The Boston Red Sox are playing some of their worst baseball in franchise history at the moment, and all of the losing is taking a toll on slugger JD Martinez.
Martinez was candid with his thoughts on the brutal stretch following Saturday’s 11-5 loss to the New York Yankees, which was Boston’s sixth straight.
“It sucks,” he said, via Christopher Smith of MassLive.com. “It’s definitely not fun. It’s not fun going out there and getting your head beat in every day.”
The Red Sox have been outscored 63-30 during the six-game losing streak. They’re just 6-15 since the season began on July 24, and they rank dead last in all of baseball with a 6.10 team ERA.
Martinez is hitting just .234 on the season, but Boston still ranks eighth in the American League in runs scored. He said he “(feels) our offense has been putting up runs” and indicated pitching has been the team’s main issue.
“It’s hard to hit when your offense is always on the field just tired,” Martinez said. “Whenever you’re out there for 45 minutes, 30-45 minutes before you’ve gotta get in there and hit, it’s not easy. It’s tough. It’s one of those things where I think we’ve got to kind of refocus and go out there and do the best we can do really. Keep putting competitive at-bats (together).”
Andrew Benintendi and Rafael Devers, two of Boston’s most promising young players, are both hitting below .200. The pitching has been horrendous, but it’s not the entire problem. While Martinez is right that poor pitching can impact the flow of a game, Red Sox hitters need to take accountability as well.
As for Saturday’s loss, the recent numbers from the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry show just how much the Bronx Bombers have dominated the series dating back to last season.
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