Martinez Dominates Overmatched Twins

Pedro Martinez returned to All-Star form Tuesday night.

Martinez struck out 15 in eight innings for his best start in nearly two months and the Boston Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-1.

Martinez (18-4), who had won only one of his last five starts, broke Roger Clemens’ 11-year-old club record with his 13th double-figure strikeout performance of the season.

Martinez tops the majors in wins and leads the American League with 231 strikeouts.

“I hit my spots tonight,” Martinez said. “If you’ve got the pitches it takes to put them away, you just go ahead and do it. I had the pitches tonight and I just tried to minimize them.”

Martinez gave up four hits and an unearned run. He walked one.

Martinez was 2-2 with a 4.74 earned-run average in the second half, including his first stint on the disabled list in his career.

His return from the DL has been clouded by missing a start when he arrived only 25 minutes before a game and by a tirade he directed at Red Sox management before his last start.

During one stretch Tuesday, he struck out eight of nine hitters.

“That was the most dominating thing I’ve ever seen in my life, bar none,” the Twins’ Chad Allen said. “His fastball was just exploding. I had no clue.”

Allen, who struck out twice, actually left the plate smiling after Martinez fanned him on a curveball that started right at him and broke sharply over the plate for a called third strike.

“He’s probably the best pitcher in the American League,” Allen said. “This guy is just so above the rest. And that’s not to say anything bad about the others.”