PHOENIX -- When D-backs manager Torey Lovullo closed his eyes and his head hit the pillow Monday night after a tough one-run loss, he had just one thing on his mind … more like a person, really.
"Zac is ready for this challenge,” Lovullo said pregame. “He's wanting to go seven-plus [innings] tonight -- that's just who he is all the time.”
The D-backs topped the Mets, 5-1, on Tuesday night at Chase Field, riding Gallen’s seven frames of two-hit, one-run ball onto the smiling side of the scoreboard. It marked the right-hander’s first instance of going at least seven innings and allowing one run or fewer since Sept. 8, 2023, turning the dial back to his All-Star form.
Lovullo described it succinctly: “We watched it from the first pitch until the 101st pitch -- he was in total control.”
In short, Gallen was everything that Lovullo could have dreamed of.
But before the 29-year-old could toe the rubber and become the first D-backs starter to log seven innings in an outing in 2025, there was a last-minute change of plans: catcher Gabriel Moreno was dealing with a sore left side after lunging to make a tag at home plate off Corbin Carroll’s outfield assist Monday, which meant Moreno was out and José Herrera was in.
Lovullo described the minutes after the move -- a perfunctory scratch and lineup adjustment for the uninitiated -- as like “a bunch of ants in an ant farm,” scrambling to make sure that Gallen was up to speed with who would be in the squat as his batterymate with just a few hours until first pitch.
After paying homage with Teacher Appreciation Night at Chase Field on Monday and Nurse Appreciation Night on Tuesday, it was Herrera Appreciation Night inside the D-backs’ clubhouse postgame.
"He's locked in,” Lovullo said of Herrera. “He is a student of the game. He is studying game plans, and by the time he squats down behind home plate, he is as ready as any catcher we have. That is our standard, and he's doing a fantastic job.”
"He's all-in with the game calling and sequencing, things like that,” Gallen said. “I know he takes a lot of pride in it. … For him to kind of just put the effort in what he's doing, it's showing up.”
Make it back-to-back starts that the Herrera/Gallen combo has yielded one run when working as a tandem; on the season, of the three starts that Gallen has made with Herrera behind the dish, he’s allowed only four runs in total (1.89 ERA).
For all of the adulation shone in his direction, Herrera was quick to defer credit.
"My job is to help the team to win,” Herrera said. “I prepare every single day to help in any area that they need me. I try to do my job. I try to be focused on helping the pitchers to get through the game and win games. At the end of the night, you want to be with that ‘W’ on your side.”
And when Gallen has gone at least seven frames, the win has traditionally been on the side of the D-backs; dating back to 2022, Arizona is 19-5 when he records at least 21 outs.
Of course, to earn a win, offensive contributions are necessary. Two hard-hit balls off the bat of left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. -- a 103.2 mph double in the fourth and 108.5 mph two-run homer in the sixth -- were catalysts to the club piecing together enough offense. Put excellent starting pitching, timely hitting and lockdown relief work in a blender and you’ll get a concoction that looks an awful lot like Tuesday night.
As for Gallen being the first member of the staff to reach the seven-inning plateau? That was news to the right-hander.
"If you would have asked me, I would have said, ‘No way I’m the first one,’’’ Gallen said. “But hopefully it's just a sign of good things to come with the staff. I think we're kind of coming into our own -- guys are getting on a roll here. I think that's what we need to do, we need to set the tone. So I think we're heading in the right direction.”