01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, October 27, 2004

He first came to Boston seven years ago, the kid who was supposed to be too small to be truly great, too small to be do what he eventually came to do, too small to become one of the truly great pitchers of his generation, a career that one day will live forever in the Hall of Fame.

Last night was merely the exclamation point.

The night that Pedro Martinez reached back and gave us the Pedro of a few years ago, back when the "K" signs used to hang on the right-field wall in Fenway Park like some beautiful necklace, back when he was young and could almost make the ball talk, back when he was the best pitcher on the planet, his world a lot less complicated.

The night that Pedro gave Red Sox fans everywhere a wonderful gift, throwing seven shutout innings in the biggest game of his career, a game that saw the Sox go up, 3-0, in this World Series, now just 27 outs away from their first world title in 86 years.

And making it all the more dramatic was he did it in a time when his future is as up in the air as his high heat, a free agent when this series is over, no longer young, no longer the best pitcher in the game.

It's no secret that Pedro's world is a lot more complicated than it once was. He just turned 33, no longer what he used to be, slumping through September, seemingly unable to beat the Yankees, not even the best pitcher on his own team anymore.

He'd spent the last few week as if caught in some personal meltdown, everything from inexplicably calling the Yankees "his daddy" to the pervading sense that something had changed in Pedro's universe, as if he no longer was the pitcher he once had been and he was having difficulty dealing with the reality of that. To the point that there were question marks hanging over him when he took the ball last night in one of the most defining games of his brilliant Red Sox career, maybe the most defining.

Could he give the Sox a quality start?

Could he keep the momentum going?

Momentum is a funny thing in sports. There's a school of thought that says momentum in baseball is only as good as tomorrow's pitcher, but there's little question the Sox arrived in St. Louis riding momentum's sweet wave. Four wins in a row against the Yankees. Two in a row against the Cardinals. All this, and Pedro on the mound, too. Complete with a week's rest.

Or as Terry Francona said the other day, "We feel good every time Pedro takes the mound."

Put it this way: what would you have said a year ago if someone had told you that it would be Pedro and Jeff Suppan in a World Series game? Who would you have bet on?

But it's not a year ago.

Who is the ace of this staff?

All season, that was one of the questions. It no longer is. Not after Curt Schilling's recent heroics. Which only put more pressure on Pedro last night. He is nothing if not proud, and you just know that somewhere deep in his heart of hearts it bothers him to have been supplanted by Schilling.

So the questions hung over Pedro as he took the ball last night.

Especially in the first inning, when he seemed in search of his control, walking two and needing a great throw by Manny Ramirez to cut down the Cardinals' Larry Walker at the plate. He escaped trouble again in the third, when Suppan had a brain cramp on the basepaths, ending the last St. Louis threat.

After that?

The Pedro of old.

He retired the last 15 Cardinals in a row, his indelible stamp all over this game, as if it once again was 1999 and you just knew that no one was touching Pedro, that it had become his ball, his game. As if the vaunted Cardinals lineup had become just like some minor-league team in a spring training game. As if this was the Pedro of legend, the way we will one day remember him, regardless of what happens in the future.

And when he struck out Reggie Sanders to end the seventh inning, you knew he was done for the night. He pointed to the sky and began walking to the dugout. Pedro had done his job, the defining moment in his Red Sox career, the Sox about to be 3-0 in this World Series, just 27 outs away from erasing all their tortured postseason history, all the old ghosts that have haunted this franchise for so long now.

And if it turns out to be his last game in a Red Sox uniform?

It was a masterpiece, Pedro Martinez showing us the way it used to be.

Pedro Martinez giving this team what it needed most.

Pedro Martinez in the most defining game of his life.