With his dad at home watching on Father’s Day on Sunday, Tigers outfielder J.D. Martinez slugged three home runs in a 12-4 win over the Yankees. Martinez had never hit two home runs in a game before, let alone three. And he even had a chance for a four-homer game, but flew out to right field in the seventh inning.
Martinez’s first home run came in the first inning with a man aboard, taking Masahiro Tanaka out to left-center to boost the Tigers’ lead to 4-0. He hit another one off of Tanaka in the fifth with the bases empty to make it a 7-2 game. In the sixth, he slugged a three-run shot off of reliever Danny Burawa, making his major league debut, to make it 11-2. Watch that third home run here:
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Martinez saw his OPS nearly dip below .700 in early May, but has rebounded in a big way. He’s currently batting .275/.333/.516 with 16 home runs and 41 RBI.