Martinez comes off COVID list, hits three HRs as Red Sox top O’s
J.D. Martinez caught up in a hurry.
Martinez, who graduated from Pembroke Pines Flanagan High and played for Nova Southeastern, came off the COVID-19 list and hit three home runs, powering the Boston Red Sox past the Baltimore Orioles 14-9 Sunday for their sixth straight win.
Martinez struck out in the first inning and quickly made some adjustments.
“After that first at-bat, I felt like everything just kind of sped up on me,” Martinez said. “I went to the cage and I was like, ‘All right, we need to dial this up. We can get it going. Wake up.’ After that, I felt a lot more in control and I felt really good.”
The 33-year-old Martinez was back in the lineup one day after being placed on the COVID-19 injured list because of cold symptoms. He passed the required tests and went 4 for 6, driving in four runs and scoring four times.
Martinez got a chance at a record-tying fourth homer in the ninth inning and struck out swinging. He is the last of 18 major leaguers to homer four times in a game (September 2017 with Arizona).
This was the fourth time that Martinez has hit at least three homers in a game. A year after batting just .213 with seven home runs in 54 games during the pandemic-shortened season, he is hitting .472
(17 for 36) with five homers and 16 RBIs in eight games.
“He’s locked in. You can tell,” manager Alex Cora said. “This is the guy I saw in (2018 and 2019), He has an idea of what he wants to do. He doesn’t deviate from his process. I think the last swing he was just hoping for a strike to see if he could hit it in the air. That wasn’t the case.”
Martinez hit solo homers in the third, sixth and eighth innings. The threetime All-Star also had an RBI single.
Rafael Devers homered twice and Alex Verdugo added a three-run shot for the Red Sox, who completed a three-game sweep — Boston lost three in a row to Baltimore at Fenway
Park to start the season.
“I feel good obviously. I made a couple of changes here and there but I still have the same approach every single game and now things are falling in my favor,” Devers said. “It feels good to be able to contribute as much as I am right now.”
Devers has homered in three straight games for the second time in his career. Boston entered the game ranked near the bottom of the American League with seven home runs.
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Logan Allen recovered from a bumpy first inning to get his first win with Cleveland and the host Indians completed a threegame sweep of Detroit, which could be without slugger Miguel Cabrera for a while. The 11-time AllStar was placed on the 10-day injured list before the game with a left biceps strain that was affecting his sweet swing. The four-time AL batting champion has been dealing with soreness in the muscle for a while.
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Indians 5, Tigers 2:
Yankees 8, Rays 4 (10):
Rougned Odor snapped a 10th-inning tie with his first hit as a Yankee, Gio Urshela homered and drove in three runs, and New York rallied to avoid a weekend sweep at Tampa.
Mariners 8, Twins 6:
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Kyle Seager hit his second homer of the game, a three-run drive in the ninth
inning to complete visiting Seattle’s rally from a sixrun deficit to beat Minnesota. Seager had four hits and Taylor Trammell also homered for Seattle, which trailed 6-0 going into the sixth. The Mariners won a road series for the first time since Sept. 11-13, 2019, at Arizona.
Royals 4, White Sox 3:
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Michael A. Taylor scored when Garrett Crochet misplayed Andrew Benintendi’s bunt in the 10th for host Chicago’s second error of the day and ninth in nine games this season. Chicago had won 17 straight games when its opponent started a left-handed pitcher, one shy of the major league record set by Atlanta from 2004-05.
Angels at Blue Jays,
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ppd.: The game betweenLos Angeles and Toronto at the Blue Jays’ temporary home in Dunedin was postponed because of rain. The game will be made up as part of a split doubleheader on Aug. 10 at Anaheim, California.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Pirates 7, Cubs 1: JT
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Brubaker pitched into the sixth inning and had the first three RBI of his career to lead host Pittsburgh over Chicago. Brubakerallowed one run and four hits in 5 1⁄3 innings with four strikeouts and one walk.
His two-run single down the right-field line capped a three-run second inning
and gave the Pirates a 3-1 lead.
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3: Avisail Garcia homered for the second day in a row, this time off Daniel Ponce de Leon in a four-run first, and Travis Shaw and Manny Pina also connected for visiting Milwaukee.
Giants 4, Rockies 0:
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Anthony DeSclafani and three relievers combined to scatter eight hits and hostSan Francisco beat Colorado to complete a threegame sweep. DeSclafani struck out eight and gave up six hits in six innings. The right-hander pitched with runners on base nearly every inning but repeatedly worked his way out of trouble and lowered his ERA to 0.82.
Diamondbacks 7, Reds 0:A
Luke Weaver retired the first 17 batters he faced and Eduardo Escobar homered for the fourth straight game for host Arizona. The 27-year-old Weaver (1-0) took a no-hitter into the seventh inning before giving up a broken-bat single to Eugenio Suarez, whose ground ball found a hole up the middle. Cincinnati went into the game batting .312 as a team, tops in the majors.
Brewers 9, Cardinals
Dodgers 3, Nationals 0:A
Clayton Kershaw pitched six innings of fivehit ball to win an outstanding duel with Max Scherzer as host Los Angeles finished a three-game sweep over Washington. Kershaw (2-1) struck out six with no walks. Scherzer (0-1) also went six innings and allowed one run on three hits.
INTERLEAGUE
Padres 2, Rangers ● 0: Trent Grisham homered in the fourth off Mike Foltynewicz, and Manny Machado homered in the ninth against Ian Kennedy as San Diego completed a threegame sweep at Arlington, Texas.