Zac Gallen Extends Scoreless Streak to 28 Innings in Victory

The Diamondbacks defeated the Royals 2-0 behind their ace starting pitcher

Sport Radar

BOX SCORE

Zac Gallen stood in front of his locker waiting for the question he knew was coming, "How did you feel out there today Zac?".  He was ready with an unexpected response.  "Would you believe me if I told I didn't feel great or as good as I did the last start?"  In fact it is a little hard to believe. Gallen was masterful once again, striking out 12 batters in 6.1 scoreless innings, picking up the win in a 2-0 Diamondbacks victory over the Royals. 

Gallen's 2023 scoreless streak is now up to 28 innings. It's necessary to qualify the scoreless streak by year now, as in 2022 he set a franchise record with a 44.1 inning scoreless innings.  He didn't walk a batter for the third straight start, and over his last four starts he has an astounding 41-1 strikeout to walk ratio. 

Since 1901 there are only four pitchers with multiple streaks of four plus starts of six innings or more and zero runs allowed:  Clayton Kershaw, Luis Tiant, Walter Johnson, and Zac Gallen.  All four have two such streaks. 

Asked why this run Gallen is on seems even more dominant than last year's Torey Lovullo said "I think last year the changeup wasn't as involved as it is now. That's just off the top of my head. I think it was fastball, breaking ball, slider, cutter. The changeup is involved in his game plan. It looks like that pitch is locked in for him. You're throwing one more piece into the equation and he becomes even that more effective."

Lovullo went on to talk about just how good his command has been, painting on the edges of the strike zone and how meticulous his preparation and game planning is. "He studies as hard as anybody I've seen. It seems like Zac does it all the way up until he puts his uniform on....I see him in the food room and he's watching video with his headphones on and writing stuff down".  Asked how long he spends on game planning before each start Gallen said he looks at reports throughout the week and then spends about two hours before the game figuring out the attack plan for the day and studying video.  

Today Gallen threw 22 changeups among his 97 pitches, generating six whiffs and five fouls, and two called strikes. He also threw almost as many curveballs (34) as fastballs (36) today. In other starts he's gone to a heavy cutter usage. As a hitter, it's almost impossible to game plan against Gallen. When a pitcher has that many weapons, which one do you prepare for and gear up to hit?. 

Gallen's outing started out a little shaky, giving up back to back one out singles in the first inning to Vinnie Pasquantino and MJ Melendez, but he struck out the next two batters and was on his way. He gave up a leadoff single in the third inning but then retired the next twelve in a row. That included striking out the side in both the fourth and fifth innings.

After a leadoff single in the seventh and a fielders choice out, Lovullo sprinted out of the dugout to take him out of the game.  It looked strange at the time, but he did that because Jose Herrera had made a mound visit and if Lovullo didn't get out there before Herrera left the dirt area of the mound it would have counted as two mound visits. 

The D-backs scored their first run of the game off or Royals starter Ryan Yarbrough in the fourth inning. Emmanuel Rivera and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. singled to get it started. Christian Walker hit into a 5-4-3 double play, but Evan Longoria hit a broken bat single into left to score Rivera.  In the 5th inning they picked up their second run when Rivera singled home Alek Thomas who had drawn a walk and moved to second on a sac bunt. 

Scott McGough, Miguel Castro and Andrew Chafin combined to get the last eight outs of the game. Chafin walked the first batter of the ninth and Nick Ahmed failed to make a play on a 98.4 MPH ground ball to his right, getting charged with an error as it went under his glove. With runners on first and second it looked like a blown save might be in the offing, but Chafin shut it down with a lineout, a fly out, and then struck out the final batter, picking up his fourth save. 

With the victory and series win the D-backs improve to 14-12. They have an off day tomorrow and then begin a three game series in Colorado against the Rockies, game time is 5:40 MST.  Merrill Kelly will go against Kyle Freeland.