Martinez hits 3 HRs as Red Sox club Orioles
BALTIMORE — J.D. Martinez caught up in a hurry.
Martinez 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, doing it in September 2017 for 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.
Nick Pivetta (2-0) allowed four runs and seven hits with seven strikeouts and three walks over six innings.