Zac Gallen turned in a huge start against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night. The Diamondbacks ace and likely Game 1 starter had the typical Zac Gallen start, firing 6 no-hit innings in a 6-4 win over the Giants.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!It was a welcomed sign for a pitching staff that has been anything but consistent. Zac Gallen hasn’t been great since coming off the injured list on June 29, with a 4.15 ERA in 13 starts. He’s had three starts where he’s pitched six scoreless innings with three hits or fewer allowed but he also has as many starts where he’s failed to clear five innings. The inconsistency has been frustrating, as
Looking at his start for the Giants, Gallen was mostly in control of the game. There was a small hiccup in the second inning, when he walked the 6-8 hitters on two-strike counts, but he didn’t allow a run. He had all five of his pitches working and used them in concert of each other, but relied mostly on the four-seamer, knuckle curve, and changeup. On the graphic below, courtesy of Gallen’s pitch breakdown on the Baseball Savant Game Feed, you’ll see that the three pitches account for 92 of the 100 pitches he threw on the night.
Gallen used those pitches to not only change speeds but also change the eye level for Giants hitters to set up the next pitch. His curveball, changeup, and slider accounted for 11 of the 13 whiffs he got on the night. With the ability to hit 92-96 up in the zone and then utilize the curveball and changeup at the knees and lower, he had the Giants off balance all night.
That’s the way that Gallen has to be successful moving forward. Establish his mid-90s fastball on the edges of the strike zone and play off of it with his excellent secondary stuff. He’s very good at game planning, reading swings, and adjusting from there.
The only scare in that start came in the second inning. Gallen had 1-2, 0-2, and 1-2 counts on Luis Matos, Marco Luciano, and Brett Wisely. He nearly lost Curt Casali after jumping ahead 0-2 but got him to fish at a curveball in the dirt on a full count. That pitch was set up with a shoulder-high fastball on the previous pitch. That wound up being their lone scoring chance of the night against the Diamondbacks ace.
“Once he got over that hurdle and made some really good pitches to Casali, he got a real tailwind,” said manager Torey Lovullo. “Six no-hit innings, it was really good once he got through that little speed bump. Credit to him for finding the location of all of his pitches, he got very stubborn and did his job. He walked off the mound with a lead and won the baseball game.”
As a result of that long inning, Gallen’s pitch count mounted. Through 2 innings, he had thrown 45 pitches. However, he dominated the rest of the ball game. The lone baserunner through the next four innings was a Mike Yastrzemski walk to lead off the 6th. That came on an 11-pitch plate appearance, but Gallen was able to get a first-pitch double play to keep that pitch count down and finish at an even 100 pitches.
Following that inning, both Gallen and Lovullo had a conversation about pulling him after 100 pitches. Had he not thrown 32 pitches to get through the second, there may be have been a good chance he would have had a chance to make a run at the no-hit bid.
The Diamondbacks will need Gallen to continue to pile together starts like Wednesday, as they are fighting hard for a postseason spot. They remain half a game behind the Padres for the top Wild Card spot, with three head-to-head games against them left, and he’s on track to start in that series. If Gallen has a strong finish to the month of September, not only will Arizona be going to the postseason, they’re going to have the confidence that they can make another deep postseason run.
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Michael McDermott covers the Arizona Diamondbacks, Arizona Cardinals, and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @MichaelMcDMLB
