Arizona Diamondbacks starter Zack Gallen struck out 11 San Francisco Giants batters at Chase Field in Phoenix on Wed Sep 25, 2024 (AP News photo)
Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024
Chase Field
Phoenix, Arizona
San Francisco Giants 2 (79-80)
Arizona Diamondbacks 8 (88-71)
Win: Zac Gallen (14-6)
Loss: Mason Black (1-5)
Time: 2:44
Attendance: 23,767
By Stephen Ruderman
The San Francisco Giants were unable to get back-to-back sweeps to close out their road schedule, as the Arizona Diamondbacks took it to Mason Black and the Giants with an 8-2 win to salvage a game in this series on Wednesday night.
When the Giants embarked on this final road trip to play three teams fighting to get into the Playoffs, it seemed as if it was going to be a disaster. Afterall, they had been swept by the Padres, and as they neared elimination, they were utterly lifeless.
However, the Giants ran into two struggling teams in the Orioles and the Royals. The Giants took two out of three in Baltimore, and they swept the Royals in Kansas City. The Giants then went to Phoenix to play a Diamondbacks’ team that was reeling after a devastating loss on Sunday in Milwaukee, in which they blew an 8-0 lead to the Brewers.
The Giants promptly won the first two games of this series. On Monday, Hayden Birdsong gave the Giants a solid five-inning performance, which helped lead the way to a 6-3 win. Then last night, the Giants’ offense broke out for five home runs, and Logan Webb pitched six strong shutout innings in an 11-0 shellacking of the Diamondbacks.
The Giants now looked to get the sweep in their final road game of the season, and stick that fork in the neck of the Diamondbacks, who were on the verge of falling out of the third and final wild card spot in the National League, and get the sweep. However, there would be a small problem for the Giants, and his name was Zac Gallen.
The roof was closed at Chase Field Wednesday night, just as it was in the first two games of this series, as Gallen and the Diamondbacks took the field. Gallen threw a scoreless inning in the top of the first to start things out.
Mason Black would take the mound for the Giants in the bottom of the first. After having to wiggle out of a jam to pitch a scoreless inning in the bottom of the first in his last start at Kauffman Stadium on Friday, Black had a much easier time throwing a scoreless bottom of the first Wednesday night.
The Giants would get on the board in the top of the second, when Tyler Fitzgerald lined a double to center field to knock in Michael Conforto.
Even though Black was off to a stronger start Wednesday night, things fell apart for him in the bottom of the second. Christian Walker hit a ground-rule double the other way to right to start the inning, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit an opposite-field single to right to tie the game.
Jake McCarthy reached on a fielder’s choice, and Eugenio Suarez walked. That brought up Gabriel Moreno, who singled up the middle and into center field to knock in McCarthy, and the Diamondbacks took the lead. Geraldo Perdomo then walked, and Corbin Carol got Suarez in with a sacrifice fly to right to make it 3-1.
Gallen pitched a one, two, three inning in the top of the third, and established that this was going to be a much different game than the first two of this series.
Black then ran into trouble when he took the mound for the bottom of the third, as he walked a pair of guys and gave up a base-hit, which loaded the bases for Arizona with one out. Black got a brief reprieve when he struck Suarez out swinging for the second out. Black then quickly jumped ahead of Moreno 0-2, but he threw four-straight out of the zone to walk Moreno, and Christian Walker scored to make it 4-1.
Black had just walked his fifth batter of the night, and his lack of control knocked him out of the game. Sean Hjelle finished the bottom of the third, and then proceeded to give up a run of his own in the bottom of the fourth.
As for Gallen, he was nails when his team desperately needed it. He gave up just one run and two hits over six dominant innings, and he walked just two and struck out 11.
Left-hander Taylor Rogers pitched a scoreless bottom of the fifth for the Giants, and Erik Miller followed that up with a scoreless bottom of the sixth. Camilo Doval then threw a one, two, three inning in the bottom of the seventh, his first one, two, three inning since Sept. 7.
The Giants got a run off of Justin Martinez in the top of the eighth to make it 5-2, but any late momentum the Giants had would be snuffed out in the bottom of the eighth. The Diamondbacks would then put the game away against Spencer Bivens, as with runners at the corners and two outs, Pavin Smith hit a home run into the pool in right-center, and it was now 8-2.
A.J. Puk and Kevin Ginkel combined for a scoreless bottom of the ninth, and the Diamondbacks got their desperately-needed win.
Zac Gallen got the win, and Mason Black took the loss.
Diamondbacks’ pitchers combined for 17 strikeouts against the Giants Wednesday night, and every single Giant who took an at-bat struck out.
The Giants fall back to under .500 at 79-80, and they end up going 38-43 on the road. Still, they made their mark in the wild card races in both leagues, and they have every reason to hold their heads high and enjoy their final flight back home to San Francisco.
The Giants went 7-2 on what was expected to be a brutal road trip. Not only was it not the brutal trip we all expected, it was tied for their second-best nine-game road trip in franchise history, and tied for their best nine-game road trip in their 67 years in San Francisco.
As for the Diamondbacks, they improve to 88-71, and they are now a game up on the Braves for the third wild card.
The Diamondbacks were already put in a bind with the Braves and Mets squaring off in Atlanta, but now that Hurricane Helene has caused both Wednesday night’s and Thursday’s game between the Braves and Mets to be postponed to a traditional doubleheader on Monday, the day after the originally-scheduled end of the Regular Season on Sunday.
The Giants will return home to close out the season with a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals at Oracle Park starting on Friday night. Landen Roupp (1-1, 2.70 ERA) will make the start for the Giants, and he will be opposed by Miles Mikolas (9-11, 5.35 ERA).
Prior to Friday night’s game, the winner of the 2024 Willie Mac Award will be announced in a pre-game ceremony. The Willie Mac Award is given annually to the Giants’ player—or in rare cases of a tie, players—who best exemplifies the leadership of the late great hall-of-famer, Willie McCovey. The award is voted on by Giants’ players, coaches, trainers and Manager Bob Melvin.
First pitch is currently scheduled for 7:15 p.m. PDT, but with the Willie Mac Award being announced, the first pitch could be pushed back a few minutes.
National League Wild Card Standings:
- Padres 91-67 +3.5
- Mets 87-70 —
- Diamondbacks 88-71 —
Braves 86-71 1.0
Giants News and Notes:
This morning on KNBR’s Murph and Markus, Andrew Baggarly, the Giants beat writer for The Athletic, discussed the future of Farhan Zaidi. Baggarly noted that the Giants’ ownership board has seemed to have lost patience with Zaidi, and that they are leaning towards making a change.
Zaidi’s fate will most likely be determined in the next one to five days.
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