ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Ketel Marte went deep for the Arizona lead with two outs in the ninth inning again against the Texas Rangers. The big swing this time came from the other side of the plate.
Martel’s three-run homer batting left-handed capped a two-out rally in the ninth inning for the Diamondbacks in their series finale at Texas on Wednesday, a 6-4 win that came less than 24 hours after the switch-hitter’s upper-deck solo shot from the right side in the final at-bat for a 3-2 victory.
“He’s one of a kind. He’s just a special player. When his timing’s right and his body’s right, he’s capable of carrying a ball club,” manager Torey Lovullo said after the All-Star second baseman’s latest game-winner. “And it was a great moment for him. The smile on his face as he was rounding the bases is something that I know we all enjoyed.”
The 413-foot homer to right was Marte’s fourth hit Wednesday.
His first three hits were singles, one driving in their first run, off former teammate Merrill Kelly, who made his third start for the Rangers since they acquired him from Arizona at the trade deadline two weeks ago.
“What you saw today is him in a nutshell. He hits good pitches, he hits bad pitches,” said Kelly, who exited the game after six innings with a 3-2 lead. “He can work the count, he could work the AB and punch a single into left or hurt you with a big-time homer from either side of the plate. Obviously, he proved that the last two nights. He’s kind of the guy that you circle in that lineup that you don’t want to beat you. … Unfortunately, we let him beat us the last two days.”
Marte’s solo homer with two outs in the ninth Tuesday night, on a two-strike 79.8 mph sweeper thrown by Danny Coulombe, went 445 feet.
In the series finale, Phil Maton had entered with two outs in the bottom of the eighth and struck out the first three batters he faced on nine pitches. James McCann then homered with two outs in the ninth, No. 9 batter Blaze Alexander was hit by a pitch and Geraldo Perdomo walked on four pitches before Marte went deep on a 76.4 mph curveball.
Marte is hitting .297 with 23 homers and 54 RBIs in 88 games, and has an NL-best .329 batting average in road games after going 6 for 9 the last two games in Texas. He missed nearly a month early in the season with a left hamstring strain.
“I’m feeling good. My body is good, I’m healthy,” Marte said.
“He can take it to a whole new level like, you know, a league above the major leagues, and that’s hard to do. There’s only a few players who can do that,” Lovullo said. “Everything happened kind of in order to lead up to that moment. He didn’t let us down. … This was a team moment, and Marte made it all happen.”
Split duo
Kelly and Zac Gallen, who started for Arizona on Wednesday, were the dynamic duo atop the Diamondbacks rotation when they made their run to the World Series two seasons ago that ended with a loss to the Rangers.
Gallen allowed two runs over five innings in his 161st start for the Dbacks, one fewer than Kelly made during their time together. Gallen’s 61 wins with Arizona are one shy of matching Kelly for the third-most in team history.
Kelly, a 36-year-old right-hander who spent 7 1/2 seasons with the Diamondbacks, struck out five over six innings in his first start against them.
“It was cool. I’m glad it’s over, but it was fun just seeing the guys in the box,” Kelly said. “It’s obviously a very different vantage point that I’m used to seeing them from the dugout. But kind of what I expected, a little anxiety to begin leading up to the game. But once the game starts, it’s still executing baseball as usual.”
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