PHOENIX – Coming off of a 5-1 win over the Padres in game one of a three game series, the Diamondbacks are looking to win their second straight series, something they haven’t done since they played the Rockies and Giants on May 12th-May 19th. Zac Gallen will be getting the call to the mound today against the Padres and their star-studded lineup.

Gallen unfortunately hasn’t had the season so far he hoped for, Gallen currently sits at a 5.15 ERA, with his last start bringing in 4 earned runs. Now this may be the pitching matchup that Zac Gallen needs to turn it all around.

Gallen’s career numbers against the Padres are very respectable, per StatMuse, in 12 games pitched, Gallen holds a 3.13 ERA against the Padres, with 68 strikeouts through 68.1 innings. His last start against the Padres came on August 17th, 2023 with Gallen pitching 6.1 innings, only allowing three hits, one run, with three strikeouts. The Diamondbacks offense will be looking for that Gallen later tonight.

Ah yes, the Diamondbacks offense who have been quietly been putting up impressive numbers this season. Currently the Diamondbacks are third in the league in OPS and HR’s, fourth in runs and total bases and eighth in batting average. For reference, there are only three teams in the MLB who have 100 homeruns or more so far this season, those are the Yankees, Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It’s obvious that the Diamondbacks offense is slowly getting out of their slump that they had found themselves during the month of May. During the month of May, specifically after the Dodgers series, the Diamondbacks batted a .245, which isn’t bad but isn’t playoff numbers either. Now during the month of June, despite the sweep from the Nationals, the D-backs are batting a .258, which isn’t a HUGE improvement but you can slowly see the growth.

The Diamondbacks have seven of their batters in their previous 10 games batting above a .290. Those players are Corbin Carroll (.303), Josh Naylor (.306), Lourdes Gurriel Jr (.297), Ketel Marte (.371), Gabriel Moreno (.297), Randal Grichuk (.292) and Alek Thomas (.314). The Diamondbacks are finally starting to figure how to link together their at-bats and it’s proving on the field.

The bullpen is also slowly starting to get their stuff together despite all the injuries starting to pile up. During their slump, the Diamondbacks had over a 5.50 ERA in the bullpen. Now it’s slowly climbed down to a 5.12, still the fourth worse in the league but with more impressive relief appearances, look for the D-backs bullpen to fix that stat.

The Diamondbacks did use four of seven bullpen pitchers in yesterday’s game, so look out for the Diamondbacks to possibly make some roster moves later on in the day to get some fresh arms back into the bullpen.

Now Shaun Larkin, the third base coach has been under fire recently, in his first season as the third base coach, fourteen D-backs have been thrown out after being sent from third. Which aren’t good numbers, it is the second worse in the league just behind the Tampa Bay Rays. Torey Lovullo did have a talk with Larkin earlier in the season after sending another batter past third. We have to hope that Larkin is able to clean up his decisions as the season goes on.

Today, the Arizona Diamondbacks will face Ryan Bergert, who will be making his third official MLB start. Bergert relies on 5 pitches, Four Seamer (49.5%), Slider (26.8%), Sweeper (11.4%), Sinker (8.6%), and a Changeup (3.6%). With his strikeout pitch being separated by his four seamer and his slider.

In Bergert’s previous two starts, he owns a 1.74 ERA, he’s only allowed 2 runs through 10.1 innings pitched with 6 strikeouts and 6 walks. He usually only goes through five innings, so expect for the Padres bullpen to have some extended usage tonight.