Zac Gallen Sets NL Record in 19th MLB Start

It’s not every day that athletes have the opportunity to break a 46-year old record, but that’s exactly what Tar Heel alum and Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zac Gallen did on Tuesday night in Colorado.

The start marked Gallen’s 19 Major League Baseball game and, believe it or not, he has never allowed more than three earned runs in any one single game. Keep in mind, all of these are starts. That isn’t just 19 relief appearances where Gallen faces a couple batters. This is the first 19 games of his career as a starting pitcher.

In stringing together all these games, Gallen has set a new National League mark for the number of games to start a career with three or fewer earned runs. He moves past Steve Rogers of the Montreal Expos, who started out with 18 such outings at the beginning of his career in 1973-74.

The Major League record is 21 straight games in 1993-94, held by Aaron Sele of the Boston Red Sox.

Gallen will have the opportunity to try and match and surpass Sele’s record over the course of the next week or two.

Unfortunately for Gallen, his record-setting performance was marred by a painful loss to the Rockies. After his seven innings of giving up just two earned runs, the D-Backs’ bullpen surrendered six runs over the course of the final two innings. A ninth-inning comeback attempt was thwarted by none other than another Tar Heel, the resurgent Daniel Bard.

The Diamondbacks scored five runs in the ninth to cut the deficit to 8-7, but Bard came in to record the final out of the game with the tying run standing on third base. The save was the sixth of Bard’s career and first since June 5, 2011.

It was certainly a historic night for two Tar Heels, who both had milestone career achievements, but only Bard left the ball park with a victory (and a save) in his back pocket.

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