Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen knew exactly where to find the motivation for his start on Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants.
Gallen joined Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke on Thursday and said he got the motivation from himself as he pitched six innings with one run on two hits, striking out a season-high 11 batters in the team’s 9-2 win on Wednesday.
“For me, it’s internal. I feel like I had a coach at a young age that said, ‘great players are even better self-evaluators,’” Gallen said. “For me, it’s being able to look yourself in the mirror and motivate yourself.
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“You can go out there and externally find the negative or positive. A lot of the times the negatives are somewhat ignorant but being able to look yourself in the mirror and address what you need to address and what motivates you, that’s where a lot of my motivation stems from.”
Gallen has been strong as of late, posting a 4-0 record with a 2.68 ERA and 38 strikeouts in the month of September as the D-backs currently hold the final Wild Card spot by one game over the Atlanta Braves ahead of their final regular season series against the San Diego Padres.
Gallen said he feels the playoff chase experience from last season has put them in a better position for 2024.
“Knowing what we did last year, we know you just got to get in,” Gallen said. “This year, thankfully we are in a position we control our own destiny as opposed to last year (where) we kind of did but we needed some help. I feel like the vibes from the outside, a lot of people thought they were negative. For the most part, we just knew we needed to handle business.
“Teams are playing us hard now, especially teams in the division that want to play spoiler. They don’t want see another team in their division get into the playoffs, so these are games that mean something to them. Winning last night felt good, got the monkey off their back, we got a tough Padres team coming in and we feel ready for the challenge.”
Gallen said he welcomes the pressure the team is facing during this playoff race and knows how to deal with it even when he’s not pitching.
“I think for me it’s just preparation. I think just knowing how much I prepare and being able to prepare myself for the day I take the mound,” Gallen said. “I think that takes care of a lot of the pressure.
“There’s probably more pressure the four days leading up to a start than the fifth day. At that point, you are just relying on your talent and what you had done to prepare those past four days to go out there and just compete. Honestly, I feel more pressure the four days I’m not pitching because I have no control of the game. I’m just sitting there, watching the game and rooting the fellas on. When I’m out there, I let my talent take over and let the preparation take over.”