Victor Martinez's motto: "I don't play first base very often, but when I do ..."

Yep, good things happen.

Martinez has only started six games at first this season — the same number he started in all of 2011 — but he's still recorded a handful of highlight plays there, including the one on Sunday, June 23, that MLB Network ranked No. 1 on its "Plays of the First Half" show Thursday night.

To recap, Martinez made a diving stab to knock down what looked like a sure double from Boston's Jacoby Ellsbury, then watched as it rolled into foul territory behind the bag. Martinez chased after it on all fours, then made a back-handed flip to pitcher Drew Smyly covering the bag.

"That was sweet. That was a sick play. That was all him. I was just standing there at first place. I didn’t know if he saw it or not because he knocked it down and it was right there," Smyly said later. "I was yelling at him, ‘I’m here, I’m here’ and he flipped it back. That was a cool play."

Ellsbury even thought it was a cool play, patting the kneeling Martinez on the shoulder on the way back to the dugout, as you can see in the video below.