Diamondbacks hitters grounded by Braxton Garrett in loss to the Marlins

PHOENIX – Coming off an impressive showing in Los Angeles, the Diamondbacks offense was nowhere to be found in a 3-0 loss to the Miami Marlins. Braxton Garrett kept the Diamondbacks hitters grounded, recording 15 groundouts in a complete game shutout. Arizona only managed four singles against the Marlins left-hander.

For Garrett, it was the first complete game and shutout of his error. He accomplished it in just 95 pitches, a feat named a “Maddux” after Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux.

“Offensively, I felt like we were just digging things out at the bottom of the zone,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo. “We knew their starting pitcher had a really good sinker, and we were going to see the ball up. We just kept beating it into the ground to the pull side. I think there were several approaches that were conducive to how he was working us, but I think the consistency of it wasn’t there today.”

The lone bright spot on offensive was Blaze Alexander, who had two singles and a fly ball that carried to the wall for an out. Christian Walker and Randal Grichuk had their other two hits. Ketel Marte, who entered the game with a 21-game hitting streak, went 0-for-4 with a strikeout and three groundouts.

The poor performance at the plate sent Zac Gallen to his fourth loss of the season. The Diamondbacks ace struggled with his delivery during his start, as he said it got “maybe a little too straight direction-wise”, but managed to correct that problem in his final two innings. Despite it being a grinder start for him, Gallen held the Marlins to just three runs over seven innings.

“This is a team that likes to swing,” said Gallen. “Just got in some bad counts and had some bad pitches in not ideal locations resulting in some hard contact.”

The Diamondbacks and Marlins will play the second game of this series at Chase Field Saturday night. Left-hander Jordan Montgomery (2-2, 4.98 ERA) will start for Arizona while Sixto Sanchez (0-2, 6.41 ERA) goes for Miami. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM MST. Fans going to the game should arrive early, as the first 20,000 fans will get a D-backs replica jersey.