A (meaningless) first HR
Martinez goes deep to end Grapefruit League drought
FORT MYERS — A Grapefruit League home run drought of twoplus years finally ended Friday for J.D. Martinez, and he wasn’t happy about it.
“I got to third I was like, no, no, no homer, they don’t count,” Martinez said. “You’ve got to save them.”
For the record, Martinez did not ask anyone to retrieve the ball from his first spring training home run as a member of the Red Sox. And he did not think that either the fly that cleared the fence in right or the triple that bounced off the wall in right-center and rolled into shallow territory means he feels locked in at the plate.
“No, not at all,” Martinez said. “I’d be worried about it if it was something new. But I’m like this every spring training. … I’m just trying to make contact. Trying to let the ball get deep and make contact. That’s pretty much it right now.”
Liu has first workout
Taiwanese pitching prospect ChihJung Liu underwent his first workout Friday with the Red Sox, eight days after arriving in Fort Myers. The Red Sox were delivering him three meals a day at his hotel as a cautionary measure over concerns throughout the world about coronavirus.
Red Sox vice president/player development Ben Crockett explained the organization’s thinking.
“For us there was no recommendation from people travelling from Taiwan and he’s completely healthy and hadn’t been in contact with anybody from the areas of concern, but we just felt like (using) an abundance of caution,” Crockett said. “We try to go a step beyond, give him a few days here in Fort Myers, just limiting contact with people in general. And you know, nothing has changed in Taiwan and nothing to do with him has changed.”
Liu did leave the hotel at times to get in some running.
Wearing No. 96, Liu was given a lighter workload Friday than other pitchers who have been working out and watched rather than participated in many of the drills.
“A lot of times anyone is coming from the other side of the world there’s a significant time change and kind of an acclimation process that goes on in the first place,” Crockett said. “The first couple of days he was up at night and sleeping during the day and trying to get the time change, so it’s something that any of our players who have come from Asia are always going to battle that and usually we have them come a few days early.”
Twins 4, Red Sox 1
The crowd of 8,026 at Hammond Stadium erupted when the Twins executed a 1-4-3-6 triple play in the eighth inning, assisted by an apparent mistake from the umpiring crew, which counted two of the outs against the same baserunner, Jeter Downs, who was both doubled off first and then tagged between first and second. Since the fielder at second base never touched the bag and the umpire signaled as much, lead runner Marcus Wilson never was retired and Downs was called out twice. Since the outcome of spring training games is irrelevant, the Red Sox did not file a protest. … Lefty reliever Josh Taylor pitched a perfect third inning and struck out two. … For what it’s worth, the Red Sox have a 3-4 record in Grapefruit League play.