Red Sox DH J.D. Martinez blasts his away atop the leaderboard
The impossible dream has become a reality. The Red Sox finished off April with a 17-10 record and have the best win percentage in MLB, are the first team to 17 wins, and have a 3.5 game lead in the AL East. If you would’ve polled the Fenway Faithful in spring training nobody would’ve seen this coming. A better season than the last two, sure, but not this. One man who seems to be on a mission to redeem himself and this team is J.D. Martinez, and he’s doing a hell of a job.
Martinez came into this season on a warpath to erase last season from everyone’s minds. So far, so good. Through the first month of the season, J.D. has led in most of the offensive categories for the Red Sox and has been near the top for the entire MLB. Last night he moved to the top of the mountain in one of his favorite categories, home runs. A first-inning three-run blast set the tone for Boston last night and then he’d go and add a second later in the night.
Your ML HR leader, J.D. Martinez 💪 pic.twitter.com/jKFXxwrQO2
— Red Sox (@RedSox) May 1, 2021
The pair of homers not only helped boost the Red Sox to a win to close out the month of April but it moved him to the top of all of baseball in dingers. He currently leads MLB with 9 homers through the first month of the season and doesn’t seem to be slowing down. He did hit a cold spell this past week that saw him go 0-8 against the Mets but it looks like he’s right back on track.
Not only does he now lead everyone in homers but his 4 RBI last night also makes him the king of knocking in runs. Martinez now has 25 RBI which puts him three clear of a three-way tie at second between Nate Lowe, Jesus Aguilar, and David Peralta. That’s not all though folks as he still leads the Majors in doubles (10) and Total Bases (70). It’s safe to say that he’s enjoying 2021 a hell of a lot better than 2020.
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The Red Sox as a whole have been night and day better than the squads that we’ve seen over the last two years and it’s great to see. After several games of this team barely being able to get a hit let alone put runs on the board it was great to see the offense explode and do so quickly. Not only did Martinez smash two bombs but Boston’s Bash Brothers, Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers, also added dingers of their own. Oh yeah, Nathan Eovaldi dominated the Rangers en route to achieving his 1000th inning pitched too.
J.D. has been tearing the cover off of the ball though I will say I got a bit nervous when he went cold recently. After dominating the Orioles he froze up a bit while in Minnesota and seems to finally be thawing out in Texas. He finds himself in the Top-5 for overall offense and will likely remain in that club through this season.
After two seasons where he didn’t seem pleased with his output, it feels like we’re on the cusp of a J.D. AL MVP revenge tour. If he keeps at his current pace it’ll be hard to not have him in the running come award season. His .351/.430/.745/1.175 slash puts him as the top dog for the Red Sox while he also has the team lead in Runs (21), Hits (33), and Walks (12). He’s doing everything he can to push this Boston team closer and closer to an October return.
A day after leaving the game due to a migraine Martinez was back in the lineup and ready to go. All he needed was some rest and a hearty bowl of chicken soup to get back to crushing baseballs. With the Red Sox surprising everyone with a dominant April, they’ll need J.D. to keep doing his thing to remain on top of the AL East throne. If what he did in the first month of the season is any indication of what we can expect from him in 2021, I don’t think that’ll be an issue at all.