Starling Marte walked to the plate wearing a special gift from a 12-year-old fan.
With runners on base in the eighth inning of NL Championship Series Game 5, Marte had on an orange-white-and-blue necklace given to him by a boy named Simeon.
Marte hit an RBI single, marking his fourth hit and third RBI of the game in a 12-6 victory for the New York Mets over the Dodgers, which forced a Game 6 in Los Angeles.
“Usually in the eighth inning I start to throw the balls to fans because I want the kids to go with a little memory. In the fifth inning a fan was trying to get my attention,” Marte said through an interpreter.
“And in the seventh inning or eighth inning I ended up throwing the ball and they gave me the necklace. And in my next at-bat I ended up getting a hit there. I kind of just kept looking at him. So I just kept it. But it was a really special moment.”
Marte, a 36-year-old two-time All-Star, is hitting .409 with four RBIs in the series and .310 with nine RBIs in 12 postseason games.
“He’s been making the necklaces for a while for friends, and he had been trying for a few innings to give one to Starling,” Simeon’s father, Andrew, wrote in an email, asking that the family’s last name not be used. “He was so excited when he took it and then put it on.”
