It wasn’t enough that Ketel Marte broke the hearts of the San Francisco Giants with a walkoff three-run homer Tuesday night. He just had to go 3-for-3 with a walk and cross home plate as many times as the Giants’ entire team did in a 6-3 Arizona Diamondbacks win.
Tyler Mahle fell to 1-6 after giving up eight hits and six runs in five innings. At least he didn’t walk anyone! Merrill Kelly improved to 4-3 and won his ninth career game against the Giants, who went hitless in the final four innings of the game. The team is 20-30, and they deserve to be.
The Giants got on the board first when Casey Schmitt launched his ninth home run of the season in the first inning.
Marte continued to torment the Giants right away, doubling in the first and scoring on a Gerardo Perdomo sac fly. In the third, he almost got a Desert Splash Hit by launching a two-run homer just to the left of Arizona’s outfield pool.
For a while, the Giants’ bats were matching the Marte-backs. In the second, Matt Chapman singled and Bryce Eldridge doubled him home, his second RBI and second extra-base hit of the season.
Before the game, Mike Krukow said he thought Eldridge should go down to Triple-A, to improve his hitting and get more playing time. Well he went 1-for-4 and didn’t strike out a single time, so in your face, Kruk!
Chapman scored the tying run on Drew Gilbert’s RBI single with two outs in the 4th, but that would be the Giants’ penultimate hit of the ballgame. Rafael Devers hit a two-out double in the 5th and was stranded on second, and that was it for the offense aside from a Jesus Rodriguez pinch-hit walk.
The Will Brennan experiment seems to have run its course, but the Giants don’t really have other outfield options with Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee both injured. Where have you gone, Luis Matos? (The Nashville Sounds)
Arizona broke the 3-3 tie in the 5th inning, when Marte decided to switch things up and leg out a bunt single to load the bases. After an RBI groundout, Perdomo cleared the bases with a double, his second and third RBIs of the game.
The sweep sends the Giants home with a 4-6 record on their 10-day road trip, a record that would feel better had they not been at 4-3 for the road trip three days ago. They’re getting a much-needed day off Thursday before hosting the surprisingly-competent Chicago White Sox (25-24) on the weekend.
There’s not much to say, beyond what so many college student have declared after Spring Break trips: Visiting Arizona sucked.
