Martinez Soothes the Weary Red Sox

Pedro Martinez improved to 9-0 on the road, pitching a five-hitter as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Seattle Mariners, 5-2, Wednesday night at Seattle, only hours after Boston lost the longest game in the majors in almost seven years.

Martinez (13-3) struck out seven and walked two in his fifth complete game and the 33rd of his career.

In six career appearances against Seattle, Martinez is 6-0. He has given up only 18 hits and five earned runs to the Mariners, with 66 strikeouts and 14 walks in 45 innings.

Nomar Garciaparra went two for four and drove in three runs, improving his major league-leading average to .393.

Four first-inning runs were all Martinez needed against Seattle. He gave up two-out singles in the third and fifth innings to Mark McLemore and Carlos Guillen, and three eighth-inning singles by Guillen, Dan Wilson and Al Martin.

Martinez has a 1.20 ERA in 11 road starts.

Tuesday night, Mike Cameron ended the Mariners’ longest home game in history with a home run leading off the 19th inning to give Seattle a 5-4 victory over Boston.

Cameron homered on the 12th pitch from Jeff Fassero (7-5), ending the longest game in the majors since Minnesota beat Cleveland, 5-4, in 22 innings on Aug. 31, 1993.

In the top of the 19th, the Red Sox loaded the bases off Rob Ramsay on a walk to Scott Hatteberg, a double by Darren Lewis and an intentional walk to Mike Lansing.

Kazuhiro Sasaki (2-5) replaced Ramsay and struck out Manny Alexander and got Jason Varitek to pop out end the threat.

Cameron entered the game as a pinch-runner in the 11th inning for John Olerud and was hitless in two at-bats before connecting on a 2-and-2 pitch from Fassero for his 13th homer, ending a 5-hour 34-minute game.

Cleveland 5, Tampa Bay 3--Wil Cordero had an RBI single and pinch-runner Jolbert Cabrera scored the go-ahead run on catcher Mike DiFelice’s passed ball during a two-run eighth inning at St. Petersburg, Fla.

Cordero singled off Roberto Hernandez, the fourth Tampa Bay pitcher of the inning, to tie the score, 3-3. Cabrera, who pinch-ran after Jim Thome drew a two-out walk off Doug Creek (1-2), scored when DiFelice couldn’t handle Hernandez’s high fastball.

Texas 7, Chicago 2--Rick Helling pitched 6 2/3 strong innings to win his sixth consecutive decision as the Rangers won at Arlington, Texas.

Helling (13-7) gave up two runs and four hits with five walks and six strikeouts. Tim Crabtree completed the four-hitter with 2 1/3 innings for his first save.

Rusty Greer broke a scoreless tie with a third-inning single to right that scored Frank Catalanotto from second.

Gabe Kapler then doubled to the left-center field gap, scoring Greer and extending his major league-leading hitting streak to 16.

Minnesota 10, Baltimore 6--David Ortiz matched his career high with four RBIs and Torii Hunter had a career-high four hits as the Twins averted a three-game sweep at Baltimore.

Ortiz singled in two runs in a four-run first inning and hit a two-run double in a five-run sixth that put Minnesota ahead, 10-4. He went two for five and is batting .410 in his last 26 games.

Oakland 5, Toronto 4--Eric Chavez drove in four runs, including the game-winner in the eighth inning, as the Athletics completed a three-game sweep at Oakland.

Chavez, who had a three-run homer earlier, singled home Miguel Tejada, who had singled and was sacrificed to second by Jeremy Giambi.

Mike Guthrie (1-2) took the loss in his Blue Jay debut.

Kansas City 4, New York 1--Blake Stein shut down the Yankees on two hits for eight innings at New York as the Royals stopped a five-game losing steak.

Denny Neagle lost for the first time in four starts since New York acquired him from Cincinnati on July 12.