MLB

PEDRO EXCITED FOR TODAY’S START

ATLANTA – Pedro Martinez was in a playful mood yesterday, showing no signs of uneasiness heading into today’s scheduled start against the Reds in Cincinnati.

But it’s anything but another game for the three-time Cy Young Award winner. Eleven months after having rotator cuff surgery on his right shoulder, Martinez is back, ready to assume his role as a key contributor if not the ace of the Mets rotation.

“I don’t really feel any big emotion about this except that I’m so happy … I could pitch one more game in the big leagues,” Martinez said.

Today won’t feel like a complete return for Martinez, who will be limited to 75 pitches – and no more than 35 in a particular inning – but it’s a major league start nonetheless.

Willie Randolph said the “feel of the game” will determine how quickly he’ll enforce Martinez’s pitch count.

Yesterday, Martinez was an interested observer as highlights of Clay Buchholz’s no-hitter for the Red Sox were showing on the TV inside the clubhouse.

“I never did that at Fenway,” Martinez remarked.

Buchholz was a compensatory draft pick Boston received when Martinez departed as a free agent following the 2004 season.

Martinez clearly appreciated the highlights he saw yesterday after Buchholz struck out an Orioles hitter late in the no-hit bid.

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Moises Alou figures his downfall in yesterday’s seventh inning started when he stepped into the batter’s box and made a request to plate umpire Eric Cooper.

“[Cooper] kept talking to [catcher] Brian McCann the whole game and I said ‘You guys need to be quiet,’ ” Alou said.

What followed was a fast strike called on Alou, with the player wondering aloud if he had been penalized for telling the umpire to keep quiet.

The at-bat ended with Alou checking his swing and being called out on an appeal to first-base umpire Andy Fletcher. Alou was demonstrative with his anger, enough so that he was ejected by Fletcher from 90 feet away.

“I didn’t want to waste my time going to first base,” Alou said. “It was terrible. It was a bad call, and I get thrown out of the game. I get fined, and they’re fine, they’re OK.”

Alou was replaced in left field by Endy Chavez for the eighth inning.

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Though Mike Pelfrey pitched a gem on Saturday, earning the victory after allowing one run over six innings, Randolph said the right-hander won’t immediately get another start unless someone is needed to replace Orlando Hernandez, who is nursing a sore right foot.

“Pelfrey is going to be a swing guy,” Randolph said. “I’m not going to put him in if [Hernandez] is ready to go.”

Randolph said he’ll have a better sense if Hernandez can pitch this weekend against the Astros after the right-hander throws a bullpen session in the next day or two.