TL;DR: Zac Gallen twirled a gem, the offense scored early, and the bullpen did just enough to secure a series win.
At a time when he watched his erstwhile replacement as staff ace make his team debut last night, when there are questions abounding about his pending free agency, and when there are questions on whether or not he can even still retain the title of “ace,” it would have been perfectly understandable for Zac Gallen to not be at his best. Instead, he marched into Yankee Stadium and asserted his will against a lineup that has been torpedoing opposing pitchers in the early parts of the season. It was a vintage performance for the “homegrown” righty who has operated as the team’s ace for the last three years and reinvigorated hopes that he and Corbin Burnes could combine for a devastating tandem throughout this season.
Rather than depending on the late offensive charges that have propelled the team several times in some of their wins, the offense got the party started early as newly-extended Ketel Marte leadoff the game with a walk and Lourdes Gurriel Jr got the D-Backs on the board just five pitches later with a blast to left for a 2-0 D-Backs’ lead. In the second, they employed some small ball with a leadoff walk to Eugenio Suarez and a single by Gabriel Moreno both advancing on a Jake McCarthy groundout. Geraldo Perdomo then collected his seventh RBI of the season with a sacrifice fly before Marte plated Moreno on a shot up the middle to quiet the New York crowd and make it 4-0 D-Backs before some of them had even found their seats. Frustratingly, it would be the final hit Arizona would collect for the rest of the game.
Thankfully for the team, Gallen had plenty of run support already as he had nearly all of his pitches working beautifully. He collected 24 swing and misses en route to a career-high tying 13 strikeouts and no walks – his highest strikeout total since the end of September 2022. There was plenty of awkward swings from Yankees batters all night as his curveball showed plenty of late life even as his fastball command left something to be desired. His only real jam came in the home half of the second when a leadoff single to Jazz Chisholm Jr (the other half of the trade that sent Gallen to the D-Backs) combined with an Austin Wells’ double to put two runners in scoring position. But Gallen discovered another gear, striking out much-ballyhooed prospect Jasson Dominguez and promising youngster Ben Rice to extinguish the threat. After that, the New Jersey native retired 14 of the next 15 batters until Wells poked a single to right with two outs in the seventh following a reprieve from a possible strikeout on yet another check swing.
The Arizona offense, while hitless, did manage to create a few threats by collecting an impressive seven walks from Yankees’ pitchers, but managed to douse their own rallies each time with a double play ball in the third or weak contact in the eighth. Meanwhile, the New York offense finally found some traction in the ninth as Ryan Thompson surrendered consecutive singles to Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge before being lifted in favor of the de-facto Arizona closer AJ Puk. However, after retiring Chisholm on a long fly ball, Anthony Volpe took a middle-middle fastball just over the short right field porch to bring the Yankees within a run 4-3. Thankfully for my blood pressure, Puk settled back in by inducing a foul popout from Wells and striking out Dominguez for his second save of the young season. I only want dramatic comebacks from the D-Backs – I don’t think I’m asking for that much!
