BOSTON -- Pedro Martinez's mind is playing tricks on him, the same way his pitches once baffled batters.

	Pedro Martinez Starting Pitcher Boston Red Sox Profile
	2001 SEASON STATISTICS GM W L Sv K ERA 12 7 1 0 94 3.28

Three strong games followed by three mediocre ones. An outing when he felt pain in his shoulder followed by one Saturday in which he said there was none.

''I'm in wonderland,'' he said. ''I'm coming off an injury.''

The three-time Cy Young award winner is sure of one thing: He's not the best pitcher in baseball. He said he's behind Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who handed Martinez his first loss of the year Saturday, 3-2.

''It was a good game. You have to give Schilling all the credit,'' Martinez said. ''He's probably the best pitcher in baseball. If not, (he's) No. 2 behind his teammate, Randy.''

The game was billed as a matchup of aces -- Schilling vs. Martinez. Neither was at his best, but Schilling (12-1) was better. And Martinez (7-1) was puzzled. He's pitched without pain for most of the season after being limited to 18 starts last year by a frayed rotator cuff.

''Mentally it's tough for me,'' he said. ''I came from the top to the very bottom. We stopped (his ailment) in time.

''The biggest adjustment I have to make is realizing I'll have to deal with this the rest of my career, or at least the end of the year. I don't even know if I'm going to get through the end of the year.''

He didn't throw as hard Saturday as he did before the injury. Only nine of his 115 pitches hit 94 mph or more. The 115 pitches in six innings were one fewer than his season high of 116. But he threw those in eight innings in a 10-4 win over Seattle on May 12.

''There are things most of you don't understand because you can't feel it,'' Martinez said. ''Having pain in my shoulder is hard to deal with. It's a mind game. It's really hard''

But, he said, ''I'm remaining positive about my comeback.''

He said he didn't feel pain Saturday when he allowed three runs on seven hits with 10 strikeouts and two walks. But he did feel it in his previous start, last Monday at Detroit, when he gave up four runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and no walks in the Tigers' 7-6 win. And in his start before that he complained of weakness in his arm.

Martinez has allowed at least three earned runs in each of his last three outings, all lasting six innings. In his previous three starts, all victories, he allowed just one run each time and worked eight innings twice and seven innings once.

''I knew from the get-go I was fine'' Saturday, he said. ''This is a learning process for me. I'm learning how to pace myself.''

Last year, Martinez improved to 7-1 with a win over the New York Yankees on May 30 but didn't win another game. This year, he went to 7-0 by beating the Yankees on May 23 then had three no decisions before Saturday.

But his arm has felt better all season than it did through this point last year.

''To my understanding, I'm 100 percent'' physically, Martinez said. ''This is something new for me. I know when I was at the top of my game from the fifth inning on, I took off.''

On Saturday, he retired the last two batters in the third and all six in the fourth and fifth. But he gave up two walks and an RBI single in the sixth.

''He looked very sharp intermittently today,'' Schilling said.

That's something Martinez may have to deal with all season.

''Even if I don't feel as well as I should, I'm going to go out there and see what happens,'' he said. ''I'm pretty confident I can bounce back.''