There was certainly a little extra coming out that night."

And again, remember, these weren't just any regular old hitters.

The five who struck out included three future Hall of Famers in Barry Larkin, Jeff Bagwell and Larry Walker. There was Sammy Sosa, who hit 609 homers in his career, and Mark McGwire, who hit 583.

Larkin, the NL's leadoff hitter, got a bunch of high-90s fastballs and then ... Pedro's dreaded offspeed pitch.

“Then he threw me a changeup, and I was like, ‘What the hell was that?’” Larkin recently told the Athletic.

Walker, next up, K'd on just four pitches.

“That’s Pedro Martínez,” Walker said to the Hartford Courant after the game. “He’s right now probably the top pitcher in the game, and he will be for a while. He’s dominating with all his pitches, and he’s throwing them all for strikes.”

Sosa fanned after five pitches, looking completely confused on a Bugs Bunny curve.

McGwire, who broke Roger Maris' single-season home run record the year before and would lead the Majors with 65 dingers in '99, went down swinging in the top of the second.

"You come at me, I'm sizing up myself in a personal way," Martinez told MLB Network about the performance back in 2019. "I'm not gonna let you believe that you're better than I am, regardless of who you are or what you do."

Next up: Williams.

"After I saw the first few guys go down, I figured I was gonna try and make contact with something early in the count," the third baseman said.

And Williams wasn't up there looking for a walk, telling me his philosophy was "only the mailman walks." His highest amount of base on balls in a single season during his career was just 43.

"I was ready to go from the first pitch."

And Williams did jump on the first pitch. He didn't do much with it, but he hit it hard enough to second that Gold Glover Roberto Alomar -- who'd made only three errors all season -- bobbled the ball. Williams hustled down the line to get to first.

"I ended up getting on first with a misplay," Williams laughed. "But I consider myself fortunate that I wasn't one of those guys."

But then, Williams was quickly erased on a strike 'em out, throw 'em out double play when he tried to steal second with Jeff Bagwell up at the plate.

"Yeah, that was a bad move," Williams laughed.

Still, nearly three decades later, Williams cherishes the at-bat he had against one of the game's greatest, even though Pedro did give him headaches during his career. (He told me not to look up the numbers; he was 3-for-22 with 10 strikeouts, but two homers!) He was able to witness Pedro Martinez, at the height of his powers, on the grandest stage.

"Pedro was in his prime at that point," Williams said. "Able to throw it wherever he wanted to with extreme velocity and feel. You don't have that that often. All the pitches were working. Fastball was electric, able to change speeds with the changeup and the slider as well. Just, you know, you're up there fighting for your life."