Red Sox
Casas was 0-4 with four strikeouts on Saturday, and three of those came at the hands of Gallen.
The Red Sox offense did not have an answer for Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen on Saturday.
Boston only mustered one run and five hits in its second game against Arizona. Gallen pitched six innings, allowing only two hits and shutting out the Red Sox in his outing while collecting nine strikeouts.
Triston Casas had a particularly tough time making contact against Gallen, going 0-3 against the righty with three strikeouts. Following the rocky performance at the plate, Casas gave a lot of credit to Gallen’s approach to his matchups.
“He was attacking the zone with multiple different pitches … that curveball was on,” Casas said of Gallen. “Especially with two strikes, he was throwing a curveball that was starting as a ball, coming through the zone as a strike, and then ending as a ball. It’s tough to make a decision on which ones to swing at.”
Gallen commands a 3.65 ERA in 2024 and has 111 strikeouts in 22 games this season. He’s holding opponents to a .248 batting average. All of those marks are either the highest or second highest among Arizona’s starters.
Clearly Casas has a lot of respect for Gallen, whom he declared “one of the best in the game.”
“He was a handful today, for sure,” Casas said.
It was a tough evening for the Red Sox offense collectively, primarily against Gallen but also against the Diamondbacks’ bullpen. Jarren Duran went 0-3, Ceddanne Rafaela went 0-4, and both Masataka Yoshida and Rob Refsnyder went 1-4.
Rafael Devers, who can almost always be counted on to generate offense, didn’t get to find his rhythm on Saturday either. He was walked twice and went 1-2 in his other at-bats.
Alex Cora was disappointed in Boston’s offense on Saturday, but echoed Casas’s respect for Gallen, who seemingly had total command over his pitches.
“That guy’s really good. He made some pitches, he got a few fastballs, he used his breaking ball,” Cora said of Gallen. “We’ll turn the page and be ready for tomorrow, that’s for sure.”
The Red Sox have one more shot at Arizona on Sunday at 1:35 p.m. Eastern Time; Tanner Houck will be on the mound for Boston.
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