Things did not go well for Zac Gallen and the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday against Joc Pederson and the Texas Rangers.
Despite a late rally that saw them score three runs in the ninth inning, the Arizona Diamondbacks ultimately fell to the Texas Rangers on Tuesday, 7-4, ending their three-game winning streak and putting them at 20-21 on the season.
Things began going south immediately for Arizona when Rangers designated hitter Joc Pederson hit a lead-off home run off Diamondbacks right-hander Zac Gallen to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
After Iledarmo Vargas responded for Arizona with a solo home run of his own in the top of the second inning, the Rangers made the Diamondbacks pay by scoring in the bottom of the second, the bottom of the fourth after a solo home run by second baseman Ezequiel Duran and, most notably, the bottom of the fifth inning, where they scored four runs in the frame.
After the game, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo talked about Pederson’s home run, Duran’s home run, and what went wrong for the Diamondbacks on the defensive end.
"Yeah, first of all, the Pederson ball, it was a clean home run," Lovullo said. "The second home run kinda threw me off a little bit, and then Zac made some mistakes and put some runners on, and then we failed to make a couple plays behind him."
By the time Gallen left the mound, he had allowed seven hits, seven earned runs, and two walks while striking out four batters in 4 ⅔ innings pitched. Collectively, it was all too much for Arizona to bounce back from.
"That's why it's a beautiful game, it's a team sport," Lovullo added. "And that's where you gotta just kinda settle in and say that we're gonna get this done as a team, and we didn't do that today."
After Pederson’s lead-off home run, the Diamondbacks did not allow him a hit the rest of the game and ended up striking him out multiple times. By the end, Pederson had gone 1-for-5 at the plate with three strikeouts, but the way he started ended up contributing to Arizona’s loss regardless of his performance the rest of the game.
"I know that Joc is a very capable hitter," Lovullo said. "He's there to see pitches and kinda set it up for the next part of that order: two, three, and four. So, there's a strategy there. And Joc is a very, very complete hitter, sees pitches, and can drive a pitch count and frustrate you a little bit. So. it clearly worked."
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