Starling Marte Using Bat, Voice to Lift Mets
Starling Marte has been loud with his bat in the National League Championship Series. The typically quiet outfielder is using his voice, too.
Marte went 4-for-5 with three doubles and three RBIs in the Mets’ 12-6 must-win Friday over the Dodgers in Game 5 at Citi Field, becoming the first Met with three doubles in a playoff game. He’s 9-for-22 (.409/.435/.591) in the LCS, with hits in four consecutive games.
Brad Penner-Imagn Images
“It feels good not only because I had a good game but also because the team won,” he said through Alan Suriel. “I’m the type of player that as long as the team wins, I’m in a good mood. I can go 0-for-5 and it doesn’t matter.”
Marte, 36 and 13-year MLB veteran, may have also played a role in helping get 22-year-old Francisco Alvarez on track. Alvarez was 5-for-35 this October before Marte had a talk with him before Game 4.
“(Marte) come to me and he tell me, ‘Hey, be happy. Play your game. Don’t try to do too much,'” Alvarez said prior to Game 4, adding that the pep talk was extra meaningful because Marte is a man of few words.
“He don’t talk too much,” the catcher said. “I feel like he talk to me from the heart so I really appreciate him to do that. He never talk to me like that. Like he never says something about that and yesterday he was talk to me and I really like what he said.”
In two games since, Alvarez is 4-for-5 with a double and an RBI.
Marte said he had a neat interaction with a fan between innings of Game 5, too.
“Usually every game I start throwing balls to fans because I want them to be able to, I want those kids to be able to go home with a little memory,” Marte said. A fan he threw a ball to gave him a necklace.
“In my next at-bat, I ended up getting a hit there and I just kinda kept looking at it,” he said. “It was a really special moment.”
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