SAN FRANCISCO -- It feels a lot like 2023.
That's the way second baseman Ketel Marte sees the recent stretch for the Diamondbacks as they continued to roll through a soft part of their schedule by beating the Giants, 7-5, on Tuesday night at Oracle Park.
Arizona has won nine of 10 and is 10-2 in its last 12 games, with all of those games coming against the Giants and Rockies. The Diamondbacks are a perfect 5-0 against San Francisco this year, and they wrap up this three-game set with the Giants on Wednesday afternoon.
"There are similarities to the 2023 season when we got a good stretch," Marte said through interpreter Rolando Valles. "The way we’re playing, the way the whole team has bonded, the energy that we have in the games, win or lose, it’s very similar."
That 2023 season was one to remember in Arizona. The Diamondbacks won 84 games and captured the NL's final Wild Card spot before making a run all the way to the World Series, where they fell in five games to the Rangers.
There's still a lot of season left to go and Arizona will have to prove itself against better competition soon, but you play the schedule as it comes, and right now the Diamondbacks are taking advantage where they can.
"We've been playing pretty good, pitching pretty good," Tuesday's winning pitcher, Eduardo Rodriguez, said. "That's what a good team is and we are doing it right now, and we just hope to keep doing it."
If you just looked at his numbers, Marte had a tough start to the season, posting a .619 OPS through his first 41 games.
But over that stretch, his batted-ball metrics showed that he was hitting into a lot of bad luck. Manager Torey Lovullo and his teammates continued to encourage him. They told him things would turn eventually.
Boy, have they ever.
Marte won NL Player of the Week for last week. In that seven-game span from May 18-24, he hit .536 with a 1.563 OPS, smashing seven extra-base hits and recording 12 RBIs -- just three fewer than his RBI total from his first 41 games.
The three-time All-Star, who did not have a single three-hit game prior to last week, tallied three such games as part of his big week, then had four more hits in Monday’s series opener.
"I don’t really see the beginning of the season as a struggle," Marte said. "Baseball is a long season and there are ups and downs. As for my situation, even though the hits weren’t landing, I was hitting the ball hard, the same way the team was doing things right but we just weren’t getting wins. I don’t think it was a struggle at the beginning; it was just part of the season. I’m optimistic about what’s coming next."
Marte played a big role in Tuesday's win.
With the Diamondbacks up 4-2, Marte gave Arizona a pair of insurance runs that would prove necessary with a 452-foot, two-run homer to left field. The exit velocity of 113.7 mph made it both the longest and hardest-hit home run at Oracle Park this season.
"He's hit some balls that I've seen lately that I've never really seen before, to be quite honest," veteran third baseman Nolan Arenado said. "Last homestand, he hit some balls that were just rockets that I haven't really seen since, maybe like [former Rockies teammate Carlos Gonzalez]. But you know that homer today just shows how special he is."