The Dbacks were able to split the series with the Dodgers Thursday night thanks to some late inning heroics from none other than Ketel Marte and some terrific pitching from Ryne Nelson and the bullpen.
The Dbacks offense was stymied once again for 7 innings until Corbin Carrol hit a home run in the 8th inning to get the Dbacks offense on the board. Torey Lovullo dropped Geraldo Perdomo from the 3 hole to the 7 spot against the lefty today, and in the 8th inning he came through with a key hit, his second of the game, to tie the game at 2-2.
In the bottom of the 9th, Ketel Marte was due up second after going 0-4 previously in the game. However, 9th inning Ketel Marte has been a whole different animal this season, and on the first pitch he saw from Tanner Scott Ketel Marte hit a ball 431 feet to send 41,000 fans into a frenzy as the Dbacks walked off the defending world series champions. Such a good moment for this team and for Ketel Marte! His 3rd walkoff hit already of the season. According to Mark Grace in the postgame show, since May 17 Marte is now 4-7 with 4 HR vs left handed relievers.
Ryne Nelson dominated the defending world champs holding them to just 2 ER through 7 IP. Nelson did a phenomenal job of getting quick outs in this one keeping the pitch count super low with the exception of the 5th inning due to some questionable defensive plays. The first being Nelson himself not covering first base on a ground ball from Max Muncy (more on that later) and the second being a bad route from Corbin Carroll in RF as he took way too shallow of a route to a ball in RF allowing the ball to soar over his head for an RBI double.
On the aforementioned Max Muncy ground ball to Ildemaro Vargas, Ryne Nelson was late to break to cover the bag and so Vargas sprinted to the base to get the out himself. However, Max Muncy gave Vargas a forearm shiver that was a blatant contact initiating move. From Muncy’s standpoint maybe he was in self defense mode from colliding with Vargas, however it was a very bad look as the replays clearly showed Muncy going out of his way to make contact with Vargas. According to Lovullo, Vargas’ xrays are all negative and he was all smiles in his office after the game and is day to day. Vargas said he would be ready to play tomorrow but it sounds like Lovullo will rest him tomorrow to give him some time to recover.
A split of this series to the Dodgers certainly feels like a decent outcome to the series and now the Dbacks will look to win the next series against the Nationals. It is worth noting that the Nationals offense has been pretty hot so far this season, however hopefully they can carry the momentum from this walkoff and the series split into the series.
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