On Country Night at the ballpark, the D-backs blundered their way to a third straight loss.
*Headline credit to AttracheKs!
Game Summary
This one got out of hand late, but it looked like it was going to get out of hand much earlier than that. Zac Gallen got off to his now routine rough start. He was able to strand a pair of 2-out walks in the first, but then had his blow-up inning in the second. A pair each of doubles and singles led to 3 Atlanta runs scored and Gallen’s pitch count ballooned to 59. To his credit, he settled down nicely and only required 44 pitches to complete the next 3 innings, retiring the next 9 men in order, but the damage of that disastrously high pitch count through the first two innings killed any chance he had of getting very deep into the ballgame.
To be sure, we expect more of our Opening Day starter, but 3 runs in 5 innings shouldn’t sink our ship. The Diamondbacks offense did not lack for opportunities to stay in this game. Right from the jump, the Snakes had the bases loaded with 1 out in the first inning before Naylor and Geno went strikeout-flyout to end the chance without the good guys scoring a run. Then in the third, Corbin Carroll (who else?) tripled with one out to give the D-backs another golden scoring opportunity but a strikeout and pop out killed the threat. Finally, in the fifth, the bottom of the order got a little Rattle Rally going with a walk and two singles scoring a run and bringing up the top of the order with a chance to really do some damage but the single run was all they would muster.
All this traffic on the bases meant that the Diamondbacks were at least able to drive up Chris Sale’s pitch count so he, too, had to exit after 5 innings. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen in the last week after Puk’s injury, with the game in the hands of the bullpen for the final 4 frames, the game slipped away from the Snakes.
In the sixth inning, Juan Morillo appeared to get himself cleanly out of a pickle when he induced a chopper to Eugenio Suarez at third which should have been the third out of the inning. Instead, Geno made his second throwing error in as many nights, allowing the runner from third to score. Gifted with an extra out, the Braves took advantage and plated another run before Morillo could record his fourth out of the sixth inning and exit with a 5-1 deficit. Yilber Diaz then came on in mop-up duty and was about as wild as I’ve ever seen a Major League pitcher. He got out of the 7th with the help of a double play ball, but the Braves sent 8 men to bat in the 8th inning and scored 3 runs to put the game firmly out of reach. Thankfully, Diaz was able to go back out for the 9th and soak up the last three outs of this one so no further wear and tear could be put on the bullpen as we go into a crucial final two games of this series. Hopefully all the major players in the ‘pen should be available for Torey to call upon tomorrow night and Sunday.
The Diamondback offense was not nearly as productive as the Braves’. Geno and Gabi doubled back-to-back to score the only other D-backs run in the eighth inning, but were otherwise quiet and didn’t even threaten to score.
Loss Probability and Box Score
Outside the Box Score
- Corbin Carroll had one of the stranger ‘home run’ trots you’ll see. On a close, but fairly obvious foul ball down the right field line, the umpires ruled that Carroll hit a home run. Confused and almost unwillingly, Carroll jogged around the bases, then picked up his bat and waited for the Crew Chief Review to confirm what he already knew. The ruling was changed to a foul ball and Corbin struck out a couple pitches later.
- Coming into the night, the Diamondbacks were one of the better teams in baseball (4th-best) at not hitting Infield Fly Balls. This isn’t a stat that is typically tracked, but I had to look it up after our performance in that regard tonight. Five pop outs were recorded tonight by the Diamondbacks’ hitters which was a rate more than double our season-long rate. It was excruciating to watch.
- I mentioned Yilber Diaz wildness in the Summary, but I want to expand on it a little further here. I don’t have a quick way to tally the amount of pitches that were not even close to competitive, but it seemed that each at bat had at least one pitch that hit the dirt before it reached the plate, and he even had a couple that didn’t even reach the dirt, instead hitting the grass because they were so short. Coming in on your first day up from Reno to be the mop-up guy can’t be easy, but this kind of outing isn’t going to do his stock within the organization any favors. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were shipped back to Reno tomorrow morning in favor of another bullpen arm.
Player of the Game
Jorge Barrosa earns the honors in his first game starting in 2025. Not much competition from his teammates, to be fair, but still he wasn’t an easy out in either of his plate appearances against the defending Cy Young winner, Chris Sale. His first at bat of the year was an 8-pitch grind in which he fouled off 4 straight pitches once he was in a 2-strike hole before he finally yielded with a flyout. Then in the fourth, Barrosa came through with a 2-out RBI on a single back through the box.
Comment of the Game
There were a total of 206 comments in the GDT at time of publishing, fairly light for a Friday night, but I can’t say I blame anyone for the lighter than usual participation. As a result of that light participation and the lackluster team performance, there were very few Sedona Red comments to choose from for COTN, but our fearless leader Jim came through with this to say about our struggling ace:
A few weeks ago, it was a certainty that the Diamondbacks would extend the Qualifying Offer to Zac at season’s end and he would equally certainly decline that Offer. Now? Gallen is increasingly becoming what Pfaadt was the last two years: a pitcher who can cruise for multiple frames but is prone to one blow-up inning that sinks his game. Both last week and this week, Gallen has been able to steady himself and look like we expect him to look after a rough couple innings, but an ERA north of 5.50 isn’t what’s going to get him a lucrative deal that seemed so certainly his to take at the beginning of the year.
Coming Up
I’ll be in attendance at the game tomorrow (in town and it just so happens to be Korean Heritage night so going to take part with my wife and mother-in-law who is Korean) as the D-backs face the Braves in the second game of this three game set tomorrow at 5:10pm Arizona time. The Mainstay is scheduled to get the ball for the good guys in an attempt to stop this three-game skid and he will be opposed by right-hander Grant Holmes who is 2-1 with a 3.22 ERA.