Y-D looked for an answer after scoring a combined six runs in the final two games of July. The calendar flipped to August and the Red Sox offense has come alive with Ethan Petry (South Carolina) and Anthony Martinez (UC Irvine) playing the role of catalyst.
After a 1-for-6 stint in those two contests against Falmouth and Orleans, Petry is 4-for-5 in his last two games with three home runs and four RBIs. Petry had a pair of pinch-hit at-bats with a home run on Thursday and reached base four times while going 3-for-3 with two homers in Y-D’s 8-5 win over Chatham on Friday.
Petry’s first blast was hit a towering 390-feet and the second was the hardest hit ball by a Red Sox this summer at 109 mph off the bat. Petry has propelled himself into the Cape League MVP conversation by tying the league lead in home runs and being in sole possession of first place in on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS.
Petry posted his second multi-homer game of the summer and his third three-hit performance. He’s tallied 11 multi-hit games with Y-D and extended his on-base streak to 16 games. Petry said, “one thing I've learned over the past two and a half years of college baseball is my swing breaks down when my timing is off.”
Petry adhered to the advice of head coach Scott Pickler, loaded his swing earlier and crushed the first pitch from Carson Johnson (Arizona) over the center field fence. Attacking early in the count has become a strategy that this Y-D offense is adopting and thriving with.
“We’ve been having way better at-bats,” Petry said. “Pick has been preaching to us about being on time early and getting to first pitch fastballs and not just taking them and getting deeper into counts. We want to ambush early and the ambush offense is really working for us.”
The Red Sox scored four or more runs in an inning for the 12th time this season in the top of the first and recorded double-digit hits for the second consecutive game. Martinez was a part of that four-run first inning with an RBI single to open the scoring and the lefty slugger extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
Martinez has a .319 batting average with a .910 OPS since the Fourth of July and said, “I feel like I can hit anything right now. I’m just sticking with the approach and can’t get away from it; that’s what got me here.”
Martinez said there’s been a dynamic of “combined learning” amongst the Red Sox hitters and shared that collaboration between everyone has allowed for the “ambush offense” to become a central cog of Y-D’s collective approach.
“Even everyday prep I'm asking Petry stuff, I'm asking Garate, I'm asking everybody,” Martinez said. “It's just combined learning because everyone's different and just learning from other people is awesome.”
Skylar King (West Virginia) is part of that “combined learning” environment as the Mountaineer joined the Red Sox on July 21 for his second summer with Y-D. King said he struggled early after not seeing live pitching for several weeks but was guided by players like Petry, Will Tippett (South Carolina) and Phoenix Call (UCLA) who helped him get reacclimated to the Cape.
King listened to the attack early approach instilled by Pickler and got a 2-0 fastball over the heart of the plate. King turned on the pitch and watched it sail over the right-center field fence for his first Cape League home run. His teammates stormed out of the dugout to celebrate as King smiled around the bases.
The homer further embodied Y-D’s offensive growth as late additions like King, Michael Ball (Nevada) and Carter Garate (Oregon) have all bought in to the attack mindset at the plate. The cohesion of Y-D’s offense has allowed the new players to blend with the veterans as the Red Sox took command of the No. 1 overall spot in the league.
“We can beat you in so many ways,” Martinez said. “We got guys that can hit home runs, we got guys that can hit doubles, you got guys that can steal bases and bunt. It’s a complete offense.”
Photo by Sophie Solarino
