Diamondbacks’ win streak over Giants couldn’t last forever

PHOENIX — Something had to give between the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 8-0 record against the San Francisco Giants entering Wednesday night and their 1-5 mark with Zac Gallen on the mound over his last six starts.

The series finale started very well for Gallen through four dominant innings, but he failed to maintain that high level in a 6-4 Diamondbacks loss.

Gallen blanked the Giants through four frames, but his final stat line read 5.2 innings and six earned runs.

San Francisco took a 6-0 lead in what looked like another blowout loss at home for the Diamondbacks, but they made a game of it with four runs in the eighth inning — benefiting greatly from awful defense on the other side.

The Giants (36-50) held on to avoid getting swept by the D-backs (43-43) for the third straight series.

“We’re not gonna quit on Zac,” manager Torey Lovullo said postgame. “No coach is gonna quit on him. I know he’s struggling and he’s gonna continue to fight because that’s his spirit … It’s not working the way we want it to for him, I’ll acknowledge that, but he can pay us unbelievable dividends if he gets on one of his runs.”

Zac Gallen runs hot and cold vs. Giants

Gallen pitched as sharply as he had looked all season early in this game, and yet his MLB-worst ERA increased again to 6.36.

He’s running away with the top spot, as the next highest belongs to Jeffrey Springs of the Athletics at 5.79.

Like Gallen’s last start in Tampa Bay, when he retired 15 straight hitters, he did a lot right when it came to command and drawing weak contact to cruise through most of the outing. But he did not put it all together through the end.

“My job every fifth day is to give this team a chance to win,” Gallen said. “Even though there’s small positives for me in there, they’re not netting out as a team positive. So that ultimately is the frustrating part. Small positives give you a glimmer of hope and trust in the process. … When the final line is tough — especially when we put a rally together to score four runs. I feel like I could have left that game with six innings and three runs and this might be a different story.”

The Giants broke out against Gallen in the fifth inning with home runs from Heliot Ramos and Victor Bericoto, but then it seemed like Gallen settled back in.

He struck out the first two hitters of the sixth inning and had Rafael Devers in a 2-2 count. But he walked Devers, allowed a triple to Ramos and another single to end his outing to a mixture of claps and boos from the fans at Chase Field.

“I feel like we were in pretty much control of the whole game,” Gallen said. “Was ahead all night, first-pitch strikes … I feel like we were getting to two strikes pretty quickly. And then, the fifth and sixth were pretty frustrating. I felt like, from a location standpoint, I made two, three location mistakes, and two of them ended up being home runs.”

Lovullo said he had reliever Ryan Thompson ready for Ramos and suggested it was a mistake to leave Gallen in at that point. Part of the reason was that it looked like Gallen had something left in the tank with the two strikeouts, both swinging.

“Maybe I was fooled by that a little bit,” Lovullo said.

Gallen entered Wednesday as one of three pitchers with at least 17 starts and three or fewer quality starts, along with Matthew Liberatore and Michael Lorenzen.

The Diamondbacks are 6-12 in his starts this season.

He received no help from the offense, as the D-backs mustered nothing in six innings against Giants starter Trevor McDonald.

Diamondbacks almost come back

The eighth inning was a mixture of the D-backs hitting well-placed balls and the Giants throwing it all over the place, from a Ryan Walker wild pitch to two throwing errors from shortstop Christian Koss, who also misplayed a potential double-play grounder. Pavin Smith and Ketel Marte delivered RBI knocks.

Arizona brought the tying run to the plate, but Lourdes Gurriel Jr. struck out with a runner on third to end the opportunity. The club went 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Corbin Carroll, Gurriel and Adrian Del Castillo combined for an 0-for-12 night with six strikeouts as the 3-5-6 hitters,

Despite the two wins, this was a rough series for Carroll, who went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and an RBI (groundout) on Wednesday. He finished 0-for-10 in the series. Lovullo said Carroll twisted his ankle on Tuesday and had a right shoulder scare on a swing but was doing fine.

The Diamondbacks already took care of a series win, but a sweep would have been helpful on several fronts. Not only would it have kept the D-backs above .500, but they have a very tough schedule before the All-Star break.

Arizona hosts the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers this weekend, visit the San Diego Padres for four games next week and close the “first half” with a three-game series at Dodger Stadium.

Wednesday attendance

17,142

Next up, Brewers

The Diamondbacks did not fare well against the Brewers on the road earlier this season, losing two of three games with a couple double-digit-run losses.

The Brewers have been a machine this year, having won eight of their last 10 games to hold onto a 5.5-game lead over the hot Chicago Cubs in the NL Central. Only the Dodgers (56-31) have a better record than the Brewers (53-31) among major league clubs.

Rookie Jose Cabrera will start the opener on Friday, his third career start. Merrill Kelly will pitch on Fourth of July Saturday, followed by Eduardo Rodriguez to end the homestand on Sunday.

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