After Rough Start, Martinez Does Job

Pedro Martinez needed a few innings to warm up. By then, he had worn down the San Diego Padres.

Martinez pitched a three-hitter for his major league-leading 10th complete game and Doug Strange and Darrin Fletcher hit two-run homers to help the Montreal Expos to a 6-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday.

“I was tight, I wasn’t loose in the first few innings,” said Martinez, who labored through the second and third. “I got it back in the fourth. I started to feel good and started to throw the ball better.”

Martinez (13-5) struck out 10 in his second consecutive complete game, the 17th of his career. He was charged with one earned run, dropping his earned-run average to a major league-lowest 1.76, and walked three.

“After throwing and throwing and throwing in the third, I got looser,” Martinez said. “I started letting go the fastball and started spotting it a bit better.”

After giving up a one-out walk to Ken Caminiti in the third, Martinez retired the next 17 before Caminiti hit his 12th home run leading off the ninth. Martinez, a career .103 batter, went two for three at the plate.

“He got into a rhythm,” Padre Manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s one of the best pitchers in the game. We got a break early with a couple of unearned runs, but he’s as tough as there is. He can flat out pitch.”

Expo Manager Felipe Alou had faith Martinez would bounce back after the Padres scored two unearned runs in the second.

“There were a couple of runs that never should have happened,” Alou said. “But I was confident that that was going to be it, that they wouldn’t score any more runs. Usually that’s not true with anyone else. With Pedro, that’s the way it is.”

In Montreal’s six-run fifth inning, Strange and Fletcher hit two-run homers, rookie Vladimir Guerrero had an RBI single, and David Segui added a sacrifice fly against Andy Ashby (6-8). The Expos won for the fifth time in seven games and took the four-game series, 3-1.

Tony Gwynn went one for four to drop to .389 as the Padres, 15-9 since the All-Star break, lost for fifth time in six games.