Zac Gallen has advice for pitching deep into the playoffs
Zac Gallen didn't really understand until it was all over.
When early November hit back in 2023, the Diamondbacks pitcher finally fell victim to the effects of what he had just done - make 40 starts and pitch 243 2/3 innings. It was the second-most starts of any pitcher since 2000 and the most innings in the past five years.
"At the time when you’re going through it, you don’t think, ‘Oh, I’m at Inning 240.’ Once you get to October, you’re running on pure adrenaline," Gallen said on the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast.
"I lay on my couch for three days. My girlfriend at the time, now my fiancée, said, ‘Are you alright?’ I was like, ‘I think I’m fine, but I need a couple of days to just be horizontal because I am mentally and physically exhausted.’"
He added, "I don’t know if I have advice for guys who might be running up on that kind of thing. The hard part is you don’t want to be physically exhausted when you get to October, but at the same time you don’t want to be the guy who in September is like, ‘I only want to go five innings today because I want to save bullets.’ We took it down to the wire so I told Torey (Lovullo), ‘Every fifth day give me the ball and I will give 100 or 110 pitches.’ If I was going to do it again, obviously, you don’t know, but guys who are smart early in the year are the guys who know they don’t have to throw 115 pitches in April because that might save me an inning come October. The ride was fun, nonetheless. I would sign up for it all over again."
Words that Garrett Crochet are also currently living by.
After another standout performance by the Red Sox ace - this one coming in the form of seven shutout innings in his team's 7-0 win over the A's in Sacramento - Crochet resides in eerily identical territory to where Gallen found himself on the same date two years ago.
On Sept. 8, 2023, Gallen pitched a complete game shutout, tossing 107 pitches. It put his season total at 187 2/3 innings, having thrown a total of 2,870 pitches.
Monday, exactly two years later, Crochet landed at an MLB-high 185 1/3 innings, throwing 2,854 pitches (the second-most of any starter this season).
But as good as the Red Sox starter has been, and he has been better than good with a 2.57 ERA, there is a mystery when it comes to what might await. Crochet is in uncharted territory in terms of workload, having previously maxed out at 146 innings before this season.
It is Gallen who can offer perspective regarding the life Crochet is potentially about to live.
After that Sept. 8 start, the Diamondbacks ace went on to make 10 more starts, throw 56 additional innings while adding on 925 pitches. It ultimately was a postseason run that included six starts and 33 2/3 frames.
Much like Crochet is facing, Gallen had little choice. Every game going through September and October meant something. In the Red Sox's starter's case, his team is still three games out of first-place in the American League East and one game behind the Yankees for the top wild card spot (and home-field advantage for a first-round matchup).
"Every win counts here down the stretch, so for me it’s just trying to help the team put our best foot forward every game," Crochet told reporters after the 10-strikeout start vs. the A's. "I think I’ve got three or four left. I’m losing track at this point. Every start ‘til the finish line and the ones that are following that, just really doing the best thing I can to help the team."
The good news for Crochet is that Gallen has offered a blueprint for the next few months, and even beyond. Not only did the Diamondbacks starter excel all the way until that last start on Nov. 1 in Game 5 of the World Series, allowing just one run in 6 1/3 innings, but other than a hamstring issue there have been no physical setbacks since.
For Crochet, it should be the kind of perspective he can hang his hat on heading into October.
"Ultimately, it comes down to they are going to take this uniform off you at some point. Careers only last so long," Gallen said. "So I wouldn’t want to look back and think I took a couple of innings off in September and we didn’t go on a run. Pitch the All-Star Game. Do this. Do that. You never know when it's going to be your last."