Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte: Gets first steal of season

Marte went 2-for-3 with a walk, RBI, run and a stolen base in the Diamondbacks' 5-2 loss to the Dodgers on Thursday.

Marte was the Diamondbacks' most productive hitter on the afternoon, but he'll probably need to cluster together several solid performances before recapturing his old role as the club's No. 2 hitter, which has fallen to Nick Ahmed of late. A career-worst .250 BABIP has contributed to Marte's sickly .224 average, but with his groundball rate sitting at 62.4 percent, it's difficult to see the 24-year-old's batting line climbing significantly until he adjusts his approach at the plate. Perhaps more troubling than Marte's low average and lack of power is that he hasn't been active as a base stealer, despite ranking in the 86th percentile in sprint speed in 2018, per Baseball Savant. The stolen base Marte collected Thursday was just his fourth (on five attempts) across 379 plate appearances with the DIamondbacks the last two seasons.