PHOENIX -- As soon as the ball left his bat, Ketel Marte knew the game was over.
He turned, looked in the direction of his teammates in the dugout and flipped his bat.
"At the time, my emotions, my excitement, I thought everybody was looking at me," Marte said through translator Alex Arpiza.
No one in the Diamondbacks dugout, though, was watching him. Instead, they were all looking at the ball flying into the left-field seats.
In a season of hard-hit balls that went for naught, Marte was finally rewarded, and so too were the Diamondbacks, who beat the Giants 5-3 on Marte's walk-off homer in the ninth.
It was the fourth win for the Diamondbacks in their last five games as they climbed back over the .500 mark.
If you looked at Marte's numbers coming into the game, you would think that the All-Star second baseman was not swinging the bat well. A .222 batting average and a .368 slugging percentage? For Ketel Marte?
Look a little deeper, though, and you'd see that if you factor in how hard he's hit the ball this year, his expected batting average was .285 and his expected slugging percentage was .449, entering Tuesday’s game.
In fact, entering Tuesday's game, Marte had hit 24 balls that had an exit velocity of 100+ mph that went for outs, second most in the Majors behind Fernando Tatis Jr., who had 25.
Marte also hit 39 balls 95+ mph that went for outs, tying him for third-most in the Majors with Bo Bichette as the league’s leader with 41.
"It’s hard," Marte said of the frustration he felt. "Someone like myself that works very hard, the results hadn’t been coming. Nevertheless, come here, trust in God and be able to give my best performance."
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo could see the frustration building in his star player as the hard-hit outs began piling up, and so he would do his best to encourage him.
Lovullo stopped saying, "Way to swing the bat," because it was clear Marte didn't want to hear it.
The manager called him into his office at times for chats to encourage him. He even showed him what his expected numbers were. What did Marte say about those expected numbers?
"He said, 'I don't give a [expletive] about expected numbers, I want to win and get hits to help us win,'" Lovullo said. "And that's just who he is. He's so matter-of-fact, and it's just so simple and easy when you have conversations with him, because it's just real and to the point, and that's what makes him great."
Marte and Lovullo share a bond after 10 seasons together, and Marte appreciated all his manager would do to lift his spirits, but at the end of the day, the frustration kept building.
"It’s a little difficult," Marte said. "Usually at this stage in the season, I have really good numbers. But Torey has always told me, ‘You’re making good contact. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re playing good defense.’ That’s mainly the way he’s been able to support me. Torey and I have a great relationship, almost like father and son. Great communication. It’s very special that he’s always trusted in me in this difficult moment in my career."
One inning before Marte's homer, he came up with a runner on first and smoked a ball to center. It left his bat at 104.6 mph, had an expected batting average of .730 and would have been a homer in 24 ballparks.
But it wasn't at Chase Field, as center fielder Harrison Bader settled in and caught it at the wall, 411 feet from home plate. Marte's frustration was evident as he got to the dugout.
One inning later, all that frustration was replaced by joy in his first walk-off homer in the big leagues.
"In 10 years, that’s my first walk-off home run, being able to give my team a victory like that, it’s an incredible feeling," Marte said.
Had he ever hit a walk-off homer outside of the big leagues?
"The only time was when I played softball in the Dominican [Republic]," he said with a smile.