There was no shortage of action early in this game. The first full frame saw four combined hits, a walk, and a runner thrown out at the plate. After the literal and figurative dust settled on the frame, the D-Backs held onto a 1-0 lead, but it could just as easily have been double that. In the visiting half of the inning, the Rangers used a leadoff single from Josh Smith and a two-out knock from Jake Burger to put runners on the corners, but an impeccable pitching sequence from Zac Gallen dispatched
Kyle Higashioka and extinguished the scoring threat. The home half would see even more action with Ketel Marte drawing a one-out walk and then inexplicably trying to score on a squibbed throw into third base off a Corbin Carroll double to right field. It was the latest in a long series of baserunning blunders this team has suffered this season, even with the firing and replacement of a third-base coach. Based on the angles we could see, it’s difficult to tell if it was a poor read by Marte or an even worse send from the coach, but it very easily could have unraveled the inning. Instead, Gabriel Moreno delivered the needed knock to plate Carroll and give the team a lead it would not surrender for the remainder of the afternoon.
Gallen picked things up in September the same way he did in August – looking like the ace of old. On the month, he pitched to a 2.57 ERA, a 1.09 WHIP, and a .220 BAA in six starts. He also nearly averaged six innings a start while providing some much-needed length and stability to a starting rotation that has experienced little of each. Whether that performance is simply a trick of small sample size or a meaningful change in approach remains to be seen (and may be the subject of a future Thursday Tidbits *wink*), but it has been a welcome sight compared to the putrid results he was subjecting us to through the first three months.
The team needed that version of the veteran right hander as the offense went into a deep slumber after the second inning. Following Tyler Locklear’s single up the middle in the home half of the second, the D-Backs wouldn’t collect another hit in the game and generated just one baserunner in that span – a one-out walk to Carroll in the home half of the sixth. It’s a troubling trend this team has suffered from throughout the season: an inability to tack on runs or even generate additional pressure on opposing pitching staffs. Far too often, they have gone into a shell of themselves at a certain point and hoped the bullpen or pitching could buoy them with disastrous results. Obviously, it’s nearly impossible to tell if the phenomenon is mental or physical, but it is a problem that is desperately in need of addressing over the offseason.
Thankfully, the Texas bats were once again cooled in the Arizona heat as the D-Backs pitched their ninth shutout performance of the year. They were able to create some traffic throughout the game as there were just two clean innings on their side of the batting ledger, but an inability to string hits together or find a big hit with a runner in scoring position proved costly. And for what it’s worth, as a D-Backs’ fan you should tip your cap to Jack Leiter who looked positively lost in the first two innings of his outing, but adjusted on the fly and turned in an impressive six innings of two-run ball to give his team a chance to win.
