CHICAGO -- Sometimes the results in baseball don’t make sense and those playing it have a hard time explaining why things happen the way they do.

For instance, take Zac Gallen’s start against the Cubs on Saturday night at Wrigley Field.

On the one hand, it didn’t seem like a vintage Gallen performance. Yes, the right-hander did not allow a run over five innings as the D-backs beat Chicago, 3-0, but he also matched a career high with six walks.

So, you would assume that he didn’t have his best stuff, but found a way to get it done. Gallen, though, saw it differently.

“It was kind of odd,” Gallen said. “Considering the six walks, I felt pretty sharp. I felt probably the most in control of my body and how it was moving and I felt like I had a good feel for all five pitches today, which is good. It’s just odd to say with the six walks.”

Gallen certainly flirted with danger throughout his outing. The walks gave the Cubs plenty of scoring chances against him, but when he needed to get a big out, he did. And when Chicago was in search of one hit to blow things open, it was unable to get it.

Gallen stranded a pair of runners in the second and third innings and then worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth.

That’s an awful lot of traffic on the bases to come away with no runs.

The jam in the fifth was the toughest of the night. Nico Hoerner and Michael Busch led off with a walk and a double before Gallen struck out Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ. He then walked Christopher Morel before getting Mike Tauchman to ground out to end the inning.

"We had nine baserunners in five innings against a very good starting pitcher,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “The first couple rallies came with two outs. The fifth inning was a really good opportunity to score with Nico and Buschy leading off the inning and getting on second and third. [Gallen] made some good pitches to get out of the inning."

While the walk to Morel to load the bases might not have been intentional, it also wasn’t the worst outcome in that situation.

Morel has tremendous power and a small mistake could have led to three runs being on the board in a flash.

“Obviously the six walks are annoying especially [when they come] with two outs,” Gallen said. “But the one to Morel in that inning was just picking my spots on guys that I felt like I match up a little bit better against.”

The Cubs do deserve credit for waiting Gallen out and not chasing at those pitches that were just off the corners.

“I felt like I had really good stuff and that I was able to kind of be on the edges,” Gallen said. “Those guys weren’t necessarily in swing mode, so I had to keep battling back in the count.”

The D-backs, who have been beset by injuries to their starting rotation this year, got a scare in the second inning when Miguel Amaya hit a 91.2 mph liner off the back of Gallen’s right foot.

Gallen was examined by a team trainer but stayed in the game.

“It got me mostly on the shoe,” Gallen said. “It was a little bit of the Achilles, but mostly the shoe. Thankfully he didn’t hit it as hard as I’m sure he could have. There was no issue while I was out there. It got a little tight after I came out of the game, but I’ve had way worse.”

The D-backs got a pair of home runs in the fifth -- a solo shot by Alek Thomas and a two-run blast by Corbin Carroll, which accounted for all of the offense in the game.