Gallen outduels Strider until Braves slug back late

ATLANTA -- A little more than 10 minutes after the final out was recorded with his team on the wrong side of a 7-5 loss to the Braves, D-backs manager Torey Lovullo had not yet quite wrapped his head around all that had transpired.

“I'm still trying to unravel it right now as we're sitting here,” he said.

Indeed, there was a lot to digest, so let’s try to break it down:

It started out as a pitchers’ duel
For the first five innings, the game went just as you would expect a Zac Gallen vs. Spencer Strider matchup would go -- there was not much offense.

In fact, there was zero offense for the Braves as Gallen was perfect through five while Strider allowed a pair of hits but struck out 12 over the same period.

“If you're a baseball fan and you want to sit down and watch an afternoon ballgame and you got Strider going against Gallen, it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch,” Lovullo said.

It was a hot and steamy afternoon at Truist Park, and the heat and humidity appeared to take a toll on each pitcher after five innings.

The Braves broke through first as Orlando Arcia collected Atlanta’s first hit -- a one-out homer in the sixth.

Then it turned into a slugfest
Given the way Strider had pitched to that point, it didn’t seem out of the question that one run would be enough to win the game.

But the right-hander seemed spent when he opened the seventh by walking Corbin Carroll and hitting Christian Walker with a pitch.

Dominic Canzone and Emmanuel Rivera then followed with back-to-back homers, and suddenly Strider was out of the game and the D-backs held a 4-1 lead.

It was Canzone’s first Major League homer -- after he picked up his first big league hit in the series opener Tuesday night.

“Definitely a different feeling,” Canzone said of trotting around the bases. “And probably one that I'll remember for the rest of my life.”

The Braves then got to Gallen in the seventh when Matt Olson hit a two-run homer to pull the Braves to within 4-3.

A Carroll homer in the eighth off Kirby Yates increased the D-backs’ lead, and it seemed they would come away with a sweep of the three-game series.

One more plot twist
Miguel Castro relieved Gallen to start the eighth and had two outs with a runner on second base before he walked Ozzie Albies and allowed a three-run homer to Austin Riley -- his fourth homer of the series -- and suddenly the Braves had their first lead, 6-5.

Riley is one of the game’s best hitters and had been red hot in the series, but for Lovullo, the decision to throw him four straight sliders was the difference.

“It was four consecutive pitches at the same speed, in the same shape, to a really good hitter in Austin Riley,” Lovullo said. “It was a walk to Albies, and they built the inning. They’re a good baseball team. We were counter-punching them all day long, and we were in position to do our job and win a baseball game but it just didn't happen.”

This was still a good series for the D-backs
The D-backs’ clubhouse was quiet postgame, and the loss clearly stung and will leave a sour taste in their mouths as they fly to Cincinnati on Thursday night, but there’s no other way to look at this series as a positive for Arizona.

The D-backs came to Atlanta fresh off a three-game, second-half-opening sweep at the hands of the Blue Jays in Toronto. They had lost four straight and eight of 10, falling from first place in the NL West to third. They were, without a doubt, reeling.

But they managed to outslug the Braves, 16-13, in the opener and beat an outstanding pitcher in Charlie Morton, 5-3, on Wednesday night.

A sweep would have been an amazing accomplishment, but winning two of three stopped what could have been a worrisome slide, their offense received a jump start and they restored some confidence in the clubhouse.

“We rebounded, we played a really good series here,” Lovullo said. “And we were six outs away from sweeping a really good baseball team. So I'm gonna focus on that, and I want the guys to as well.”