Diamondbacks re-energize to take series against Mets
Kelly, Marte provide pivotal spark for series win over Mets
Midway through Saturday night’s game, manager Torey Lovullo had reached his wits’ end. The Diamondbacks had lost five in a row and were on their way to a sixth. They were being throttled by New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom. Zack Greinke had been roughed up. Lovullo was out of ideas.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Lovullo said. “I was like, ‘Where are we going? This is just not working.’ ”
Lovullo recounted this late Sunday afternoon. His team had rallied to win the night before. They had then pounded the Mets, 7-1, to secure a series victory on Sunday. They could only hope it marked a turning of the page from a miserable week, an ugly road trip and a challenging month.
Right-hander Merrill Kelly gave them 72⁄3 dominant innings, a much-needed lengthy outing for a pitching staff that has been running on fumes. Ketel Marte blasted the longest home run in recent Diamondbacks history to start the bottom of the first and Eduardo Escobar capped a threerun inning with a two-run homer.
“We were flat-lining and everybody felt that,” Lovullo said. “I’m sure you guys felt that up in the press box. I felt it in the dugout. It means we’re a good baseball team and we weren’t affected by some really, really difficult circumstances.
“It’s been a tough time, tough time here. But these guys rallied around one another.”
It started with Kelly. For the better part of three weeks, the Diamondbacks’ pitching staff has stayed afloat with an array of long relievers and reinforcements summoned from Triple-A Reno. Their rotation has been inconsistent, Kelly included. He said he had grown tired of alternating good starts with bad ones.
“With us struggling lately and getting that big win last night and knowing the bullpen has kind of been taxed a little bit going into today,” Kelly said, “I wanted to make sure I gave it all I had and got (deep) into the game.”
He gave up a solo homer to the Mets’ Wilson Ramos in the second, but otherwise his most challenging moment came before the start of the
sixth, when Lovullo and trainer Ryan DiPanfilo visited the mound as he was throwing his warm-ups.
“My stomach was giving me a little bit of fits,” Kelly said. “For some reason, it just kind of flared up on me. I felt like I was a little nauseous there for a sec.”
It quickly calmed down, and Kelly continued to mow through the Mets’ lineup. He finished with a career-high 10 strikeouts, retiring 12 of the final 14 batters he faced.
Marte’s homer, on the third pitch of the day from Mets lefty Steven Matz, landed on the concourse in front of the picnic tables in left-center field. It traveled an estimated 482 feet, the longest home run by a Diamondbacks hitter since 2015 and tied for the longest by any hitter in the majors this season.
“I think I’ve got more,” Marte said, drawing a laugh from reporters.
With 14, he already has tied his career-high in home runs from last season, and though he’s on pace for 38, he said he’s not changing the way he thinks of himself at the plate.
“I’m not focused on that,” he said. “I’m not a home-run hitter. I’m just trying to have good contact every time.”
Said Kelly: “That was probably one of the hardest home runs I’ve ever seen in my life. That ball was absolutely smoked. Every day you come in and you never know what you’re going to get (from Marte), but you know you’re going to get good things.”
With two wins, the Diamondbacks’ collective frame of mind has changed drastically. It has happened at a good time. On Monday, they’ll welcome the first-place Dodgers to Chase Field for their first visit of the season.
“We’re playing much better baseball than we were last week and I think a lot of guys stepped up and established a couple of things,” Lovullo said. “That we’re OK and that we’re playing good baseball the way we want to and we’re ready for the next series.”