PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte has started to come alive at the right time.
After a quiet week off the injured list, Marte broke out with three home runs in two games against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday and Friday, his first three roundtrippers of the season.
On Saturday, Marte hit a couple balls hard on the ground before getting ahold of a double deep to center field in the eighth inning. He scored on a Pavin Smith double, an insurance run for Arizona’s 3-0 victory.
Ketel Marte's second home run of the night provides a bit of insurance for the @Dbacks! pic.twitter.com/yqOGj8vTSx
— MLB (@MLB) May 10, 2025
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Marte missed a month of action due to a hamstring strain. He started off 2-for-18 at the plate when he returned, pounding a lot of pitches into the ground. His home run on Thursday off Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the moment Marte looked the part, from the whiz of the baseball soaring to his stare as the it cleared the wall.
It was a bit closer than he initially expected, saying he got a bit nervous he’d get in trouble with first base coach Dave McKay.
Marte said he slept well that night. He had been grinding to get back on the field and find himself at the plate.
“ I’ve been looking at the iPad, I’ve been watching my video every day,” Marte said on Friday. “I know I can hit, sometimes we lose the time and I was in rehab for one month and I did good out there, but it’s not the same. This is the big leagues … I gotta continue to watch my videos, work hard every day and I guarantee you guys, I will be good, I’ll be okay.”
The veteran did not go on a rehab assignment, instead getting his legs underneath him at Salt River Fields. The switch-hitter punished pitchers with homer after homer at the complex, but stepping up against major leaguers took some time to adjust to.
“There’s nowhere that’s anywhere close to this talent at this level,” hitting coach Joe Mather told Arizona Sports. “The intensity and the quality of pitching, you can’t replicate it. … You can feel great coming in, but then you kind of have to start over.”
The return of his slug, as well as several key defensive plays he made in the opener, helped the D-backs win two of the first three games in the four-game set. He’s 4-for-10 with three walks entering Sunday.
It’s a matchup he relishes.
He’s played 105 regular season games against the Dodgers. Only four active players have played more, including former D-backs Paul Goldschmidt and Nick Ahmed. Plus, Marte has played six postseason games against Los Angeles.
“I always like to play against the Dodgers, it’s so fun,” Marte said. “There’s a lot of superstars over there on that team, a lot of good players … and we compete. You guys saw in 2023 in the playoffs.”
Ketel Marte’s progress
The Diamondbacks left Marte out of the lineup on Sunday with a chance to capture the series win. Marte is on a return-to-play progression the organization devised to manage his workload coming off the IL.
“We were talking about that as we were making the decision to activate him when we did,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “He’s gonna get to play several days in a row. He is gonna need a day off every once in a while.
“We’re gonna get into a real good rhythm here where he’s gonna eventually play six, seven days in a row and then get a day off. He’s such an important player. He’s 100%, but there are days where he gets a little fatigued, so we gotta be careful with him still.”
Lovullo was clear that Marte would be available to pinch hit later in the game.
Why is Ketel Marte out of today's lineup? pic.twitter.com/AaxmhxW1C7
— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) May 11, 2025
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