As he got here as much as bat in a tied sport with the bases loaded within the eighth inning on Friday evening, J.D. Martinez knew what his method was.
“Don’t swing,” he mentioned.
It made sense. Royals pitcher Scott Barlow had simply issued a four-pitch stroll to Rafael Devers, then struck out Xander Bogaerts with three pitches exterior the strike zone earlier than issuing one other four-pitch free cross to Alex Verdugo, who walked within the tying run.
But when Barlow threw Martinez a first-pitch slider within the zone, the Red Sox designated hitter’s plan modified.
“I was like, ‘Alright, we’re swinging,’ ” Martinez mentioned.
The outcome: A pointy grounder that made its method into left discipline for the go-ahead and in the end game-winning RBI single. The hit was simply the Red Sox’ third of the evening. But on an evening wherein they drew eight walks, it was the long-awaited breakthrough they wanted and the distinction in a 2-1 win over the Royals at Fenway Park.
Michael Wacha delivered one other gem, throwing seven innings and permitting one run. But for many of the evening, it appeared prefer it wasn’t going to be sufficient. The Red Sox appeared misplaced towards Royals starter Jonathan Heasley – who entered the evening with a 5.51 ERA – as they collected simply two hits towards the right-hander.
They even squandered a bases loaded, one-out alternative within the fifth – a microcosm of their season-long struggles offensively – after Kiké Hernández grounded into an inning-ending double play and slammed his helmet in frustration within the course of. It appeared like that might come again to hang-out them.
But given one other probability, they took benefit as their persistence was lastly rewarded.
Hernández and pinch-hitter Abraham Almonte drew walks towards Dylan Coleman to start out the eighth to start out the rally earlier than the Royals switched to Barlow, who has good things however couldn’t discover the zone. Devers and Verdugo drew the third and fourth walks of the inning earlier than Martinez’s heroics.
The eight walks by the Red Sox marked their second most in a sport this season, behind the 11 they drew on June 26 at Cleveland. That type of persistence has been uncommon this season for a staff that’s too usually been caught increasing and swinging at pitches out of the zone.
“A walk is a hit,” Red Sox supervisor Alex Cora mentioned. “That’s what they used to tell us in Little League. We did a good job today. There were a lot of 3-2s, a lot of four-pitch walks. We won a lot of counts that mattered. That’s the fun part of it. When you do that as an offense, regardless if you see the two hits, one hit, whatever, you feel like something good is going to happen. Tonight we did.”
As uncommon as that team-wide persistence has been, Martinez’s eighth-inning breakthrough was a stark reminder of the Red Sox’ season-long problems with driving in runs with runners in scoring place, and particularly from their heavy hitters in Martinez and Devers.
Martinez has pushed in no less than 99 runs in his first three full seasons – 2018, 2019 and 2021 – with the Red Sox. But his game-winning hit on Friday gave him simply his 53rd RBI of the season with 18 video games left.
“We had a lot of baserunners throughout the season and the batting average is not what we’re used to be with men in scoring position and obviously there’s more stuff offensively that we haven’t done throughout the season, but they’re run producers,” Cora mentioned of Martinez and Devers. “They drive in runs. That’s how individuals receives a commission, proper? We hit them in the midst of the lineup and it’s been a battle for them in these conditions.
“It’s good to see the big guy get a hit there. It’s good to see Raffy take a walk in that situation. It picked everybody up.”
Matt Strahm recorded his fourth save of the season with a shutout ninth after Wacha as soon as once more gave the Red Sox each probability to win. His solely actual blemish got here within the sixth, when he allowed a leadoff triple to MJ Melendez earlier than Salvador Perez gave the Royals a 1-0 lead with an RBI single by way of a drawn-in infield.
Wacha has pitched no less than six innings in six of his seven begins since coming off the injured record and the Red Sox improved to 15-5 in his 20 begins this season.
That allowed the offense to – lastly – discover a method within the eighth. A method they haven’t constantly discovered all season.
“A lot of 3-2 counts, a lot of 3-1 counts, we walked. We don’t do that often,” Cora mentioned. “At the end of the day, it’s baserunners, right? We loaded the bases a few times and we did a good job controlling the zone and we cashed in at the end.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com