The Arizona Diamondbacks broke a three-game losing streak as they beat the Oakland Athletics Saturday, 3-0, off the strong performance from pitcher Zac Gallen who came back from the injured list. He was sidelined for a month due to a hamstring injury, but in his come back outing, he looked like he had no limitations as it drew endless compliments from Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo.
On Saturday, Gallen threw six innings and 75 pitches as he struck out seven batters, walked one, and only allowed one hit throughout the whole game. The 28-year old also collected his sixth win of the season as Lovullo called the outing “inspiring” as he went through a process to come back and perform at a high level according to ESPN.
“He was landing every pitch that he possibly could. It was exactly what we needed,” Lovullo said. “It's inspiring, when you know what he's done and step right in and do what he did for us today.”
Lovullo said Gallen was on “mission” to return strong for Diamondbacks
Gallen has been one of the more consistent and productive pitchers for the Diamondbacks as last season, he had an 3.47 earned run average (ERA) with a career-high 220 strikeouts along with an 17-9 record. He would make his first All-Star team along with making an appearance on the the All-MLB first team.
“I think Zac was on a complete mission for the (30) days (he was on the IL),” Lovullo said. “He didn’t waste a day. That’s what it looked like to me. It inspired me. I know it inspired that dugout today and gave us a really good, refreshing feeling. I know that Merrill [Lynch] and E-Rod [Eduardo Rodriguez] were watching and I’m sure they’re excited to continue their progression and step into this venue and this type of an atmosphere and help us win games. That’s what it’s all about.”
Gallen suffered same injury three years ago with Arizona
This would not be the first time that Gallen had a hamstring injury and missed significant time as it happened in 2021 where he did not come back to his liking. The pitcher would say that three years ago, he was not “ready to pitch” and he “challenged” himself to do better this go around.
“I physically felt good but mentally, wasn't really ready to pitch,” Gallen said about his previous hamstring injury with Arizona. “I challenged myself to do better this time, I hadn't thought about my hamstring since the first time I got back on the mound [in rehab]. Since then I haven't felt anything.”
“Everything felt pretty live,” Gallen continued. “Arm felt pretty live. Stuff felt pretty sharp. I was pretty pleased.”
The only hit that Gallen allowed against the Athletics was a two-out single in the first inning, but after that, it was complete domination in his return performance. Even Oakland's manager in Mark Kotsay would say after the game that Gallen is an “elite pitcher.”
“Anytime you run up against Gallen you'd like to get the pitch count up, but he throws strikes,” Kotsay said after the Diamondbacks 3-0 win over the Athletics via ESPN. “He uses all four pitches. He's an elite pitcher.”
Gallen “took it personal” for Diamondbacks' pitching struggles
Gallen's last start before Saturday was on May 30 against the New York Mets where he started to feel the discomfort in his hamstring which ended up being a mild strain. In terms of the Diamondbacks rotation since then, they had a 6.13 ERA and even averaged less than five innings per start according to Nick Piecoro and Theo Mackie of AZCentral.com.
Still, Arizona went 14-12 in that time, but Gallen felt he was partly to blame as the team would rely on younger pitchers who weren't expecting the increased usage to carry the weight. He was reportedly saying that he was doing “the guys in here a disservice.”
“I felt like I took it personal,” Gallen said via AZCentral.com. “Just having to put a lot of weight on guys who probably weren’t expecting to have that much pressure, I think I wanted to come back and take some of the pressure off them.”
Gallen with some room for improvement
Even besides the dominating effort, he still had some aspects to point out that he needs to improve on like his delivery, but said he was impressed with the velocity of his pitches.
“I try to do my best to clean those things up and hopefully that’ll be the missing piece to this whole thing,” Gallen said. “Hopefully the velo carries. It’s always nice to throw a little bit harder; the margin for error gets a little bit bigger. I just felt good, all in all.”
At any rate, the Diamondbacks are now 40-43 on the season which puts them third in the NL West as they are behind such teams as the Los Angeles Dodgers in first and the San Diego Padres in second. Arizona, who went to the World Series last season, will look to beat the Athletics as the final game of the series is Sunday at 4:10 p.m. (EST).
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