Dámaso Marté

Dámaso Marté
Free agent
Relief pitcher
Born: February 14, 1975 (1975-02-14) (age 36) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Bats: Left	Throws: Left
MLB debut
June 30, 1999 for the Seattle Mariners
Career statistics (through 2011 season)
Win–loss record	23–27
Earned run average	3.48
Strikeouts	533
Teams
Seattle Mariners (1999) Pittsburgh Pirates (2001) Chicago White Sox (2002–2005) Pittsburgh Pirates (2006–2008) New York Yankees (2008–2010)
Career highlights and awards
2x World Series champion (2005, 2009)

This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Marté and the second or maternal family name is Sabinon.

Dámaso Marté Sabinon (born February 14, 1975) is a Dominican Major League Baseball relief pitcher who is currently a free agent. He previously played for the Seattle Mariners (1999), Pittsburgh Pirates (2001, 2006–2008), and Chicago White Sox (2002–2005).

Professional career

Seattle Mariners

Marté was signed as an amateur free agent by the Seattle Mariners in 1992. He made his major league debut on June 30, 1999, against the Oakland Athletics.

Pittsburgh Pirates

On November 16, 2000, Marté signed with the New York Yankees, but was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 13, 2001, for Enrique Wilson. In his Pirates debut, he hurled 3 innings of one-hit ball. He went on to throw 14 innings in which he only allowed 1 run and struck out a career-high 5 batters against the Cincinnati Reds.

Chicago White Sox

On March 27, 2002, Marté along with Edwin Yan were traded to the Chicago White Sox for Matt Guerrier. In 2003, he enjoyed his most successful big league season, where he went 4–2 with a 1.58 ERA in 79.7 innings pitched where he struck out a career high 87 batters. He continued his success in 2004 when he held opposing batters to a .217 batting average and left-handed batters to an average of .143. He also matched his career high for strikeouts in a game with 5 against the Florida Marlins.

A notable achievement for him was being the winning pitcher in the longest game in World Series history, Game 3 of the 2005 World Series. In that game, he tossed 1.2 scoreless innings and struck out three batters in the 14 inning win over the Houston Astros.

Second stint with Pirates

On December 13, 2005, the White Sox traded Marté back to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Rob Mackowiak. Dámaso made 3 relief appearances in the World Baseball Classic for the Dominican Republic in 2006. Come the regular season, he went on to struggle a bit in where he lost 7 straight games as a reliever but still averaged 9.7 strikeouts per 9 innings pitched. In 2007, he enjoyed some success where he held left-handed batters to a .094 batting average. He also did not allow a hit in 32 consecutive at-bats against left-handers which happened to be the longest streak of consecutive hitless at-bats by a left-handed batter against any pitcher in the MLB. For a stint, after an injury to Matt Capps, Marté was the Pirates closing pitcher, and was fairly successful. During his stint as closer, he was traded to the New York Yankees.

New York Yankees

On July 26, 2008, Marté and Xavier Nady were traded to the Yankees for 4 minor leaguers Jose Tabata, Ross Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens, and Dan McCutchen.^[1] In his Yankees debut, he relieved Jose Veras (for only one batter), and faced David Ortiz, who struck out swinging.^[2]

Following the 2008 season, the Yankees declined Marté's option. However, the Yankees then re-signed him to a new three-year deal with an option for a fourth.^[3]

Following a disappointing regular season in which Marté posted an ERA of 9.45, he delivered an extraordinary performance for the Yankees in the playoffs. After a shaky first outing in Game 2 of the 2009 American League Division Series, in which he surrendered two consecutive singles to the Minnesota Twins before being relieved, Marté retired all twelve of the remaining batters he faced during the postseason. During Game 6 of the 2009 World Series, Marté faced Philadelphia Phillies stars Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, striking out both of them on the minimum 6 pitches. Marté and the Yankees went on to win Game 6, clinching the Series for the team's 27th championship.

Marté missed much of the 2010 season with injury. He underwent shoulder surgery late in the 2010 season and missed the entire 2011 season.^[4] In late June, Marté started to play catch in his journey to recovery. ^[5] He will become a free agent at the end of the 2011 season after the Yankees declined his 2012 option and pay him a $250,000 buyout.^[6]

References

1. ^ "Yanks acquire Nady, Marté from Bucs for 4 minor league prospects". SI.com. 2008-07-26. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/07/25/pirates.yanks.trade/index.html. Retrieved 2008-07-26. 
2. ^ "Pettitte, Cano lead Yanks to 8th straight win". The Associated Press. 2008-07-26. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=280726102. Retrieved 2008-07-26. 
3. ^ Yankees sign LHP Damaso Marté to a three-year contract with a club option for 2012
4. ^ http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101024&content_id=15824184&vkey=news_nyy&c_id=nyy
5. ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=6687179
6. ^ Hoch, Bryan (October 19, 2011). "Yankees decline 2012 option on lefty Marte". MLB.com. http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111019&content_id=25712344&vkey=news_nyy&c_id=nyy. Retrieved 2011-10-20. 

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)

Persondata
Name	Marte, Damaso
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 14, 1975
Place of birth	Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Date of death
Place of death