Ortiz’s grand slam keeps the Mariners 0-for-Pedro

BOSTON – The Seattle Mariners couldn’t touch Pedro Martinez in the days when he was pitching like the stuff of legends.

On Friday, they found their nemesis was mortal. They hit his pitches and even scored four runs against him. And still they lost.

The final score: Boston 8, Seattle 4. And, yes, Pedro Martinez beat them again.

The Mariners scored more runs against him than they had in any of the 12 previous games in which they’d faced him. They had more hits. They had – gasp – a 4-1 lead at one point.

And yes, Pedro beat them again.

The Boston right-hander now has a career record of 13-0 against Seattle, and no one watching him Friday thought he had his best stuff, until he needed it most.

“His pitches didn’t all have that bite you’re used to seeing. That dive on the breaking ball, that movement on the fastball,” Jamie Moyer said. “But when he had to make a pitch, he made one.”

By Mariners-vs.-Pedro standards, Seattle peppered him early. A home run by Bret Boone. Another by Rich Aurilia, his first as a Mariner. A couple of doubles by Randy Winn, who scored both times.

So there the Mariners sat in the fifth inning, leading 4-1 with Joel Pineiro pitching magnificently and Martinez wobbling.

And yes, Pedro beat them again.

He beat them in part because he rallied late to stifle the Mariners. And he beat them because, in the bottom of the fifth inning, Pineiro blinked.

Boston scored a run in the fifth on back-to-back one-out doubles before Pineiro struck out Pokey Reese. Two outs, a 4-2 lead.

“He was pitching beautifully,” manager Bob Melvin said.

“I fell behind Johnny (Damon) 2-0 and walked him,” Pineiro said, shaking his head. “The next guy – (Mark) Bellhorn – I had to get him. I had to make him put it in play, do something.

“I walked him to load the bases.”

Not just load the bases, but load them for Boston’s best left-handed hitter, David Ortiz.

“I’d pitched him away all night, and tried to bust him inside but didn’t get in there enough,” Pineiro said. “I thought I made a good pitch, but I didn’t.”

Ortiz hit the ball over the fence into the Sox bullpen in right-center field, the second grand slam of his career.

Boston 6, Seattle 4.

“I walked two guys with two outs and got burned,” Pineiro said. “Other than that inning, I can’t pitch any better.”

Against Martinez, that one inning was enough.

Just how good is Martinez? Look what he did with – or to – Seattle hitters in key situations:

* Against Edgar Martinez in the fifth inning, with runners on second and third bases after a double-steal, Pedro fed him a series of fastballs, climbing the strike zone. Martinez struck out and Pedro got out of the inning.

“I chased a high fastball,” Edgar Martinez said.

* Dave Hanson pinch hit in the sixth inning, with two Mariners aboard and one out. Martinez threw his best heat of the night – a 93 mph fastball – in on Hansen’s chest with two strikes. Next pitch? An 80 mph change-up that Hansen recognized too late, swung on and missed.

“A great pitch, great arm action, he sold me ‘fastball,’” Hansen said. “I hadn’t seen him throw that all night.”

Moyer, a man who lives on change-ups, whistled at that pitch.

“Pedro set it up by coming in here,” Moyer said, tapping his chest, “and then putting the next pitch right where he wanted it, making it look like a fastball all the way to the plate.”

After seven innings, Martinez departed and the Mariners flailed away for two innings against the Boston bullpen.

J.J. Putz, so effective earlier this month, continued a week-long struggle by giving up two Boston runs in the eighth inning. That made a ninth-inning threat by Seattle a moot point.

“We had the opportunities,” Melvin said. “We had chances to add runs and didn’t, and then Joel put two guys on base with walks. That killed him.

“The slam? Home runs happen, but when you extend an inning with two outs by walking two hitters to get to Ortiz?”

Melvin shook his head.

In the clubhouse, Pineiro shook his head. Around the Seattle lockerroom, players asked about Martinez shook their heads.

Pedro beat them again.