‘Orel is hearing footsteps’: Zac Gallen’s pursuit of history moves to Coors Field

DENVER — A text from a friend popped up on Zac Gallen’s phone a few weeks back. At the time, Gallen’s scoreless innings streak was still in its infancy, but it did not stop his buddy from weighing in.

“It said something along the lines of, ‘I think Orel is hearing footsteps,’” Gallen said. “I’m like, ‘What’s he talking about?’”

Even now, Gallen still has a ways to go before he reaches Orel Hershiser’s major league record of 59 consecutive scoreless innings.

With his streak at 41 1/3 innings, Gallen will start Sunday against the Colorado Rockies, but he again will be facing a challenge that goes beyond just the opposing lineup: He has to pitch at Coors Field.

The Diamondbacks were reminded on Friday night just how absurd games in this ballpark can be. They scored nine runs in the fifth inning before an out had been recorded to erase an 8-1 lead. Despite that, they still wound up losing, 13-10, on a walkoff home run by the Rockies’ Elias Diaz.

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Pitches break differently at Denver’s mile-high altitude. The baseball can be harder to grip in the dry conditions. And not only does the ball carry well, the Coors Field outfield is enormous, creating more opportunities for balls to drop in for hits.

With two more outs, Gallen will tie the Diamondbacks’ franchise record of 42 consecutive innings, set by Brandon Webb in 2007.

Gallen has already had success in this ballpark. He owns a 2.05 ERA in five career starts at Coors Field -- and his second outing on current six-start scoreless streak came in this park when he fired seven shutout innings on Aug. 13.

Of course, even another good start would still leave him short of Hershiser. Gallen admitted that prior to this past week he was only vaguely familiar with Hershiser’s accomplishments. He knew of Hershiser and that he had a streak of some length, but Gallen said he had never dug into the details of Hershiser’s run during the 1988 season.

During September of that year, Hershiser turned in five consecutive shutouts, throwing the full nine innings in each game. He then put together a sixth consecutive scoreless outing that was even more impressive, even though it didn’t count as a shutout: On Sept. 28, he threw 10 scoreless innings against the San Diego Padres in a game that lasted 16 innings.

To top it off, he took a shutout into the ninth inning of Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets.

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Gallen said his attention in recent weeks had been on Webb’s franchise record streak, during which he threw three consecutive shutouts. Gallen sounded blown away even to be in the conversation with Hershiser.

Given that the longest outing of Gallen’s career is 7 1/3 innings, it is little surprise that Gallen said it was hard to fathom doing some of the things Hershiser did.

“No,” Gallen said. “The game of baseball has changed. Even the efficiency that he had done it in — I think 112 pitches is the most he threw — I don’t know if teams now are letting you see a lineup four times. He probably had to get to the top of the order four times. That’s what makes it all the more impressive, on top of the last one threw was 10 innings, and then he went to the NLCS and threw another 8 1/3 scoreless.

“Anytime you can get a streak, no matter what it is, but to do it in September and carry it into the LCS, I think there’s a little bit more weight to that. Five CGs in a row, that’s rare. Webby got three. But, I’m sorry, Webby, but five? That’s ridiculous.”

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Diamondbacks' Zac Gallen puts scoreless innings streak on line Sunday