BALTIMORE — First, Pedro Martinez turned in a performance that proved his shoulder is not a cause for concern.
Then he hammered home the point.
"I hope that everyone chills now. I'm not 100 percent strong yet, but I'll get there," he declared.
Martinez won for the first time since last May 30, rebounding from an awful opening day stint to pitch six strong innings Sunday and lead the Boston Red Sox over the Baltimore Orioles 4-1.
Martinez (1-0), coming off a season shortened to 18 starts by shoulder pain, allowed one unearned run and three hits, struck out five and walked one. Shea Hillenbrand backed him with a pair of two-run homers.
So much for the idea that Martinez is dragging a sore shoulder to the mound.
"My health, thank God, I believe it's here," he said.
Although he was pitching against a team in a horrid hitting slump, it was a vast improvement from Martinez's first outing, when the right-hander gave up seven earned runs and nine hits in three innings against Toronto.
"The reports we were getting was that his fastball was not as explosive as it had been," Orioles manager Mike Hargrove said. "Obviously, he had a real good fastball today."
The three-time Cy Young Award winner allowed only one runner past second base and retired his final seven batters. Martinez threw 85 pitches, 54 for strikes, in lowering his ERA from 21.00 to 7.00.
"I'm pretty pleased with how everything went. I made some adjustments today and felt like I was more consistent with everything," he said. "I felt better. Now I'll just continue to work on everything."
Martinez had been winless in his previous eight starts since beating the New York Yankees 3-0. That was the night he brought up the famous curse against the Red Sox, saying "Wake up the Bambino. Maybe I'll drill him in the (behind)."
Boston hasn't won the World Series since 1918, and some attribute the absence of a title to the team's sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.
Carlos Baerga had two hits for the Red Sox, who outscored Baltimore 11-3 in a three-game sweep. Ugueth Urbina pitched the ninth to earn his third save, all in this series.
Baltimore has lost five straight, scoring only four runs during that span.
"We're six games into the season. There's no reason to panic," Hargrove said. "We swung our bats well against Martinez, who is arguably the best pitcher in the league."
Even if shoulder isn't in peak form.
"He's continuing his progress," Boston manager Grady Little said. "We were pleased with the way he threw the ball. He was much more consistent. His velocity is increasing. Today he got good results; that should make him feel better about everything."
The Red Sox got all the runs they needed in the second inning. Two outs after Manny Ramirez drew a leadoff walk from Calvin Maduro (0-1), Hillenbrand hit a liner into the left-field seats for a 2-0 lead.
Hillenbrand struck again in the fourth, following a double by Tony Clark with another drive that easily cleared the left-field wall. It was the first career multihomer game for the second-year player.
But Hillenbrand knew this one was about Martinez.
"He's the person we need, no doubt about it," he said. "A lot of great things happen when you've got guys like that. It's awesome right now to be part of this team."
The Orioles closed to 4-1 in their half. Jeff Conine doubled and scored when Hillenbrand threw a bouncer to first base after fielding a slow-roller off the bat of Jay Gibbons, who had half of Baltimore's six hits.
Maduro, activated from the disabled list before the game, yielded four runs and five hits in four innings. Rodrigo Lopez blanked Boston over the next four innings.