Zac Gallen Masters Elements, Yankees in Diamondbacks 7-1 Win

Having grown up in New Jersey, Zac Gallen is no stranger to pitching in less than ideal elements. Coming out to the mound this afternoon in his short sleeved jersey he was completely unfazed by the heavy rain and wind brought on by Tropical Storm Ophelia. Asked if he had ever pitched in such tough conditions before, he said "Yeah, Growing up all the time . I wasn't too worried about it. You forget how nice that roof is in Arizona, and with sunshine every day. But yeah, I grew up playing in stuff like this all the time. It was bringing me back to when I was kid."

Perhaps it was that comfort level that allowed him to pitch through the difficult elements. He dominated the Yankees for the better part of his six innings, leading to a 7-1 Diamondbacks victory.

The Yankees only threatened to score off the D-backs ace twice in the game. In the third inning Gallen loaded the bases with two out walks to D.J. LeMahieu and Aaron Judge, followed by a fluke base hit off the second base umpire. Gallen got Austin Wells to ground out to escape the jam. In the fifth inning Gallen stranded a one out triple by Estevan Florial by striking out LeMahieu and Judge. After pitching around Judge the first couple of times he knew he had to go after him the third time around.

Gallen's final line was 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8K. He threw 91 pitches, 61 for strikes and his record went to 17-8 and ERA dropped to 3.49. Gallen also reached an impressive milestone as he recorded 213 strikeouts while getting to 203.2 innings on the season. With that he became just the 6th Diamondbacks pitcher to reach 200 IP and 200K in the same season.

With a slick outfield and a strong wind blowing in and swirling towards right, anything hit in the air was an adventure today. That came into play immediately in the D-backs favor in the first inning. Gabriel Moreno lead off with a single to right center and Corbin Carroll followed suit. Carroll's ball skipped on the grass and bounced off center fielder Estevan Florial's glove for an error. That put runners on 2nd and 3rd, setting up two straight sacrifice flies by Tommy Pham and Christian Walker to give Gallen a 2-0 lead.

Yankees starter Carlos Rodon settled down after that. Including the two sacrifice flies he recorded 13 straight outs before walking Jordan Lawlar in the 5th. He picked Lawlar off however and retired the side in the order in the 6th. The D-backs finally got to him again in the 7th on three singles by Pham, Walker, and Evan Longoria. That last single drove in two runs, ending Rodon's outing with 6.1 innings and five runs allowed, but just three earned. Another Yankee error in the outfield, a walk, and a sacrifice fly scored the 3rd run of the 7th inning putting the D-backs up 5-0 at that point. The D-backs continued to tack on solitary runs in the 8th and 9th innings to run the score to 7-0.

They piled up the RBI productive outs, with three sacrifice flies and Walker's ground out. Gabriel Moreno had two hits leading off a game for the first time in his career, scored a run and hit an RBI double. Pham also had two singles and scored a run to go with his sac fly in the first.

That margin came in handy, as Kevin Ginkel loaded the bases in the 8th but managed to throw strikes and to get out of the inning by striking out Anthony Volpe. Luis Frias loaded the bases in front of Judge who he walked to drive in the lone Yankees run. He finally got Gleyber Torres to pop out to Walker in shallow right making an overhead basket catch on the run to end the game.

There were several other nice defensive plays to back up Gallen's solid pitching. Walker knocked down a tough chance and stayed with it to flip to a covering Gallen for the third out in the first inning. He also made a couple of nice scoops on the day. Alek Thomas made a terrific running catch in the left center gap on the first batter of the fifth inning and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. made a nice running catch on the track in left center.

Speaking of the conditions, Thomas said they were "very soft, very slippery, very wet. ...the wind was crazy as well. The reads were pretty tough for the corner guys.........The rain just kept on going, just like yesterday. It's a part of the game, it felt like football type weather." The other issue for Thomas was the batters box lines were completely obliterated, making it tougher for him to find his proper space in the box. Thomas was 0-3 with a walk.

There were a couple of Diamondbacks mishaps too, that Torey Lovullo was none too happy about. That including a ball hit to right field that Jake McCarthy didn't read well, his first step going to his right as the wind whipped the ball into the corner for a double. In the 9th a popup fell in front of Emmanuel Rivera that just blew too far in front of him and he didn't react.

With the victory, the D-backs officially eliminated the Yankees from postseason play. The Cubs and Marlins both won today, so the D-backs were not able to extend their lead over those two teams in the NL Wild Card standings. Arizona still clings to a 0.5 game lead over the Cubs and 1.5 game lead over the Marlins. With the games coming off the calendar, and just seven games remaining on their schedule the D-backs control their own destiny. The Marlins hold the tie breaker over Arizona however due to a better head to head record. They have six games left.

Much of the postgame talk with Gallen and Lovullo turned to rotation decisions and whether Gallen or Kelly would still pitch this weekend against Houston if their spot in the playoffs was assured. While the manager acknowledged they have discussed all possibilities and all things are on the table, he wanted to make sure it was understood first things first. "We've got to get into the dance. We're going to go full throttle until we get there. We want to maneuver the best that we can to make sure that the right guys are pitching to help us get there. Once we get there, if we have some versatility we will definitely make some adjustments in the rotation for sure:"

Zac Gallen and the #Diamondbacks overcome elements to dominate Yankees https://t.co/XBmrn3rw1x #MLBFilmRoom via @MLB
— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) September 24, 2023

The makeup game from Saturday's rainout is scheduled for Monday, first pitch 1:05 P.M. Conditions are not forecasted to be any better than today and it will be another challenge. Merrill Kelly will face right hander Clarke Schmidt.