BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Pedro Martinez Will Get First Start

It has taken all season, but Pedro Martinez, the Dodgers’ spring pitching phenom, is finally getting a major league start.

The date has not been confirmed, but Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said Martinez will be given a start during the final nine games.

The start will be on the road, during the Dodgers’ final six-game trip next week to Cincinnati and Houston.

Martinez will probably take the place of Pedro Astacio, who could be headed for the bullpen next season. Astacio was pitching in place of Martinez’s older brother Ramon.

Martinez has not pitched in nearly a month, since his last start at triple-A Albuquerque. And he nursed a sore shoulder for much of the second half of the season.

“But I am fine now, I have been doing exercises, I am ready to start whenever they want me to start,” Martinez said.

Although Martinez has been passed up by Astacio as the Dodgers’ top pitching prospect, scouts say he still has a better arm.

Martinez was 7-6 with a 3.81 earned-run average during 20 starts at Albuquerque even though he was treated for an inflamed rotator cuff.

“From what we’ve seen, he is fine now,” said Pat Screnar, Dodger therapist. “And he will stay fine, as long as he stays on a pretty vigorous exercise program.”

With 189 2/3 innings, Tom Candiotti should reach the 200-inning mark for a seventh consecutive season. With two victories, he could equal last year’s total of 13. . . . Doug Harvey, an umpire who made his debut at Dodger Stadium on April 10, 1962, worked his last game there Thursday night. Harvey, who worked home plate, will retire at the end of the season. He has umpired in five World Series, eight National League championship series and six All-Star games.