Pedro Martinez threw three wild pitches today, and the three were directly responsible for his two runs allowed. As I listened to the game on the radio driving around this afternoon, I wondered how much having Piazza behind the plate caused them. The third one was off Piazza's body, and from the play by play description it seems a better catcher would have had it. Watching the first two on Tivo, Piazza never tries to get his body in front of the ball. He's set up outside, and when the pitch comes low and inside, all Mike does is try to backhand the ball with his glove. There's no attempt to move to block the pitch.

If this keeps up, Pedro won't have any confidence throwing pitches in the dirt. Lots of batters will swing at those, but you need the catcher to stop the ball to record the out.