Mariners Can’t Weather Martinez

Rain, cold and the Seattle Mariners didn’t stop Boston’s Pedro Martinez from dominating the American League West leaders again.

The Red Sox defeated the Mariners, 4-1, Saturday at Boston, and Martinez improved to 10-0 with a 0.94 earned-run average in 10 starts against Seattle despite pitching in difficult conditions.

“The guy can pitch,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said. “Whether it’s the Mojave Desert or an igloo in Alaska, what’s the difference?”

The game was played despite a downpour that started before dawn and ended about an hour after the scheduled start. The delay lasted 2 hours 5 minutes.

The teams wanted to play the game because Seattle’s last regular-season game at Fenway Park is today.

Martinez couldn’t explain his success against the team with the second-best record in the majors at 29-13.

Boston (28-11) has the majors’ best record.

“I just go out there and try my best,” he said. “I always had the support of my teammates who always seem to be right on top of their game at the time we’ve played them and I’m pitching.”

Martinez (6-0) struck out nine in eight innings, gave up six hits and walked none. He went to a three-ball count against only three of the 29 batters he faced.

In the first inning, he struck out the side on nine pitches, the first Red Sox pitcher to do that and the 35th in major league history.

“Coming out of the bullpen, you’re pretty warmed up and you just want to let it go right away,” he said. “I knew it would take them a little while before they got loose. So I took advantage of that.”

When the game started, the temperature was 41 degrees with winds out of the northwest at 23 mph.

“It’s hard to get loose and to stay loose,” Boston catcher Jason Varitek said. “Both pitchers pitched very well in those conditions.”

The Red Sox scored twice in the first inning against James Baldwin (3-4) on doubles by Jose Offerman and Nomar Garciaparra and a single by Brian Daubach.

“If you give up a couple of runs,” said Baldwin, who lost to Martinez six days earlier at Seattle, “that’s a lot of runs against a pitcher like Pedro.”

New York 6, Minnesota 2--Alfonso Soriano homered for the third consecutive game, hitting a tiebreaking three-run drive against Bob Wells in the sixth inning at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees have homered in 10 consecutive games and have 21 in their last six, raising their major league-leading total to 69.

Yankee starter Ted Lilly (1-3) wasted a 2-0 lead but won for the first time in five starts. He gave up both runs--one earned--and five hits in seven innings. He struck out nine.

Toronto 6, Oakland 3--Former Oakland prospect Eric Hinske hit a three-run homer, helping the Blue Jays win their first series at home.

Oakland has lost 12 of 15. The Blue Jays won the first two games of the three-game series.

Hinske, acquired from Oakland along with rookie starter Justin Miller (3-1) for closer Billy Koch in the off-season, homered against Mike Fyhrie (1-3) to give Toronto a 6-0 lead in the third inning.

Miller gave up three runs in 52/3 innings.

Detroit 8, Texas 7--Robert Fick hit a tiebreaking run-scoring single with two out in the eighth inning at Detroit.

Detroit trailed, 7-6, in the eighth, but Ramon Santiago drove in the tying run with his third hit, stole second and scored on Fick’s single to right-center field.

Tampa Bay 5, Baltimore 4--Greg Vaughn ended a nine-month homerless drought in a big way, connecting twice, including a tiebreaking two-run drive in the ninth inning at Baltimore.

Vaughn had not homered in 222 at-bats dating to Aug. 5 before hitting a solo homer against starter Sidney Ponson in the fourth.

He belted a 2-and-1 pitch from Jorge Julio into the left-field seats in the ninth to break a 3-3 tie.

Kansas City 4-1, Cleveland 2-4-- Ryan Drese (4-3) struck out 10 in eight innings, and Omar Vizquel hit a three-run homer to give the Indians a split of a day-night doubleheader at Cleveland.

Drese used a split-finger fastball to keep the Royals off-balance. The rookie right-hander gave up four hits.

In the first game, Mark Quinn hit a run-scoring double in Kansas City’s two-run ninth inning against Bob Wickman (0-1).

Quinn’s double scored pinch-runner Donnie Sadler, and A.J. Hinch had a run-scoring groundout in the ninth.