The 36-year-old veteran, who signed a one-year deal with the Phillies in July after spending the first half of the season working out in the Dominican Republic, earned the victory with five solid innings against the Cubs, allowing three runs on seven hits with five strikeouts as the Phillies rolled 12-5.
It looks like the Pedro experiment is going to fare far better than Boston's John Smoltz experiment did — and now, with Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee and a seemingly dominant Martinez heading up the rotation, the Phillies look like a lock to win the National League East.
Hopefully, every time Martinez takes the mound from here on out, he'll pitch the way he did on Wednesday. The only thing he could do differently is last a little longer.
The Phils certainly didn't need a lengthy performance from the eight-time All-Star after scoring 12 runs in the first four innings. They went up 2-0 in the first, and Shane Victorino made it 4-1 with a two-run jack in the third. Jimmy Rollins and Raul Ibanez both went deep in the fourth to extend the lead before Pedro Feliz's RBI single made it 12-1.
Martinez held the Cubs scoreless in the first inning before surrendering an RBI single to Jeff Baker in the second. Chicago didn't score again until the fifth, when Milton Bradley's single plated a run before Jake Fox made it 12-3 with a sacrifice fly.
At the time of his exit, Martinez was in line to earn his first victory of the year, and the Philly bullpen held it down for him. Chad Durbin allowed two hits and two runs in the ninth to allow the Cubs to narrow the deficit to 12-5, but Chicago couldn't crawl any closer.
From the looks of his debut, Martinez was certainly deserving of the praise of general manager Ruben Amaro Jr.
"We just felt that Pedro is pitching well enough that he deserves a chance to pitch in the rotation," he told Yahoo Sports before the game. "We hope it's an upgrade."
It is for now. Hopefully for Pedro and the Phillies, it stays that way.
