Zac Gallen Tosses Six Shutout Innings Leading D-backs to Series Win

The Diamondbacks exploded for a five run fifth inning in support of their Ace starter

Zac Gallen threw six shutout innings, leading the D-backs to a 5-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. In doing so the D-backs took the series two games to one, and pushed their record back to .500 at 8-8, and nudged their way up to second place in the NL West, just 2.5 games back of the Dodgers. The Cardinals fell to 7-9 and sit in last place in the NL Central.

Gallen's record now stands at 3-0 with a sterling 1.64 ERA backed up by a 1.91 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching). The push moment in the game for Gallen came in the second inning when he allowed a leadoff double to Nolan Arenado and with one out gave up a walk and a single to load the bases.

Brandon Crawford came up and battled for eight pitches, but Gallen caught him looking by dotting a 95.3 MPH fastball at the very bottom of the zone for the called strike three. Two pitches later he got Michael Siani to ground out to Christian Walker to squash the threat.

A leadoff walk in the third was erased by a double play started by Blaze Alexander. Willson Contreras doubled to start the fourth against Gallen, but that was the last baserunner for St. Louis, as Gallen set down the next nine in order. There were two great plays in the outfield to help him out. Corbin Carroll made an excellent running catch in deep left center for the final out of the fifth.

In the top of the 6th, Carroll and Jake McCarthy collided on a ball to deep right that McCarthy came down with. Carroll was a little shaken up on the play and was seen holding his left wrist as he went down the tunnel with the trainer. He emerged quickly however and went back out to center field. Torey Lovullo said that Carroll hurt it when trying to brace his fall, but he was fine and will be in the lineup tomorrow. According to Lovullo they were both calling it but McCarthy did not hear Carroll.

Gallen's final line in six innings of work included four hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts. Both his manager and catcher were effusive in their praise of the Ace of the pitching staff. Torey Lovullo said "I think the breaking ball was elite. It was strike to ball at the bottom of the zone. It seemed like he could throw it anywhere he wanted at any time."

Tucker Barnhart echoed his manager's sentiments. "Zac today was awesome, he was throwing four pitches for strikes, getting chase, getting miss in the zone." Ironically, the pitcher once again seemed to be less than satisfied with his outing despite the results, stating "I felt like I was grinding a little bit" Gallen said. "I think I was working harder than I really wanted to"

Miles Mikolas seemed to be winning the pitching duel early on, with greater efficiency than Gallen. He faced the minimum 12 batters through first four innings, sporting a pitch count in the mid 40's. The D-backs had just one hit to that point, a single by Christian Walker in the second, but he was erased by a double play from Jace Peterson.

That all changed suddenly as Mikolas stuff started to wane during an explosive Diamondbacks 5th inning. Walker got it started with a base hit and Joc Pederson ripped a hard ground ball past first base for a double giving the D-backs second and third with nobody out. Peterson hit a sac fly to score Walker, who made a great slide to evade the tag on a slightly off line throw. Jake McCarthy stroked an RBI double to right, driving in a run with the first of his two hits on the day. Walks to Tucker Barnhart and Ketel Marte loaded the bases, at which point Mikolas was pulled.

Up stepped Corbin Carroll, who bounced a ground ball through the hole in the right side of the infield for a two-RBI knock. Carroll has been struggling to drive the ball to the pull side so far this year, but has been contributing in other ways, drawing walks, stealing bases, using his speed to beat out infield hits, and covering ground in the outfield. Sooner or later he'll figure out his swing mechanics and rediscover his pull power. In the meantime he's still able to help the team win games with all the other tools in his belt.

Ketel Marte finished the D-backs scoring with a great read from third on a wild pitch that trickled away from catcher Iván Herrera. That made the score 5-0, finishing the D-backs scoring for the day. It was the fourth time this season the D-backs have scored five or more runs in an inning, tied for the most in MLB.

Marte also made a terrific sliding stop, spin and throw as well to nab Lars Nootbaar on the final play of the game.

The D-backs got three scoreless innings from the bullpen, 1 1/3 from Joe Mantiply and 1 2/3 from Bryce Jarvis. That gave some much needed rest to the "A" bullpen, especially giving closer Kevin Ginkel a day off ahead of the Cubs series, which starts Monday night at 6:40 P.M.