In his second game off the DL, J. D. Martinez mashes two home runs and Justin Wilson strikes out the side in 9th
ANAHEIM, Calif. – J. D. Martinez emerged from the trainer’s room just before 10 p.m. on Saturday night, walking slowly through the visitors clubhouse at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, his right foot socked, his left leg bare and cold.
Martinez was limping. He was limping partly because his right foot remains sore and partly because it was buried in a bucket of ice for some 20 minutes.
It hurt pretty good.
No longer was he on a couch watching the Detroit Tigers from Lakeland, Fla. No longer was he checking the box score after a minor league injury rehabilitation game with Triple-A Toledo. No, Martinez had just done what he longed to do this season: He helped the team win.
“I’ ve been down there watching the team and wishing I could do something, ” he said. “We don’ t have time to lose. It’s just one of those things where I’ m happy to be back and able to help us win the game.”
Martinez did that against the Los Angeles Angels. In his second game of the season, he hit two home runs, the second a game-winner in the top of the ninth inning, giving the Tigers a 4-3 victory.
“You can tell how much we missed him just from one game, ” manager Brad Ausmus said.
And make no mistake: Martinez is playing through pain. If his limp through the clubhouse wasn’ t enough evidence, then the speed in which he chased fly balls in rightfield was. And it’s something he knows he’ ll have to play through, perhaps for the rest of the season, impending free agency be damned.
“It’s sore, ” he said. “It’s going to be sore all year. It’s something that I already have in my mind.”
Martinez went 3-for-4. He opened the scoring in the second inning with a two-run home run, roped into the Angels‘ bullpen in leftfield off Ricky Nolasco. He closed it in the ninth, clearing the high wall in rightfield off closer Bud Norris.
“I didn’ t know if it was getting out, ” Ausmus said. “So when it just made it over the wall, there was an eruption.”
Martinez’s dramatics would not have been possible without solid pitching from left-hander Daniel Norris and the back-end of the maligned Tigers bullpen, punctuated by a shutdown, strike-out-the-side performance from new closer Justin Wilson.
Norris finally found the building block performance he was looking for, throwing 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits. He struck out four and walked two.
“Just one of those where I could grind into the sixth inning, ” he said.
Norris’ only blemish came in the fifth inning, when Albert Pujols smacked a curveball for a two-run single into rightfield. It was the curveball that was perhaps the biggest reason for Norris‘ turnaround outing, having not thrown it much this season.
“It gave a different look, ” he said. “I don’ t know if they were expecting it.”
Justin Upton broke the tie by sneaking his eighth home run of the season over the short wall in leftfield for a lead in the sixth.
Shane Greene – who has been effective – coughed that lead up with one bad pitch to Mike Trout in the seventh, when Trout homered for the second consecutive day.
But Martinez, however hobbled, had the final say.
He was looking for a pitch around the plate, he said. Just praying it would get over the rightfielder’s head and off the wall. Instead, it disappeared behind the yellow line for a home run.
Asked when he could feel the soreness in his right foot the most, while hitting, in the field or all the time, Martinez said, “Yep.”
But he’s back in the big leagues. Back with his teammates. Back under the bright lights, with something that can mask the soreness for the time being.
“You get that adrenaline, it helps you, ” he said. “Adrenaline’s the best drug out there.”
Contact Anthony Fenech: afenech@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech.
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