Zac Gallen Continues Season Revival With Another Dominant Start vs. NL West Rival
Gallen recorded his seventh quality start of the season as he dominated the San Diego Padres for 7 innings at Petco Park.
Zac Gallen continues to rewrite the story of his 2025 season. The Diamondbacks’ ace was outstanding for the second straight start, holding the San Diego Padres to an unearned run through six innings, striking out nine.
In his last two starts, Gallen has pitched 13 innings, allowing three runs (one earned) with one walk and 19 strikeouts. He’s now up to seven quality starts on the season, with the team going 7-0 in those games.
The driving force behind his two excellent starts? Superb fastball command and the ability to pressure hitters into chasing his knuckle curve below the knees for swing-and-miss.
Gallen landed 29 of 48 four-seam fastballs in the strike zone against San Diego. It was the third-most fastballs he threw in the zone all season, behind his previous start against the Giants (36) and another win over the New York Mets on May 6. In addition, he got 10 chases on 19 knuckle curves out of the zone. Nine of those chases were on pitches below the zone.
In his seven quality starts on the season, Gallen has thrown a four-seamer in the Game Day strike zone or gotten a knuckle curve chase 239 times out of 482 pitches (49.6%). In his last two starts, he’s at 60.5% and 55.7% despite upping the volume of his top two pitches. He’s thrown 151 such pitches in his last two outings.
Call it the James McCann effect, as the veteran backstop has caught Gallen in his last three starts. McCann signed with the team in June and has since proven his worth to the club. The team has won three of his last four starts behind the plate.
The changeup also saw improvement as the game wore on. He was struggling to locate it early on, but started inducing more chases and whiffs on the pitch. Gallen finished with five chases on 14 out-of-zone changeups, along with three whiffs on eight swings. Having a reliable third offering is critical to help complement his north-south approach with the four-seamer and knuckle curve.
With Gallen rediscovering how to leverage his best offerings, his value has drastically increased. While he still has a lot of bad starts to overcome, with his season ERA at 5.15, there are finally signs of life. If he can repeat it for a third start, something he hasn’t done all season, then he has the opportunity to rewrite the entire trajectory of his career down the stretch.
He’s looking either like a trade candidate or could get the qualifying offer if he stays in Arizona. If Gallen continues to pitch well in his final 12-13 starts, it increases the likelihood that he’ll either re-sign or be able to net the D-backs a first round pick in the 2026 Draft in his departure.
D-backs Under Review is Michael McDermott’s publication for deep analysis dives, game coverage, prospect coverage, and breaking down the biggest news topics involving the Arizona Diamondbacks. Michael has been writing about the D-backs since the 2015 season, with stops at AZ Snake Pit, Diamondbacks On SI, Venom Strikes, and Burn City Sports. He has covered over 40 MLB games at Chase Field and the Arizona Fall League.