Zac Gallen pitched six hitless innings, earning his 50th career win, and the Arizona Diamondbacks managed to hold off the San Francisco Giants for a 6-4 win on Wednesday night.
Gallen (11-6) struck out eight batters, threw 63 of his 100 pitches for strikes, and worked through four walks to secure his second win in six starts.
“I mostly followed my plan,” Gallen said. “I felt sharp with most of my pitches. Even though I had some walks in the second inning, they were close to where I wanted them.”
Eugenio Suárez and Pavin Smith each hit solo home runs, helping the Diamondbacks (79-61) close the gap to five games behind the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers. Arizona is holding onto the second NL wild-card spot.
LaMonte Wade Jr. hit a home run and drove in four runs for the Giants. The game saw a season-low attendance of 22,855 at Oracle Park.
Gallen had struggled for much of August with a 4.94 ERA over five starts but managed to perform well against the Giants. The 29-year-old right-hander faced a couple of tough situations but successfully got out of them.
In the second inning, Gallen walked the bases loaded but struck out Curt Casali to end the threat. In the sixth inning, after walking Mike Yastrzemski, Gallen induced a double play and struck out Michael Conforto.
“He became very determined and did his job,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo. “Once he adjusted to their strategy and figured things out, he started to pitch very effectively.”
With Gallen’s pitch count rising, Lovullo made it clear that he wasn’t planning to let him pitch much longer.
“He knew that throwing a no-hitter was impossible,” Lovullo said. “I wasn’t going to let him throw 145 pitches just for a no-hitter. That won’t happen here.”
The Giants didn’t get their first hit until Gallen was out of the game. Tyler Fitzgerald singled off reliever Kevin Ginkel in the seventh inning and later scored on LaMonte Wade Jr.’s sixth home run of the season.
Ginkel allowed two runs and retired three batters. A.J. Puk struck out three batters in the eighth inning, and Justin Martinez gave up two runs in the ninth before getting Brett Wisely to strike out and end the game.
Eugenio Suárez hit a home run off Giants starter Hayden Birdsong in the second inning. Suárez also doubled in the eighth inning, coming close to another home run when the ball got stuck on top of the center field fence.
“Situationally we weren’t perfect, but we did enough at the right times to win the game,” Lovullo said. Pavin Smith ended a two-month home run drought with a solo shot off Spencer Bivens in the fifth inning.
The Diamondbacks started the game with back-to-back walks off Birdsong and took the lead with an RBI single from Josh Bell.
Birdsong (3-5) struggled with control and lasted only three innings. The rookie had a season-high five walks and gave up two runs while throwing 77 pitches.
Corbin Carroll led off the game with a four-pitch walk, extending his franchise record for reaching base to 43 consecutive games.
