Zac Gallen spun a gem for 5 innings. Unfortunately, the Diamondbacks really needed 6.
Game Summary
In a matchup against a hot team, little things matter. The inches matter. The Diamondbacks were measured and found wanting in this game of inches tonight.
Zac Gallen was masterful for the first 5 innings of this contest. He was consistently around the zone and getting ahead of batters, allowing only 3 baserunners in those 5 frames. In the sixth, it came off the rails. A leadoff single was followed by a walk, sac bunt, and an intentional walk to load the bases. With no where to put him, Gallen gave up a bases loaded walk to Iván Herrera to bring home the tying run. After going to another full count, he got the next batter to ꓘ on a beautiful knuckle-curve, but his walk on the tightrope came to a spectacular end when Nolan Arenado lifted a fly ball to deep left center field. Alek Thomas nearly made an incredible play to end the inning and keep the score tied at 1 run apiece, but the glanced off the heel of glove, or maybe even his arm, and that led to a bases clearing triple and a 3-run lead that would end up being all the Cardinals would need.
Gallen was thisclose to a much needed bounce back game, but a mere inch, or even fractions thereof, resulted in 3 runs instead of 3 outs. I’m not trying to say that Alek blew the play. Gallen getting out of that situation on that play would be much more due to AT’s skill than his own, but sometimes in this game, you need a lucky break or two. Right now for Gallen, the lucky breaks are landing in the other team’s dugout.
Now I can’t say that this game’s outcome was all the fault of Zac Gallen. The offense gave him no margin for error. A solitary, wall-scraping home run by Ketel Marte (another instance of fractions of an inch in this game) was the only scoring by the club until the 9th inning, and there weren’t even that many scoring threats in any inning. The team only had 3 at bats all game with runners in scoring position, and that third at bat happened thanks to defensive indifference in the 9th inning. This team could hang it’s hat on offense for the vast majority of the last 2 seasons, but this is the third straight game where they had 1 run or less with 2 outs in the ninth inning, and it’s the fourth such game in the last five. Tough to win ballgames when scoring is that hard to come by.
You’ll note I had to put an arbitrary cutoff of 2 outs in the ninth inning for that 1 run stat I just gave, and I had to make that cutoff thanks to a MAMMOTH 2-run pinch-hit homer by Gabi to Big Mac Land with 2 outs in the ninth. Moreno’s bat has been heating up lately, which is a great sign. He’s now had 2 clutch home runs in the 9th inning this week against 2 of the best closers in the game. Hopefully this is more of a baseline of offensive output by our increasingly glove-first backstop than a blip of a hot streak in the course of an underwhelming campaign in the batter’s box.
Loss Probability and Box Score
Outside the Box Score
- The top of the D-backs lineup only needed 7 pitches to earn 3 outs in the top of the first. 3 hard hit balls (107, 96, and 97 mph EV) to the outfield but all found gloves.
- Gallen did give up a two-out walk, but 3 ground outs in the first for Gallen got him through a much needed easy first inning.
- Two excellent defensive plays helped get Gallen through the second. The Cardinals’ leadoff man smoked a liner to straightaway center, but Alek was able to track it really well and ended up making the catch look routine. Geno was the next defender to be tested with a line drive to his glove side. He had just enough time to stoop down and reach out to snag the liner giving Gallen his second out of the inning en route to a 1-2-3 frame.
- I don’t like to write about missed ball/strike calls too often, but Corbin Carroll got rung up to end the third on a fastball that was legitimately letter high. Misses that bad are worth calling out.
- Gallen got through the first 3 innings with only 41 pitches, practically keeping pace with Cards’ starter Miles Mikolas who only needed 40 pitches for his first 9 outs.
- On Ketel Marte’s leadoff homer in the fourth, he stared at it out of the box like he knew he got all of it. The Cardinals’ center fielder was tracking it all the way to the wall and nearly made a play on it, so it was not as far gone as Ketel thought. I notice he’s been doing that quite a lot this year. I wonder if he’s lost a little strength from last season because the contact he’s making is telling him he hit a no-doubter, but it ends up being a wall-scraper instead.
- Revisiting the bad calls bullet point above, in the bottom of the fourth, Iván Herrera struck out looking at a pitch that was definitely below the knees, so I guess all the bad calls do even out. What made this bad call more significant, though, was the Cardinals’ manager Oli Marmol got tossed for arguing the call.
- Gallen doing a fantastic job through 5 innings with very little run support from his offense. He’s been consistently around the zone and getting ahead early in the count. Apple TV had him at 13/16 for first pitch strikes midway through the 5th.
- Gurriel got a 2-out infield single in the top of the 6th and must’ve tweaked something beating out the throw because Josh Naylor followed Gurriel’s single with a chalk-walker down the third base line that would normally be a good chance at a double, but Gurriel really looked to be laboring on the base paths and had no chance getting to third. He did stay in the game on defense the following half inning so maybe nothing at all.
- Gallen allowed the first 2 batters to reach in the 6th, his first real trouble of the ballgame, and Masyn Winn came up and laid down a perfect bunt that was fielded by a charging Josh Naylor. His only play was to first and his throw skipped about a foot in front of Ketel who was covering on the play. Ketel made a great scoop that would make CWalk proud and got a crucial first out in the inning.
- Gallen lost his touch for the strike zone in the sixth. He walked home the tying run with 1 out, then after getting a purty strike-three call with his knuckle-curve to get the second out of the inning, he gave up a deep fly ball to Nolan Arenado. Off the bat, you could tell Gallen thought it was trouble, but it was going to stay in the yard and Alek Thomas nearly made an amazing play getting all the way to the left center warning track, but he just over ran it and the ball clipped off the heel of glove resulting in a bases clearing triple instead of a tie-preserving third out.
- Tim Tawa and Jose Herrera got aboard in front of Corbin with 2 outs in the 7th to potentially tie up the ball game after the brutal 4-run 6th inning by St. Louis, but Carroll could not capitalize and weakly flew out to end the inning.
- Randal Grichuk led off the ninth with a ringing single against one of the best closers going right now in Ryan Helsley, but he was a bit lucky as he hit a foul tip into the mitt of the Cardinals’ catcher but the catcher couldn’t hold on to it and allowed Grichuk to stay alive before getting on and coming home on Gabi Moreno’s two-out dinger to Big Mac Land!
Player of the Game
Since it happens so rarely, I’m going to give the POTG honors to The Bullpen tonight. Juan Morillo, Scott McGough, and Ryan Thompson came in and threw up zeroes in fairly dominant appearances to keep the game in reach for the Diamondbacks offense. I’m very happy to have Justin Martinez back off the IL, but I’ll be much more happy if everyone else in the bullpen can actually pitch like they belong on a major league roster!
Comment of the Game
A slightly lower comment total tonight, possibly due to the combination of the Apple TV broadcast and the earlier than normal start time. The ‘Pit tallied 260 comments in the GDT at time of publishing. It was a really tough call between 2 particular comments tonight, but in the spirit of highlighting the Apple TV broadcast I’m awarding COTG to AZNailgal520 for the comment below:
Honorable mention to kilnborn for the comment regarding Ketel Marte showing his readiness for a position change to first base in the future.
Coming Up
The D-backs face the Redbirds in the second game of this series tomorrow at 11:15am Arizona time. The Mainstay will be on the bump in our bid to snap this 3 game skid, and he will be opposed by southpaw Matthew Liberatore who is 3-3 with a 2.92 ERA. Will our bats come back to life? Will the Mainstay be the stopper we desperately need? I guess we’ll find out at lunchtime tomorrow.