Cafecito Martínez shot a record home run

[- !el Catire *O*]

 

After drought of 21 games and 84 at-bats, José Alberto Martínez, tied his tenth seventh homer of the season on Monday, to impose curious mark of Venezuelan gunners, in meeting that his team, Cardinals, lost against the Brewers 6-4, to narrow in just half a game the battle with the Rockies for the second wild card of the National League.

With the stab that Martinez fired, 424 feet away from center field, in the sixth inning, in front of lefty Josh Hader, the number of criollo sluggers with a minimum of seventeen homers this season rose to 14, a number he left behind the record of thirteen that was set in 2017.

Along with Martinez, the criollos who have 17 or more home runs in 2018 are Jesús Aguilar (33), Eugenio Suárez (31), David Peralta (29), Salvador Pérez (27), Ronald Acuña (26), Gleyber Torres (23), Asdrúbal Cabrera (23), Odúbel Herrera (22), Eduardo Escobar (22), Avisaíl García (18), Rougned Odor (18), Yangervis Solarte (17) and Robinson Chirinos (17).

Twenty and thirty. The record for most criollos with 20 or more homers in a year, which in 2016 left Miguel Cabrera (38), Rougned Odor (33), Víctor Martínez (27), Carlos González (25), José Altuve (24), Asdrúbal Cabrera (23), Salvador Pérez (22), Wilson Ramos (22), Eugenio Suárez (21) and Freddy Galvis (20), have been close to being matched in 2017 and 2018.

Until Monday, nine gunners had billed two dozen scorecards and, with five days left to exhaust the regular schedule, five other sluggers have the option of exceeding twenty strikes to set a new record.

And if David Peralta (29) shoots another draw, an unprecedented trio of three criollo hitters with at least 30 homers in a contest, along with Jesús Aguilar and Eugenio Suárez, would be created.