Red Sox’s Masataka Yoshida Serves Up Big ‘Reminder’ To Alex Cora

It’s not as if Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora completely forgot about it or thought it had vanished.

But from his vantage point, it was nice to see there was still pop in Mastaka Yoshida’s bat as the Red Sox outfielder crushed a 447-foot home run in Tuesday’s win over the Minnesota Twins at Target Field. It was Yoshida’s first homer since May 31.

“He’s not feeling great at the plate, but today he hits a line drive to left field and then he hit that ball out of the ballpark,” Cora told reporters as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “That’s a reminder of like, yeah, he’s a good hitter.”

The home run was a part of a 3-for-5 performance at the plate from Yoshida as he also drove in three runs. His two-run blast came in the top of the eighth against Twins reliever Oliver Ortega and with the Red Sox already comfortably in front with an eight-run lead.

Yoshida has seen some offensive dips as of late, hitting .258 in the month of June, but he still leads the Red Sox with a .308 batting average. His showing Tuesday against the Twins might be a sign that another hot streak from Yoshida is just around the corner.

And if it does indeed come, Cora expects there will be more home runs out of Yoshida.

“He will hit for power. We know that,” Cora said. “That was a perfect swing, down in the zone, through it, extension and he crushed that one. It’s good to see that. I do believe with the weather getting better that’s going to happen.”