Arizona Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #54: 5/26 @ Giants

New NL Player of the Week, Ketel Marte, leads things off for the D-backs. In yesterday’s thread, ChefAZ wondered if this was the best 10-game stretch of Marte’s career. It was not, but after another three-hit game, it’s not far off the best nine-game stretch. The benefit of going that direction is, it allows us to cut out his 0-for-5 performance in the second game at Coors Field. Ketel has hit in every game since, with a total output over that time of 21-for-37, with three HR and 15 RBI. That’s a line of .568/.595/.973 for a 1.568 OPS. It trails only a 9-game streak in June 2019, when he went 22-for-34, with a line of .647/.667/1.059 and an OPS of 1.725.

Over his last three games, he’s a remarkable 10-for-13. Nobody else but Marte has had three consecutive three-hit games for Arizona since Eduardo Escobar in April 2019. Since then, Ketel has managed the feat on no less than four occasions: June and September in 2019; June last year; and the current run. Indeed, in June 2019 (as part of the nine-game spell mentioned above), he had four consecutive games with 3+ hits. That’s something only he and – probably inevitably – Paul Goldschmidt, in June 2018, have ever managed. We’ll see tonight if he can continue this torrid run, which has seen Marte’s seasonal OPS jump by 178 points in just ten days.

On the mound tonight, we have Eduardo Rodriguez, who has been worth a full two bWAR over his first ten starts this season. That’s particularly startling, considering he was worth just 0.6 bWAR over the entire 2024 and 2025 campaigns combined – a thirty-nine start run. Unlike Merrill Kelly, E-Rod has actually got W’s under his belt against winning opponents, in the White Sox and Pirates. Indeed, his only loss this year came at Coors Field, when the offense forgot how to hit. E-Rod’s 2.24 ERA is the best by a qualified starter for Arizona to this point, since Patrick Corbin’s 1.71 ERA in 2023. Only Brandon Webb (2.01 in 2006) and Randy Johnson (1.41 in 2003) have also been lower.