Zac Gallen pitched six strong innings and withstood heavy rain as the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks beat the New York Yankees 7-1 on Sunday afternoon.
Gallen (17-8) allowed three hits, struck out eight and walked two. He joined the Atlanta Braves’ Spencer Strider as the second 17-game winner in baseball.
Gallen won for the third time in four starts and upped his strikeout total to 213. The right-hander notched his eighth scoreless start this season after the game was delayed for about 50 minutes before first pitch.
Tommy Pham and Christian Walker hit sacrifice flies in the first inning after Gabriel Moreno and Corbin Carroll started the game with base hits against Carlos Rodon (3-7).
Evan Longoria contributed a two-run single and Geraldo Perdomo lifted a sacrifice fly in Arizona’s three-run seventh. Walker had an RBI groundout in the eighth and Moreno capped the Diamondbacks’ scoring with a double in the ninth.
The Diamondbacks (82-73) won for the sixth time in seven games and remained a half-game ahead of the Chicago Cubs for the National League’s second wild-card spot. Arizona also secured its first winning season since 2019.
The Yankees (78-77) were officially eliminated from the AL playoff race with seven games remaining. The Yankees can win no more than 85 games and will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
Aaron Judge’s bases-loaded walk in the ninth accounted for New York’s lone run.
Rodon allowed five runs (three earned) on five hits in 6 1/3 innings. The left-hander struck out four and walked one.
After getting the lead, Gallen retired eight straight until consecutive walks to DJ LeMahieu and Judge. He got a break when Gleyber Torres hit a single that caromed off second base umpire Clint Vondrak and moved the runners up a base due to umpire interference.
Following Torres’ hit, Gallen escaped the bases-loaded jam. He also stranded a runner at third in the fifth by getting strikeouts of LeMahieu and Judge.
Arizona took a 4-0 lead on Longoria’s single through a drawn-in infield. After New York left fielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa dropped a fly ball and reliever Randy Vasquez threw a wild pitch, Perdomo’s fly to left made it 5-0.
Arizona second baseman Ketel Marte was scratched before the game with an illness.
–Field Level Media