After tough two, Gallen goes fantastic five

PHOENIX -- If you watched just the first two innings of the D-backs game against the Reds on Wednesday afternoon, you likely walked away thinking that Arizona right-hander Zac Gallen was in for a long day at the office.

And, well, you were wrong.

Gallen overcame a shaky first two innings to toss seven outstanding frames as the D-backs rallied to beat the Reds, 7-4, and salvage the final game of the three-game series.

Here's how the first two innings went for Gallen:

• He hit four of the first eight batters he faced, becoming just the third pitcher since 1974 to hit four batters in the first two innings of a game.
• He threw wildly to first base trying to pick off Albert Almora Jr.
• He tripped over some bats while backing up home plate.

Here's how the next five innings went for Gallen:

• The Reds sent 15 batters to the plate against him and he retired each and every one of them.

“It says a lot about him," Reds manager David Bell said. "He’s a good pitcher. It felt like we had an opportunity there early. The hit batters, the throw to first base that got away. And then he really settled in and [I] give him a lot of credit for that.”

Gallen had no doubt that he would right the ship and get through seven. We know this because that's what he told Arizona manager Torey Lovullo when the pair had a discussion in the dugout.

"He's like, ‘I'm going to go seven today,'" Lovullo said. "You know, basically get out of my way. And I said, 'Alright, show me that you can do it.'"

The way Gallen remembered it, he asked Lovullo how many pitches he was going to allow him to throw and Lovullo responded with, "How many do you want?" Gallen said he told him he was going seven.

"I was just trying to get through seven," Gallen said. "I know the bullpen was a little taxed after last night. So just trying to do my job in that sense."

Gallen said he didn't make any big adjustments between the first two innings and the last five.

"No, I mean, I was pretty much doing the same thing," Gallen said. "Just kind of unfortunate [that] those hit-by-pitches happened."

That Gallen was able settle in and get through seven was great for the D-backs on its own. But of even greater importance to them for the long term is that Gallen was able to implement some of the changes he made to his mechanics and mix his pitches well, after he managed to last less than two innings in his last start against the Phillies.

Gallen worked with pitching coach Brent Strom to make some adjustments during his between-starts bullpen session.

"[Today] was a little bit more rewarding, in the sense that what I was working on this week kind of clicked while I was out there," Gallen said. "So I felt pretty good in my delivery, felt pretty good in getting [breaking balls] early in the zone for strikes. So that was not necessarily anything to do with the previous result, just the work that I put in kind of worked out."