CHICAGO — The expectations do not befit a man who has won three Cy Young Awards, a man who has won a World Series ring, a man who won 214 games in his first 17 major league seasons, a man who some consider to be the greatest pitcher of his generation.

The expectations, quite frankly, are not a whole lot higher than what the Phillies saw out of Pedro Martinez Wednesday night: five innings, three runs, seven hits, five strikeouts and the first victory of the next chapter of his career. After it was over, after he battled his way out of a precipitous fifth-inning jam while enjoying a double-digit cushion and left the mound with 99 pitches, his manager said that he was impressive, that with some more work and the proper stretching he would be a pitcher capable of taking a game through the sixth or seventh inning.
But Pedro Martinez did not build a Hall of Fame resume by taking games through the sixth or seventh inning. And Wednesday night, as he sat at a folding table deep beneath the stands at Wrigley Field, he spoke like a man who would not be satisfied by merely living up to the modest bar the Phillies have set.
“This is probably the first time in my career that I am going to have the opportunity to breathe a little bit with such a talented rotation,” Martinez said after earning his first victory since last Aug. 31 in the Phillies’ 12-5 laugher over the Cubs. “But at the same time, I’m not going to quit. And I know that the toughest games are yet to come. Come September and October, those are the games I’m really setting my mind for. Right now, we are in the driver’s seat, with all of these good starters that we have. But they have been pitching all year. I might be the only one picking up at the time they are getting tired, and I am very aware of that, and I would love to help this team at that point specifically, when the team really needs it, when September comes along and everybody is starting to get tired, I want to be the one peaking. And I’ve done that before. I’ve been there, with the exception that I was never so fresh ... I would like to help this team when it matters the most.”
He isn’t to that point yet, which he acknowledged after battling rusty command throughout an inefficient Phillies debut. He threw just 34 of his 56 fastballs for strikes, walked one and dug himself into a bases-loaded, no-out jam in his final frame. But he showed flashes of the pitcher who was missing in the last two years of his injury-plagued career with the Mets, which bottomed out last season when he posted a 5.62 ERA in 20 starts. The velocity on his fastball averaged from 87 to 89 mph, but 18 of them hit 91 or above, according to the tracking software on Major League Baseball’s official Web site.
“I liked him,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “I liked some things I saw. I liked the fact that his fastball was anywhere between 86-92. With more pitches, when he gets stretched out, I think he could possibly go six or seven innings.”
But Martinez seems confident that he can do more. He said he fielded serious inquiries from the Cubs and Dodgers before signing with the Phillies, who improved to 63-48 and now lead Florida and Atlanta by 4 › games in the NL East. He said he thinks he can make a difference in October.
“I actually feel good. And it shows,” Martinez said. “You see me, this is my first game coming back since deciding to play baseball again. I’m totally different. If you look at me — attitude, aggressiveness, physically — I look better than I did in the previous two years in New York. I just feel so healthy. I’m just coming back. I’m not 100 percent yet, and I still feel like I can compete with those guys. I hope I can do that for a little longer with a little more consistency.”
He was the beneficiary of immense run support, most of which came in an eight-run fourth inning when Jimmy Rollins and Raul Ibanez both hit three-run home runs.
In the Cubs’ fifth inning, he watched centerfielder Shane Victorino get struck by a beer cup thrown from the bleachers while making a catch on the warning track. Victorino declined to talk about the incident in the clubhouse after the game, but explained his reaction to Comcast SportsNet.
“It was definitely in my face and all over me, you know, it was perfect timing, it was right as the ball was hitting my glove,” Victorino said. “I tip my hat off to the guy, he had good timing but he had to leave the park and it’s one of those things we can’t have happen.”
A fan was ejected as a result of the incident.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella apologized for the incident.
“That shouldn’t happen,” Piniella said. “It’s not good sportsmanship ... We apologize to Victorino and the Phillies for that.”
But the story of the night was Martinez. He says he is a man of action, not words. And by that standard, his five-inning outing did not do much to foretell what success or failure lies in his future. But know this: He is confident.
“What I’m lacking right now is what I might give them at the end, which is experience — a cold-blooded person that doesn’t matter how big the game is,” Martinez said. “I’m going to stand right there, and if anybody fails, well, they can always count on the Old Goat to go out there and kind of step up. And I might do that. I might be able to do that if I’m healthy. That’s one of the things I would like to bring to this team.”