Red Sox Notes: J.D. Martinez Impresses With Two-Homer, Seven-RBI Game

The Boston Red Sox delivered a crushing 11-0 defeat to the San Diego Padres on Friday, and J.D. Martinez had himself one heck of a night.

The right fielder went 3-for-4 in Game 1 of the three-game set, including three-run jacks in the first and sixth innings, respectively. He even notched a career-high seven RBI in the shellacking.

In fact, Martinez is the first Red Sox player to reach seven-plus RBI in one game since Mookie Betts achieved the feat on July 2, 2017, per MLB Stats.

But manager Alex Cora said the numbers aren’t what matter to Martinez.

“I think he cares about the quality of the at-bats, and we know that on a day-to-day basis that he will give you quality at-bats,” Cora said after the game, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “That’s the way, I don’t know his limit.”

Does he have a limit? We’re not sure. But his performance Friday night is just another example of the effort he puts forth day in and day out, even if the numbers don’t always reflect it.

Friday, however, they did.

Here are some more notes from Friday’s Red Sox-Padres game:

— Eduardo Rodriguez put together one of his best outings of the season.

The southpaw tossed seven brilliant scoreless innings against the Padres, giving up just five hits and striking out six in his shutout performance. Cora has been pleased with Rodriguez’s consistency throughout the season, especially considering the current state of the Sox’s starting rotation.

“He’s a strong guy and his mechanics are very clean, very simple,” Cora said. “That’s why I do feel like you can give him 115 pitches an outing and he can handle the workload and we’re very happy he’s been posting every five days.”

— Boston really rocked Chris Paddack on Friday night.

The Padres’ starter lasted just 2 1/3 innings against the Sox, giving up six runs (all earned) on seven hits (including four extra-base hits) in the process. It was his shortest start of the season, per The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham, during which he matched his season high of six earned runs.

— Rafael Devers had a pretty solid night, too.

The third baseman went 3-for-5 with an RBI, scoring three of the Sox’s 11 runs.

— Betts now has an eight-game hit streak.

The outfielder went 2-for-4 Friday night with an RBI and two runs scored.

— The Red Sox haven’t had much luck during Players’ Weekend… until Friday.

Boston entered the game 0-6 during Players’ Weekend games, but finally have added a victory to the win column.