ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — James McCann and Ketel Marte homered with two outs in a four-run ninth inning for Arizona to beat the Texas Rangers 6-4 on Wednesday in a game that began with the Diamondbacks facing former teammate Merrill Kelly.
Phil Maton (2-4), like Kelly a trade deadline acquisition two weeks ago, struck out the first three batters he faced after taking over with two outs in the eighth. McCann then homered, Blaze Alexander was hit by a pitch and Geraldo Perdomo walked on four pitches before Marte’s 23rd homer.
The 413-foot shot was Marte’s fourth hit of the game, and came after his solo homer in the ninth inning Tuesday night for a 3-2 win.
Perdomo hit a solo homer in the fifth of the series finale, two innings after scoring on one of Marte’s three singles off Kelly, who exited after six innings with a 3-2 lead.
John Curtiss (2-0), the third Arizona reliever, allowed Josh Jung’s RBI double in the eighth. Andrew Saalfrank worked a perfect ninth for his first career save.
Evan Carter had two hits in his return for Texas after missing 10 games (back spasms). He had an RBI single in the first and doubled ahead of Jake Burger’s 12th homer in the fourth that made it 3-1.
Key moment
Marte was easily thrown out trying to score from second on Adrian Del Castillo’s single to end the fifth and keep Texas up 3-2. Right fielder Ezequiel Duran’s one-hop throw got to catcher Jonah Heim with Marte still several steps from the plate.
Key stat
Marte has an NL-best .329 batting average in road games.
Up next
The Dbacks open a four-game series Thursday night at Colorado, after sweeping the Rockies in three games at home last weekend. Jacob deGrom (10-5, 2.86 ERA), who has lost his last three starts, pitches Friday night when Texas plays at Toronto.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
