2 Encouraging Signs from Diamondbacks' Win over Rockies

It does truly feel as if Ketel Marte's walk-off three-run homer against the San Francisco Giants flipped a switch on the All-Star infielder. He's been seeing the ball well, hitting confidently and playing at an elite level ever since. The Diamondbacks needed that, to an extreme degree.

Marte put forward a 3-for-4 game Saturday night, with a double, a walk and a two-run homer in the fourth inning. That blast was the perfect response to Zac Gallen allowing two runs in the top half of that inning, and extended Arizona's lead to 5-2 at the time. It would end up being the deciding swing of the game.

Marte is now on a seven-game hitting streak, and has hit 14-for-28 (.500) since May 16.

"Crazy what he's doing right now," rookie outfielder Ryan Waldschmidt said of Marte to the D-backs.TV postgame broadcast.

"That's especially important for me to get on base (Waldschmidt went 2-for-4 with a run scored Saturday) for the hot streak that he's going on, and that's just the player he is. If I can get on first base in front of him, and I know he's going to hit the ball like that we're going to score a lot of runs."

Diamondbacks' situational bullpen

The Diamondbacks' bullpen did not have a good night Friday, needing 77 pitches to get through three innings, and allowing two runs to lose the game in the process. Saturday night was a different story

Zac Gallen had a relatively uneven outing, allowing three runs over the course of 5.1 innings. Brandon Pfaadt finished the sixth inning and threw a clean seventh, but ran into some trouble in the eighth.

And that's when it began to feel like a 2023 playoff game. Kevin Ginkel, who's quietly lowered his ERA down to 3.05 with sparkling peripherals, entered with a 5-4 lead and worked his way out of two-on, no-out jam to prevent the tying run from coming across. Paul Sewald locked down his 12th save of the year with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Arizona's pitchers, in total, held the Rockies to a mere 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, stranding seven of Colorado's 11 baserunners. Those may have been numbers that looked much different a year ago.