J.D. Martinez is doing all he can to help Bobby Dalbec through the early ups and downs of life as a big league hitter.
Dalbec, who hit eight home runs last year after a late-season call up and mashed during spring training, went 0-for-10 with five strikeouts in Boston’s rough season-opening series with the Baltimore Orioles. The Red Sox youngster did make some hard contact, but nevertheless did not get out to the start he envisioned for himself.
Following Sunday’s loss, Martinez took time to review video with Dalbec.
“He’s hungry. He wants to learn,” Martinez said Monday during a Zoom call with reporters. “For the last two years, always been kind of talking, trying to pick my brain about certain situations. We talked yesterday about his swing and about his hips. I showed it to him in the video and it was such a big difference. So he’s going to be working on the stuff today, what we talked about.
“All I can do is show him what I see and hopefully it kind of resonates with him and he kind of has a good idea of what he wants to do now.He impressed me a lot during spring training. The strides that he made from last year to this year just in spring when I saw him, I was like, ‘This kid can hit. This is real.’ He’s a big kid. He’s a nice kid. He’s hungry. He’s composed. To me, he has the makeup that he could be an impact player in this league.”
Dalbec will not be in the Red Sox lineup for Monday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Marwin Gonzalez will fill in at first base.
As for Martinez, he looked good in his first three games, going 6-for-12 with one home run.
