DUE to a rainout Tuesday, David Wells was moved from facing the Orioles at home to going head-to-head against Pedro Martinez in Boston tonight. But don’t think of Wells as a sacrificial lamb, even if Fenway Park has been among his least successful venues.

No team has fared better against Martinez than the Yankees, and while the formula for that achievement includes patient hitting and quality relief, nothing has been more vital than brilliant Yankees starting pitching.

Since Martinez joined the Red Sox in 1998, he has started 20 times against the Yankees and pitched to a 2.69 ERA. Yet he is 7-7, and Boston is 8-12, in those games. Martinez is 87-19 (.821) in all other games in the same time frame.

More vital, Boston has won just one of the 12 series against the Yanks in which Martinez started and did not win. Is there a correlation, therefore, that Boston has finished second to the Yankees in every season since Martinez arrived?

There must be a positive derived from consistently not wilting against the majors’ most dominating pitcher. Thus, it feels as if the stretch run for the AL East title begins tonight with Wells vs. Martinez to open a three-game set that starts, again, with the Yankees in first and the Red Sox in second.

Martinez actually has been great against the Yankees. He has three complete-game victories, including a 17-strikeout, one-hitter on Sept. 10, 1999, and a four-hit shutout on May 28, 2000, when he outdueled Roger Clemens in a 2-0 triumph.

Overall, Martinez has permitted 100 hits in 137 innings as a Red Sox against the Yanks, walking 39 and fanning 184. That is not the line of a .500 pitcher; it is pretty close to Jason Schmidt’s 2003 line, and the Giants’ ace is 10-4.

Even in the 13 outings in which Martinez lost or gained a no-decision, he has 11 quality starts (at least six innings and three or fewer earned runs). So you could understand if Martinez gets frustrated when pinstripes are involved.

On May 30, 2001, after winning 3-0 in The Bronx to end a five-start streak of not beating the Yanks, he said, “I don’t believe in damn curses. Wake up the damn Bambino and have me face him. Maybe I’ll drill him in the butt.” There have been no Martinez-Babe Ruth showdowns since, but Pedro has won just two of eight subsequent starts against the Yanks.

In the last start, Martinez knocked Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano out of the game, yet the undermanned Yanks rallied to win 2-1, which made George Steinbrenner both cry and issue inflammatory comments about Pedro. Martinez responded in turn, among other things calling Steinbrenner “Georgie Porgie.” So tonight should be even more interesting, with Wells having to carry more weight than usual.

That is because Yankees starters have excelled against Martinez. As a group, the eight men pitted against Martinez in the 20 games have gone 8-7 with a 2.59 ERA. In the 12 wins when Martinez started, Yankees starters are 8-0 with a 1.40 ERA. Individually, the three biggest stars have been Orlando Hernandez, Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte (see chart).

Wells has faced Martinez once as a Yankee, on April 13 last year. Wells (four runs in 7 1/3 innings) outpitched Martinez (five runs in 5 1/3 innings), but Shea Hillenbrand homered off Mariano Rivera to rally the Red Sox to a 7-6 win (the only time Boston has won a Martinez no-decision vs. the Yanks).

Wells is 10-10 with a 5.12 ERA in Fenway. However, in four Boston starts since rejoining the Yankees last year, Wells is 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA, including 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball in a 7-3 Yankees win May 19.

What will Wells bring against Martinez tonight? It feels as if the beginning of the end of this season will revolve around the result.

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Picking on Pedro

Pedro Martinez has made 20 starts for the Red Sox against the Yankees. The Yankees are 12-8 in those games.

Here’s a look at how the starting pitchers have fared in those 20 games:

Pedro Martinez 7-7, 2.69 ERA

IP – H – R – ER – BB – SO

137 – 100 – 43 – 41 – 39 – 184

Yankees starters 8-7, 2.59 ERA

IP – H – R – ER – BB – SO

135 1/3 – 96 – 41 – 39 – 31 – 125

Individual starters

IP – H – R – ER – BB – SO – W-L – ERA

Mussina (5 starts) – 41 – 20 – 8 – 6 – 6 – 45 – 2-2 – 1.32

Pettitte (4 starts) – 24 1/3 – 26 – 11 – 11 – 8 – 16 – 2-2 – 4.07

Hernandez (3 starts) – 24 – 11 – 3 – 3 – 4 – 19 – 3-0 – 1.13

Clemens (3 starts) – 16 – 10 – 4 – 4 – 6 – 18 – 0-1 – 2.25

Cone (2 starts) – 13 – 9 – 4 – 4 – 3 – 13 – 1-1 – 2.77

Lilly (1 start) – 5 – 6 – 3 – 3 – 1 – 3 – 0-1 – 5.40

Mendoza (1 start) – 4 2/3 – 7 – 4 – 4 – 1 – 8 – 0-0 – 7.71

Wells (1 start) – 7 1/3 – 7 – 4 – 4 – 2 – 3 – 0-0 – 4.91