Diamondbacks 3, Oakland 0: What we missed

Well, what can I say? Zac is back! He’s back, and what a difference it makes, at least for one game. Many of us who follow the Diamondbacks closely noticed the boost in energy, commitment, productivity and quality of play that seemed to affect the team, and the offense in particular, when Geraldo Perdomo finally returned from his stint on the injured list. With Zac Gallen returning this afternoon from his mercifully brief trip to the IL, I think we saw the same effect, perhaps even greater, not necessarily for the offense but for the team as a whole. Or maybe that’s just how I felt, because it’s been a tough week for Diamondbacks baseball.

Anyway. Zac took the mound and faced Oakland (or, as Spencer aptly suggested last night, “Oakland”) southpaw, Hogan Harris. There was some question, at least in my mind, about how much rust Gallen might have to get rid of and what Gallen we would have today. It turns out that the answers to these questions were the best: none, and the best. Zac got through his first inning of work with just 10 pitches thrown, despite a single two-out bloop to shallow center from Brent Rooker, the Athletics' DH and supposed big-time threat. To be fair, Rooker took to the court last night, but so did everyone else in the Oakland lineup, it seems. Regardless, nothing came of it and, as noted, Gallen only needed 10 pitches to throw his first zero and get the team back into the dugout.

Unfortunately, Hogan was able to score his own score, despite a two-out single by Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. to left and a double by Christian Walker that would and should have scored Lourdes, but for the umpire's intervention by means of 'a decision of the referee. headquarters in New York. Unfortunately, there is no video clip of the double, so let me try to describe what happened. Walker lined a shot down the left field line that initially appeared to have cleared the fence, but instead hit the yellow padding that wraps around the bottom of the foul pole and bounced onto the playing field. The third base umpire called it a foul, but both teams continued to play as if it were a live ball, and Gurriel came up and made a successful throw at home plate for mark safely. The foul call was clearly wrong, and Torey Lovullo disputed it, and review officials in New York overturned the call, but then they had to decide where to place the runners. Many in the Gameday Thread felt, rightly, that they should have allowed the run, but instead decided to put Walker at second base and Gurriel at third. Outrage and rants followed, but once New York made its decision, there was no appeal. Randal Grichuk came to the plate, but any hope that he could make the run moot was dashed when he fouled behind the plate to end the game.

But it all worked out, because Gallen came back for his second inning of work, walked the leadoff hitter, forced what should have been a double play but turned out to be a force out by the lead runner. So he forced another grounder to third base, and the infield turned the double play this time, so. Minimum against another zero.

The second round begins. Eugenio Suarez, still on the highway, hits a single into the hole between shortstop and third base to lead off the game. Kevin McCarthy grounded out on three strikes, Kevin Newman (who was playing shortstop this afternoon) flied to right, then José Herrera, who had catcher duties this afternoon, got a base hit on balls to bring the formation back. Ketel Marte came to the plate and, as he seems to do so often these days, hit a single to left to score Suarez and score the first run of the game:

That's all we got, but it was a lead, and it turned out that it would have been enough. 1-0 D-BACKS

We added a second run in the bottom of the third, thanks to a bloop single by Christian Walker to right-center field with one out, followed one out later by a bloop single by Eugenio Suarez to shallow center field that Walker advanced to third. It's a crazy time, isn't it, when Geno goes 2 for 2 to start a game? [SPOILER: The Comment of the Game will have something to say about this.] That brought McCarthy to the plate, and this time he didn't disappoint, drilling a ground ball to middle and center that allowed Walker to cross home plate. 2-0 D-BACKS

And then there was another in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to a leadoff single from Jose Herrera (!!), followed by another single from Marte, followed by a single from Lourdes who drove it in. 3-0 D-BACKS

And, right, throw it. What was going on with Zac Gallen? Oh, well, you know, he was beating down the A's hitters, one after the other. The announcers said he had a pitch count, and maybe he did, but it didn't matter, because he very effectively retired Oakland in order in the third inning (15 pitches), in the fourth inning (14 pitches), in the fifth inning (13 pitches) and in the sixth inning (12 pitches). The presumed throw limit was not specified, but I guessed that, if there was one, it would be around 75 throws total. And sure enough, Zac left the game after the sixth, with a total of 77 pitches thrown, and a final pitch line of 6 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB And 7 K. Not too bad for a man slowly getting back into things after a pesky hamstring injury.

And that’s pretty much the ballgame. The offense kind of packed up and went home after the fourth, but today I wasn’t really worried about that, especially since Gallen kept going out and dishing out inning after inning. I felt a little pang when Kevin Ginkel took the ball in the top of the seventh, despite throwing 17 pitches in an efficient inning of work last night. He gave up a leadoff single, but he too was grounded. He also pitched the eighth, which further heightened my anxiety, but he retired the A’s in order, so there was nothing to worry about. Paul Sewald pitched the ninth and did his usual 2024 Paul Sewald stuff, making Oakland’s hitters look silly while he too sat them down in order. Everything was fine and beautiful, because Zac was back, and at least for that afternoon, all was right with the world.

Added win probability, courtesy of FanGraphs

Manatees: Zac Gallen (above-throwing line, +31.1% WPA)
Flamingos: Ketel Marte (4 AB, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 RBI, +16% WPA)
Mosquitoes: Randal Grichuk (3 AB, 0 H, 1 K, -15% WPA)

It was a very busy Gameday Thread this afternoon, as it should be for Gallen's return from injury, with 234 comments at the time of writing, only two of which I believe I was responsible for. CotG goes to 1AZFan1, as announced above, for this very true statement, or at least this statement that is still true today:

So once again we'll be heading into a rubber match on Sunday, with a chance at a series victory on the line. Brandon Pfaadt takes the ball for us, a gentleman named Luis Medina starts for Oakland. Like today, tomorrow's first pitch will be at 1:10 p.m. current time (4:10 p.m. South Florida time where TheRealRamona and I are this weekend). I hope you can join us!

As always, thanks for reading, and as always, go Diamondbacks!