Ah, Zac Gallen. Our one-time ace, more recently our collective repository of remarkably persistent hopes and dreams and aspirations of the “he just needs to get his mojo back and he’ll be an ace again!” variety, our late-breaking $25 Million Dollar Man (with some money deferred, of course) as we got ready to set sail for the 2026 season. Yes. Zac. I’m never thrilled, and always nervous, when I pull a Gallen start for a Saturday recap. I would say that it’s because you never know what you’re going to get with Zac these days, but I don’t actually think that’s true at this point. The truer way of putting it is that we’re going to get the same thing we always get—a handful of really stellar innings which remind us of the sort of pitcher he once was on a consistent basis, but punctuated (and punctured) by at least one complete loss of focus and competence that leads to some quantity, often a substantial quantity, of runs crossing the plate for the opponent. It’s sad, and it’s a bummer, but at this point it simply is what it is, and who Gallen is as a pitcher at this stage in his career.
To be fair, tonight was one of his better outings in 2026, though a big part of that may be that Torey Lovullo kept the leash short. Gallen was up against Michael Lorenzen tonight, who came into the game sporting an ERA above 7, while Zac’s was in the mid-5 range, so I wasn’t terribly worried. And for the first three innings, Gallen did the business, and did it admirably. He pitched around a one-out single in the top of the first to retire the side with only nine pitches thrown. In the second, he retired the Rockies in order with only eight pitches thrown. He needed a whopping 19 pitches in the top of the third, but that was mainly because, rather than recording quick outs he struck out the side in order instead, and strikeouts are always more pitch-count-intensive.
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Lorenzen, meanwhile, looked shaky at the start, surrendering a Ketel Marte single and a Corbin Carroll double to put our first two batters in scoring position with nobody out to begin the bottom of the first, but managed to wriggle off the hook thanks to a Geraldo Perdomo grounder to first, a Nolan Arenado grounder to third that allowed the Rockies to throw Marte out at the plate, and then a weak Ildemaro pop-up into shallow center for the third out. In the second, he retired the Diamondbacks in order, which made me wonder if he was starting to settle in.
He wasn’t. Ryan Waldschmidt led off the bottom of the third with s line-drive single to left, flipping the lineup over for Ketel Marte, who then walked. Corbin Carroll struck out for the first out of the inning, but Perdomo lined a single to left of his own that scored Waldschmidt, and Nolan Arenado followed with a double into the gap in left center that brought home both Perdomo and Arenado:
Neither Vargas or Gabriel Moreno could do anything to get Nolan around, but we’d drawn first blood, and put up a crooked number at that. 3-0 D-BACKS
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As often seems to the case these days with Gallen, though, the offense staking him a lead seemed to mess up his mojo and throw him off-kilter, and while he still seemed to be throwing the same sort of stuff and taking the same approach as he had through the first three innings, the Rockies greeted him with rather different results to open the fourth. The first four batters of the inning reached against Zac, thanks to a single to left, a single to right, a walk to load the bases, and then a single to right-center that scored Hunter Goodman, who had led off the inning. Ezequiel Tovar then grounded to short, but Perdomo’s only play was to get the force at second base, allowing another Rockie to cross the plate. Gallen then walked his second batter of the inning to reload the bases, but thankfully pulled himself together enough that he was able to end things without further damage with a strikeout and a pop-up to Perdomo. 3-2 D-BACKS
In a happy turn of events, though, our offense came back out in the bottom of the fourth and immediately got back the two runs Gallen had just coughed up. With one out, Tim Tawa, who was playing left field tonight with Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. hitting the IL this afternoon, grounded a single into left, and one out later Ketel Marte continued his offensive resurgence by hitting the first pitch he saw in his third time facing Lorenzen for an absolute moonshot that just about reached the concourse behind the right field bleachers:
So the lead was back into safer territory again. 5-2 D-BACKS
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Gallen, for his part, took what was given to him this time and put up a zero in the top of the fifth, pitching around a two-out walk. Brandon Pfaadt, however, got up and started warming in the bullpen around this point, which was likely just as well because after Lorenzen put up a zero of his own in the bottom of the fifth, Zac surrendered a leadoff single to Colorado left fielder Troy Johnston to kick off the sixth inning. Johnston promptly stole second and was then advanced to third on a Tovar grounder to first, and that earned Gallen the hook as Torey went to the bullpen and brought in Pfaadt. And Pfaadt did his job, recording the final two outs, though Johnston did score from third to narrow the lead again. 5-3 D-BACKS
Lorenzen’s night was done, so the amusingly named (for Snakepit members of a certain vintage, anyway) Keegan Thompson came out of the Rockies’ bullpen and proceeded to pitch two and two thirds innings. They weren’t the cleanest you’ve ever seen, as he dealt with multiple baserunners in each inning that he worked, but he put up zeroes, which is of course what matters. Pfaadt did the same in his half of the seventh, but surrendered a leadoff home run to start the eighth, followed by a single that sent him to the showers and brought in Kevin Ginkel to once again clean up someone else’s mess. Ginkel did so admirably and with a minimum of drama, thankfully. 5-4 D-BACKS
And that was pretty much that. Our offense did nothing of significance in the bottom of the eighth, and Paul Sewald came out to pitch the top of the ninth for us in a one-run game, and shut things down by inducing a flyout to center and a flyout to right before finishing with style and panache by striking out Hunter Goodman, arguably Colorado’s best hitter, on five pitches to put this one win the books, and the win column, for the good guys.
Win Probability Added, courtesy of FanGraphs
The Majestic Redwood: Ketel Marte (4 AB, 3 H, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR, 1 BB, +23% WPA), Kevin Ginkel (1 IP, 0 ER, 1 BB, +21% WPA)
The Mighty Sequoia: Paul Sewald (1 IP, 0 ER, 1 K, +16% WPA)
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We had a very lively and well-attended Gameday Thread tonight, with an impressive 337 comments at time of writing. Many comments went Sedona Salmon, but none attracted enough comments to truly run away with it, so I’m more than pleased to bestow tonight’s Comment of the Game on gzimmerm, for this simple statement that actually I think goes a long way toward explaining some of the recent positive change in the team’s fortunes:
You are not wrong, and I for one have been enjoying seeing the young Baron prove that day after day after day as he embarks upon his young career.
So tomorrow we go for the series victory, and our sixth win in the seven games of this homestand. The Rockies are bringing lefthander Jose Quintana to the party, and we are countering with the inimitably Ryne Nelson. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10pm AZ time. I hope you can join us!
As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!
