Diamondbacks Gameday Thread, #127: 8/22 vs. Rangers

After the bullpen had, effectively, to pitch six innings last night (and that’s not even including the five frames tossed by Slade Cecconi), it’s a good thing the team has Zac Gallen going this evening. Gallen at home has been the closest to a sure thing the Arizona pitching staff has had this season. In 12 starts this year, Gallen is 10-1 with a 1.82 ERA, and a K:BB ratio of 92:12 over 79.2 innings. Only one D-back in the past decade has reached double-digit victories at home or away. That was Zack Greinke, who went 13-1 in 18 home starts in the 2017 season, though his ERA of 2.87 was more than a run higher than Gallen’s in 2023.

If Zac pitches on a strict rotation of every five games, he should get four more outings at Chase Field, including tonight. There would also be game #137 vs. Baltimore, #152 vs. San Francisco and the final game of the season, against Houston. So he would definitely appear to have a shot at tying Greinke, especially if Gallen continues to pitch as lights-out as he has so far at Chase. He has pitched a quality start in 10 of the 12 games at home. One of the others was the loss against the Cardinals, where he was tagged for five runs over 6.1 innings. There was also a “lucky W” where the Rays got him for four runs in six, but the offense bailed him out in an 8-4 win.

Should he be able to win all four of those remaining start, Gallen would tie the franchise record for home wins in a season. That belongs, like so many other Arizona pitching marks, to Randy Johnson. He won 14 games in the 2002 season, but he had the benefit of starting 21 times at Bank One Ballpark. He almost qualified for the ERA title, based purely on his home outings - Johnson threw a total of 157.2 innings that year, just in the BOB. He even found time to lose three games in addition to the fourteen victories, averaging over seven and a half innings per start. Zac probably isn’t quite going to be able to match that, and will likely end up around 105-110 innings at home.