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
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:
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?