The Dbacks played perhaps their most complete game of the season as they got offense from their superstars, a gem from their SP, a shut down bullpen, and a game saving catch in CF.
The Dbacks played one of the most complete games of the season Tuesday night as they beat the Atlanta Braves 8-3 at Truist Park. A little bit of history was even made in the process as for the first time in franchise history the DBacks 1 and 2 batters each hit 2 home runs.
Zac Gallen set the tone for this game having single digit pitch counts each of the first 3 innings as he was really efficient. The key for Gallen tonight was his command of the strike zone. A huge development for Gallen as he had previously really struggled with walking guys. The final line for Gallen was 7 IP with 1 ER and only 1 walk. Gallen needed just 89 pitches to get through the 7 innings. Of the 7 innings, 4 of them were under 10 pitches. The lone blemish in this game for the Dbacks was the error made by Geno Suarez in the 4th allowing the 2 runs to score and ran his pitch count up. Had it not been for this error, it was very likely that Gallen had the efficiency to go for the ultra rare complete game.
The offense really had it rolling tonight. Before tonight, it almost seemed like you could get a performance from either Ketel or Carroll. However today we finally got to see what it would look like if they both clicked together. Between the 2 of them, there was 6 hits, 7 RBI’s, and 3 walks. Completely electric. Aside from the 4 home runs between Carroll and Ketel, this offense scored in 5 of the 9 innings of this game. A very welcome change from the all too common scoring early and then coasting the rest of the game.
Aside from the 2 home runs, Carroll even had the defense working tonight as he made a spectacular catch in the first climbing the wall in right field to rob Acuna of extra bases. However, the play of the game was likely the game saving catch in the 8th inning from Alek Thomas. Then just a 5-3 lead, with the tying run on first, Marcell Ozuna hit a rocket off Shelby Miller to the deepest part of the park. With the game on the line, Thomas made an over the shoulder running catch while colliding with the center field wall.
This game seemed to be exactly what this team had been missing thus far. The game saving catch from the once prolific CF Thomas, the offense scoring the whole game, the starting pitching going deep in the game, and EVEN the bullpen holding a lead. Tonight felt so good and frankly refreshing given the last week or so of pain and misery. Hopefully a game like this is enough to get this team going on a run! Thoughts?