Zac Gallen Puts on a Pitching Clinic

Zac Gallen had a dominating performance tonight, picking up his 8th win of the year in the Diamondbacks 5-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians. In doing so Gallen, reasserted himself as one of the favorites for the National League Cy Young Award and a potential All Star Game start. He also helped his team break a three game losing streak and increase their lead in the NL West back to three games over the Dodgers.

After his last start Gallen's velocity was down quite a bit and there were questions raised, including by this writer, as to whether that were a red flag. But today the velocity was back to normal as Gallen established his fastball early and often.

Gallen plowed through the first three innings pitching to the minimum nine batters. He allowed a leadoff single to Steven Kwan to start the game, but he was immediately eliminated on a ground ball double play started by Ketel Marte. Through the first four innings 12 of the first 13 pitches were fastballs, and 11 of the 13 were first pitch strikes.

Gallen had a little fun when asked what he felt about his velocity.

"Red alarms", he said through laughter, "I think somebody said it raised alarms. I think we can put that to bed. It was 8:30 in the morning" [his last start in Detroit] After a good laugh was had by all he spoke seriously about his outing. With his normal humility and search for perfection, he said his feel was about "60-70%". He also said he wasn't even thinking about trying to establish the fastball to make a statement or prove a point. He was just trying to help win a baseball game after the team had lost three in a row.

The only blemish came with two outs in the 4th inning. A cutter stayed over the middle of the plate to Jose Ramirez, who drive the ball over the right field wall for his 11th homer of the year and the lone Guardians run of the evening.

Still, after the slew of fastballs early in the game, Gallen then flipped the script, pitching backwards over the next couple of innings, starting batters off with curveballs and change ups. It was a master class in command, control and sequencing. He did allow four more singles over his final three innings of work, but none caused any damage as he got through the 7th inning on 95 pitches, 67 for strikes, allowing just the one run on six hits, zero walks, and seven strikeouts. His record improved to 8-2 and he lowered his ERA to 2.96

Asked if it felt as sharp to him as it looked from the outside looking in, he said , "yeah, I would put this start in the top third for sure, just in terms of the feel, somewhat locked in for the most part.......any time I throw less than 30 balls in an outing I feel like I've got a pretty good feel. I know I always say I don't feel great, but the truth is I felt solid for the most part."

On offense Ketel Marte was an unsung hero once again, drawing a walk in the first inning and coming around to score on a Christian Walker two-out double. Marte Singled in the middle of a two-run 6th inning, and then had an RBI single in the 7th to help ice the game. He's batting .287 with an .845 OPS batting near the top of the order all year, scoring 47 runs in 65 games.

It was an all around team effort that secured the victory. Corbin Carroll had two hits, including an RBI double in that 6th inning. Pavin Smith walked twice, had an RBI single and scored a run. Geraldo Perdomo had an RBI sac fly, a double and a walk. Jake McCarthy singled twice, stole a base, and scored a run. The D-backs had chances to break open the game even more, as they were just 3-12 with runners in scoring position and left 13 men on base. But with their ace on the mound, five runs were more than enough.

Andrew Chafin worked a scoreless 8th inning and Scott McGough retired the side in order in the 9th.

Game two of the series is tomorrow night at 7:10 P.M. at Chase Field. Shane Bieber will pitch for the Guardians against Tommy Henry for the Diamondbacks.