BY KRISTIE ACKERT
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Saturday, May 31st 2008, 12:59 AM
Simmons/News

Pedro Martinez returned to Shea Stadium Friday with a message: He and the Mets have an obligation to their fans.

“We owe them something. We built a team that is supposed to win it and I think the time is this year,” Martinez said after he got closer to coming off the disabled list by throwing long-toss in the outfield before last night’s game against the Dodgers.
“Right now we are discussing the negativity, all the things that have gone wrong, so we’re due to do something great here. I hope we do it soon. I hope all adversity we have to face is already gone. And like we have done in the last three days, we will start over and go a long way from here.”

The three-time Cy Young Award winner is scheduled to return to the rotation on Tuesday in San Francisco. He has been out with a strained left hamstring since his first start of the season April 1 and also has been dealing with his father’s battle with brain cancer.

“Pedro is back and will get the ball Tuesday,” Willie Randolph said. “It’s good to have him back.”

Martinez is coming off an 82-pitch, six-inning performance at Class-A St.Lucie on Wednesday night and said yesterday he felt ready to return.

“I feel good. I have done whatever it takes to get back, done enough pitching over there,” Martinez said. “I didn’t stop throwing, even though my leg hurt. I continued to throw and I do my job, I limited my stride, but my arm never lost its sharpness. I can go five or six innings up to 100 pitches; it just depends how they want to do it the first times out.”

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