For Martinez, Victory Is Piece of Work

Pedro Martinez said he wasn’t at his best. Try telling that to the Minnesota Twins.

Martinez extended his career-best scoreless streak to 31 innings, blanking Minnesota through the eighth and pitching the Boston Red Sox to a 2-0 victory Saturday.

On a day when he didn’t feel quite up to par, Martinez mixed his pitches well and kept the Twins’ batters off-stride.

“When I was warming up, I noticed I wasn’t as sharp and as strong as I had been,” Martinez said. “I managed to keep them off balance and sink the ball well today to get some ground balls.”

Martinez (16-2), off to the best start of his career, gave up only four hits in winning his ninth consecutive decision. He has the longest shutout string in the majors since Atlanta’s Greg Maddux went 39 1/3 innings in September 2000. The streak is the longest by a Red Sox pitcher since Luis Tiant had 42 in 1972.

“He went out there today and he knew he didn’t have his best fastball, and he probably did his best job of pitching that he has done all year,” Red Sox Manager Grady Little said.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner didn’t walk a batter and struck out eight in lowering his earned-run average to 2.14, second best in the majors behind teammate Derek Lowe’s 2.09.

In his last eight starts, Martinez is 7-0 with a 0.47 ERA. He threw 77 of his 101 pitches for strikes.

“This is one day when I had to work to earn it,” said Martinez, who was hampered last season by shoulder tendinitis. “It gives me some satisfaction inside being able to do my job even when I wasn’t as strong as other days.”

Ugueth Urbina struck out the side in the ninth for his 27th save.

It was only Boston’s second victory in five games of a current six-game homestand that concludes against the Twins today. Minnesota, runaway leader in the AL Central, has lost five of its last six.

The Twins didn’t manage to get a runner past second base, collecting a first-inning double by Cristian Guzman and three singles.

“The last time we saw him, he was a fastball pitcher,” Minnesota center fielder Torii Hunter said. “Today, it was finesse. He was hitting his spots.”