J.D. Martinez returned to action on Wednesday July 25.

J.D. Martinez is nursing a sore shoulder. It's the reason for his absence in the Astros' outfield over the past three nights, but Martinez is fully expected to avoid a stint on the 15-day disabled list. He's batting .241/.318/.387 with 11 home runs and 50 RBI in 88 games played this season.

J.D. Martinez is nursing a slightly strained left gluteus muscle. Martinez suffered the injury Tuesday, but it wasn't bad enough to keep him out of the lineup Wednesday. He'll continue to play through the minor malady. "I'm feeling alright," he said. "I'm just a little sore. I just wanted to see if I was going to be able to go today. I'm not 100 percent, but I still feel like I can go out there and help the team. It doesn't bother me running, just swinging. It's not something I'm concerned about."

J.D. Martinez hit a grand slam off Barry Zito to power the Astros to a 6-3 win over the Giants on Thursday. Martinez is hitting just .192 since the beginning of May, but the Astros have stuck with him and likely will continue to do so. He's still a decent enough bet in NL-only leagues.

J.D. Martinez belted his fifth home run of the season, but it wasn't nearly enough to overcome the Rockies on Thursday night in Colorado. He finished the night 1-for-4 with the solo blast off of Jeremy Guthrie. After getting off to a very slow start to the season offensively, Martinez has picked it up lately hitting .294 (10-for-34) with a pair of homers and seven RBI over his last nine games. Though he's hitting a meager .237 on the season, he has provided solid run production in the middle of the Astros lineup with 28 RBI. He appears to finally be breaking out of his offensive funk, and should be a worthwhile fourth outfielder in mixed leagues the rest of the season.

J.D. Martinez had another nice game Friday, going 2-for-4 with a two-run homer off Clayton Kershaw. Previously in a 5-for-54 slump, Martinez has five hits his last two games, taking his average from .219 back up to .243.

J.D. Martinez went 3-for-4 with a triple, run scored and three RBI in Wednesday's win over the Cubs. It's been tough sledding for Martinez in the month of May, though he's now batting .286 over his past eight games, and still boasts a .342 on-base percentage on the year. Martinez was bound to experience some struggles as the league made its initial wave of adjustments on him, but we still like his long-term fantasy potential. He's an excellent mixed-league flier if an impatient owner cut him loose.

J.D. Martinez is not in Monday's lineup. Martinez is in the midst of a miserable 1-for-35 slump which has lowered his batting average to .221 on the year, so his playing time will continue to be limited until he gets back on track. He's expected to be in the lineup against left-hander Cliff Lee on Tuesday, though it likely won't be in the third spot in the order.

The slumping J.D. Martinez didn't start Wednesday, and Astros manager Brad Mills said he might give his left fielder a few more days off. Martinez is in the midst of a 1-for-30 slump that's pushed his batting line down to .232/.356/.364. "It's not a punishment," Mills said. "I'm just going to give him a couple of days. This will get me a chance to get [Justin] Maxwell some at-bats, and [Travis] Buck's gotten a few at-bats. But more than anything else, it will let him take a breath and get the feel back of maybe being stronger and so forth. I'm not going to sit here and put that in stone. We'll just let him relax a little bit and go from there."

J.D. Martinez had three hits and drove in three more runs Wednesday against the Brewers. Martinez has 18 RBI already. We're not going to go back and check or anything, but we're pretty sure that's more than any Astros player collected last year. Also very nice is that Martinez has 14 walks in his 18 games. Last year, he drew a total of 13 in 53 games.