Zac Gallen nearly unhittable at Chase Field

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- It doesn’t take a diehard baseball fanatic to know Diamondbacks’ pitcher Zac Gallen is one of the best pitchers in the league. A team visiting Chase Field is in for a rough night when Gallen is on the mound.

This season, Gallen is 7-2 with a 2.72 ERA and is tied for fifth in the league with 82 strikeouts. In six starts at Chase Field this season, Gallen has recorded a 0.66 ERA, including scoreless outings in four of his six home starts. On the mound against the Rockies Tuesday night, Gallen pitched six spotless innings in the 5-1 victory.

“Curveball felt a lot better than it had in the last few starts, really. Slider, same thing,” Gallen told MLB.com. “I’m just trying to locate a fastball. First inning, I didn’t feel super sharp, but I was just trying to get better as the game went on.”

He had two rocky starts in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia over the last road trip, where he allowed seven runs in 9.1 innings. Gallen rebounded nicely in Tuesday’s win, where he struck out seven Rockies and earned his National League-leading seventh win.

“He gets into that Zac mode and we all become Zac watchers,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said of Gallen. “He slows the game down and he’s in total control of what’s going on per at-bat and he starts to make pitches. He can lock it down.”

Gallen will look to continue his dominance at Chase Field when he takes the mound this weekend against the Atlanta Braves. The Diamondbacks and Braves are tied for the second-best record in the NL at 32-23, trailing only the 34-22 Los Angeles Dodgers.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please click here to report it and include the headline of the story in your email.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2023 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.