With Carl Crawford on first and two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Saltalamacchia smoked a drive off the center-field side of the Green Monster, scoring the only run that mattered in a 1-0 win over the Detroit Tigers.
While obviously a mammoth hit on a night when the teams combined for just nine of them, it also spoke to Saltalamacchia's quiet improvement at the plate. He is 4-for-11 with a home run and the double over his last three games. It's a rather small sample, but many of his recent hits have been struck hard, as have several of his outs.
Little by little, the powerful switch-hitting catcher may be finding his stroke.
"I feel real comfortable," Saltalamacchia said. "First few weeks I was pressing a bit, trying to hit everything that I saw. Tried to slow it down a little bit and take at-bats that I know that I can take, and put good wood on the ball."
The shot that won the game Wednesday night soared through a steady mist and fog and banged about halfway up the high wall. It would've been a home run in most parks, but all that was needed was the two-bagger. Saltalamacchia's manager was just happy to see another good swing from his young catcher.
"When you start out as slow as he did, it's not going to come back in one chunk, but I think he's making progress," Terry Francona said. "As long as he gets the ball to travel, doesn't get overanxious, he's a big, strong kid. That ball was about as well struck as you're going to see."
The hit also came off a left-hander, just the fourth hit in 23 at-bats against southpaws this year for Saltalamacchia. The previous three were singles.
