Merrill Kelly went seven strong innings, Ketel Marte set a major league record by extending his playoff hitting streak to 18 games and the Arizona Diamondbacks got even in the World Series with a 9-1 victory over the Texas Rangers in Game 2 on Saturday at Arlington, Texas.
Gabriel Moreno hit a home run, Tommy Pham had four hits and Corbin Carroll drove in a pair of runs on two hits for Arizona. Marte’s record-breaking hit was a two-run single in the eighth inning that gave Arizona a five-run lead.
Kelly (3-1) gave up one run on three hits with no walks and nine strikeouts and lowered his postseason ERA to 2.25 across 24 innings.
Arizona bounced back after a heartbreaking defeat in Game 1 when Texas’ Corey Seager hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning and Adolis Garcia hit a game-winning homer in the 11th.
After giving up two runs over six innings, Rangers starter Jordan Montgomery (3-1) was allowed to start the seventh, where he was charged with two more runs.
Mitch Garver hit a home run for the Rangers, who fell to 2-4 at home in the playoffs.
The series now shifts to Phoenix for Games 3, 4 and 5 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Arizona is 3-1 at home in the playoffs.
Moreno broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning with a solo shot to center field, his fourth home run of the playoffs. Christian Walker followed by grounding out to third base on a spectacular diving stop by Rangers third baseman Josh Jung, which failed to shift the momentum.
Pham then doubled for Arizona and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit an RBI single for a 2-0 lead.
Kelly was rolling early, not giving up his first hit until the Rangers’ Evan Carter smacked a single with two outs in the fourth inning. Garver brought Texas within a run at 2-1 with his homer in the fifth inning, his third of the playoffs.
The D-backs got to Montgomery quickly in the seventh with an Alek Thomas leadoff double and an RBI single from Evan Longoria. Left-hander Andrew Heaney replaced Montgomery, with Carroll delivering a two-out RBI single for a 4-1 advantage.
Marte’s two-run single in the eighth scored Pham and Emmanuel Rivera to give him 11 RBIs in the playoffs. Carroll added an RBI single in the inning for his 10th postseason RBI. Rivera plated two more with a single in the ninth.
–Field Level Media