Besides the fact that he already met your definition of 'great' in the Cleveland series 4 years ago, since when is a CG necessary?
There's only so many pitches one can throw effectively in one outing. Because he's baseball's highest-paid pitcher, he's not subject to the same limitations of human physiology as anybody else? Does he magically gain the ability to run out there and throw 130 pitches without a problem on every start? How about 150? Why stop there? If 170 pitches were what was necessary to get the complete game victory, that's what he should have delivered.
It appears the only two people who would have sent him back out to the mound to even start the eighth are you and Grady Little. Everybody else on the planet would have had him sitting in the dugout, mission accomplished... seven strong innings, with the echo of Tim McCarver's reference to Russell Crowe's new movie ("'Master and Commander', starring Pedro Martinez tonight") ringing in the audience's ears, as Boston's bullpen preserves the victory.
Pedro lived up to what was expected of him. Grady Little did not.
(And, if Pedro was pathetic because he didn't pitch a CG in the playoffs, I'd hate to hear of how you rip Clemens. On the plus side, at least he didn't get himself thrown out of the game in the second inning in this game.)
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