Marco Hernandez was just an afterthought in a trade that never was much of a headline to begin with. Now he’s helping the first-place Boston Red Sox win games.
In 2014, the Red Sox traded left-hander Felix Doubront to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for a player to be named later. In December 2014, that player became Hernandez.
Monday, Hernandez launched his first major league home run, a three-run bomb that gave Boston a five-run cushion in a 7-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.
Congratulations Marco Hernandez! pic.twitter.com/BBhkShzvop
— Boston Strong (@BostonStrong_34) May 30, 2016
Hernandez has made strides in his first season-plus in the Red Sox organization. In 2014, he had a .270/.315/.351 slash line at High-A Daytona in Chicago’s system. In 2015, that jumped to .305/.330/.454 and included a bit more power — nine homers, 30 doubles and six triples between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket.
Now the Dominican Republic native is filling in all over the diamond, especially in the wake of Brock Holt’s concussion that has landed him on the disabled list. Hernandez also has received a bit of help from fellow Dominican Republic native and Red Sox teammate David Ortiz.
“To hit my first home run to put on top of the board for three runs, it’s awesome, man,” Hernandez told reporters Monday, as seen on NESN’s “Red Sox Final.” “And obviously David (Ortiz) gave me tips. He’d say ‘Hey, trust your hands. Go out there with a plan and trust your hands.’ ”
And trust his hands he did.
“I just try to go up there and hit a fastball, you know?” Hernandez explained. “When you’re a fastball hitter, you can go looking for a breaking ball because if they throw the fastball, you can react. I tried to get a fastball early in the count and be aggressive.”
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Let’s check out a few more notes from Monday’s Red Sox-Orioles game.
— Steven Wright’s Monday start marked his third consecutive complete-game effort. He’s now tied with a few of the best pitchers in baseball for the league lead: Clayton Kershaw, Chris Sale and Johnny Cueto.
— When he was with the Detroit Tigers, Dave Dombrowski nearly stopped the Red Sox from acquiring Tuesday’s starting pitcher, Eduardo Rodriguez.
E-Rod was one of the top prospects in the Baltimore Orioles’ system in 2014 when the Red Sox acquired him for relief pitcher Andrew Miller. But as Dombrowski explained to the Boston Herald’s Jason Mastrodonato, if he hadn’t denied the Red Sox the package they were seeking in exchange for Miller, Rodriguez still might be in an Orioles uniform today.
“We thought we traded for him,” Dombrowski, now the Red Sox’s president of baseball operations, told the Herald. “We thought we had him. They were asking us for a couple of guys that we liked and we were willing to give them one of them. We wouldn’t give them two.
“Finally, the last day, it was the same day we got David Price, and we felt we were in position that we would give them what they wanted. We ended up giving them the two guys. We thought we had a deal. But at that point, (Cherington) says, ‘We’re not quite ready yet. We have one more phone call we have to make.’
“They got back to us and ended up trading the Orioles for Eduardo Rodriguez.”
Funny how things work.
— Speaking of Rodriguez, the Red Sox need to make room on the 25-man roster for the left-hander. It appears Heath Hembree is the unlucky option.
— Red Sox prospect Sam Travis was taken out of Sunday’s Triple-A Pawtucket game with a knee injury, and the outlook is pretty bad.
— Foot injury be damned, Ortiz just keeps on raking.
Ortiz returned to Boston’s lineup Monday after sitting out Sunday and launched a 2-2 breaking ball deep into the right field seats to give the Red Sox a 4-2 lead in the eighth inning. The homer was his 14th of the season and 517th of his career, putting him four behind Ted Williams, Frank Thomas and Willie McCovey for 19th on baseball’s all-time list.
It also was Ortiz’s 47th RBI of the season, which leads Major League Baseball, and the 1,688th of his career, putting him seven behind Cal Ripken Jr. for 26th all time.
— Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts extended his hitting streak to 23 games, the longest active streak in the majors. He has hit .402 with eight doubles, five home runs, 16 RBIs and 22 runs during the streak.
— The Red Sox and Orioles wore some sweet camo uniforms for Memorial Day.
Thumbnail photo via Tommy Gilligan/USA TODAY Sports Images
