Bring Out the Dumbbells! Yoshida Homers Twice, Hits Grand Slam in 8th

The Japanese slugger’s two home run inning added to the Red Sox’s propensity for comeback victories.

Masataka Yoshida struggled to think of a time when he had hit two home runs in a single inning while playing baseball.

One turn with the Red Sox’s celebratory inflatable dumbbells, however, simply wasn’t enough in the eighth inning on Sunday at American Family Field in Milwaukee.

As the Red Sox scored nine times to defeat the Brewers, 12-5, Yoshida hit two home runs, including his first grand slam in the Major Leagues. He became the first player to hit two home runs, including at least one grand slam, in a single inning since Edwin Encarnación did so with the Blue Jays on July 26, 2013.

Additionally, he joins Hall of Famer David Ortiz (Aug. 12, 2008), Specifically, Nomar Garciaparra (July 23, 2002) and Ellis Burks (Aug. 27, 1990).

“I’m really honored to record this,” Yoshida spoke via an interpreter. “It’s an absolute honor for me to play with Red Sox legends.”

Additionally, he accomplished the feat on the day 24 years ago when Fernando Tatis, a former Cardinal, hit two grand slams against the Dodgers in the same inning.

As the eighth inning began, the Red Sox were down 4-3; however, Justin Turner’s solo home run to start the inning helped them quickly come back. With a 374-foot bomb to right field that gave Boston the lead, Yoshida made it back-to-back against Brewers reliever Matt Bush.

By the time the bases were loaded and Yoshida was put back into the lineup, the Red Sox had added three insurance runs. And he made Milwaukee’s Javy Guerra pay by launching a slider 407 feet to right field for the grand slam after Guerra left it on the inner part of the plate.

“Masa, he doesn’t miss those,” manager It was a promising performance for Yoshida and the Red Sox, according to Alex Cora, who noted that the two home runs had exit velocities of 105.4 and 108.9 mph. He was one of their top signings this past offseason, but his first few weeks in Major League Baseball haven’t gone well at the plate.

Yoshida had only three extra-base hits in 16 games as of the start of the day, hitting.213/.324/.295 overall. He had a ninth percentile average exit velocity, and a 34th percentile hard hit rate.

However, there have been some recent indications that point to a breakthrough performance.

“Intent,” Cora said. “avoiding the situation. Unsurprisingly, he strikes the right targets. To start hitting the ball hard in the air, there are some adjustments and things that he is aware of needing to be done. Today, he saw two pitches. The second one was entertaining to watch.”In order to better see pitchers with both of his eyes, Yoshida mentioned adjusting his batting stance by slightly opening it. He now feels more at ease with timing and senses a Sunday-like day is approaching.

“This is a really good day for me,” Yoshida said. “Nevertheless, the season has just begun. I want to continue practicing and giving my all throughout the season.”

Over their previous ten games, the Red Sox have improved to 7-3. For the first time since last June, they have won three straight series, and Sunday’s performance continued one of their more notable early-season trends: a propensity for pulling off comeback victories.

With eight comeback victories going into the day, Boston was first in Major League Baseball. Only one of the Red Sox’s 12 victories this season came after trailing as late as Sunday, but nine of those victories were comebacks. After seven innings against the Twins, they were trailing 2-1, but they came back to win 5-4 in extra innings.

“Shouldn’t be a surprise by now,” Turner said. “All year, it has been happening. What the score is doesn’t matter. These men keep fighting, grabbing, and getting good at-bats without giving anything away. We’re always in the game.”

“That’s our team, that’s our chemistry and that’s how we are,” third baseman In response to Boston almost pulling off another comeback victory on Saturday, Rafael Devers said through interpreter Carlos Villoria. “Regardless of how many runs are on the board, we’ll fight back. We will continue to act in this way because it is in line with our mentality. Even if we are down a lot of runs or just one run, we’re going to fight to the very last out.”

Reference: www.mlb.com