MIAMI -- As Rick Peterson watched right-hander Pedro Martinez reduce the Florida Marlins to a collection of overmatched hitters Thursday night, the Mets pitching coach began to think of Martinez as baseball's Van Gogh, a great artist with versatility.

"The range of his masterpieces and his artistry is so wide, I've never seen anything like it," Peterson said after Martinez held the Marlins to one run and three hits over seven innings in the Mets' 10-1 victory before 27,674 at Dolphins Stadium.

"He can win with finesse," Peterson said. "He can win with power. Then you might see a combination of the two. You might see him win with two pitches, or you might see him win with three or four. He's about as special as it gets."

The Marlins touched him for a run in the first, on Carlos Delgado's groundout. But Martinez received seven runs of support in the second inning and the Marlins seemed to sense that the game essentially was over. Martinez struck out eight and said afterward that he didn't have his best stuff, but only because he didn't use it.

"I didn't need it, let's put it that way," Martinez said. "All I was trying to do was throw strikes. When I needed a fastball, I would reach back and get a fastball, but I was trying to keep them off-stride, too."

Not too many years ago, Martinez said, he would have had too much pride to throw an off-speed pitch or breaking ball with such a big lead. It would have been all fastballs.

"But now I realize it's just not about throwing hard," he said. "It's pitching."

He realized the Marlins needed several home runs to get back in the game, so he "traded velocity for location." In other words, he kept the home team off balance. One of the Marlins' two hits after the first came on Lenny Harris' seventh-inning bunt.

Martinez could have been insulted about that, but he said he and Harris just laughed about it.

Mets Manager Willie Randolph pulled Martinez after seven innings, despite the fact he had thrown just 88 pitches. "We didn't want to push him any more than we had to," Randolph said.

Martinez was going on a normal four days' rest for the first time this season after receiving more rest in his previous starts. It didn't seem to impact Martinez, he said, in part because of the humidity. That allowed the Dominican native to "feel the ball better," mindful of a start at Shea Stadium where it was windy and cold.

Martinez, now 2-0, received a rousing cheer from the crowd when his name was announced in the lineup. That moved him, particularly since this was a road game.

"A lot of people here are from the Dominican and Latin [America], and they identify with me," he said.

The Mets broke the game open when they sent 11 batters to the plate, collecting five hits and three walks en route to scoring seven runs. First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz had the biggest blow, with his first career grand slam home run on a 2-2 pitch from ex-Met Al Leiter, who was battered for eight earned runs in three innings.

Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran also drove in runs in the inning, while Cliff Floyd contributed with a single, walk, a run scored and two steals. "Not a bad inning's work," Floyd said later, acknowledging that this was the first time he'd ever stolen two bases in an inning.

Beltran later hit a two-run home run, his third of the season.

Mientkiewicz was particularly happy about his grand slam because his mother, Janice, shrugged off a bad cold to watch her son in action.

Mientkiewicz nearly lost his temper in the third after he felt Leiter threw a pitch too close to him and complained about it, despite the fact Mientkiewicz knew he had blinked as the pitch darted inside. But then Mientkiewicz saw a replay, which showed the pitch wasn't as menacing as it had seemed.

The next time up, Mientkiewicz apologized to Marlins catcher Paul Lo Duca for misjudging Leiter's intent.

Mets catcher Mike Piazza was a late scratch from the lineup because, according to Randolph, he felt "a little banged up." Martinez felt Ramon Castro handled him just fine.

"I throw to the mitt anyway," Martinez said. "As long as I hit the mitt, I'm OK."