It’s Like Boston’s Martinez Never Went Away

Pedro Martinez is back.

Montreal’s Javier Vazquez was there, too, Tuesday night, but Martinez brought Darren Lewis along.

Martinez struck out 12 to earn his first victory since June 8, and Lewis broke a seventh-inning tie with a suicide squeeze to give Boston a 3-1 victory.

“He [Lewis] really had a nice game all the way around,” Red Sox Manager Jimy Williams said after Lewis made a tough catch in the outfield, singled to help score Boston’s first run and then bunted home the go-ahead run.

Martinez (10-3) gave up five hits and three walks in eight innings, and Derek Lowe pitched the ninth for his 21st save.

“We scored. We did something a lot of big league teams don’t do,” Expo Manager Felipe Alou said. “We scored against Pedro.”

The comment was made somewhat wistfully. Once upon a time, Alou managed Martinez until the Expos could no longer afford him.

Martinez started the season 9-2 before losing a game and having three no-decisions sandwiched around a trip to the disabled list. The 1999 AL Cy Young winner still leads the league in strikeouts (162) and the majors in earned-run average (1.49).

He gave up a double to Peter Bergeron on the first pitch of the game, but then didn’t allow another hit until the fifth inning.

Martinez became a winner in the seventh when, with the scored tied, 1-1, Bernard Gilkey doubled to lead off the inning, then moved to third on Ed Sprague’s fly to right. Vazquez (7-5) threw the next pitch at Lewis’ eyes, but he pushed it to the right of the mound and Gilkey, running all the way, scored easily.

“I tried to make a high pitch so he’d foul it or pop it up, but he made a great play,” said Vazquez, who gave up three runs on nine hits and one walk, striking out five in his first complete game of the season.

Lewis also made a catch against the wall in left-center field to retire Michael Barrett and end the second inning.

“I’ll do whatever I have to do to help my team win,” Lewis said. “That’s the way I’ve played the game for nine years and I’m not going to change.”

The Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Sprague, Lewis and Jose Offerman hit consecutive singles. The Expos tied it, 1-1, in the seventh when Geoff Blum tripled and scored on Fernando Seguignol’s double.

The Red Sox added a run in the eighth inning when Nomar Garciaparra and Troy O’Leary had consecutive doubles. O’Leary, who went three for four, is batting .388 with 14 RBIs in 12 games since coming off the disabled list.

Garciaparra was one for three and his batting average fell from .400 to .399.