BOSTON -- A lot has changed for the Boston Red Sox since last season, and not all the changes are good.

	Garciaparra

	Brady

The "new day" promised by the new owners after they bought the team and purged the Yawkey regime brought a new Pedro Martinez to the pitcher's mound. Problem is, the old one was better.

The Red Sox ace and three-time Cy Young winner allowed a career high-tying seven earned runs in just three innings on Monday as he tried to rebound from the shoulder injury that cost him most of last season. Boston lost to the Toronto Blue Jays 12-11, a big downer on a day of optimism rarely exceeded among fans who have been waiting 'til next year since the Red Sox won their last World Series in 1918.

"I just have to go out and prove them wrong. If they want to panic, they can panic," Martinez said. "I feel healthy and I threw good out there today. I just gave it up. There's no excuses."

Conventional wisdom says that the Red Sox will go only as far as Martinez takes them, but on Monday they rallied back from the 7-1 deficit their ace gave them and took an 11-8 lead in the fourth. Toronto scored three in the fifth, then added the game-winner on Darrin Fletcher's sacrifice fly in the ninth.

"We hate to lose any game," Grady Little said after losing his managerial debut. "But our No. 1 concern is the health and welfare of that kid on the mound. We've got big plans for him later in the season."

For a team that hasn't won the World Series in 83 years, blowing their chance last year in a late-season morass of bickering and finger-pointing, the Red Sox and their fans had reason to look forward to 2002.

Florida financier John Henry led a group that paid more than $660 million for the team, its ballpark and its television network. They quickly went to work clearing out the old management and trying to rehabilitate the club's image of unfriendliness.

General manager Dan Duquette was fired after failing to convert the team's cache of money, prospects and goodwill into a winner. Manager Joe Kerrigan was let go for his 17-26 record after Jimy Williams was fired.

The absence of clubhouse grumblers like Mike Lansing and Carl Everett gave the Red Sox better chemistry as they opened the season with 17 players who weren't around a year ago, including starters Johnny Damon, Tony Clark and Rey Sanchez.

The team also spruced up Fenway Park with a new logo on the field and on The Wall, a fresh coat of paint covered the dugouts and new seats down the line brought the fans -- at least those who could pay $200 apiece -- even closer to the action.

The clubhouse was reorganized so the players and reporters weren't tripping over each other and -- in the most symbolic move -- the partition between the staff dining room and the one for the media was removed.

Not everything was new. Little, a former coach, is now the manager, and former players Dwight Evans, Luis Tiant and Mike Stanley are back as coaches.

But most importantly, the stars who were injured last year -- among them Martinez, outfielder Manny Ramirez, catcher Jason Varitek and shortstop Nomar Garciaparra -- were back in the lineup.

"I feel strong, and I have to continue to get stronger," Varitek said. Of Martinez, he said, "He pitched better than his results."

It all began with the celebration of a championship -- not the World Series title that Boston has waited for since 1918, but the Super Bowl won this winter by the New England Patriots.

A giant American flag covered Fenway Park's famous left-field wall for the national anthem. After Aerosmith's Steven Tyler was done singing, 23 members of the NFL champs came out from behind the flag in front of the Green Monster, including Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady.

Safety Lawyer Milloy carried the Super Bowl trophy, bringing it to shortstop Nomar Garciaparra to rub. Each player threw a baseball to a member of the Red Sox -- completing 22 of 23 passes -- then threw souvenir footballs into the stands.

But soon after the game started, it was obvious Martinez wasn't going to carry the Red Sox in this one.

"Some of the things that are happening to me are different. Missing too many of my pitches, that isn't very common for me," he said. "I don't know what's out there for me. I can only be healthy and make some adjustments."