Zac Gallen’s season took another turn Sunday when the Diamondbacks scratched him from his scheduled start against the Dodgers because of right elbow inflammation and sent him back to Arizona for imaging.
Manager Torey Lovullo said before the second game of the series in Los Angeles that Gallen is likely headed for the 15-day injured list after being examined in Phoenix. Left-hander Mitch Bratt, called up from Triple-A Reno, will start in Gallen’s place, though the team has not yet made the move official.
“We got that news yesterday that he was having a little bit of discomfort, and he was examined, and most likely will be headed for the IL,” Lovullo said. “I would say post-start [against San Diego on July 7], we were paying attention to some of the things that he was saying, and then just decided to get this thing examined by our doctors back at home.”
Gallen’s season has been rough by his standards. He enters with a career-worst 6.34 ERA, and in his last outing against the Padres he gave up four runs over six innings, dropping his fourth straight start. His four-seam fastball averaged 92.7 mph in that game, down from his season mark of 93.4 mph.
Lovullo said Gallen kept taking the ball and trying to push through it.
“Zac will be able to give you a little bit more detail as to exactly how he was feeling outing to outing,” Lovullo said. “But he was taking the baseball, and I don't think he was throwing the ball terribly. I know that there were some moments where it was touch-and-go for him, but he's a warrior.
“He just wanted the ball, and then I think he felt something, he spoke up and that's why we decided to get him examined.”
The loss stings even more because the Diamondbacks’ rotation is already stretched thin. Corbin Burnes is out with Tommy John surgery and a teres major strain, Ryne Nelson is on the 60-day injured list with a right flexor strain and right UCL sprain, and Michael Soroka’s most recent bullpen session was pushed back, leaving him without a return timeline.
That leaves Eduardo Rodriguez, Merrill Kelly, Brandon Pfaadt, Jose Cabrera and Bratt in the rotation for now. Just three weeks ago, Pfaadt, Cabrera and Bratt were all pitching in Triple-A.
“It's a little different than we projected early in this year,” Lovullo said. “We have Nelly who's down, Zac who's down now, Soroka and Corbin. Those are the guys that we were projecting that were going to carry the heavy workload, but we know the landscape and we've got to make adjustments.”
Even with the injuries piling up, Arizona starters have logged 518 2/3 innings this season, second most in the National League behind only the Dodgers.
Now the Diamondbacks will have to lean on their depth to keep that going.
“I feel great knowing that we have depth and we're going to be OK with guys getting experience,” Lovullo said. “But it's nothing that we predicted.
It's very unfortunate. It's the unfortunate part of this game, and everybody has to deal with it.”
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