All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' 16-4 win over the Angels, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
BOX SCORE
HEADLINES
Martinez has himself a night: J.D. Martinez has been on a good stretch of late, hitting safely in seven straight and collecting multiple hits in each of his last four games. But Friday night, he took his hot streak to another level, cranking two homers and two doubles and knocking in four runs. One particularly good sign from Martinez was that both of the homers were hit to right-center, where Martinez often drives balls when he's going well. "Just trying to find the barrel,'' shrugged Martinez, "doing the same thing I've been doing all year. Just grinding. I make adjustments every day for the most part. The other day was something else; yesterday was a different adjustment; today is another one. I'm sure tomorrow I'll come up with something new to work on.'' Martinez now leads the Sox in homers and over his last 13 games, has seven homers and 16 RBI. Alex Cora traced his hot spurt to a game in New York last weekend when he drew four walks, indicating he was seeing the ball well.
https://twitter.com/RedSox/status/1160024540459782144
Johnson gets jobbed on a call: Last weekend, it was Chris Sale who was the victim of some suspect umpiring on balls and strikes. On Friday, it was Brian Johnson's turn. He clearly struck out Justin Upton with a curveball over the middle of the plate, but home plate umpire Mark Ripperger called it a ball. Upton then walked and Johnson gave up a three-run homer to Albert Pujols. "It's baseball,'' said a philosophical Johnson. "People make mistakes. Maybe it wasn't a strike, maybe it was. I'm not one to look back now. I should have moved on to the next guy. It is what it is. I didn't want to give the three-run homer to Pujols, but it happened.'' Johnson got out of the inning and got into third without allowing any more runs.
Bullpen takes it from there: With Johnson getting only eight outs, the Sox leaned hard on their bullpen and with the exception of a messy seventh inning, did the job. Marcus Walden tossed his fifth straight scoreless appearance, Nathan Eovaldi was nicked for a run over two innings and both Hector Velazquez and Josh Taylor contributed scoreless innings. Mostly, as the Sox offense began knocking the ball all around (and out of) the ballpark, the relievers knew enough to attack the strike zone, get outs and get the Sox hitters back in the dugout and up to the plate.
TURNING POINT
While Johnson struggled in the early going, getting only into the third inning before being removed. Marcus Walden came in and get the final out of that inning and was then nearly perfect over the next two innings, allowing just one baserunner and requiring just 16 pitches to get the next six outs while stabilizing the game for the Sox staff.
TWO UP
Rafael Devers: The slugger came into Friday batting well below .200 for the month, but after going hitless in his first three plate appearances, drilled a two-run single to right in the sixth, then homered into the seats in right.
Mitch Moreland: Like Devers, Moreland took a while to get untracked Friday night, but in the late innings, chipped in with a run-scoring double and then a two-run homer to left.
ONE DOWN
Nathan Eovaldi: The Great Bullpen Experiment has yet to take hold still. Eovaldi had a 1-2-3 sixth inning, but came unglued in the seventh, with a hit batsman and two straight walks, the second of which forced in a run.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"Every day, you've got to show up and it's what did you do today? It doesn't matter what you did yesterday. That's how I've got to treat it.'' — Martinez.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- The Red Sox hit five homers in a game for the fourth time this season.
- The Sox are 32-18 (.640) when hitting multiple homers in a game.
- The Sox have won their last eight games against the Angels.
- Boston now has four players with 20 or more homers this season.
- Mookie Betts is one of seven Red Sox players with 20 or more homers in at least four of his first six seasons.