Martinez Inspires Memories of the Past

For the first time in a long while, Pedro Martinez was dominant.

Martinez pitched one-hit ball for eight innings, and Shea Hillenbrand had a bases-loaded triple to lead the Boston Red Sox over the Kansas City Royals, 4-0, at Kansas City, Mo., on Friday night for their fourth consecutive victory.

Martinez (2-0) struck out six and walked none, lowering his earned-run average from 6.91 to 4.43. He gave up only a clean single to Mike Sweeney in the fourth and ended the inning by striking out Michael Tucker for his 2,000th career strikeout.

“That’s a huge milestone,” Martinez said. “It’s something to be proud of. A lot of people doubted if I could pitch five innings [early in my career]. It is pretty much the same as the first time I won 20 games.”

Rich Garces pitched the ninth, giving up Neifi Perez’s two-out single, to complete Boston’s second shutout of the season.

Martinez, who retired his last 13 batters, joins seven other active pitchers with 2,000 strikeouts.

New York 6, Toronto 5--Gerald Williams threw out the go-ahead run at the plate in the top of the ninth and scored the winning run in the bottom half as the Yankees bailed out Mariano Rivera and won at New York.

Williams, who came on as a defensive replacement in the ninth, caught Raul Mondesi’s fly ball to right and threw out Homer Bush at the plate, keeping the game tied at 5-5.

Williams sparked the winning rally by walking against Bob File (0-1), moving to second on a sacrifice and scoring on Alfonso Soriano’s single.

Minnesota 12, Cleveland 3--Kyle Lohse (1-1) pitched seven strong innings and Tom Prince homered twice to lead the Twins at Minneapolis.

Losers of 14 of 19 to the Indians last season and swept in a four-game series last week in Cleveland, the Twins scored four in the fourth inning and six in the fifth to build an 11-0 lead. Cleveland has lost four in a row after starting the season 11-1.

Detroit 8, Chicago 2--Randall Simon tied his career high with four hits, and Oscar Salazar hit his first major league home run to lead the Tigers at Chicago.

Steve Sparks (1-1), backed by a 5-0 lead in the second, gave up five hits in eight innings, and Mike Rivera drove in two runs for the Tigers, who have won three of four after an 0-11 start.

Texas 9, Seattle 0--At Seattle, the Rangers ended the Mariners’ 10-game winning streak as Rafael Palmeiro hit his 450th career homer and Kenny Rogers pitched his first shutout in three years.

Baltimore 6, Tampa Bay 5--Brook Fordyce drove in the go-ahead run with a squeeze bunt in the 14th inning as the Orioles defeated the Devil Rays at St. Petersburg, Fla.