For Sox slugger J.D. Martinez, numbers are not his game

BOSTON — The numbers flash white against the green backdrop of the Fenway Park scoreboard, clear and visible for all to see.

Batting average, home runs, on-base percentage and more are displayed each time a player comes to the plate. They stand as a referendum on performance to date, and those totals Tuesday night against the Blue Jays will cover the first 144 Red Sox games of the season.

J.D. Martinez won’t be among those [...]

BOSTON — The numbers flash white against the green backdrop of the Fenway Park scoreboard, clear and visible for all to see.

Batting average, home runs, on-base percentage and more are displayed each time a player comes to the plate. They stand as a referendum on performance to date, and those totals Tuesday night against the Blue Jays will cover the first 144 Red Sox games of the season.

J.D. Martinez won’t be among those stealing a glance. One of the frontrunners for the American League Most Valuable Player award is only concerned about his next at-bat and its outcome, hoping to hit the ball on the barrel of his bat each time. The results from there, Martinez reasons, will take care of themselves.

“I honestly feel like looking at the scoreboard and looking at statistics is like death,” Martinez said following Sunday’s 6-5 victory over the Astros, one in which he drove in four runs. “It’s bad. I don’t look at it. It doesn’t do anything.”

Martinez’s actual phrasing might be a bit extreme, but his overall point resonates. It’s easy to forget this was a player released by Houston prior to the 2014 season, the fuel that continues to drive Martinez’s somewhat obsessive approach to studying his swing. He’s putting together one of the most dominant debut seasons at the plate in Boston’s history, one that continued with six RBI and his 40th home run of 2018 against the Astros over the weekend.

“If you get caught up in your numbers and this, this and that, you’ll go crazy,” Martinez said. “This game is too much. It’s based off failure. You’ve got to try to make it as positive as you can.”

David Ortiz was the last Red Sox player to reach that mark, crushing a club record 54 round-trippers in 2006. Boston finished last in the league in homers a season ago and currently ranks tied with Houston for sixth at 185, 17 more than the 168 the Red Sox cracked in 2017. Martinez had no such total in mind when he signed his five-year, $110-million deal with the club in February.

“For me, imagine starting the season off and saying, ‘I’ve got to hit 40 home runs,’” Martinez said. “It looks like I’ll never hit that.

“But if I (say), ‘You know what? I’ve got to hit the ball on the barrel this at-bat. How am I going to do that?’ Worry about the small goals. Then the big ones take care of themselves.”

Martinez had hit just two home runs in his previous 22 games before his three-run blast to the Monster Seats in the fifth inning Sunday night. That he had totaled a .333/.418/.464 slash line during that time provided minimal consolation, with Martinez complaining to Red Sox manager Alex Cora that he felt like former light-hitting infielder Luis Castillo at the plate.

“A lot of singles,” Cora said. “Yeah — you’re hitting .340.”

Martinez actually checks in on Tuesday at .331, but that’s just a minor detail to Cora – he was a career .243 hitter in 14 seasons as a utility man. Cora’s extensive experience as a player makes him both relatable to the likes of Martinez and able to put those self-perceived struggles into proper context. Martinez certainly was in no danger of slipping into Castillo territory, as the three-time All-Star compiled just 28 home runs in 1,720 career games.

“When you see a pitch up in the zone sometimes you get too greedy and it’s a big swing and you miss it,” Cora said. “He didn’t miss that one, and it was good to see.”

That one swing from Martinez helped Boston avoid what would have been the first home sweep of the season. The Red Sox left the park with a magic number of 11 to clinch the A.L. East and just 1 to clinch at least the second A.L. wildcard berth. The three-game series with Toronto is the next focus point for Martinez and his teammates.

"At the end of the season is when I look back and kind of talk about it,” Martinez said. “Right now we’re in the grind and the process and I’ve got to get out there. The season’s not over yet.”