Martinez Shows Mastery When It Comes to Indians

Pedro Martinez wasn’t feeling in top shape. So he actually gave up a hit.

Boston’s ace pitched another masterpiece, giving up only Russell Branyan’s fifth-inning double in eight innings and victimizing Cleveland again as the Red Sox defeated the Indians, 3-0, Thursday night at Boston. Carl Everett broke a scoreless tie with a seventh-inning homer.

Martinez (9-2), facing the Indians for the first time since he was ejected April 30 for hitting Roberto Alomar with a pitch, might have been the only one who wasn’t impressed with his 10-strikeout, one-walk performance that improved his record against Cleveland to 8-0.

“What am I?” he said. “I’m only a man. I’m only a human being. I’m not anything special.”

The Indians would have as tough a time believing that as they did hitting his pitches.

“He was a master,” Omar Vizquel said. “You look at his numbers and he does it against every team.”

Martinez lowered his major league-leading earned-run average to 0.95 and opponents’ batting average to .152.

He outdueled Bartolo Colon (6-3), who gave up three hits in his first six innings before Everett’s 21st homer, and run-scoring singles in the eighth by Brian Daubach and Mike Stanley.

It was the first time the Indians were shut out as Martinez extended his scoreless streak to 22 innings.

New York Mets 8, Baltimore 7--The Orioles, forced to fly back and forth from Baltimore between the last two games of the series, wasted a four-run lead and lost in 10 innings on Kurt Abbott’s homer.

Todd Zeile added a three-run homer and Jay Payton went two for four with a homer and two runs batted in as the Mets rallied from deficits of 4-0 and 6-3.