D-backs' undefeated run vs. Giants ends as Gallen searches for answers

PHOENIX -- It couldn't last forever.

The Diamondbacks beat the Giants the first eight times they faced them this year, but on Wednesday night at Chase Field, San Francisco was finally able to turn the tables with a 6-4 win.

The 8-0 start against the Giants marked the most consecutive wins to open a season against an opponent in Diamondbacks franchise history, and they were nearly able to pull this one out as well.

The two teams have one more series against each other -- a four-game set in San Francisco in August.

Here are some things to know about the game:

Gallen was really good early

There's no getting around the fact that this season has been a struggle for Zac Gallen, but in the first four innings on Wednesday, the right-hander looked a lot like his old self.

The Giants managed just one hit off him over that span, a single by Christian Koss with two outs in the third, and his command was better. He didn't issue a walk and had a pair of strikeouts.

"Zac was really good for the early parts of this game," manager Torey Lovullo said. "I thought he was driving his fastball into the right parts of the zone."

Said Gallen, "I felt like we were pretty much in control."

Can't afford to make a mistake

Gallen is in one of those stretches where it seems like whenever he makes a mistake, it costs him dearly.

While his command was good and he was hitting his spots, two of the times he missed wound up being homers.

Heliot Ramos hit a sinker for a homer to lead off the fifth and then Victor Bericoto hit a slider for a two-run homer later in the frame to give the Giants a 3-0 lead.

"I think I had said a while back, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good in this game," Gallen said. "Like, right now I'm on neither side of the coin, so it's kind of frustrating. I felt like any time I made a mistake, the ball was [hit] for damage or leaving the ballpark."

Sticking with him

Gallen had thrown just 69 pitches through five when Lovullo decided to send him back out for the sixth.

After striking out the first two batters of the frame, the wheels came off fast for Gallen as he walked Rafael Devers, then allowed a triple to Ramos and a single to Jung Hoo Lee.

"He started to create some swing-and-miss late in his outing, and maybe I was fooled by that a little bit," Lovullo said. "I gave him the opportunity to get out of that outing. I could have had [Ryan] Thompson ready for Ramos. I'm kicking myself for that."

Instead, Thompson came in after Lee and allowed him to score on Drew Cavanaugh’s single, meaning Gallen was charged with six runs over 5 2/3 innings.

Finding a path forward

The Diamondbacks are going to continue giving Gallen the baseball as they try to find a way to get him going in the right direction.

"We're not going to quit on Zac," Lovullo said. "No coach is going to quit on him. I know that he's struggling, and he's going to continue to fight, because that's his spirit. And we're going to coach him up the best way we know how. 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 'Zac runs.'"

When he got back to the dugout after being taken out, Gallen immediately grabbed an iPad and started looking through his pitches, trying to get some insight. It's been an exhaustive search for him over the first three months of the season.

"It's frustrating," he said. "But we're still gonna keep working on it, and figure out what's the problem here. Why are these things happening?"