ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – The Tampa Bay Devil Rays damaged Boston’s slim chances of winning the AL East, beating Pedro Martinez and the Red Sox 9-4 Wednesday night.

The loss dropped the Red Sox, who already clinched a playoff berth, 3 games behind the New York Yankees in the division with four games remaining. The Yankees beat Minnesota in the first game of a doubleheader Wednesday.

What has to be a bigger concern, though, is the pitching of Martinez (16-9), who has lost four straight starts for the first time with the Red Sox.

Tino Martinez added a three-run homer in the eighth off Alan Embree for Tampa Bay, which won for just the fifth time in 19 games.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner lost to the Devil Rays for the second time in just over two weeks, allowing six runs on 10 hits in five innings. He’s also lost twice to the Yankees during the current skid and has yielded 21 runs and 30 hits in 23 1-3 innings in four outings since he last won on Sept. 8.

Martinez threw 64 pitches in the first three innings and saved himself from an even earlier exit when he worked out of a jam after giving up singles to Aubrey Huff and Tino Martinez and hitting Midre Cummings with a pitch to load the bases with no outs in the third.

The Devil Rays scored one in the first, three in the second and one in the fourth before going up 6-3 on Jorge Cantu’s sacrifice fly in the fifth. Martinez, who had won six of seven previous decisions at Tropicana Field, left after throwing 109 pitches.

Doug Waechter (5-7) allowed three runs and five hits in five innings to get the victory. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up an RBI single to David Ortiz in the first, Bill Mueller’s sacrifice fly in the second and Trot Nixon’s solo homer in the fourth.

Carl Crawford hit his major league-leading 18th triple and scored Tampa Bay’s first run on shortstop Orlando Cabrera’s error, then Martinez allowed three runs in the second on Toby Hall’s RBI single, B.J. Upton’s run-scoring triple and Crawford’s sacrifice fly.

Nixon’s homer trimmed Boston’s deficit to 4-3 in the fourth, however the Devil Rays regained a two-run lead in the bottom half when Upton walked, stole second and scored when Boston center fielder Gabe Kapler misplayed Julio Lugo’s single for an error.

Adam Hyzdu’s solo homer off Lance Carter cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 6-4 in the eighth. Trevor Miller pitched 1 2-3 innings for his first save.

Notes: Boston’s Manny Ramirez doubled in the first to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. He left the game for a pinch runner after walking in the fifth, finishing 1-for-2. … Tampa Bay CF Rocco Baldelli was given permission to miss Wednesday night’s game and Thursday’s doubleheader against Detroit to handle a family matter. … Boston CF Johnny Damon, who had six RBIs in the first two games of the series, had the night off. … Nixon has three homers in 17 games since coming off the disabled list Sept. 7.

AP-ES-09-29-04 2212EDT