Earlier this month, J.D. Martinez broke up a potential Brave no-hitter with his first home run with the Mets.
Back then, the slugger said he wasn’t happy with the homer because it didn’t help the team win. On Thursday, his fourth home run did just that, lifting the Mets’ to a 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks.
“Felt good to finally hit a ball on the barrel in the air for once,” Martinez said after the game. “I haven’t really been doing that as much. Just to be able to put a good swing on a pitch and obviously it helped us, was huge.”
“Don’t see too many righties go dead-center on a line drive, very impressive, especially on a tough righty,” manager Carlos Mendoza said of Martinez’s home run. “To go deep, dead-center like that is impressive. So good on him.”
Martinez’s go-ahead home run in the eighth inning of Thursday’s game was his fourth of the season. The blast was also his 14th career go-ahead homer in the eighth inning or later of his career, his first since Sept. 29, 2022, when he was with the Red Sox.
It came at a crucial point in the 2024 Mets season. New York was in the midst of a three-game losing streak — they were also losers of 10 of their last 12 games — and had a tough series finale against the Dodgers where the team had a players-only meeting afterward.
Martinez said the meeting was good for the team and was one of the best of his 14-year career.
“It was great. I think it was one of the better meetings I’ve had in terms of positivity and us leaving a meeting actually confident after a meeting that I’ve had in my career,” he said. “It was a very healthy meeting.”
The slugger elaborated and said the meeting helped shift the team’s mindset. They’ve been playing with a lot of pressure and they should go back to playing like they don’t.
“No one thinks we’re going to win 100 games this year…we have no pressure on us, the pressure is on everyone else right now,” Martinez explained. “Let them have it. We lose, we lose. They already think we’re the worst in baseball. Let’s just go out there and do what we do.
“We know we have a good team, a good roster up and down…. I think it’s a team that can produce runs and I think we have a legit competitive team, day in and day out. We’re showing it every single day. We go out there and compete.”
For one game, at least, the players-only meeting worked, but so has Martinez since he joined the team.
After signing to a one-year deal at the end of March, the designated hitter is slashing .273/.316/.761 with four home runs and 12 RBI in just 30 games. He’s reached base in 25 of those 30 games this season.
We’ll see if the meeting and Martinez’s production carry over into the second game of the Mets’ four-game set with Arizona on Friday night.
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