For four innings, it had the feel of another one of those Diamondbacks nights that never quite get off the ground. Merrill Kelly was working hard, the offense had done almost nothing, and Arizona was staring at a 1-0 deficit before everything flipped in a hurry.
The turnaround came in the fifth and sixth innings, when the D-backs piled up nine runs on 11 hits and put together their biggest offensive output since August 28. It was exactly the kind of jolt they needed to open the final home stand of the season, especially with the Padres winning and the Phillies losing. Arizona stayed one-half game back of San Diego, while Philadelphia and the Cubs sat three games ahead.
Kelly’s outing started clean enough. He and MacKenzie Gore, who had thrown eight innings of one-run ball against Arizona in Texas, needed just 20 pitches combined to get through the first six outs.
But the second inning was a struggle for Kelly, who had trouble locating his change-up and kept missing his spots. He got ahead often, but the counts kept running deep: four of the five batters he faced reached 0-2 or 1-2, and the inning ended up featuring three full counts, two walks and 31 pitches.
A couple of quick outs in the third helped settle him briefly.
That didn’t last. After a 1-2-3 fourth, Kelly got only one out in the fifth, and it came on a sacrifice bunt.
A leadoff walk, the bunt, and then a hit batter set the stage for an RBI double into the right-field corner that gave Texas a 1-0 lead. With runners on second and third and one out, Torey Lovullo went to the bullpen.
Kelly’s night ended after 4.1 innings and 80 pitches, with one run allowed on two hits and three walks while striking out three. Kevin Ginkel came in and cleaned up the mess, getting a shallow fly ball and a groundout to strand both runners, even after another hit by pitch loaded the bases.
That escape proved to be huge, because Arizona’s bats finally woke up in the bottom half of the inning. Jordan Lawlar doubled, Ryan Waldschmidt walked, and after Ildemaro Vargas couldn’t get a bunt down, he bounced a ground-rule double to left to tie the game.
Ketel Marte then kept his hit streak rolling to nine games since coming off the injured and restricted list with another double, making it 3-1 and chasing Gore. Gabriel Moreno followed with a single that brought Marte home for 4-1, and the D-backs loaded the bases before Lawlar grounded out in his second plate appearance of the inning.
Then came something rare. Justin Martinez took over from Ginkel in the top of the fifth and threw an immaculate inning: nine pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts.
It was just the fifth immaculate inning in Diamondbacks history and one of only 123 since the feat was first recorded in 1889. The franchise list includes Randy Johnson on August 23, 2001 vs.
Pittsburgh Pirates, Byung-Hyun Kim on May 11, 2002 vs. Philadelphia Phillies, Wade Miley on October 1, 2012 vs.
Colorado Rockies, Michael Soroka on March 30, 2026 vs. Detroit Tigers, and now Martinez on September 11, 2026 vs.
Texas Rangers.
Arizona wasn’t done. In the sixth, the offense added five more runs and turned the game into a rout.
Waldschmidt was hit by a pitch, Marte doubled in another run, and Moreno singled Marte home for the second straight inning. After the second out, Corbin Carroll launched his 20th home run of the season to make it 8-1, becoming the first player ever with multiple 20 HR, 20 SB, 15 3B seasons.
Nolan Arenado capped the scoring with his team-leading 24th home run.
The rest was mostly cleanup work, with old “friend” Jordan Montgomery taking the ball for the Rangers and handling mop-up duty. He retired all six batters he faced.
Vargas, Marte, Moreno and Arenado each finished with two hits. Marte’s OPS since returning to action now sits at .838.
Carroll’s homer, Martinez’s immaculate inning, and the outburst as a whole gave Arizona a much-needed lift. The D-backs will be back at it tomorrow in an earlier game, with first pitch set for 5:10 pm and Brandon Pfaadt on the mound.
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