Mike Fiers was just waiting for the opportunity.
He had already texted the group chat when J.D. Martinez, a long-time friend and former teammate at Nova Southeastern University, was not in the Red Sox lineup for Saturday’s game against the Tigers.
The group chat — with Fiers and Martinez and other friends from South Florida — always gets a bit livelier on these days, in which they’re scheduled to face each other.
“We had been talking about that all year,” he said.
Martinez, the former Tiger, was out of the lineup one night after making a running catch into the right field wall.