Zac Gallen Needs to Be the Stopper Once Again

Game two of a three game series between the Diamondbacks and Blue Jays starts at 12:07 MST today. The D-backs lost a sloppy game yesterday, 7-2 and will need to find a way to turn things around behind their ace pitcher.

The original starters for this game were Zac Gallen and Kevin Gausman, which would have been a marquee matchup. However Gausman was scratched due to left side discomfort. Toronto will start Chris Bassitt instead.

Lineups

Starting Pitchers:

Gallen is coming off a one inning start in the All Star game, the first time in his career he had that honor. He is 11-3 with a 3.04 ERA, and leads the NL in wins and WHIP, (1.048). He will once again be called upon to help his team reverse course. Following a D-backs loss Gallen is 7-0 and the team is 8-2.

Chris Bassitt (8-5, 4.19 ERA is in his 9th year in the league and has been a solid league average innings eater for Toronto. The 34 year old right hander spent most of his career with the A's, but had a big year with the Mets last year, going 15-9 with a 3.42 ERA. He was signed to a three year, $63 million contract this past off season by the Blue Jays. He's made 19 starts for Toronto, and thrown 110 innings with an exactly league average 100 ERA+.

Bassitt throws everything but the kitchen sink up there, as his Baseball Savant page lists no fewer than seven pitches. He throws two fastballs, a sinker and four seam, both averaging roughly 92 MPH. He also has a cutter, curveball, change up, sweeper, slider and split.

Recent Hitting

With the exception of three players, the D-backs are in a team wide batting slump. Over their last 12 games since June 28th they are averaging just 2.8 runs per game while batting .208/.290/.339, .629 OPS. The team is 4-8 in those games. Here is what that has looked like on an individual level, sorted by OPS

Emmanuel Rivera, Geraldo Perdomo, and Carson Kelly are all in the lineup today and they are the players slumping the worst. But middle of the orders bats Christian Walker and Ketel Marte have been slumping badly as well. Only Alek Thomas and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. have above average OPS in the last 12 games among today's starters, and in Gurriel's case it's been all or nothing. He's just 10 for 46, but has four homers and four doubles.

Obviously these are all small sample sizes, but as we reported Thursday, some of this regression was a long time coming.

Matt Chapman is 9-for-30, .300 with three doubles a triple and two homers in his last nine games for the Blue Jays. Whitt Merrifield is 10-for-33, .303, with three homers in his last eight games.

Bullpens:

The back end of the D-backs pen, Scott McGough, Andrew Chafin, and Miguel Castro did not pitch in yesterday's game and should be completely rested and ready to go to back up Gallen in the late innings. They've all taken turns struggling in the 9th however.

Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano threw off a mound yesterday and was feeling better from the back tightness that caused him to exit the All Star game on Tuesday. He wasn't needed in last night's game but could be available tonight.