Diamondbacks 3, Dodgers 0: Gallen Gooses Guggenheim Guys

Game Summary

Tonight was an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel at Chavez Ravine, and, perhaps shockingly in 2025, Zac Gallen and the Diamondbacks bullpen came out on top in this one. Blake Snell and Gallen combined to dominate the lineups tonight with a lot of swing and miss stuff (and a little bit of help from Phil Cuzzi behind the plate) through most of the first 6 innings. Through 5 innings, each pitcher recorded 8 Ks and had at least one strikeout in each half-inning of play. They each ran into a little trouble in the 6th. Gallen survived the sixth, while Snell did not. Zac’s walk year has been a mess, but this August has been outstanding, with this outing the best of those. He never even really had to sweat until the 6th inning. The bullpen was equally outstanding, with appearances from lefties Beeks and Backhus before handing the ball off to Jake Woodford in the 9th inning to try and secure the save. Only 2 baserunners allowed combined speaks to their dominance against a very powerful lineup.

The offense, stifled for much of the night by Blake Snell and the Dodgers bullpen, got 2 big hits to put this game in the W column. Blaze Alexander, shifted over to second base tonight to allow Jordan Lawlar some playing time at third, got the biggest hit with a missile off a low-inside fastball to plate the first 2 runs of the game in the 4th inning. Then in the 6th, Corbin Carroll’s double was cashed in by Gabi Moreno on a soft liner through Gabi Lane for a bit of added insurance. That hit chased Snell from the game, but then came the Dodgers bullpen to record the final 11 outs of the game and they didn’t allow a single hit over those final 11 outs. The Rattle of the lineup, composed of Locklear, Thomas, and Lawlar tonight, combined for an 0-12 with 8 strikeouts and only a couple of actually competitive at bats. To be fair, the Diamondbacks only totaled 4 hits on the night so it was rough all around, but the Rattle was definitely the least competitive group on the night.

It’s great to get any win in Chavez Ravine, and it’s even sweeter when you can shutout this juggernaut offense. Torey’s got the boys playing hard and believing they can win every night, even against the baddest teams in MLB.

Win Probability and Box Score

Outside the Box Score

• Zac Gallen started the night with 6 of his first 7 pitches outside the strike zone for called balls. He wasn’t missing egregiously, but they were definitely outside the zone. He did get back under control and induce a GIDP before striking out Freddie Freeman to end the inning on back-to-back good curveballs.
• Diamondbacks were cut up pretty quickly by Blake Snell through the first 2 innings. Outside of a 5 pitch walk to Domo (all 5 pitches were out of the zone but 1 was incorrectly called a strike), he was close around the zone and getting the Snakes out efficiently. Only required 23 pitches to get through the first 2 frames.
• Zac Gallen had 4 strikeouts in the first 2 innings, and 3 of them were whiffs on his long-missing curveball. If Gallen could’ve found his curveball sometime before August, how different would this season have gone?
• The Diamondbacks only put 4 balls in play the first time through the order and 3 of the 4 were weakly hit grounders to the infield. Very poor quality contact if they could make contact at all.
• Zac Gallen struck out the last 5 hitters he saw the first time through the Dodger order. Early he had all the curveballs working, but late in that run, he was getting guys to stare at his fastball dotted on the corners.
• Gabi was a late add to the lineup after James McCann was scratched from the lineup with back tightness, but it didn’t appear his bat was ready for the switch. Each of Gabi’s first 2 at bats ended in 3/4 swings on pitches in the dirt.
• Blaze Alexander blistered his home run in the 4th for the first runs in the game. 108mph off the bat and 400 feet into the Dodger bullpen later, the Diamondbacks had a 2-0 lead. Blaze even had a little stare down and ‘mic drop’ of a bat flip before he started his home run trot.
• Through the first 4 innings, the pitchers had really been the storyline, even with Blaze’s dinger. There was at least 1 K in every half inning, and 4 of the 8 half-innings had at least 2 strikeouts. Snell was getting a lot of goofy looking swings on his breaking pitches in the dirt, while Gallen was locating his pitches perfectly and getting a lot of ꓘ.
• Corbin Carroll was robbed of a hustle double by a fantastic diving catch from Tee Hernandez in right field in his second at bat. Carroll put a little extra mustard on his line drive to right in his next bat, resulting in a stand up double hit off the wall.
• Gabi finally laid off those low breaking balls in his third at bat and the result was a 6-pitch at bat ending with a single through Gabi Lane to score Carroll from second. That RBI single was the hit that chased Snell from the game.
• Zac Gallen’s location, on point for much of the first five innings, finally started to wobble in the sixth. After walking Freddie Freeman to put runners at 1st and 2nd with 2 outs, Zac gave up a deep fly ball to Will Smith that looked like it was going to land halfway up the bleachers when we were watching on the telecast, but thankfully, the ball died on the track and fell harmlessly into Lourdes’ glove for the third out of the inning.
• Jordan Lawlar’s night at the plate was not going well, but his defense was just fine. He made a very good diving stop on a groundball down the line early in the game and quickly got into throwing position before being told the ball was Foul. Then, in the 7th inning, he made a jewel of play that actually counted when he had to charge a grounder that was hugging the third base line. In a quick 2-step motion he scooped, gathered, and rifled a throw right on target to Locklear to beautifully record the ground out. Blaze has got a lot of deserved praise for his play in the field this year, but Jordan showed that he also appears to be up to the task on that front.
• Jake Woodford got the call for the 9th inning in a save situation, and, if you weren’t aware, he’s a righty. Freddie Freeman, a lefty, was the leadoff hitter in the ninth. That was certainly an odd choice considering a lefty had just recorded 3 outs in the 8th and there was 2 other lefties on hand in the ‘pen, but Torey made the decision and we all get to watch how it plays out. Tonight, Torey’s a genius. Freddie flew out on a sinking line drive to Alek that required him to drop down to a knee to catch, but after that, it was relatively smooth sailing.

Comment of the Game

An engaged Friday night GDT with 261 comments at time of publishing. COTG is awarded to kilnborn tonight with the most rec’d comment of the game immediately following Blaze’s homer:

Coming Up

The Diamondbacks face the Dodgers in the second game of this weekend series tomorrow with first pitch at 6:10pm Arizona time. Fairly lopsided pitching matchup tomorrow, on paper at least, with Eduardo Rodriguez as the scheduled starter for the good guys and he will be opposed by right-hander Tyler Glasnow who is 1-2 with a 3.36 ERA on the year. Can we secure another series win tomorrow night?