Boston ? Pedro Martinez said he wasn’t at his best. Try telling that to the Minnesota Twins.

Martinez extended his career-best scoreless streak to 31 innings, blanking Minnesota through the eighth and pitching the Boston Red Sox to a 2-0 win Saturday.

On a day when he didn’t feel quite up to par, Martinez mixed his pitches well and kept the Twins’ hitters off-stride.

“When I was warming up, I noticed I wasn’t as sharp and as strong as I had been,” Martinez said. “I managed to keep them off balance and sink the ball well today to get some groundballs.”

Martinez (16-2), off to the best start of his career, gave up only four hits in winning his ninth straight decision. He has the longest shutout string in the majors since Atlanta’s Greg Maddux went 3913 innings in September 2000.

“He went out there today and he knew he didn’t have his best fastball, and he probably did his best job of pitching that he has done all year.” Red Sox manager Grady Little said.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner didn’t walk a batter and struck out eight in lowering his ERA to 2.14, second best in the majors behind teammate Derek Lowe’s 2.09.

In his last eight starts, Martinez is 7-0 with a 0.47 ERA. He threw 77 of his 101 pitches for strikes. His streak is the longest by a Red Sox pitcher since Luis Tiant had 42 in 1972.

“This is one day when I had to work to earn it,” Martinez said. “It gives me some satisfaction inside being able to do my job even when I wasn’t as strong as other days.”

Athletics 8, Yankees 0

New York Cory Lidle shut out the Yankees for eight innings, and Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez homered off David Wells (12-6) to lead Oakland past New York.

The A’s won for the eighth time in 10 games, handing the listless Yankees their first shutout at home since Sept. 25 of last season against Tampa Bay.

Lidle (5-9) gave up nine hits, struck out five and didn’t walk a batter.

Mariners 7, White Sox 3

Chicago Bret Boone hit his 20th home run, breaking an eighth-inning tie and sending Seattle past Chicago.

Boone was in an 0-for-10 slump before going deep with one out against reliever Rocky Biddle (1-3). Boone added an RBI grounder in a three-run ninth as the Mariners maintained their 312-game lead over Anaheim in the AL West.

Jeff Nelson (3-2) pitched 113 innings for the victory.

Angels 11, Blue Jays 4

Toronto Garret Anderson hit a three-run homer in a seven-run third inning as Anaheim beat Toronto.

Brad Fullmer and Darin Erstad also homered for the Angels, who ended a three-game losing skid to remain a half-game ahead of Boston and Oakland in the wild card race.

Staked to a 7-0 lead in the third, rookie starter John Lackey (4-2) allowed four runs and five hits in six innings.

The Angels, who had 18 hits, roughed up Steve Parris (5-3) in the third.

Indians 4, Rangers 3

Cleveland Karim Garcia lined a game-winning single off the left-field wall with one out in the ninth inning, lifting Cleveland past Texas.

Garcia preserved a tie in the top half with a fine running catch on a two-out drive to right field by Alex Rodriguez with runners at the corners.

Bob Wickman (1-3), activated from the 15-day disabled list before the game, pitched the ninth for the win. Ellis Burks homered for the Indians.

Orioles 3, Tigers 2

Detroit Tony Batista hit a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning as Baltimore rallied from two runs down to beat Detroit.

Chris Singleton and Gary Matthews Jr. also had run-scoring singles in the three-run eighth as the Orioles won their eighth in 11 games.

Rodrigo Lopez (13-4) went seven innings and allowed two runs one earned and three hits for the win. Jorge Julio got one out for his 24th save in 29 chances.