J.D. Martinez is doing something that Ted Williams, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz never did
The Red Sox won again on Wednesday night -- beating the Angels, 9-6 -- and, once again,
The Red Sox slugger now leads all of baseball with 25 homers and, going back to last season, has a mind-numbing 70 over his last 727 at-bats. That's a dinger every 10.39 at-bats. Over a career, that would be the best ratio all-time.
But back to this year, because Martinez is already placing himself ahead of every great slugger in Boston history. Nobody wearing a Red Sox uniform has ever had 25 long balls before the end of June (and he still has two games left!).
Not Jose Canseco or Mo Vaughn -- who both had 24 in 1996.
Not Manny Ramirez, who also clubbed 24 in 2001 (although this one in Toronto should've been worth 25 on its own):
Not even Ted Williams, who mashed 24 in 1950.
Vaughn ended with 44 that year and a 1.003 OPS -- both career highs. Manny hit 41 total, while Williams and Canseco, after suffering injuries, both finished with 28.
If Martinez keeps up his current pace over the 162-game season, his final tally would be somewhere between 52-54 home runs -- close to David Ortiz's all-time Red Sox single-season mark of 54. Big Papi had 23 through the end of June that year ... so J.D. has a good shot as long as he keeps Just Dingerin.'
