Martinez Makes His Return, Red Sox Hammer Cardinals

Not much changed for Pedro Martinez and Boston’s offense since his last game nearly a month ago. Both were still overpowering Wednesday night.

Martinez pitched three scoreless innings in his return from the disabled list, and the Red Sox had a season-high 19 hits on the way to defeating the St. Louis Cardinals, 13-1, at Boston.

“Everybody was just pumped up and we felt great. I felt great,” Martinez said. “Now I feel like I am back again to be part of the team and helping the team.”

In his previous appearance May 15, Martinez pitched six shutout innings and the Red Sox had 16 hits, their previous high this season, in a 12-3 victory over Texas.

He went on the disabled list May 25 because of an inflamed tendon and a strained muscle high on his right side.

Martinez was replaced Wednesday by John Burkett (4-3), who pitched the final six innings as planned.

“It looked like he hadn’t missed a step,” Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa said of Martinez. “He’s a great pitcher and he pitched great.”

The Red Sox improved their major league-leading batting average to .299 and tied a season high by scoring seven runs in the second inning.

Martinez left to a standing ovation after striking out three and giving up two hits and no walks.

When he left, Boston had built a 9-0 lead against Brett Tomko (2-5), who left after giving up singles to the first two batters in the third. He gave up nine runs and 10 hits.

Nomar Garciaparra got his sixth triple in 10 games, and Trot Nixon and Manny Ramirez hit solo homers, giving the Red Sox 20 home runs in their last eight games.

San Francisco 11, Chicago White Sox 4 -- Rookie Jesse Foppert (4-5) gave up one hit through seven innings at Chicago and Pedro Feliz hit a grand slam for the Giants.

Barry Bonds hit a two-run homer, the 630th of his career. Every Giant starter except Marvin Benard scored.

Montreal 3, Seattle 1 -- Livan Hernandez (6-4) pitched seven sparkling innings and Michael Barrett hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly at Seattle to give the Expos their sixth consecutive victory.

Three relievers got the last six outs. Montreal relievers have pitched 11 1/3 scoreless innings with four saves in the last four games.

Atlanta 11, Oakland 6 -- Javy Lopez hit one of five home runs against Ted Lilly and drove in four runs at Oakland.

Rafael Furcal, Marcus Giles, Andruw Jones and Vinny Castilla also homered for the Braves, who have hit a major league-high 104.

Toronto 8, Pittsburgh 5 -- Roy Halladay (9-2) won his ninth start in a row, breaking Roger Clemens’ team record, and Carlos Delgado hit his American League-leading 21st homer for the host Blue Jays.

Pittsburgh’s Aramis Ramirez extended his hitting streak to 22 games with a single in the first.

Cincinnati 7, Tampa Bay 6 -- Kelly Stinnett hit a grand slam and Aaron Boone ended a ninth-inning tie with a run-scoring single, and the Reds handed the host Devil Rays their season-high sixth loss in a row.

New York Mets 8, Texas 2 -- Cliff Floyd homered and drove in five runs at Arlington, Texas, to back another solid outing by rookie Jae Weong Seo.

Seo (4-2) struck out six and gave up eight hits and two runs in seven innings.

Minnesota 7, Colorado 4 -- Kyle Lohse (6-4) gave up one run over six innings and Corey Koskie had four of Minnesota’s 15 hits at Minneapolis.

Aaron Cook (2-6) gave up 11 hits and six runs, falling to 0-6 on the road.

Arizona 4, Kansas City 3 -- Rookie Andrew Good (3-1) won his third consecutive start and Junior Spivey hit a go-ahead double in the top of the seventh inning.

Cleveland 3, San Diego 2 -- C.C. Sabathia (5-3) took a shutout into the eighth inning and the Indians won for the 10th time in their last 12 home games.

Rookie Jody Gerut homered against Adam Eaton (2-5) and made two nice plays in right field behind Sabathia.

Chicago Cubs 7, Baltimore 6 -- Matt Clement (4-6) gave up four hits in six innings at Baltimore and the Cubs won their fourth in a row in a game delayed 1 hour 44 minutes because of rain.

Moises Alou had two hits, including the 1,500th of his career, and drove in two runs to help the Cubs move nine games over .500 (36-27) for the first time since the end of the 2001 season.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Florida 6, Milwaukee 5 -- Rookie Dontrelle Willis (5-1) won his fourth consecutive start, and Luis Castillo and Derrek Lee each homered at Milwaukee.