New York Mets hitter, J.D. Martinez has often been teased by his loved ones that he never hit a walk-off homer during his 14 years in the big leagues. This all changed Thursday night at Citi Field.
New York’s bats were cold until they rallied in the late innings, rounding off with Martinez delivering the first walk-off home run of his career for a 3-2 victory over the Miami Marlins.
The Mets were down 2-1, when they scored the winning run off closer Tanner Scott in the ninth inning. Francisco Lindor led off with a walk. Two batters later, Martinez stepped to the plate and Lindor clinched second base. On a 3-1 pitch, he hit the ball over the right-centre-field fence to win the match. Martinez had hit 320 career homers without a walk-off shot before Thursday.
“I couldn’t believe it when I was just told [about what Martinez accomplished],” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “I’ve seen this guy play for so many years and have a successful career. He is a pretty good hitter. When Martinez told me that, I was like, ‘No way.’
Scott stated he made serious mistakes before permitting the Martinez dinger.
“I shouldn’t have walked Lindor to start it off and then made probably three up and away pitches too much to J.D.,” Scott said. “And he almost got me the other day, and then of course I threw a slider that he got to, and that’s his honey hole and just missed location. I shouldn’t have fallen behind.”
Martinez’s 320 career home runs before his first career regular-season walk-off homers are the third most in MLB history, trailing only Max Teixeira (408) and José Bautista (336), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“It was definitely cool. I’ve hit a lot of late-inning home runs and [had] big hits, but never a walk-off home run,” Martinez said.
Martinez was not certain if the ball was out of the park. Many times this season he has seen balls go as far as the warning track at Citi Field.
“I said, ‘If that doesn’t go, what does?’ he said.
After ending the match with the monster shot, Martinez was teased again by his family and friends.
“I heard from everybody. My friends are already on me. [They said], ‘It’s only taken him [14] years.’ It’s funny,” Martinez said.
