Zac Gallen Progresses Towards Season Readiness

The Diamondbacks defeated the Texas Rangers today in Cactus League action by a score of 11 to 8.

On the Mound

Torey Lovullo's goal for Zac Gallen today was for him to get in five innings and 65 pitches. He achieved his goal, in a roundabout way.

Gallen had traffic on the bases from start, walking leadoff batter Marcus Semien. Fortunately Jose Herrera caught Semien stealing when Geraldo Perdomo got the tag down quickly. Gallen walked another batter in the inning but escaped with no further damage. A double and a sacrifice fly in the second cost Gallen a run. A hit and and stolen base by Bubba Thompson gave Texas another runner in scoring position but Gallen induced a popout to limit the damage.

Gallen gave up a single in the third inning to Corey Seager, but fortune smiled on him again. It seemed like Seager and the batter, Nathaniel Lowe, were confused on the count thinking it was a full. (It was a 2-2 count) With Seager jogging towards second base as if Lowe had walked on what was actually ball three, he was thrown out and the play was scored a caught stealing.

The good fortune ended in the fourth inning. Another walk and two singles led to a run. Gallen almost got out of it with no further damage, but Diego Castillo made a throwing error on the back half of what would have been an inning ending double play. One more run scored on the play and that was all for Gallen in the 4th inning. Luis Frias relieved to get the last out of the 4th. Gallen then came back out in the fifth inning to get his fifth "up/down" in the game. Pitching to one batter in and getting an out, he was pulled for good. His final line was 4IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1K. He induced six groundouts to one flyout.

Lovullo has been using this strategy all spring, pulling a pitcher mid-inning only to reinstate him the next inning. The concept is to get the pitcher up and down, which gets them ready for the regular season. This way they experience the cooling off between innings and the extra warmup throws when they go back out. Said Gallen about the strategy after the game :

"Yeah, that's just to get the 5th up, get my body used to sitting down and getting up again for the 5th time. That's maybe just as important if not more important than getting the pitch count. That's what really takes a toll on you, sitting down and getting up, learning how to manage that."

Overall Gallen said he didn't feel great today but better than last time. He was satisfied with most of his pitches, the only pitch he was really dissatisfied with was the curveball. For him the most important thing in spring is to work on his timing, which he felt is where it should be at this point. He also said he was more comfortable with the pitch clock.

"It feels fine. I think the first time I had more time than I realized. I think I was inherently rushing myself. So today I experimented more with pitching more at my pace and still have a little more time. That helps out, but there's still certain times where in the back of your mind the pitch clock's out there and you might rush a little bit. It's just a learning process."

Luis Frias, Kyle Nelson, and Cole Sulser combined for two scoreless innings. But Joe Mantiply was knocked around in the 7th inning for three runs on four hits, including a homer and double. The leadoff hit was a dropped popup that was scored a single that Torey Lovullo thought should have been caught. Zach McAllister gave up a double and homer to Jake McCarthy's brother Joe in the 8th. Jesse Biddle pitched a clean 9th.

At the Plate

Four hits in the first inning, including a triple by the red hot Buddy Kennedy, led to four runs.

P.J. Higgins had a big day. An RBI single in the first, a homer in the 5th and an RBI double in the 8th gave him three RBI.

Yairo Munoz had two RBI singles, one in the first inning and another in the third.

Christian Walker had a sacrifice fly in the first, but was later removed from the game soon after getting hit by a pitch just above on the left hip in the third. He ran the bases and scored on Munoz' hit, but came out of the game after that. Torey Lovullo said it was just precautionary. Were it the regular season he would not have come out of the game.

Dominic Canzone continues to impress. He came into the game in the 8th inning and ripped a two RBI double down the line.

The game took 3:01 to play. When considering there were 19 runs scores, 24 hits, 8 walks, 2 errors, and 15 pitchers used, that's not too bad.

The D-backs at back at Salt River Fields tomorrow, facing the San Francisco Giants, game time 1:10 P.M. Tommy Henry will get the start for Arizona while Logan Webb will be on the bump for the Giants.