Zac Gallen's Pursuit of Cy Young Award Continues Against Mets

When the Diamondbacks (76-70) face the Mets (66-78) today at 4:10 P.M. MST, 7:10 P.M. EST, they'll be doing so behind ace starting pitcher Zac Gallen. The Mets took the second game of the series last night 7-4 after the D-backs had stolen a win on Monday with a 4-3 victory.

Two days ago I wrote about the convoluted NL Cy Young race. Since that article was written, one of the contenders, Zack Wheeler had a bad outing, giving up six runs in five innings to the Braves, driving his ERA up to 3.70. Spencer Strider and Blake Snell will also pitch today, so Gallen has a chance to put some distance between him and these two top-level contenders with a strong outing should either of those two pitchers falter. The other primary contender, Justin Steele, should be starting against the D-backs on Friday. If you talk to Gallen, he will make it clear that helping his team win and getting to the playoffs are the only things he's focused on. If he does that, post-season awards will take care of themselves.

Pitching Matchup

Gallen is coming off his first-ever nine-inning complete game shutout on September 8th against the Cubs. He allowed just three hits, walked one, and struck out nine, throwing 107 pitches. That outing stopped a two-game slide for Gallen in which he'd allowed 11 runs in 10.2 innings. Gallen has not faced the Mets this year. Last year in two outings, he threw nine innings giving up just one run.

Joey Lucchesi has spent most of his time in Triple-A this year. He began the season in Syracuse, was called up for five games, and then optioned back out. He also missed a month with injury, then was called up on August 18th making one more start only to be optioned right back out. While his ERA looks more than decent, his K/BB ratios and HR/9 in the chart above are well below average leading to a 4.62 FIP. He hasn't faced the D-backs since 2020. He throws a 90 MPH sinker, a curveball, and a cutter.

Lineups

Corbin Carroll is out of the lineup today, and Jake McCarthy is in at centerfield making his first start since being recalled prior to yesterday's game. Jordan Lawlar has just one hit, an infield single, in 14 trips to the plate since being called up, but he's in the second spot in the order. Ketel Marte has great numbers against Lucchesi in his career, going 7-16 with two doubles and a homer, but hasn't faced him since 2020.

There isn't a lot of track record for the Mets hitters against Gallen and what little there is doesn't amount to much. Nobody has over a .500 OPS and Jeff McNeil has the only extra-base hit, a double. There are five Mets hitters in their lineup today that have never faced Gallen. Pete Alonso has been hot, however, smashing five homers in his last eight games, including one last night. That's more relevant than the previous years head to head matchups.