The question heading into Saturday was whether or not we had seen a stretch like the one J.D. Martinez was struggling through.
The easy answer? Sure, 2020.
But as Martinez has gone out of his way to point out - both through his actions and words - that two-month stretch was simply an uncomfortable aberration. There were reasons and those reasons had been put in the rearview mirror.
That's what made this month-long stretch so uneasy.
From July 28-Aug. 27 Martinez had morphed back into the player we all thought would be forever buried in the bad memories of that 2020 season. In 25 games, he hit just .210 with a .605 OPS. And, as a reminder to how important a good J.D. is to this team, understand that the Red Sox went just 9-16 during these struggles.
It's not complicated. For the Red Sox get where they want to go they need the best version of their middle-of-the-order designated hitter. Saturday offered that example, perfectly.
After a day off in which Martinez didn't pick up a bat, he busted out with three hits, including a game-changing, three-run homer in the 10th inning. It was the decisive swing, and overall performance, in the Sox' much-needed 5-3 win over the Indians in Cleveland.
It was the 41st time in a Red Sox uniform that Martinez has come away with three or more hits, with the club going 31-10 in those games.
Evidence of Martinez's importance isn't difficult to decipher. This season when he has notched two or more hits the record 26-7. When he has knocked in at least one run? The Red Sox are 30-13.
And to top things off, in games the DH/outfielder has homered the Sox' mark this year is 19-2. For Martinez's Red Sox career, the team is 76-23.
You get the picture.
Having that anchor has always been a pretty important thing. We saw it for all those years with David Ortiz. And when the Red Sox tried to suggest that the evolution of all the other batters would make up for Ortiz' absence, the failure led to locking up Martinez.
The Red Sox needed this hitter to get right, and so, after a bit of a breather, that's what he did.
"How do I word this, the industry kind of just, you know, always says, 'Oh, he’s a DH, he doesn’t work, you don't play the field, he’s a DH. He just goes up there and takes four at bats.' I wish it was that easy," Martinez explained. "I wish I could just sit on there and grab my bat and go up there and take four at-bats, I mean, David Ortiz did it and it was, you know, I don't know how he did it, it's amazing, you know. All the credit to him, but that’s not the way I work, you know, I’m constantly staying hot and it's a mental grind. You don't get to go out there and disconnect and think about defense, you’re literally thinking about your at bat until the next time you come up. It's a spot in the lineup and it's my job.
"They put a lot of pressure on me to go out there and perform. And nobody is harder on me than myself -- not even you guys and that’s saying a lot, by the way. So being able to go out there and just like, you know, unwinding and just taking like a mental day. I think it just, It really helps me both. I mean, it’s obviously physical too because I was gassed, like I said."
