Baseball Perspectives  Carlos Pena Carlos Pena struck out twice against Pedro Martinez Tuesday. (Dave Kennedy/AP)

Peña, who spent most of his teenage years in the New England area and played college ball at Northeastern University in Boston, faced one of heroes -- Red Sox ace and fellow Dominican Republic native Pedro Martinez -- for the first time Tuesday. Before Wednesday's game, Peña talked about the experience.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Facing Pedro was very cool for a variety of reasons, and the first is that he's such a worthy opponent. This man has already had a Hall of Fame career, and it's always an honor to face someone with such great credentials.

It was also cool because Pedro is one of the guys who really supported me when I was younger. He likes to keep track of what the young players from the Dominican are doing, and when I was playing at Northeastern he came out to watch me play, and that was one of the greatest thrills of my career so far.

It was the most amazing thing having this superstar in the stands, but he introduced himself after and was as down to earth as anyone you've ever met. Just a true gentleman, and he gave me a lot of advice before the draft.

And the last reason it was so cool is because I'm a Boston boy, and Pedro is a god in Boston. It wasn't just me who thought that -- it was everybody. And he's still a god. He will be forever.

I wasn't nervous to face him because I can't allow myself to think that way about anyone I face. I have to simplify things and try to forget about the man I'm facing and just focus on the ball. Last night it didn't go so well for me -- he struck me out twice -- but I have nothing to be ashamed of. I did the best I could and stayed true to my approach, but a great, great pitcher beat me. There's no shame in that.

My only regret was my little incident in the fourth inning, when I went down to first base after three balls. I swear, I thought the first pitch of the at-bat was called a ball, and I thought that the whole time. The sound the umpire made sounded like "ball," so I just assumed it was a ball. My fault.

It was weird. I go down there after what I thought was ball four, and all of a sudden they call me back. I didn't know what was going on at first. Someone told me that Pedro said something to me, but I didn't hear. I just went back into the box, and I guess my concentration wasn't the best because I struck out on the next pitch. But like I said, it's Pedro. He's gonna get his strikeouts.

I was surprised that my teammates didn't get on me when I got back to the dugout. I thought for sure they would, but nobody said anything. Great teammates.

But of course I heard it from back home. My brother Pedro is usually the one to call me after I do something like that, but he didn't call. This time is was a bunch of his friends calling, saying, "Three balls for a walk? Ha ha ha ha ha!"

I'm OK with it, though. I made a mistake. Oh well. It won't be my last. That was just my way of making the night even more memorable.