Diamondbacks' Zac Gallen Spins Another Gem in Win vs Padres

The Arizona Diamondbacks won the opener of a four-game series over their NL West rival San Diego Padres by a score of 6-3 at Petco Park Monday. Zac Gallen pitched an excellent game for the second straight outing, and his bullpen held on.

The Diamondbacks improve to 45-46, while the Padres fall to to 48-42.

Arizona Diamondbacks' Zac Gallen Has Another Strong Outing

One start ago, Gallen showcased some of his best fastball command in an excellent seven-inning, 10-strikeout performance against the Giants. In need of some momentum, Gallen ran back that performance with another excellent start on Monday.

Gallen threw six strong innings, giving up just one run (unearned) on five hits and one walk, throwing 103 pitches, 65 for strikes. He struck out nine batters, and has now punched out 19 over his last 13 innings against the one walk.

It looked shaky early, however. Gallen gave up a walk and two singles, and despite inducing a potential inning-ending double play, an errant throw by Geraldo Perdomo allowed an unearned run to score for a 1-0 deficit.

But from there, Gallen locked in for another dominant outing. He began to dial in his fastball, getting 19 called strikes and three whiffs on the pitch. He forced seven whiffs on his knuckle curve and three on the changeup.

It's worth noting that Gallen was working with veteran catcher James McCann again. Gallen cited McCann as one of the reasons for his excellent performance his last time out.

Kyle Backhus would give up an unearned run in the seventh. He then came back out for the eighth and gave up a solo homer to Manny Machado and a single before exiting.

Recently-recalled flamethrower Juan Morillo entered and immediately gave up two walks to load the bases. But somehow, despite throwing 12 balls and five strikes, he completed the high-wire act to leave them loaded with a strikeout of Elias Díaz.

Kevin Ginkel threw a scoreless ninth for the save, helped along by some exceptional defense. Alek Thomas slid to corral a deep fly ball, and Blaze Alexander turned an impressive game-ending double play.

Arizona Diamondbacks Offense

Arizona quickly answered back from their first-inning deficit as Eugenio Suárez doubled home Josh Naylor facing the newly-activated Yu Darvish.

The D-backs would only get two off Darvish, but they made him work. He needed 63 pitches to get through 3.2 innings, giving up two hits and three walks.

Naylor crushed a two-run homer in the fifth to extend Arizona's lead to 4-1. They scored two more in the eighth, as Corbin Carroll hit his 10th triple of the season and Perdomo singled to make it 6-2.

Carroll had an excellent night offensively. He went 2-for-5 with a double and triple, recording a base hit for the first time since coming off the IL. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. went 3-for-5 with a double, and Naylor was 1-for-2 with two walks.

The two rivals will face off again at 6:40 p.m. Tuesday, with Merrill Kelly facing Nick Pivetta for game two.

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