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BOSTON (Ticker) -- Ramon Martinez, sidelined the entire season with shoulder trouble, will make his Boston Red Sox debut on Thursday afternoon. The Red Sox announced tonight that Martinez will be activated from the 60-day disabled list in time to start the finale of a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals. Martinez threw in the bullpen alongside Bret Saberhagen on Sunday and today was pronounced fit to start by manager Jimy Williams. Originally, the 30-year-old Martinez was expected to be ready to pitch by July. He had a pair of rehabilitation starts with Class AAA Pawtucket, going 0-1 with an ERA of 9.00. Martinez had surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in his pitching shoulder June 30, 1998. A permanent spot in the rotation may have been created for Martinez by Saberhagen, who has been on the disabled list since August 18 with a sore right shoulder. Saberhagen, 35, has been replaced in the rotation by knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. The Red Sox hope to move Wakefield back to the bullpen, where he had 14 saves in 17 chances. Boston leads the Oakland Athletics by one game in the American League wild card race. Martinez finally join his younger brother, Pedro, in the rotation. Ramon signed with Boston in the offseason after spending his first 11 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Martinez brothers were teammates in Los Angeles until Pedro was dealt to the Montreal Expos for second baseman Delino DeShields before the 1994 season. Prior to his injury last year, Ramon Martinez went 7-3 with a 2.83 ERA in 15 starts. The Dodgers declined to pick up his $5.6 million contract option, buying out the one-time 20-game winner for $600,000. The two-time All-Star missed 10 starts in 1997 due to a partial tear in the rotator cuff, beginning the decline of a thriving career. The native of the Dominican Republic owns a career 123-77 record and a 3.45 ERA, ranking sixth in Los Angeles franchise history with 1,314 strikeouts. His best year came in 1990, when he went 20-6 with a 2.92 ERA.