ST. PETERSBURG — As soon as once more, you possibly can’t predict baseball.
The D-backs opened the primary leg of their three-city, nine-game street journey as the most popular group within the sport. That they had received 30 of their earlier 40 video games, and it wasn’t like they had been beating up on a bunch of also-rans. Arizona was victorious in sequence earlier this month in opposition to the first-place Phillies and Guardians. That they had taken down the Dodgers, Braves and Padres, too.
The offense was clicking. The bullpen was sturdy. The beginning pitching was deep. Absolutely they’d hold proper on rolling in opposition to a Rays group that entered this weekend having misplaced 10 of its previous 13 video games, proper?
Not a lot. The D-backs’ first enterprise to Tropicana Discipline since 2019 ended with them on the unsuitable aspect of a three-game sweep, which hasn’t occurred to them since April 5-7 at Atlanta.
Sunday’s 8-7 defeat in 12 innings — Arizona’s longest recreation of the season — featured just a few regarding developments. Arizona allowed a franchise-record seven stolen bases Sunday and 13 over the three-game sequence. Merrill Kelly, in his second begin since coming back from a proper shoulder pressure, was tagged for six runs on eight hits over five-plus innings. The offense, which had been so prolific over that 40-game stretch, was no-hit into the seventh inning by Rays pitchers.
However because the D-backs put together for a three-game sequence in opposition to the Marlins, nothing is extra necessary than the standing of their lineup chief, Ketel Marte.
The All-Star second baseman aggravated the left ankle sprain that he sustained final week throughout a pinch-hit look within the ninth inning Sunday. As he checked his swing on a 1-0 pitch from Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks, Marte collapsed to the bottom in a seated place within the left-handed batter’s field. He stayed down for just a few moments and punched the bottom together with his proper fist earlier than attempting to get again to his toes.
As soon as upright, Marte struggled to place weight on his left leg and hobbled gingerly towards Arizona’s dugout with the assistance of a coach.
A day later, Marte was positioned on the 10-day injured record, and infielder Pavin Smith was recalled from Triple-A Reno.
“It didn’t look nice,” supervisor Torey Lovullo stated on Sunday. “It is robust to take your finest participant off the sector like that. However he was very wanting to play. He was excited to play. He creates numerous power when he pushes off the bottom. He’s a really sturdy man, and he is an amazing hitter due to that power.”
Marte hasn’t been 100% since he initially suffered the damage on Aug. 10. After being held out of 4 of the group’s subsequent 5 video games, Marte returned to Arizona’s lineup because the designated hitter Saturday and went 1-for-3 with a single and a stroll in a 6-1 defeat.
Marte, who has 30 homers on the 12 months and ranks fourth within the Nationwide League with 5.4 fWAR, was saved out of Sunday’s beginning lineup as a part of the D-backs’ plan to not push him an excessive amount of. However he instructed his skipper in the course of the center of Sunday’s recreation that he needed a possibility to assist the group win right this moment.
“I felt strongly about that,” Lovullo stated. “It was checked off by the medical group. It simply was unlucky.”
The D-backs went 3-1 within the 4 video games Marte missed this week. However his significance to this group can’t be overstated.
“He posts day-after-day and performs by numerous stuff,” designated hitter Joc Pederson stated. “He is been a catalyst for this group, for this offense, protection, throughout, taking part in like an MVP-caliber participant. So, you by no means wish to see that.
“However he is picked us up all 12 months. Now it is our time to select him up and carry the burden till he is in a position to get again with us.”
