CLEVELAND – After reading that George Steinbrenner said Major League Baseball should investigate Pedro Martinez hitting Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter, the Red Sox right-hander fired back yesterday at The Boss.

“If he wants to go to the league he might be able to buy the whole league but he can’t buy my desire,” Martinez told reporters. “He has yet to find out what I was thinking. . . . He doesn’t have the money to buy fear and put it in my heart.”

For the second straight day Martinez insisted he wasn’t trying to hit either Yankee, both of whom sustained bruised hand bones, Soriano after fouling an inside pitch off his left hand.

“Soriano is my kid from the Dominican, there is no way I want to hurt him,” Martinez said. “Jeter’s another nice guy, there is no reason to hurt him. He’s had plenty of at-bats against me. I’ve never hit him, not that I remember. If I wanted to hit them I could hit them with one pitch. I know how to do that.”

Asked if Steinbrenner was trying to stir up the Yankees-Red Sox feud, Martinez said, “He doesn’t need to, it’s already enough of a good rivalry.”

Martinez and Kevin Millar, who was hit by Roger Clemens Saturday, were still sore at Clemens, who vowed to make adjustments against David Ortiz the next time he faces the left-handed hitter who homered off him Saturday.

“I have no idea. It’s obvious he was the one getting lit up I wasn’t,” Martinez said. “And what he said about Ortiz was more obvious than trying to put thoughts on what I did [Monday].”

Millar knows where all the talk began.

“It started with [Clemens’] stupid comment that I should have gotten out of the way of his 95 mile an hour fastball,” Millar said. “The classy thing would have been to call the clubhouse and see if I was OK. He threw a pitch that almost broke my face. You don’t say things like he did.

“Play the game and let’s see what happens if there’s a Clemens-Martinez match up. Let’s see how many adjustments [Clemens] he makes up and in.”