Zac Gallen Takes on Yu Darvish and the Padres in a Day Game

The Diamondbacks conclude a quick two game series today against the Padres in San Diego with a 1:10 P.M. PST/MST day game.

Television:

D-backs - Bally Sports Arizona, National - MLB Network

Padres - Bally Sports San Diego

Listen

D-backs - ESPN Phoenix 620 AM, KHOV Univision 105.1 FM

Padres - KWFN 97.3, XEMO 860

The Diamondbacks will be looking to get their bats untracked and create some cushion for an already overworked and beleaguered bullpen. In the first five games the pen has had to log 19.2 innings due to short outings by the starting pitchers the first time through the rotation. Meanwhile the offense has just two walks against 37 strikeouts and has scored just 11 runs. But a victory today would send the D-backs back to Chase Field with a 3-3 record prior to tomorrow's off day and Thursday's home opener. That would go a long way to washing away yesterday's walk off loss.

Pitching Matchups

Zac Gallen finished 5th in the Cy Young voting last year on the strength of a 44 1/3 scoreless innings streak that propelled him to a 12-4 record with a 2.54 ERA. His 2023 season got off to a bumpy start however. After a good start in the first and second innings, the wheels started to fall off by the third inning. Perhaps struggling with the pace required due to the pitch timer and with new pickoff/step off limitations in the new rules, things unwound quickly. As his stuff began to wane he allowed five runs in 4 2/3 innings taking the lost in an 8-2 Dodgers victory.

Gallen is 1-3 with a 3.98 ERA for his career vs. the Padres, but has a 2.45 ERA in three starts, 14.2 innings in Petco Park.

Yu Darvish will be making his season debut in the Padres 6th game of the year. Due to participating in the World Baseball Classic he was not able to get in enough work to get fully stretched out within the first five games. Last year Darvish went 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA in 194 innings. He was especially tough on the Diamondbacks, going 4-0 with a 1.97 ERA in five starts against Arizona. That's in contrast to 2021 when Darvish went 0-2 with a 6.65 ERA in five starts against the Dbacks.

Diamondbacks Bullpen:

Andrew Chafin, Cole Sulser, and Scott McGough have all worked in three of the first five games, and Miguel Castro worked the last two games. Should the team look to stay away from those four pitchers today, look for San Diego native Kevin Ginkel, Kyle Nelson, and Carlos Vargas to be the short men out of the pen. Long man Drey Jameson threw four innings, 66 pitches on Friday night in relief of Merrill Kelly and could possibly be available today as well.

Lineups

The D-backs left-hand lineup is back out today, and Jose Herrera is back behind the plate for the second time this year.

The hitter with the most success against Darvish historically has been Ketel Marte, who is 9-26 .346 with two homers against him. The homers came in 2021 and 2022, so that history is more recent. Perhaps it's a good time for Ketel to have a big game. His double in the gap yesterday, which was 113 MPH off the bat might hint at a hot streak coming. Christian Walker also has two homers against Darvish, and 13 in Petco Park in his career. That's tied for the second most for an opposing player behind only Charlie Blackmon of the Rockies who has 14.

The lack of walks mentioned above, (just two in five games) is not unprecedented in franchise history. The fact that it's the first five games makes it stand out more perhaps. But they've had similar five game stretches in 2009, 2018, and 2022.

Looking at the batting against numbers, for Gallen vs. the Padres, Jake Cronenworth, Trent Grisham, Manny Machado, Juan Soto, and Luis Campusano all have homered against Gallen in the past.