The Dbacks dropped the series finale and the series on Thursday afternoon as the Dbacks offense simply did not show up to the ballpark for the second straight game. Alex D’Agostino said it best on twitter: The Diamondbacks just lost a series in which none of their starters went less than six innings and no bullpen arm gave up a single run. Brutal.
The gut punch is also a silver lining of this series was that the starting pitching showed up. The starting staff was able to eat 19.1 innings in the 3 game set and allowed just 5 earned runs good for a 2.36 ERA. Maybe that meeting by Torey lit a fire under those guys? Most of this quality starting was due to ERod and Soroka as 4 of the 5 runs were given up by Gallen on Thursday. Gallen’s final line wasn’t terrible as he was atleast able to get through 6 IP, but they really needed Gallen to continue the momentum started by ERod and Soroka. A team that once used to count on Zac Gallen to be the stopper in a World Series contending rotation just a few seasons ago needed more Thursday and Gallen continued his trend of not being able to deliver. Jack Sommers said it best in a tweet, to paraphrase, Zac Gallen has a 4.70 ERA after 8 starts… last year 4.83 ERA… Very, very sadly this is just who he is now. It’s 41 starts.
Perhaps what is most frustrating watching Gallen pitch is that it still feels like the Zac Gallen of old is just within reach, and then he gives up a big inning. That big inning came in the 5th on Thursday. Gallen entered the inning having given up only 1 run in the game so far, and got 2 quick outs. Then with 2 outs he gave up a single, walked the next batter, and then gave up 2 consecutive singles and all of a sudden the Dbacks go from being up 2-1 to being down 3-2. Had Gallen been able to just get one more out and not walk guys and give up consecutive hits, this would have been a quality outing where the Dbacks could have potentially pulled it out despite only scoring 2 runs. So close, but yet so far.
The bullpen was simply outstanding this series pitching 7.2 scoreless innings of relief. That was continued on Thursday as Brandyn Garcia, Ryan Thompson, and Paul Sewald looked dominant. After the struggles this team has had over the past few seasons with the bullpen, I definitely believe this group deserves a shout out.
The real culprit in the series was the ‘big 3’ not being so big. In the 3 games Perdomo, Marte, and Carroll went a combined 6-29 batting .207 with just 4 RBI. Carroll was atleast able to hit his 5th HR of the season on Thursday, but it was just a solo shot. Overall the quality of at bats from this group needs to improve. Lots of unproductive quick outs. After Skenes went 8 innings yesterday, Keller needed just 84 pitches to get through 6 innings on Thursday as the Dbacks hitters were once again just making it too easy.
The New York Mets come to Chase Field tomorrow and this team really needs to show us something and get back over .500. They will face 2 more good starting pitchers on Friday and Saturday in Nolan Mclean and Clay Holmes who have been rolling so far this season and this offense needs to get back to seeing pitches, taking walks, and getting some traffic on the bases. They also need Ryne Nelson and Merrill Kelly to pick back up the torch that Gallen just fumbled and get this starting rotation back on track to where it was the past 2 days. Hopefully this team is in a much better position when I recap again next Tuesday!
