Red Sox Pitcher Makes ‘Wild’ Return After Bout With Anxiety

It has been an unusual month, to say the least, for Red Sox pitcher Chris Martin. After a rough first month in which his ERA ballooned to 5.56 in 11 appearances, Martin seemed to have pulled things together in May, logging nine straight scoreless appearances, with 10 strikeouts in nine innings. But after giving up three earned runs on two homers in a loss to Detroit on May 30, Martin needed a break.

A mental health break, a rarity in baseball but a notion that is gaining traction in a league whose schedule can wear on anyone.

Martin returned to the mound on Wednesday, though, and logged an eventful inning in the ninth, coming on with a four-run lead. The second out came on what Sporting News described as, “one of the wildest defensive plays you’ll ever see.”

On the play, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. chopped a ball over the head of Martin, who stumbled a bit on his delivery. As he fell backward, he grabbed the chopper with his bare hand and, falling backward, dribbled a throw to first base to record Guerrero as the second out.

Welcome back, Chris Martin.

Red Sox on a Hot Streak

Martin closed out the inning without yielding a run, after having given up one hit. Certainly, the Red Sox are hoping his outing will ensure that Martin gets back on track for the coming weeks, as the team decides how it will approach the upcoming MLB trade deadline at the end of July.

Martin, who is 38, could be a valuable trade chip if the Red Sox decide to sell of veterans for more prospects. Of course, with the way that Boston has played lately, it’s possible the Red Sox will keep Martin and instead attempt to add players at the deadline—the team has gained quite a bit of steam lately.

The 7-3 win over the Blue Jays marked the Red Sox’s fourth straight W, and their sixth in the last seven games. The offense, which had struggled to find an identity early in the year, averaged 6.6 runs per game in that span, with BoSox hitters racking up a slash line of .338/.422/.525 over that stretch.

Most encouraging has been the way that rookie center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela has led the way in the past seven games: He has 16 hits in 26 at-bats for a scintillating .615 batting average.

Chris Martin Was Not ‘In a Good Place’

So perhaps the Red Sox will keep Martin around, especially if he returns to form as an eighth-inning specialist, a role he filled valiantly last year with a 4-1 record and a 1.05 ERA.

Either way, he said earlier this week that he expected to be more focused going forward.

“I don’t know that I was in a good place,” Martin said, via The Boston Globe. “It affected me on and off the field. … It’s hard to talk about. But I know a lot of people go through it. Obviously, it’s difficult to put somebody on the IL for that because everybody’s dealing with something in some sort of way.

“But for me, it was inhibiting me from going out and performing to the best of my abilities and felt like I needed to get a grip on it.”