FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – Minnesota had to deal with Derek Lowe’s sinker and Tim Wakefield’s knuckler yesterday.

The Twins are lucky that Pedro Martinez’s curveball and Curt Schilling’s split-finger fastball won’t be on display until Tuesday night when the Boston Red Sox face Cincinnati.

Add Byung-Hyun Kim and his extreme sidearm style to the mix, and the Red Sox have a rotation that should force teams to adjust from game to game.

They have two days off in the first nine days of the regular season. But once the Red Sox settle into a regular rotation, Wakefield expects to start the game after Martinez and before Schilling.

“I think that’s the best place for me and the best place for the team,” Wakefield said after pitching the fourth and fifth innings of Boston’s 9-4 win over Minnesota. “Just the contrast between Pedro and me and Schill, I think it’s a huge advantage.”

General manager Theo Epstein doesn’t think it makes a big difference, although opposing batters may have a different perception.

“If guys (on other teams) think it does, that’s enough,” Epstein said. “I think if you have two guys who look exactly alike, you probably don’t want them following one other.”

Martinez is scheduled to pitch the regular-season opener at Baltimore on April 4. After a day off, Schilling, Lowe and Kim are expected to face the Orioles before Wakefield pitches the home opener April 9 against Toronto.

No matter how the rotation is set up, opposing batters will have to adjust to different styles.

“Pedro and Schilling are the closest things to being the same look,” Epstein said, “and they’re different because Schilling has a four-seam straight (fastball) and a split and a slider and Pedro’s got the curveball and his fastball.”

Lowe’s sinkerball worked well for his second straight start, although he lasted just two innings in which he threw 37 pitches. He threw 36 pitches in three innings in his first exhibition start last Thursday, a 5-3 win over Minnesota.

But he couldn’t deeply analyze his performance after just two innings.

“It’s so hard to try to say how good your outing could be,” Lowe said, “because if this was during the regular season, you could turn it around in the third or it could be a disaster in the third. You never know.”

Lowe was expected to go three innings Monday but didn’t make it because of his high pitch count. Non-roster pitcher Carlos Morla worked the third and Wakefield pitched the next two innings.

“I don’t have any idea” about his spot in the rotation, Lowe said. “I don’t know if they’ve told anybody.”

Lowe and Wakefield each allowed one run in two innings.

“Mechanically, I still need a little bit of work,” Wakefield said. “My timing’s a little off right now, but I’ll take those results feeling that way.”

On Tuesday, Martinez makes his first appearance of spring training. He will be followed by Schilling, who allowed three hits in three scoreless innings last Friday night against Northeastern University.

It’s all part of the preparation for the regular season.

“Your sequence in April is very rarely your sequence throughout the year,” Epstein said. “The sequencing of our starting pitchers is not a big concern. We don’t have guys who would suffer from following anyone else on the staff because we have five unique styles.”