J.D. Martinez swat sounds sweetJason Mastrodonato
Credit: Matt West
Credit: Matt WestJ.D. Martinez hasn’t received the silent treatment since his rookie year back in 2011, when he hit only six home runs with the Houston Astros.
But when Martinez got back into the Red Sox’ dugout after popping his first one out of the park yesterday afternoon, he had nobody to high five but himself.
“I kind of figured they were going to do something,” Martinez said. “They’ve kind of been messing with me the last couple of days.”
Martinez roped an inside heater from Chaz Roe over the Green Monster in the seventh inning of the Sox’ 10-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays and felt relief just to hit the ball in the air.
Most of the season he’s been hitting ground balls and line drives. Small sample size, sure, but he entered yesterday with a career-low fly ball rate of 18 percent. It was 43 percent last year.
His first time up yesterday he hit a deep fly to the warning track in right-center. That helped him lock in for his homer, he said.
“I think it does just because I hit the ball in the air,” he said. “That’s all I care about. If I go up there and I get four at-bats, and I hit four balls to the outfield in the air, I’m happy. To be able to do that is definitely rewarding.
“What was getting into my head was the fact that I wasn’t hitting the ball in the air. I preach about getting the ball in the air. Whenever you see me and I’m hitting ground ball after ground ball, you know I’m not feeling right.”
Martinez got a late start to his first season with the Sox due to his free agent status when spring training began, but is starting to come around. He’s hitting .259 with an .804 OPS in seven games.
“Getting back to the basics,” he said. “Grinding out some stuff. Studying a lot of film. We already do that as it is. Just saw something the other day and wanted to try stuff out today. It worked so I’m going to keep doing it.”
Mound shuffleHector Velazquez and Brian Johnson have moved into the bullpen, while Marcus Walden will be optioned to Triple-A Pawtucket before today’s game.
With three off days in six days allowing the Sox to skip one person in the rotation, and Eduardo Rodriguez returning from the disabled list to start today’s series finale with the Rays, there was no longer a need for Velazquez or Johnson to stay on a five-day schedule.
Rodriguez hasn’t pitched in a major league game since last October, when he allowed a pair of baserunners without recording an out in the Sox’ 8-2 loss to the Houston Astros in Game 2 of the American League Division Series. He finished the regular season with a 4.19 ERA, but had offseason knee surgery.
“The biggest difference is not thinking anymore about my knee,” Rodriguez said. “Just pitch.”
Rodriguez expects to throw 85-90 pitches.
“He’s a lot more confident right now than when I met him and talked to him in Miami in late November, early December,” manager Alex Cora said. “At that point honestly I was like, ‘This is going to take a while.’ In January he did everything, showed up to Fort Myers early. He worked hard.
“I’ve been mentioning that trio of Chris Sale, David Price and Rick Porcello. They’ve been pushing him hard. We wanted him to be part of what we’re doing. All the credit goes to him. He worked hard. Pedro Martinez, too. Being around him the first part of spring training helped him out a lot and we’re looking forward to him pitching (today).”
Drew Pomeranz, recovering from a flexor tendon strain, will make a rehab start for Pawtucket today and throw five or six innings, Cora said. That could put him back in the big league rotation next weekend.
Velazquez pitched a scoreless ninth inning out of relief in the Sox’ 3-2 walkoff win over the Rays on Thursday. The Sox were down 2-0 at the time he pitched. The right-hander had previously thrown 52⁄3 innings of one-run ball against the Rays in a start last week.
Johnson will provide another lefty out of the ’pen. He threw six innings of one-run ball against the Miami Marlins in his first start.
Poyner provides pickupBobby Poyner had been the only lefty reliever chosen by Cora to start the year in the bullpen. Poyner was up in the ’pen but ultimately not used on Opening Day against the left-handed-hitting Denard Span, who hit the go-ahead triple off Carson Smith to sink the Sox in a 6-4 loss to the Rays.
But Cora has gone to Poyner in big spots since then. Poyner pitched two scoreless innings for the win Thursday.
“I don’t know if it’s growing confidence,” Cora said. “Just because I decided not to pitch him in his first big league game with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth inning didn’t mean I didn’t trust him. I think it’s just common sense. You don’t want to put him in that spot. He got up, felt the pressure and we move on the next day and it was a full-go.
“I have plenty of confidence in him. He’s not a ‘LOOGY.’ He’s a guy, if you look back at his numbers, he’s actually better against righties than lefties in the minor leagues. We feel very comfortable with him on the mound.”
Golden againBefore the game, Mookie Betts received his second straight American League Gold Glove Award for his work in right field, where he saved 31 runs above average, second-most by any defender in 2017, according to FanGraphs. Craig Kimbrel was also honored with the Mariano Rivera Award as the best reliever in the AL last year.
www.bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox/2018/04/red_sox_notebook_jd_martinez_swat_sounds_sweet
