Diamondbacks defeat A's behind Zac Gallen's dominant performance

As he began his postgame remarks on Saturday, a small hint of a smile creased manager Torey Lovullo’s face. The Diamondbacks had been without their top pitcher for about a month, and right-hander Zac Gallen had just reminded everyone about what they had been missing.

“It sure is good,” Lovullo said, “to have him back.”

Gallen enjoyed a dominant return from the injured list and the Diamondbacks cruised to a 3-0 win over the Oakland Athletics at Chase Field, a victory that snapped a three-game losing skid.

Ketel Marte celebrated his bobblehead day with a three-hit afternoon. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. turned in his eighth multi-hit performance in his past 10 games. The Diamondbacks rebounded from a miserable loss the night before and positioned themselves to potentially claim a series victory on Sunday.

But Gallen’s performance rose above the rest, his return carrying outsized importance. He fired six scoreless innings of one-hit ball, walking one and striking out seven. He gave up a bloop single in the first and walked a batter in the second but was otherwise perfect, finishing his outing by retiring 14 consecutive batters.

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“Everything felt pretty live,” Gallen said. “Arm felt pretty live. Stuff felt pretty sharp. I was pretty pleased.”

On May 30, Gallen walked off the mound in New York with a mild strain in his right hamstring. The Diamondbacks rotation has been in shambles ever since. Over the 26 games he was out, the unit logged a 6.13 ERA and averaged less than five innings per start.

Largely by virtue of a soft schedule, the Diamondbacks managed to keep their heads above water in that span, going 14-12 in his absence, but the wheels seemed ready to come off in recent days, with the club dropping five of six while the rotation struggled to clear four innings per night.

Watching from afar, Gallen said he felt like he doing “the guys in here a disservice” because his absence forced the organization to keep giving the ball to their struggling young pitchers.

“I felt like I took it personal,” Gallen said. “Just having to put a lot of weight on guys who probably weren’t expecting to have that much pressure, I think I wanted to come back and take some of the pressure off them.”

Gallen said he hadn’t thought about his hamstring since the first time he got back on the mound earlier this month, and he hopes the injury, which had lingered for more than a month after initially popping up in late April, is fully behind him. He said the fact that it was not on his mind in recent weeks allowed him to focus his energy elsewhere, including ironing out mechanical tweaks that he believes helped explain his dominance on Saturday.

Gallen’s fastball was particularly crisp. He averaged 95.2 mph with the pitch, establishing a new career high. He threw two four-seamers in the first inning to the Athletics’ Shea Langeliers — one at 97 mph, the other at 97.2 mph — that were harder than any pitch he had ever thrown in a big league game.

He thought adrenaline could have played a part in the velocity jump, plus he believes he has tweaked something with his back foot that is allowing him to move more efficiently down the mound. Since last season, Gallen has bemoaned the fact his delivery has felt slightly off; he sounded hopeful he had solved the issue during his time on the IL.

“I try to do my best to clean those things up and hopefully that’ll be the missing piece to this whole thing,” Gallen said. “Hopefully the velo carries. It’s always nice to throw a little bit harder; the margin for error gets a little bit bigger. I just felt good, all in all.”

Gallen’s return allowed his manager to dream. The Diamondbacks have slogged through the first half of their season. Their win on Saturday leaves them three games under .500. If the playoffs began tomorrow, the Diamondbacks would miss them.

But Lovullo said his mind wandered to a day in the coming weeks when Gallen is joined by right-hander Merrill Kelly and left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez, both of whom have been on the injured list for months. At that point, the Diamondbacks will be the team General Manager Mike Hazen had in mind over the winter, one he hoped could make a return trip to the World Series.

“I think Zac was on a complete mission for the (30) days (he was on the IL),” Lovullo said. “He didn’t waste a day. That’s what it looked like to me. It inspired me. I know it inspired that dugout today and gave us a really good, refreshing feeling.

“I know that Merrill and E-Rod were watching and I’m sure they’re excited to continue their progression and step into this venue and this type of an atmosphere and help us win games. That’s what it’s all about.”

—Nick Piecoro

Corbin Carroll takes a seat again vs. lefty

Outfielder Corbin Carroll is out of the lineup Saturday afternoon, the third time he has taken a seat in the past four games the Diamondbacks have had against a left-handed starting pitcher.

“I know that Jake (McCarthy) has real good left-on-left splits and I told Corbin there were going to be some times I was going to get him off of his feet because I wanted to rest him and there was going to be other times I thought maybe somebody else was going to be more productive,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “This is one of those situations.”

Carroll owns just a .196/.269/.278 line against left-handed pitchers. McCarthy, meanwhile, is hitting .385/.442/.410 against lefties.

Carroll started slowly this year but has been more productive lately, especially over the past few weeks, hitting .282 with a .808 OPS in his past 20 games.

“Corbin is on the right trajectory, but he’s still got a long way to go,” Lovullo said. “He’s working his butt off. He’s not getting benched. I’m just giving Jake a look.”

When center fielder Alek Thomas returns from the injured list — Thomas is scheduled to play for Triple-A Reno again on Saturday, which would be his fourth game there in the past five days on his rehab assignment — Lovullo said he plans to shift Carroll back to right field, where he played primarily during the second half of last season. He did not say how playing time would shake out for his outfielders.

—Nick Piecoro

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Sunday’s Diamondbacks-Athletics pitching matchup

Athletics at Diamondbacks, 1:10 p.m., Cox, Ch. 34

Diamondbacks RHP Brandon Pfaadt (3-6, 4.45) vs. Athletics RHP Luis Medina (1-3, 5.25).

At Chase Field: Pfaadt cruised through the first six innings on Tuesday night against the Minnesota Twins before running into trouble in the seventh, when he gave up a three-run homer to C Ryan Jeffers. Pfaadt finished with four runs allowed in 6 1/3 innings. … It was the 10th time in Pfaadt’s past 11 starts he has worked at least six innings. … Pfaadt has never faced the Athletics. … Medina missed the first two months of the season with a knee injury and has pitched inconsistently in his five starts back. Most recently, he gave up four runs in three innings against the Angels. … Medina averages 95-96 mph with his fastballs. He also throws a pair of breaking balls (slider, curveball) along with the occasional change-up. His slider was his best pitch last year, eliciting whiffs 48.4 percent of the time. It has been less effective (21.4 percent whiff rate) so far this year.

Coming up

Monday: Off.

Tuesday: At Los Angeles, 7:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Ryne Nelson (5-6, 5.69) vs. Dodgers RHP Bobby Miller (1-1, 6.75).

Wednesday: At Los Angeles, 7:10 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Jordan Montgomery (6-5, 6.03) vs. Dodgers RHP Gavin Stone (9-2, 2.73).

Thursday: At Los Angeles, 6:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Slade Cecconi (2-6, 5.81) vs. Dodgers RHP Landon Knack (1-1, 2.08).