D-backs' Offense, Zac Gallen Fall Flat in Loss to Skenes, Pirates

The Arizona Diamondbacks lost the rubber match of a three-game set in demoralizing, blowout fashion, falling to the Pittsburgh Pirates by a score of 10-1. Arizona's offense was lifeless against Paul Skenes and the Pirates' bullpen, and Zac Gallen suffered a third straight poor outing.

Gallen, whose ERA sat at 5.25 heading into Wednesday's contest, was efficient to begin his outing. It took him just eight pitches to retire the side to begin the game, but that would not be a proper foreshadowing, as he finished his day with six runs allowed (five earned) on six hits and three walks. He struck out three, and his ERA now sits at 5.54.

He was clipped for an early run in the second, as a leadoff walk and pair of singles spotted Pittsburgh a 1-0 score. Gallen dialed up a double play ball to end the inning without further damage, however, and managed two more scoreless innings.

Through four innings his pitch count sat at 42 — the lowest through four of his career. But the game would unravel completely in the fifth and sixth. It would take him 50 pitches to record the next three outs.

It began with a walk and two singles in the fifth, loading the bases with no outs.

Though Gallen induced a ground ball to the next batter, top prospect Jordan Lawlar made a critical error, missing an ill-advised throw to second base instead of taking the easy out at first. Two runs scored as a result — one unearned. It would only deteriorate from there.

Gallen managed to escape the fifth with just the 3-0 deficit, but was lifted for Juan Morillo after two more singles and a 4-0 score to open the sixth. Morillo allowed both inherited runners to score, and gave up a pair of his own. Scott McGough later gave up a two-run homer to Oneil Cruz in the eighth.

"I feel like it was fine until the sixth," Gallen told reporters postgame. "Just kind of unraveled a little bit there."

"Just unfortunate to start [the sixth inning] with a leadoff walk, which kind of drives me crazy. I'm never really trying to do that. I just didn't really have the best command today," Gallen said.

"I've seen Zac better, I'm not going to lie," said manager Torey Lovullo. "I think he was towing that line the best that he could to keep us in the game, and it just it just blew up on us in the sixth inning with those five runs. So it starts and stops with pitching."

"When we pitch well, when we have our pitchers who pitch at a very solid, high level; when they do their job, the game seems to flow," the skipper continued.

But offensively, the D-backs were as flat as they've been all season. Though part of that can be attributed to Skenes' excellence, the D-backs only rapped out a paltry four hits against the right-hander. Just one went for extra bases — a double off the bat of Corbin Carroll. Tim Tawa had a pinch-hit, ninth-inning home run to provide Arizona's only run.

Skenes spun 6.2 innings of dominant shutout baseball. He allowed only four hits, struck out seven, and didn't walk a batter. His bullpen, for once, held it down, as Arizona ended their day with five total hits. They stranded seven runners and struck out 11 times, going 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.

But it wasn't just offense that the D-backs struggled with. While the pitching was certainly poor, it was also a less-than-impressive defensive effort from Arizona. Lawlar made two errors, one leading to two runs scoring. Carroll misplayed a pair of balls in right field, and Eugenio Suárez bobbled a ground ball with a runner at third.

"I wish I'd come up here and tell you we played a great game and everything was clean and from start to finish we did exactly what we were trying to do, but we're as far from that as we've been in quite some time," Lovullo said.

"We've got to tie some things down. We are doing our best every single day to as a group and that's coaches, myself, the players to make this make this get better as soon as possible. ... I think everybody looked like they saw a ghost," Lovullo said.

"Nothing against the Pirates, but I think they went a month without scoring five runs in a game. They did that twice in one inning against us. That's unacceptable. We're better than that."

The Diamondbacks played a sloppy, unfocused game across the board, and fall to 27-29, dropping a series at home to one of the weakest clubs in the National League. They'll have an off day Thursday before beginning a three-game set with the Washington Nationals.