Fastball

Arizona Diamondbacks' Zac Gallen Tragically Kills Bird While Playing Catch

Reminiscent of the incident with Randy Johnson several years ago, the Diamondbacks ace took out a bird while playing catch in Oakland.

Brady Farkas

Arizona Diamondbacks' Zac Gallen Tragically Kills Bird While Playing Catch
Arizona Diamondbacks' Zac Gallen Tragically Kills Bird While Playing Catch /
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I am 100 percent pro-animal, so I don't find this particularly fun to write about or report on, but Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen took out a bird on Wednesday afternoon at in Oakland before the Diamondbacks played the A's.

Playing catch in the outfield, Gallen hit the bird with the baseball. The bird flew right in front of a bullpen catcher and nothing was done intentionally.

You can watch the video here, you can't see much, but be alarmed that if you are an animal person, you may find it disturbing.

Noted baseball personality Jared Carrabis tweeted about the incident as well:

You can’t be an all-time Dbacks pitching legend unless you kill a bird with a baseball, unfortunately. That’s just the initiation process. Welcome to the club, Zac Gallen.

He's of course, referring to when Hall of Famer Randy Johnson killed a bird during a spring training start. That actually happened during a pitch, while this happened just playing catch in the outfield.

As for more pleasant things to discuss, Gallen has been incredible to start the season for the Diamondbacks. He's 6-1 right now with a 2.35 ERA and has struck out 70 batters in 57.1 innings.

For his career, he's 28-23 with a 3.01 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP. He had a great season in 2022, when he went 12-4 with a 2.54 ERA in 31 starts.

He's a huge reason why the Diamondbacks are out to a great start this year. Arizona defeated Oakland on Wednesday to move to 25-19 on the season. They are in second place in the National League West, trailing the Dodgers by three games.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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