Zac Gallen’s historic streak of 3 runs or less comes to an end against Giants

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen’s MLB record of starts to open a career with three or fewer runs allowed came to an end on the road Monday against the San Francisco Giants.

Gallen had not allowed more than three runs in any of the first 23 starts in his career with the Miami Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks.

After holding the Giants scoreless through five innings, at one point retiring 14 straight batters, Gallen struggled in the sixth inning, allowing four hits, a walk and three runs without recording an out.

Gallen was then relieved for Junior Guerra who came into a bases-loaded situation and walked home Giants’ first baseman Brandon Belt to bring across the fourth run that was charged to Gallen.

Guerra got a double play and a fly out to limit the damage at four runs.

Gallen said in a Zoom call with the media after the game that it was a weird start and even though he was cruising for five innings, he felt like he didn’t have his best stuff.

He took the loss in the game, his first of the season, as the Giants won 4-2.

Gallen’s focus is already on his next start, but he took a moment to look back fondly on the impressive start to his big league career.

“It was a pretty cool run, maybe it was meant to end on number 23 (his jersey number),” Gallen said. “To keep up that streak was going to be nearly impossible, all streaks have to end at some point.”

Gallen has been one of the best pitchers in the big leagues in 2020, holding a 2.29 ERA across nine starts.