Martinez Chalks Up His 12th to Experience

Even when Pedro Martinez isn’t at his best, he impresses--and usually beats--opponents.

He did that Tuesday night against the Minnesota Twins, striking out eight in eight innings and keeping the Boston Red Sox close until a four-run sixth gave them a 4-2 victory at Boston.

The Red Sox had five hits and a walk in that inning, the same total the Twins managed against Martinez all game.

“In the early innings, I didn’t feel as well as I normally do,” said Martinez, baseball’s first 12-game winner. “I felt heavy-armed.”

Martinez (12-2) looked pretty good to the Twins, who have only 23 victories, fewer than double Martinez’s total, and the American League’s worst record.

“You sit over there and you watch that ball come out of his hands and you just drool,” Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly said.

Martinez gave up two runs and four hits in the first four innings, then retired nine consecutive batters before giving up a leadoff single by rookie Jacque Jones in the eighth.

“I know he’s good. He’s great, actually,” said Jones, who had two of the hits against Martinez. “I told myself when I got up there to just try and make contact. You can’t try and do too much against him or he’ll kill you.”

Martinez increased his strikeout total to 151, tied with Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the major league lead. Tim Wakefield pitched the ninth for his third save and first since taking over as closer for injured Tom Gordon.

The Red Sox won for only the fourth time in 11 games.

Martinez, coming off a loss to the Montreal Expos that ended his nine-game winning streak, failed to strike out at least 10 batters for only the fifth time in 14 starts.

Martinez survived “with experience,” he said. “I just realized what they were doing and I just started to adjust to how they were swinging the bats.”

Seattle 5, Detroit 4--Ken Griffey Jr. hit a three-run homer and David Bell had a two-run triple to back the strong pitching of Frankie Rodriguez at Detroit.

Griffey, who started the night batting only .174 against the Tigers this season, triggered a five-run fourth with his 24th homer, a 450-foot shot over the center-field fence.

Rodriguez (2-0), making his second start since being claimed off waivers from the Minnesota Twins on May 26, gave up two runs and four hits over seven innings as the Mariners ended a three-game losing streak.

Jose Mesa gave up Frank Catalanotto’s leadoff homer in the ninth, but retired Tony Clark on a foul out with two men on in the ninth for his 13th save in 14 chances.

Cleveland 8, Oakland 3--Manny Ramirez hit a two-run homer and Jaret Wright threw the ball all over the place but lasted long enough to win at Cleveland.

Ramirez’s two-run shot in the third against Jimmy Haynes (4-6) helped the Indians win their fourth consecutive game and backed Wright (5-3), who tied a career high with seven walks in five innings.

Jim Thome homered and David Justice added two runs batted in for the Indians.

Jason Giambi went three for three with two RBIs as the A’s opened a four-city, 13-game trip.

Indian Manager Mike Hargrove had hoped to get a second consecutive strong start from Wright, who pitched six innings of two-hit ball against the Milwaukee Brewers last week. The right-hander’s confidence had been shaken this season amid accusations of being a headhunter.

But Wright, who changed some of his mechanics before his last outing, had trouble throwing strikes, and at one point was lectured on the mound by Hargrove.

After watching Wright walk three batters, throw a wild pitch and give up two runs in the first three innings, Hargrove stormed to the mound and gave Wright an earful, appearing to use a few obscenities and pointing his index finger to drive his suggestions home.

“I won’t go into detail or give you specifics on what I said, but to sum it up he needed to throw strikes,” Hargrove said. “Usually when my finger comes out I’m not asking anything. I guess I was a little animated.”

Wright gave up three runs and six hits in five innings. He didn’t get a strikeout until his final batter, fanning Eric Chavez with the bases loaded to protect a three-run lead.

“I was all over the place,” he said. “But I thought I threw good pitches when I had to. The most important thing is that I kept it close and that we won.”

Baltimore 6, Kansas City 5--Albert Belle had four hits and scored the winning run on a 10th-inning single by Charles Johnson at Baltimore as the Orioles won their season-high sixth in a row.

Belle, 10 for 18 in four games since Manager Ray Miller benched him for a night, hit a tying homer in the eighth inning as Baltimore rallied from a 5-1 deficit.

Belle led off the 10th with a single against Scott Service (3-1) and took second on a one-out single by Will Clark, whose hit was the 2,000th of his career. After Cal Ripken struck out, a walk to Delino DeShields loaded the bases for Johnson, who lined a 2-and-2 pitch to center.

Ripken hit the 392nd homer of his career and B.J. Surhoff extended his hitting streak to a career-high 16 games as the Orioles moved nine games under .500 for the first time since May 12. Baltimore had been 2-28 when trailing after seven innings.

Tampa Bay 3, Chicago 2--Aaron Ledesma hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning to support rookie Ryan Rupe at Chicago as the Devil Rays ended the White Sox’ four-game winning streak.

Fred McGriff, who came in hitless in 11 at-bats, was three for four with a pair of doubles as Tampa Bay won for only the third time in 14 games.

Rupe (2-3), recalled from the minors May 3, gave up two runs and nine hits in seven innings to win for the second time in eight major league starts. He struck out four.

Roberto Hernandez got four outs for his 18th save in 19 chances.

Frank Thomas extended his hitting streak to a career-high 21 games with a single in the first.

He is 33 for 82 (.402) during the streak, raising his average to .351.