● Ketel Marte is red-hot even though the Diamondbacks are not,
Two years ago, Ketel Marte’s every trip to the plate dripped with the promise of game-changing potential. Two games into a new Diamondbacks season, that version of Marte seems to be resurfacing.
Marte homered for the second time in as many games and doubled during Friday night’s 4-2 loss to the San Diego Padres. Though he was unable to come through with the tying runs on base in the final at-bat of the game — he grounded out against closer Mark Melancon — Marte represents a shimmering bright spot in what so far has been a disappointing start to the Diamondbacks’ season.
“He’s fun to watch,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “We’re excited every time he comes up to the plate because he’s going to do something pretty special.”
Said right-hander Merrill Kelly, “Every time he goes up to the plate, there’s an opportunity for something good to happen for the Diamondbacks.”
That did not seem to be the case last season, in which Marte never seemed to find his rhythm. His power was down. His plate discipline wavered. He may have let the length of the pandemic-shortened season affect his at-bats. And he might have been playing through a wrist injury that bothered him more than he admitted.
It was a steep fall from 2019, when Marte slammed 32 homers and finished fourth in National League MVP voting.
It has not taken long for Marte to flip the narrative in the new season. In his second at-bat on Opening Day on Thursday, he sent a screaming line drive into the right-field corner for a double. Two innings later, he blasted a Yu Darvish cutter over the center field wall for a home run. Both hits came from the lefthand side of the plate, where Marte’s impact was limited last season.
On Friday, he did damage from both sides: In the fifth, he ripped a double into left batting right-handed. Then in the seventh, facing Padres right-hander Craig Stammen, he looked to almost a slash a ball toward left, where it easily cleared the left-field wall, landing three rows deep.
“The ball he hit the other way tonight was pretty amazing,” Lovullo said. “It looked like he barely swung at the ball and the ball jumped off his bat.”
Making it even more impressive was what happened a half-inning earlier. Playing center field, Marte charged in on a Jorge Mateo low liner but banged his arm on the ground on a sliding attempt. He appeared to be in discomfort as he made his way off the field.
“I got a little hurt, but right now I feel good,” Marte said. “I feel 100 percent.”
The way the past two days have gone, Marte is the least of the Diamondbacks’ concerns. Kelly followed Madison Bumgarner in turning in a second consecutive truncated outing from a Diamondbacks starting pitcher. He needed 94 pitches to get just one batter into the fifth inning. In four-plus innings, he gave up three runs on five hits and three walks.
“There was a lot of pitches I made that weren’t competitive enough,” Kelly said. “Kind of just picking at the edges rather than keeping the ball on the plate and forcing contact.”
And for the second consecutive day Lovullo found himself being asked about not pitching around a Padres hitter.
On Thursday, Bumgarner was beat by the Padres’ Victor Caratini with the pitcher on deck, a mistake that led to a run. On Friday, it was Diamondbacks killer Eric Hosmer who came through with an RBI single off reliever Taylor Clarke in the seventh despite first base being open with Wil Myers on deck.
“You’re picking your poison there,” Lovullo said. “…Our thought process and our belief was it was a better matchup against Hosmer and, obviously, that wasn’t the case.”
The game still came down to Marte, just as the Diamondbacks would have hoped, though it did not work out. They had two on and two out against Melancon, who got Marte to roll over on a 2-2 curveball to end the game.
Nonetheless, there was enough about Marte’s past two days to create optimism about the season that might be in front of him. He already has more homers (two) from the left side this year than he did all of last year (one). And he is again playing with a swagger that seemed to vanish last season.
“The best thing you can do is get off to that good start,” Lovullo said. “He’s in a very good spot. It’s just about being consistent. I know he will be.”