NEW YORK – Pedro Martinez raised his right fist in triumph on the Yankee Stadium infield. It had been a long time coming.

Martinez dominated his old nemesis for eight innings, Cliff Floyd and Carlos Beltran homered and the Mets hit four sacrifice flies in a 6-4 Subway Series victory Friday night.

“Even though he’s not throwing as hard as he used to throw in the past, he’s still able to pitch games and give us an opportunity,” Beltran said.

The Mets, who dropped two of three to the Yankees at Shea Stadium last month, overcame Derek Jeter’s leadoff homer when Ramon Castro, Jose Reyes and Mike Cameron set a National League record by hitting three sacrifice flies in the second inning, a rally fueled by a pair of errors.

Reyes added another sacrifice fly in the ninth.

“Especially with Pedro pitching, you can’t give things away and we did,” Torre said.

Mets manager Willie Randolph got a victory in his first trip back to Yankee Stadium, where he won two World Series titles as a player and four more as a coach.

“Once the game starts, it feels like what I’ve been doing all year,” Randolph said. “I don’t get all mushy about stuff.”

A sellout crowd of 55,297 was largely quiet as Mike Mussina (8-5) failed to revive the on-and-off Yankees, who have lost four of five after starting their 13-game homestand with six straight wins. There were even cheers of “Let’s go Mets!” in the ninth.

After going 0-3 in his previous six starts against the Yankees, Martinez (8-2) was greeted by a “Still Your Daddy!!” sign hanging from the second deck on the third-base side, a reminder of his frustrations against New York while pitching for the Boston Red Sox last year. But by the middle innings the sign was gone.

Braves 7, Orioles 5

ATLANTA – Marcus Giles and Andruw Jones hit first-inning home runs as the Atlanta Braves took an early six-run lead and beat Baltimore 7-5 Friday night to knock the Orioles out of first place in the AL East.

The Braves led 7-1 after three innings before Baltimore closed the gap with homers by Larry Bigbie and Brian Roberts. The Orioles had been in sole possession of first place in the AL East for 62 consecutive days since April 23. But with Boston’s 8-0 win over Philadelphia on Friday night, the Red Sox moved a half-game ahead of Baltimore.

Chris Reitsma got four outs for his sixth save in eight chances.The Braves, who have won six of eight, moved past the Phillies and into second place in the NL East.

The Orioles have lost eight of their last 10 road games after an 18-8 start away from Baltimore.

Giles had two hits and drove in three runs. Jones moved into a tie with Chicago’s Derrek Lee for the NL homer lead with his 22nd.

Atlanta’s Kyle Davies (3-2) outpitched Baltimore’s Hayden Penn (2-1) in a matchup of rookies. Davies, 21, gave up eight hits and five runs in six innings. Penn, 20, gave up eight hits and seven runs in only two-plus innings. Each gave up two home runs.

Roberts led off the game with a double, moved to third on a single by Luis Matos and scored when Miguel Tejada hit into a double play for a 1-0 lead.

The Braves jumped on Penn in the bottom of the first with three runs on back-to-back homers by Giles, his sixth, and Jones. Giles’ two-run shot drove in Rafael Furcal, who walked.

Penn gave up three more runs on four hits in the second inning. Wilson Betemit led off with a triple to center and scored on Ryan Langerhans’ single. Kelly Johnson drove in Langerhans with a double and scored on Giles’ single to right for a 6-1 lead.

Penn was lifted after giving up singles to Adam LaRoche and Betemit to lead off the third inning. James Baldwin gave up a run-scoring single to Davies for a 7-1 lead.

Penn had the shortest of his seven starts since he was called up from Double-A Bowie on May 26.

Davies gave up only two earned runs in his first four major league starts, but allowed 15 runs in three games since then, and he had difficulty protecting the 7-1 lead.

The Orioles began their comeback with Bigbie’s three-run homer in the fourth inning. It drove in Rafael Palmeiro, who just missed a home run on a double off the center-field wall, and Chris Gomez, who walked.

Roberts led off the fifth inning with his 12th homer, cutting the lead to 7-5.

Notes: The first-inning homers by Giles and Jones were the Braves’ fourth back-to-back homers this season. … Attendance at Turner Field was 43,822, the largest crowd since 50,939 for the Braves’ April 8 home opener. … This is the eighth straight year the teams have played.

AP-ES-06-24-05 2209EDT


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