Rookie Zac Gallen and Dbacks shut down Phillies in Arizona

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South Jersey's Zac Gallen shut down the Phillies offense

The Arizona Diamondbacks (58-57) defeated the Philadelphia Phillies (59-55) by a score of 6-1 on Wednesday night at Chase Field in Phoenix. The victory was a second straight for the hosts after the Phillies had taken the opener, giving the series to the Dbacks, who took four of the six match-ups between the two teams this year.

With the victory, Arizona moves back above the .500 mark on the season and pulls to within 1.5 games of the final National League Wildcard playoff spot. The Phillies are now tied with the Milwaukee Brewers for that second NL Wildcard berth, though Milwaukee has one more loss.

This was a game in which the visiting Phillies simply failed to show up to play in any way. The offense generated just five hits on the night, going 0-3 with runners in scoring position.

The Dbacks scored twice each in the 3rd, 4th and 8th innings to secure the victory. In the 3rd, a hit batsman, a walk, a single, and a sacrifice fly put the home team in front. In the 4th it was three singles and then the first RBI in the career of Arizona starter Zac Gallen that got the runs home.

Gallen’s RBI came on a poor play by Scott Kingery, who continues to be played out of position by the Phillies, this time at third base.

With runners at first and third and one out, Gallen laid down a bunt that was fielded by Kingery, who opted to throw to first base to get Gallen while the runner at third, Nick Ahmed, was right behind him. Kingery could have been more situationally aware were he a natural or more experienced third baseman, pump-faking to first and turning to get Ahmed in an easy rundown.

Owings helping Dbacks overcome injuries to stay in NL West race

A check of the National League West Division standings this morning shows the Arizona Diamondbacks right in the thick of things. 

The Snakes are now 36-25, tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers in second place, two games behind the Colorado Rockies.

The Dbacks dropped three straight games in Miami last weekend. But now back home at Chase Field, Arizona has gotten back on track with a pair of wins over the division-rival San Diego Padres. A key performer in these two games has been utility player Chris Owings.

On Tuesday, Owings cracked his seventh home run of the season. The three-run shot in the second inning blew the game open early, giving Arizona a 7-0 lead en route to a 10-2 rout.

Last night, Owings went 1-3, scoring a run and driving home another. His seventh inning sacrifice fly brought home Paul Goldschmidt with a run to open up a 7-3 lead. Arizona would eventually win the game by a 7-4 margin.

In both games, he was the starting shortstop in new manager Torey Lovullo‘s lineup. Owings has started 30 of the Dbacks’ 61 games this year at the position. He evenly splits time there with Nick Ahmed, who has started the other 31 games at shortstop.