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ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- Gerald Williams was the first batter to face Pedro Martinez and he decked him. The rest of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays could not touch him. Martinez hit Williams with his fourth pitch, inciting a wild brawl, before retiring the next 24 batters in order as the Boston Red Sox posted a wild 8-0 triumph over the Devil Rays. It marked the second brush with baseball immortality for the game's best pitcher. Martinez tossed a nine-inning no-hitter for Los Angeles on June 3, 1995 but surrendered a hit in the 10th. Tonight, the two-time Cy Young Award winner took his bid into the ninth before surrendering a clean single to right-center field to former Red Sox John Flaherty. "He hit a good pitch," Martinez said. "I threw the same fastball to (Greg) Vaughn and Jose Guillen on the previous at-bats and I struck them out. I lost (it) with the fastball, the way it should have been. A no-hitter is not going to dictate what kind of pitcher I am." Martinez (15-4) was overpowering once again, striking out 13 without a walk and throwing 71 of 110 pitches for strikes. The righthander lowered the best ERA in the major leagues to 1.68, tossed his fourth shutout of the season and 15th career. After Flaherty singled, Martinez retired Ozzie Guillen, Jason Tyner and Miguel Cairo in order. He came up short in his bid to become the first Red Sox to author a no-hitter since since Dave Morehead tossed one September 16, 1965. It did not seem Martinez would make it out of the first inning. His 1-2 pitch to Williams touched off a wild brawl that resulted in the ejections of Williams and Devil Rays manager Larry Rothschild. "Williams was hit on the wrist, I think, on a 1-2 pitch. It was early in the game and in our judgement, Martinez was not throwing at him intentionally," crew chief Tim McClelland said. "Then, Williams charged the mound and that is an almost automatic ejection. Then the melee, scuffle, whatever you want to call it, started. In our opinion, none of the actions during that time warranted ejection." "I think that it should speak for itself and I just want to remain a professional," Williams said. "Sometimes, it becomes increasingly difficult when you are given a guy's background." Williams was suggesting what has been said in the past -- that Martinez throws at hitters. Rothschild was positive Martinez threw at Williams. "Obviously, we felt that he was," he said. "The guy has 27 walks and 14 hits batsmen. I got to wonder about it." "After that incident, I wanted to remain calm and do the things I had to do to win the game," Martinez said. "I was surprised. I had no intention to hit him. He pushed me back then as I was falling down, he threw a punch at me. I think it brought the best out of us. Maybe we need that. We needed something wake us up." There was another bench-clearing incident in the seventh, when Tampa Bay's Cory Lidle and Tony Fiore were ejected for throwing at Boston's Brian Daubach in retaliation. In all, eight Devil Rays players and coaches were tossed. The extracurricular activity overshadowed a huge game by Red Sox center fielder Carl Everett, who doubled, tripled, homered twice and drove in six runs. The Devil Rays had done about as well against Martinez as any team has this season, beating him 1-0 on May 6 and sending him to an early exit 15 days ago. Tampa Bay had a right to be on alert as Williams dug in the box. Martinez nailed Williams near the end of the bat and the Tampa Bay center fielder took a couple of steps toward first before charging the mound. After knocking Martinez to the ground, a wild brawl broke out behind the mound involving Daubach and a number of Devil Rays, most notably Roberto Hernandez. Martinez struck out two in both the first and second innings and the Red Sox gave him some room to operate. But again the inning was not without controversy. Mike Lansing and Trot Nixon singled to put runners at the corners. Daubach was hit by a pitch and Everett launched a two-run double to right. Eiland drilled Nomar Garciaparra and was ejected by plate umpire Phil Cuzzi. Everett led off the fifth with his 31st homer and things got interesting again in the seventh. Nixon opened with a triple and Lidle threw a pitch behind Daubach and was ejected. Fiore came on and fired another pitch behind Daubach before hitting him. Fiore immediately was tossed and Tampa Bay coaches Bill Russell and Jose Cardenal also were ejected. Doug Creek came on an allowed a three-run homer to Everett for a 6-0 cushion. "We issued (a warning) right after the first incident and to any other pitcher who came into the game," McClelland said. " We told them we would eject any of them if, in our judgment, they were throwing at a batter. ... The players decided how they were going to settle things and we had to take appropriate actions." "We thought that Daubach was throwing cheap shots in the pile and you have to protect your players," Rothschild said. "You are not going to let that happen and the only problem was that our pitchers kept missing the guy." With the outcome in little doubt, attention turned to Martinez, who breezed through the seventh and eighth. Boston scored two more runs in a long ninth and the layoff may have hurt as Martinez got a fastball up and Flaherty, who is 5-for-16 all-time against Martinez, singled into the gap. "I'm not disappointed at all," Martinez said. "I wanted to win the ballgame. I'm not here to pitch no-hitters. The days they happen, I'll take them but right now, I just want to win the game and do the best that I can and I did that." "I wanted to see him throw a no-hitter," Everett said. "It's just amazing that someone like him has never thrown one. I just wanted him to do it. When Flaherty got the hit, I wanted to have rubber arms and try to grab it."
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