The Arizona Diamondbacks head into Saturday night’s contest against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif., six games behind the San Francisco Giants for the final wild-card spot in the National League and three games below the .500 mark.
That puts Torey Lovullo’s club in the middle of trade speculation as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. And if the Diamondbacks are indeed in the selling mood, right-hander Zac Gallen could be one of the prime pieces on the move.
Gallen (7-9, 5.15 ERA), a two-time top-five finalist for the NL Cy Young Award, has bounced back from a dreadful 3-7 start to win four of his last six decisions. That stretch includes back-to-back wins over the Giants and San Diego Padres that saw him allow just one earned run and 10 hits over 13 innings while striking out 19.
“It’s part of business,” Gallen said of the trade talk. “Obviously, for me, I don’t like hearing that, just for the fact that it kind of signifies that we’re in that spot where it’s a potential.”
A series win over the Angels after dropping Friday night’s opener 6-5 on Travis d’Arnaud’s walk-off, pinch-hit single in the ninth, combined with a strong start after next week’s All-Star break, could mean the Diamondbacks become buyers instead of sellers at the deadline.
“I’m just trying to string a few more starts together and see where we’re at at the deadline,” Gallen said. “Hopefully, we’re in a spot [where] the front office at the very least doesn’t subtract from this team and decides to add some pieces to this ballclub.”
Gallen is 0-1 with a 5.14 ERA in one career start against Los Angeles. That came in a 5-2 loss in Anaheim in 2023 when he allowed four runs on five hits, including home runs by Mike Trout and Mickey Moniak, over seven innings while striking out 12.
All-Star left-hander Yusei Kikuchi (3-6, 3.02 ERA), who is 1-1 with a 5.81 ERA in five career starts against Arizona, is scheduled to start for the Angels on Saturday. Los Angeles moved to within 3 1/2 games of Tampa Bay for the final American League wild-card spot with Friday’s win.
d’Arnaud lined a pinch-hit single off reliever Kyle Backhus down the left field line to drive in Logan O’Hoppe from second base with the game-winning run. It was the sixth walk-off hit of d’Arnaud’s career.
“Just keep things simple, try and put the bat on the baseball,” d’Arnaud said of his approach. “We already had runners on first and second, so I didn’t need a homer to win it. Fortunately, I got a pitch to hit, and I just got lucky and it dropped in.”
Zach Neto and Yoan Moncada homered and Luis Rengifo and Nolan Schanuel both had three hits for the Angels. Kenley Jansen pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up his third win. Randal Grichuk hit two home runs and doubled and drove in three runs for Arizona.
d’Arnaud said the Angels, fourth in the AL West — nine games behind the first-place Houston Astros — still believe they can make a run into the postseason.
“Just keep going. We’re not out of it,” d’Arnaud said. “We all want to make the playoffs this year. Obviously, we want to win the division as well.”
–Field Level Media
