PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Bats go silent, Diamondbacks fail to clinch postseason berth in White Sox series finale

Episode Date: September 28, 2023

On a day where the Diamondbacks could have clinched a playoff spot with a win over the White Sox and some help from the Cubs or the Marlins, the Snakes offense came up missing in the series finale loss to Chicago. We discuss what happened with the bats today, how this loss impacts their playoff chances, and the upcoming final series of the year at Chase Field against the Houston Astros.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx WIN MONEY THROUGH SPLASH SPORTS: https://www.splashsports.com/phnx Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits of Creams. Go to https://theflowershopusa.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local The Flower Shop dispensary.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

to another edition of the HNXD Backs podcast right here on PHMX. My name is Derek Montia. Jacob is behind the max today and he is doing the drum solo. Neither one of us are in that lead. We don't have that kind of energy. After watching the Arizona Diamond Badge offense come up short against a fairly mediocre pitching staff in the Chicago White Sox. But the lowly Chicago White Sox for our friends at CHDO.

But again, welcome in. I'm Derek Montia. I am the mayor of PhNX. This is my vice mayor. It is your thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. And yeah, Jesse, you said it right now before we started. But this was not a very enjoyable game to watch. It did not feel like the Diamondbacks were patient at all when it came to their approach at the plate offensively.

You could say what you will about the pitching staff and the bullpen game, but they gave this team a chance to win. It was pretty much the offense that did not show up today. Yeah, I mean the DeVax won a game yesterday, scoring 10. three runs, right? And in this game, it was, they were sort of on the other side of that where they, where they lose this game three to one. Yeah, they, they didn't really make White Sox pitchers work in the latter half of this game. Yeah. But in the, in the first part of this game, I think they very much did. Tuki Toussaint threw 85 pitches in four innings of work. But then over the last five

innings of this game, once the White Sox relievers got in there, they threw 59 pitches over five innings of work. And that's just that that's not great. If you're, you know, if you're going around 10, 11 pitches in an inning, which is basically,

you know, what the diamond backs averaged against the white socks in those last five innings, you're just not having very good at bats. And, you know, there was, there was some hard contact.

There was, you know, some maybe unlucky batted balls here and there. But by and large, just a poor showing from the D-BACs offense for, for the second consecutive day. It didn't do much a whole lot. It didn't do a whole lot yesterday against the white.

Sox either. That's the thing about today's loss and yesterday's win, right? We said that yesterday's win could have very easily been a loss had it not been for Brandon Fotz, a day on the mound, and the way that the bullpen was able to continue to hold the White Sox, you know, the way that they did. But, you know, in this game, again, I don't feel like this one is on the pitching staff. It was a bullpen game. Bryce Jarvis got the start. He went two and two thirds innings, gave up one hit, two earn runs one walk one strikeout gave up one home run not not a great day by any stretch of the imagination but again uh when you you you know when you when you when you add that to the rest of the bullpen the rest of the bullpen for the most part held the white socks scoreless uh Kyle Nelson was the only

other pitcher that gave up a run in this game um but honestly jarvis's two earned runs uh allowed was enough for the white socks to win because the diamond back's offense just could not do anything and and again even with that win and it's not very encouraging. They had a huge offensive output in game one of this series. They scored 15 runs. It really felt like at the time what we were seeing was them kind of breaking out. And you hoped to see that carry over, especially against a White Sox team that I'm not trying to really call them lowly or anything like that.

But they have nothing to play for this point. They haven't been particularly good this season. And, you know, they really felt like the Diamondbacks could have secured a sweep after the way that they put it to them in game one. Game two's victory was surprising, but still nice because, you know, again, it's an encouraging sign to see the pitching staff step up and, and help them win on a day where the, you know, they didn't generate that much offense. Today, it felt like the offense let, you know, the pitching staff down, you know,

in the other way. So, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, Kyle Nelson, again, one inning, give up to the two hits, the one run, right? So it's like, I don't know, but they went four for 27 as a team in yesterday's loss. today they only managed three hits three for 29 three for 29 so they went seven for 56 for batting average of

125 in the two final games of this series not great yeah I mean sometimes you spread out your run scoring and sometimes you do what the diamondbacks just did which is score you know 15 runs in a game and then follow it up and you know score three runs and then one run so yeah unfortunately that's that's you know unfortunately for them that's kind of the way it works in the sport a lot of the time.

You don't necessarily get to spread out your run scoring the way that maybe you would ideally like to. But yeah, the quality of the abats in the second half of this game were just pretty lackluster on the debacks side. You know, they've played a lot of baseball. Their schedule has been pretty messed up the last, you know, obviously over these last few days with what happened in New York and having this series shifted back a day. They theoretically were supposed to be home today.

With an off day today. Yeah, they were supposed to finish this series in Chicago yesterday and have an off day to day and, you know, be able to rest and recharge for a big series over the weekend against the Houston Astros. So, yeah, I don't know if fatigue is playing a role in that, but they just looked like the focus at the plate just wasn't quite there in the second half of the game from my perspective. And it's not everybody because Corbyn Carroll still proceeds to look at all times. like he's trying to generate the offense, get things kick started for this team. He was two for four today with a triple that was, again, one of the fastest triples I've ever seen. Like, it's Corbyn, so we, you know, we expect him to get in there safely. But to be honest, like any normal man is only going to be able to get two bases out of the ball that he hit today.

And somehow Corbyn turns that into a triple. He is not a normal man. He is no normal man by any stretch of the imagination. but man he really did put on a show in this series and today and for that reason he is our king snake Corbyn Carroll goes two for four today with a triple run scored stolen base just this is what Corbyn Carroll does right he hits for power he gets on base he's fast he can can get those extra bases with his speed he can get more bases with his with his feet once he gets on the on the base path and you know we were discussing this the other

day. It's, it's debatable, right? I mean, we know how good Zach Gallen has been for this team. We know how good Merrill Kelly has been for this team. But, I mean, I think it is debatable that Corbyn Carroll is quite possibly the true MVP of this team, the truly most valuable player on the team. Yeah, I don't even know if it's debatable. To be honest, I think Corbyn Carroll is pretty clearly in my book, the most valuable player on this team. Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly are definitely up there to be sure. But yeah, I mean, from a wins above replacement standpoint, Corbyn is well out in front of those other competitors.

And I mean, I think he's going to get MVP votes this year. Like, I think Corbyn Carroll is probably going to get some down-ballot MVP support this season for the year that he's had. And it wasn't that long ago, I mean, just a few months that we were talking about Corbyn Carroll as like an actual MVP candidate, right? He was up there with Ronald Acuna and, you know, in that conversation for a while. I don't think Corbyn is really in the thick of that conversation at this point. But he's deserving of that consideration with, you know,

everything that he contributes in so many different ways. One thing you were pointing out to me before the show was that Corbyn has now played in 156 of the Diamondbacks games. Is that right? I think by the end of the year you can get to 156, 155 or 156, something like that. And that's incredible considering the amount of time that we thought we were going to lose Corbyn Carroll due to injuries all the time. he's been hit, the shoulder injury scares, the everything that's happened with him. He did get injured at one point in Colorado

and only missed what, like two games due to that. And this is in a lineup where Tori notoriously, pun intended, likes to, you know, give guys rest, right? So it typically is hard for guys to play

in 155 plus games for the Diamondbacks with the fact that Tori does like to give guys days off, especially if they, you know, so for him to go through, some of the things that he went through this year and to just be, you know, available so much for this team. The ups and downs where he's, you know, where he's kind of just been literally up and down in the starting lineup. Everything. He's just been an incredible player for the, for the.

Yeah, I remember, I think it was right before the All Star break when the second shoulder scare happened. And Corbyn went from being, all right, like, he really might miss some significant time. This, this looked really bad. It happened for a second time. And not only was Corbyn okay, but he was in the lineup the very next day. Yeah, the next day. It was wild. It really is crazy that Corbyn is given the Diamondbacks a full season, a complete season, despite the fact that, you know, people have been convinced on, I would argue maybe four or five

different occasions that he was like potentially like out for the season or going to miss significant time. There was the injury in Colorado. This guy. There were the two shoulder things. There have been a couple hit by pitches that did not look good in the moment. So yeah, I mean, durability is, you know, availability is one of the best abilities. And Corbyn has had that this year for the Diamondbacks as well.

You were present and saw my reaction to the shoulder scare. I packed all of this stuff up in a box and was just ready to take it outside and just be done with the whole season. It would have been the end of the PH and X-NX-I. Yeah, just started like G-rated would have started coming to you from this time slot every single day. But anyway, Corbyn, again. And I think that that adds to his case, obviously, for the National League rookie of the year, which seems like a slam dunk for him at this point, right? Yeah, it is a slam dunk.

The fact that these other rookies, no matter where they played, there was injuries, there was times where these guys just didn't play nearly the amount of innings or have the amount of bats. Not to mention, I mean, like in the Reds case, right? The Reds have some wonderful young rookie players. but they kind of all contribute. So none of them can really stand out in a way on a team like that. Whereas Corbyn has not only been like the best rookie on the Diamondbacks team of all the rookies that have made their debut. But he's like we said, he's been the best, arguably the best player on the team.

And that's something that you can't take away from him. He just ascended so quickly from being the new guy to being this team's MVP. So that's just such a good reason for him to win this thing. And he's gone new. I'm going to cash that bet. I think Matt McLean with the Reds. Like if he had played a full season, he didn't get any opportunity until I think it was well into May. And then he had what is now looking like a season ending injury a few weeks ago.

So he's missed so much time that I think if he hadn't missed that time, he would have stood out enough from Cincinnati's group or he could have maybe made this a little more interesting. Cody Sangha definitely deserves some love in the conversation as well. He's had an outstanding year. But as we saw last year, pitchers just don't really win. I really think Spencer Strider should have won last year over Michael Harris, and that didn't happen. Is Kodai the one that asked that didn't want it? No, that's Masataka Yoshita, right? He said that I'm too old.

Masataka Yoshita said he didn't want. He said, he said I'm too old to be rookie of the year. Oh, yeah. Throng shit at each year. It is. it is different right when a guy comes over from you know a fairly long career in another league overseas and you know comes into the majors it is a little there are a different type of rookie right than like a Corbyn Carroll or Matt McLean I mean if I were them I wouldn't say I don't want the

award yeah I guess I respect that well I get more money because of this yes give me the awards give me the awards give me more money I don't think Masatakio sheet is going to win this thing in the American League though. I think Gunner Henderson has that pretty well locked down at this point. And that's probably one of the most consistent like from from pillar to post victories for the American League and National League rookies of the year because they were the favorites at the beginning of the year. I remember we were celebrating a lot of the articles that were talking about Corby and Carroll being, you know, a standout for the rookie of the year in the NL and Gunner Henderson was very much part of that conversation for the AL. And like you said, it's the injury like what happened to Matt McLean.

It's so hard for that for any player. to consistently play throughout the season. And honestly, you miss time and you just miss opportunities to be, you know, obviously playing and contributing to your team and giving yourself a resume, a portfolio that would win you that award. But you guys that are here right now, the PHAN Export YouTube channel, you all deserve all the accolades, all the awards for your portfolios, for your resumes, for being fans of us.

So thank you for being here right now in the YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so. up for notifications that way you don't miss when any of our shows go live leave us a little thumbs up just because that's your way of telling us you love us uh the brand new wagon shirt is out it's the shirt itself is a wagon uh and it's a shirt in honor of a wagon uh so it's it's wagon squared it's my favorite shirt that we have by far it by far is my favorite shirt too like i really love this shirt especially because like we have a lot of black shirts you know in the in the in the p h and x locker it is a nice mix it's a nice mix it's a nice mix

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and now listen to Shane, who we miss dearly talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem, call 1,800 gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming. Call 8778 Hope and Y or text Hope and Y 467369-9-9-N-York. Call 1-800-3-2-7-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-1-Satheat.

21-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-7-1-1-1-1-1-1-4-1-1-1-1-1-4. Visit at MGM.GMGM-GM-GM-G Not available in D-C, New York, or Ontario. There's a lot of chatter right now in the chat about playoff odds, playoff chances, all of those things. Well, we tweeted out last night that the Diamondbacks have. I think according to fan graphs it was a 97.8% chance of making the post season and people were real worried about that 2.1% which is which is fair if you're an arizona sports fan you've been damaged many times look look here's how it is we've seen it all we are surprised by anything it's weird because I don't even see like Arizona sports fans being the type of people any longer that would rip their television down off the wall and and smash it. We would just get up like that gif of grabbing, you know, your purse.

You just get up, look disappointed and walk out the room. That's what we are at this point because we all figure all of the bad things are going to happen to us. Nothing good is going to happen to us. And of course. Probably, yeah, I mean, it's all going to end the heartbreak. Expect the worst, hope for the best kind of. I don't even know if they hope for the best anymore.

It's like expect the worst, hope for not the worst. Not nearly as bad. Yeah, not nearly as bad. Absolutely. let's take a look first at the numbers from this series because hopefully that will make you a little happier. The Diamondbacks, they won this one handedly. But again, see, even with one of these games being 15 to 4 and the Diamondbacks winning the series and everything still seeming like it was kind of a route, the White Sox somehow out hit the Diamondbacks 20 to 19. Is that real?

How is that real? Yeah, the D-backs in that 15 run game actually only had 12 hits, which is still a lot. But still, yeah, you would think that with a 15 run day that they would have had 30 hits in that game or something absurd, right? I don't know about 30. Hey, 40, 50, I don't know. They definitely had, you know, some walks and, you know, they got base runners other ways in that game in order to score those runs. But, yeah, I mean, over the last couple days, we talked about it earlier, seven for 56 in these last two games, that's a batting average of 125 against a, you know, pretty lackluster White Sox pitching staff. So it's been it's been rough and you know I mean heading into the postseason

You know it it would it would certainly behoove the diamond backs to go in with a little bit of momentum Offensively and you know you're gonna be facing significantly better pitching in the postseason if you get there Then you know what the debacks have seen these last couple days and they didn't look real good In these games it's no secret taking a look back at that graphic the relief pitching and starting pitching ERA really does tell the story here of what the Diamondbacks were able to do, especially considering that one of these three games was a bullpen game. I think that this is, they put up zeros in the first two games

and pretty much Kyle Nelson's one run allowed is the only run that the bullpen allowed in this series. In the whole series. Yeah, things didn't look this good in the series against the Yankees, that's for sure. And that's a big reason why they lost two out of three in New York. But this right here definitely shows, especially runners in scoring position, batting average,

everything that Diamondbacks were able to generate here. tells the tale of how they were able to win two out of three in Chicago. And honestly, like it felt once again like it probably should have been a sweep. You know, it just like Jesse said, even early on, they had Tuki Toussaint, you know, kind of on the ropes. They had them at a pitch count of 85 in four innings. And, you know, they just weren't able to take advantage of continuing to put that pressure on the bullpen of the Chicago White Sox. It felt like once the bullpen came in, they kind of held the debacks and check. And that's been the story at times.

We've seen this team either with starting pitching, make a starting pitcher look like a Cy Young candidate, or just completely be mystified by the bullpen once they've come in. In fact, lately it feels like a lot of the runs they do put up are earlier on in games than it used to be. And it feels like they kind of, even in wins, kind of go up and then things kind of go silent for them for a significant period of time. Yeah. I mean, frankly, the Diamondbacks offense is not. good if I'm being totally honest.

That's brutality, but let's go with it. If you look at just where the Diamondbacks rank offensively, they're basically right in the middle of the league, like right in the middle. Sure. And I think they kind of make the most out of what they have because they're one of the best base running teams. And then on the, you know, on the other side of the ball, they're one of the best defensive teams in baseball.

So they're good at, you know, it's that they're branded on competence, right? as Andy McCullough said on the show a week or so ago, they do a lot of those little things really well. But it's not like the Diamondbacks have, you know, six, seven hitters who are really striking fear into the opponent. They've got more like three or four hitters that, you know, might strike some fear in the opponent. And, you know, they have a pretty well-rounded lineup.

They do a lot of the little things well. But, yeah, this offense is not a premier offense. It was in the first half of the season. But in the second half, it's taken. a pretty big step back and all and all you're looking at basically a league average offense. And so yeah, I mean, you're going to have days where it looks like it did on on Tuesday. And then you're going to have days like this where suddenly it's just sort of absent. I know we mentioned earlier there was some hard contact in this game, which there was.

The debacks had 11 batted balls of 95 miles an hour or higher exit velocity. It's like that Tommy Fam hit that I was like, that was a really well hit ball. Yeah. It just was right at a defender. Tommy did have a line shot that that was pretty unlucky in the. this game but out of those 11 seven of them were on the ground yeah and if you're if you're rolling over the top it doesn't really matter sometimes how hard you're hitting it if it's in the vicinity of a defender you know these guys are good enough where they're gonna do with that what

they're supposed to so uh yeah i mean it's just uh you know just a tough day for the debacks offense and we've seen a few of these uh we really in the last couple months for sure and to be fair uh game two could have been one of those days as well had brandon fought and the relievers not been as good as they were. So the Diamondbacks definitely got out of Chicago getting taking care business. You would hope for a sweep, but winning the series was the important thing here. Yeah, absolutely. And of course, I know there's a lot of confusion still, rightfully so, around where the Diamondbacks are in the playoff chase and what their magic number is. Now, their magic number does not go backwards. Their magic number currently still stands at two,

which is what it was before today's game. Should the Cub, or the Marlins lose tonight, their magic number would be reduced back down to one? Is that down to one? Well, magic numbers, a lot of misconceptions about the idea of a magic number. There we go. Because, and I've been thinking about this entirely too much over the last 24 hours, so I apologize in advance for the rant I'm about to go on.

Hit him with the one shot. The magic number, if you just look at the way it's actually defined, it's not made for situations like this, where you have multiple spots and you have multiple teams and contention for those spots. Magic number, it is a two-team calculation. It only can factor in two teams, and it can only factor in one spot

that those two teams are contending for. So like for a division winner, if you've got a first place team and a second-place team, magic number is great, it's simple, everyone gets it. In a situation where you have two playoff spots that are still available and three, or I guess four teams theoretically in the race going after them,

Magic numbers actually don't work. You have to specify which team you're talking about. So the debacks magic number with the Cubs is two. So that means that two Dbacks wins, one Dback win, and one Cubs loss, or two Cubs losses the rest of the way, that would get the Diamondbacks in the postseason for sure. But if you're talking about the Marlins, the calculation changes. I believe the Dback's magic number with the Marlins is three. Right.

So you can't. Because if they tie with the Marlins, Marlins holds the tiebreaker. Exactly. the debacks versus what's going on with the Cubs. Right. And that's what I've heard incorrectly quite a bit is the magic number being at two thing. Because I thought about that with the Marlins being at three. If they went out, the Diamondbacks lose, right?

Like nothing's secured for this team. But like Jesse said, two Cubs losses. That means the Diamondbacks are in. The Diamondbacks get a loss from the Cubs and the loss from the Marlins tonight. They can still secure their playoff spot with essentially a single victory. in the Astros series. So they don't need to sweep the Astros. They don't even need to win it.

They just need the Cubs and the Marlins to lose. And they need to pick up a victory in this final series. But let's take a look at where they are at in the wild card standings. And hopefully that can help simplify things. They are currently a game and a half up on the Cubs, essentially. And I mean, and the Marlins, you could say. But again, the Marlins and the D-Backs can't tie. So we'll see how things play out for those two teams.

tonight. But yeah, I mean, like you said, the debacks are in a good spot here because they are going for one of two spots. So they don't need to theoretically just fight for the final spot. They need to just be better than the Cubs really at this part at this point. I don't know how the Padres snuck onto this graphic, Jacob. And I will never fucking for the Padres being on here. That makes me sick to my stomach to see that team's logo. Here's the thing. The Padre, the debats are the only team on the National League side or the American League side that are in the playoffs that currently have a negative run

differential. It's negative six right now. They were really close to getting rid of that. Man, we were getting there. We were at minus three. But the Padres meanwhile have, I think they're the only team out of contention that have not only a positive run differential, but such as massive two now if they don't make the playoffs.

The Padres are eliminated, no? Not technically. I think they've staved off elimination. Shut up. They have four games left, don't they? The Padres don't have the season series with the Cubs, though. So the Cubs are already at 82 wins. But if they have it with the Marlins, it doesn't matter.

I don't like this. I don't like you did this to me. We already had complicated enough math to deal with here, Jacob. But now you've got to factor in the goddamn Padres. I just want them to lose tonight. So I never have to see them on this graphic ever again. Because the Giants are now out of it, right? I stand by what I said.

I'm with you. I think the Padres are eliminated. Because the Cubs, yes, the Cubs are losing to the Marlins, but the Padres are losing to the Cubs. Sure. But what if the Padres win four games? That would be a three-way tie. Yeah, you know what? I think you might be right.

That would be a three-way tie in which case the rules are maybe a little more complicated. Can you clip that? Yeah, you should probably clip that. Even if you don't put it on anywhere to three. Nobody got his face, though. I'm still not sure. Jesse was like really massive in his head. it would depend on how the three team tiebreaker would work

and I don't know exactly all of the But I can now check Jesse off my list of PHNX hosts that have said that I'm correct The next one I'm going after is Lindsay Have you ever gotten? Good luck. Have you ever gotten me? No. I think so.

No way. I don't admit when I'm wrong. You know that. But anyway, thank you guys again for being here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Of course, if you guys are diehards already, make sure to go use your 20% discount to grab that new shirt, the wagon shirt. If you are not a diehard member yet, get yourself a diehard membership. You get a free piece of merchandise from the PHNX Locker.com and you can use it on the wagon shirt. You also get 20% off all future purchases.

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here at Chase Field against the Houston Astros, and they need to have the Cubs lose. That's pretty much where they stand. Technically, the Diamondbacks don't necessarily, I mean, in order to control their own destiny, yes. Win the series against the Astros and you're in, basically. Take two out of three and you're in. That's where they're at right now.

The Cubs have four remaining games, though, and if the Cubs lose two of them, the Diamondbacks are in no matter what happens against the Astros. So there's not a ton of pressure going on, gone to them in this series, but there's still some. It is possible that they need to win at least one of these games in order to get

where they want to go. Also, I feel like I have to settle the Padres situation. A couple people said it in the chat. It is true. The Padres would win a three-team tiebreaker with the Marlins and the Cubs. So, Jacob is in fact right on this one rare, just stop it. Just stop it. I have to

give this one to him. I don't like you congratulating him as much as you have, but I guess give him his flowers. But All right. Also, Damon caught strays in the chat. He did? Yeah. Well, because you're...

He said that I'm his favorite. Your graphics work and you're correct about things. There's a lot of things that you haven't leg up on when it comes to Damon. But let's take a look at the Houston Astros. On his day off. That's why I attack Totry on Twitter on his day off and I'm attacking Damon now here on live on the show on. If you're not willing to like make fun of them, then. then you don't like them, you know?

It's true. So this is just a sign that we like that. If I do nothing but compliment you, I probably hate you. Which why. You want a problem? Jesse's fantastic. No. Yeah, let's take a look at the Houston Astros at a glance now.

That's no, not probable. It's Houston. Oh, see, you fucked up. See, I took back everything I said. Yep. Here are the Houston Astros at a glance. 87 and 72 record with a plus 120 run differential. By the way, like I said, Diamondbacks still the only team in the playoffs,

with a negative run differential currently. But yeah, like the Houston Astros, they are not secure in anything. So they are still very much playing for their playoff chances, which is not good for us. It's not good that they are still a hungry team considering this is the former champs

or I guess you could say current champs is what they are. And they are, you know, like still kind of in a dog fight with the Seattle Mariners for the final wildcard spot in the American League. I think the Astros reliever. ERA is 3.61. It didn't quite seem right to me that it was 4.55 and also sixth in the league.

So I think we have a little typo there. Good job, Jacob. You spoke too soon. This is how you really did. This all fell apart. Yeah, I had it right. It's right in my notes that I said to Jake. What number was it?

It should be 3.6. The relief pitching their. Their bullpen is actually pretty good. Very good. But they're, yeah, I mean, they're starting pitching ERA is only 14th. And that's for a team that coming into the year seemed to have one. one of the, one of the best rotations in baseball, especially after adding Justin Verlander at the trade deadline,

you know, it looked extremely formidable. But some guys have had a bit of a down year. Christian Javier has like a mid-Four's ERA, I think, for the Astros. Yeah. P.A. in this series, J.P. Francis had a decent year,

not one of their front line guys. Hunter Brown is thrown like 150 innings for them this year, has an ERA around five. Frambert Valdez has done what, you know, Valdez usually does. and has been one of the better pitchers in the league. But yeah, there are some vulnerabilities here on the starting pitching side that we haven't seen from past Astros teams.

So I'd like to defend myself in my typo. That graphic was definitely in Slack at least an hour before the game was over and nobody checked it. So that's on you guys. Wow. Oh, I'm sorry, giving you numbers that you have to put from the sheet. I gave you the numbers on into the graphic. They're in Slack.

You didn't look. I want to go to the comments here. Charles Woodall Pike says DFA Fage. That's a direct attack on you. And see how quick they are. They're as quick as Sean is. Your guys' favorite shows on PH&X would not be the same. Piece of Yoshi says, bring back Emma.

There's Damon in the chat. He says, I'm always watching, taking notes, remembering the slander of my good name forever. Damn it. I thought Damon, why is Damon watching this show on his day off? That's absurd. You better be careful what you say on. I am so sick of people watching this show

that I don't think are watching. this show. I'm getting myself in trouble constantly. All right. Well, let's take a look at the probable pitchers, which we really don't know who the probable pitchers are for the Diamondbacks. Honestly, we do know one guy, and that is Zat Gowns. That Galland will indeed be starting in

tomorrow's game, and that is going to be it as far as confirmed starters, because things could change should the Diamondbacks clinch a playoff spot tomorrow. Do you think they care about which playoff spot they clinch? Do you think they care about playing?

Like, would you almost think that they might purposefully lose to try to drop down once they clinch the playoffs so they can take on the brewers instead of the Phillies who have won seven straight? I wouldn't say they will purposefully lose, but I do think that if the Diamondbacks clinch any spot, they would be inclined to, you know, reset their starting rotation. You know, maybe you finally give Gabby Moreno a day off. Maybe you give some other position players days off. So in that sense, I mean, it's possible that, you know, once you clinch, if you do clinch, you might drop down in the standings. At the same time, if we pull up our standings graphic one more time, it's pretty unlikely that the Diamondbacks are, they're in really good position to get the second spot, not just to get a playoff spot in general. They have a distinct advantage over the Marlins with that game and a half lead. You know, they essentially have a two and a half game lead over the Chicago Cubs because of, you know, having that tiebreaker.

So, yeah, it's still possible they could wind up in the three spot. The most likely scenario would be if the Marlins caught up to the debacks, then the debacks would drop below them. But, yeah, they're still in good position to have the second spot. And I don't think they're going to, like, go out of their way to, you know, throw games in order to get the Brewers instead of the Phillies in the first round. There's just not that big of a difference between them, right? Like, the Brewers are an incredible team because of their pitching.

the Phillies are a really good team because of their hitting. You know, for the Brewers, there are some questions offensively for the Phillies. There are some questions on the pitching staff, though maybe not quite as many. So maybe you'd rather have the Brewers and the Phillies. But, you know, there's just not a huge difference between these two teams in terms of who you'd rather face. So I don't really see the Diamondbacks, you know, doing much in the vein of like trying to avoid one team or something. It just, it wouldn't be a great look going into the postseason anyway. and I just don't think there's a big enough difference between the teams to justify that.

Faj is out here doing just the shadiest poll anyone's ever seen. Not only did he fully try to influence the poll by putting. There was no voter influencing. There was 100%. He put whose fault is the graphic error. And then he put Jesse and Derek right answer in parentheses next to it. And then he did Faj. And then the minute that he got any kind of advantage, which the poll went 55 to 44 with nine votes.

meaning there was one boat that swayed in his direction. Wait, what was the poll question? It was whose fault was the graphic error. The one where he couldn't move the number. And then me. He lumped us together. I love you two together as one answer and me is one answer. And out of nine people, five of them said to you.

But he immediately closed the poll the minute that he got that extra vote. So he was down that whole point. And then the minute he got to nine. One of those stop the count situation. He is a stop the count kind of guy. He's a monster. Once it's in your favor. He's a monster.

He's a monster. absolutely but so are the Houston Astros and the Diamondbacks cannot take them lightly because this series at home is very important and it gives fans an absolute great opportunity to go out root on this team in the final series of the year because this is fun this is what this is this is playoff you know baseball at home essentially is what it is right yeah and who knows how long they go so it could be our closest chance to experiencing that this season with the success they've had so go out there make sure to support this team There's, it's fan appreciation weekend, so there's all sorts of fun reasons to go anyway.

50% off D-back's dogs, get out of here. What, what, do you need more of a reason? They're already pretty affordable to you. They are pretty affordable. But most importantly, they are going to have the, I think it's the yard sale is what they call it, where you can pick up all sorts of giveaway items. They have stuff for like a dollar. It's incredible.

I think I got that little on-track bullpen cart for like a dollar one year at the yard sale. You got the actual bullpen card for a dollar? Just the little one. The little one. The little replica. Yeah, the big one I keep up my house, I bought that on eBay. That's a completely different scenario. But anyway, well, we implore you if you live here in Arizona to get yourself a great pair of sunglasses.

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Go to Shady RaiseDak.com and use code PHNX for 50% off two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 250,000 people. What is going on? Don't, don't. What is happening? That is weird. I don't want Emma over here. There you go, Derek.

I'll hide them. Hide my legs. Thank you. Come on. We just have to stay. out. All right. Not like Emma's still in the building and can't just look at your leg.

Yeah, she could, she could privately message me over here. And I think that would be even weirder. So I don't know why she's doing it publicly in the chat. But Splash Sports, a great way for you to make money against your friends, like my friend, Emma. PHNX has a weekly pick them and NFL survivor contest. Pick X, I could say, an NFL survivor contest for everyone to participate in for real money. All you do is head to slash splash sports.com slash pH and X. and sign up, deposit cash to get started, and it's just $5 to enter either contest.

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We'll have different contests coming out. So we are stoked to compete with you and against all of you. Be sure to click our link in the description. Last again, I've said it before. I celebrate losses and I mourn or I don't celebrate losses. We celebrate losses and you mourn wins. Yeah, well, I mean, you could say that too. But I do celebrate wins and mourn losses with our friends at Fort Peaks.

And of course you can't too. They have a wonderful variety of beer. And the Joy Bus, it just always makes me happy. It always picks me up. And, of course, they have not only a wide variety of beers always available, but right now, it's Pumpkin Porter season. So make sure to check out Pumpkin Porter back on the shelves and in draft lines throughout the valley. And of course, you know, it's this time of the year, right?

Pumpkin spice, pumpkin everything, right? This is the best. Pumpin spice and everything nice? Everything nice. They also have the pumpkin cheesecake at the 8th Street Pub, which is to die for. Sean and I talk about this all time. but they have the French onion soup as well. And it's so good.

It shouldn't even be seasonal. That's how good it is. But it is. So only go get it quick before it's gone. Visit 4Peaks.com slash locator to find all of your favorite brewery tours and events. Steinholding, which turned out to be very difficult. October Fest and haunted brewery tours are all right around the corner. Again, tell them that we told you that the ghosts make the beers.

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Absolutely. Absolutely. But I guess the last thing that we should ponder is the Diamondbacks could have clinched today, right? And you know where they would have clinched, Jesse? In a goddamn airplane while they were flying about 100, 100 miles outside of Phoenix. I mean, yeah, sure, maybe they could have popped little bottles of alcohol or something on the plane. You imagine they just go ballistic in the airplane. Start dosing the other passengers on like a commercial flight.

If that's what they're on, I don't know what they're on. I don't think they're on a commercial flight. No, I mean, you know, that would be even more, that'd be making it even more fun, right? But, yes, I will say that there is potentially something to be said about being able to clinch at Chase Field, right? Yeah, I mean, I would think, like, if you're a D-Bax fan, you should probably go to the game tomorrow. right like there are a few experiences better i think is a baseball fan than watching the home team clinch on on their home turf right i mean i think that's just one of the coolest experiences obviously the real fun happens in the clubhouse after after the fact but i can't wait for him to be a part of

that yeah i really can't supposed to i'm supposed to wear like ski goggles i asked him i was like do you have a good pair of ski goggles and he looked at me like i was crazy and i said you need something with a strap that keeps whatever tight to your eyes swimming goggles, whatever. It's not just for fun. It's not just so you look like you're part of the group. It's not just to be fashionable. They just don't necessarily like sequester the media to like a safe space in these moments. Yeah. So we'll there is a safe space. As a matter of fact, I think Zach Gallen, Merrill Kelly would actively seek you out to spray you with champagne in your face. I'm sure. And those glasses, those aren't going to do anything. Can I tell you folks how how much it hurts to be sprayed in the eyes with

champagne. It's one of the most awful experiences I've ever been through in my life. So we'll see what happens, but hopefully Jesse gets to experience that. Maybe you get to see some swimming in that pool. Don't be a thief of his joy. I want him to experience all of those wonderful things. I think

I've told this story, maybe even on the show before, but I know I told Jesse this. My first experience was, I believe, when the Dodgers clinched, and when I did go into the clubhouse, Pedro Gomez, rest in peace, was standing in the corners far way from the action as he possibly humanly could be. And I walked over

to him. It was such a veteran move. It was such an O.G. move because I went over to him and I asked him, hey, you're going to join in and all the fun? And he goes, nah, you guys enjoy that. And it was simply that he didn't have any like sage advice for me. But it was enough for me. I was smart

enough that I should have been like, oh, there's a reason he's standing over here. And I soon figured that reason out. And let me tell you. If you get pulled over by a police officer after being in the clubhouse and drenched the champagne, what answer are you going to give them for a while your car reeks of alcohol? I don't know. Oh, I was in the clubhouse at the Diamondbacks while they were celebrating.

Good luck with that one. Good luck getting them to believe that one. I will say, so just so people are aware, the Marlins play tomorrow at 3.30 Arizona time. And the Chicago Cubs play at 510 Arizona time. So both of those games have a little bit of lead time ahead of the Diamondbacks game. So that means, you know, depending on the outcome. of the D-backs game. And depending on the outcome of tonight's game,

they could like clinch before they even win. Yeah, well, I guess what I'm saying is there's not really, there's not a very likely scenario where the D-Backs do clinch tomorrow, but we don't know right when the game ends. You're probably going to know right when the game ends because the Marlins and Cubs games will probably already be over at that point. All right. Well, we thank you guys for stopping by.

And hopefully you get to go out and see the Diamondbacks clinch tomorrow here at Chase Field. You can follow us on Twitter. We will be covering all of the action all week and long. I am at Cap underscore Caveman with the K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Jacob is at Jacob underscore Franklin 4. I got that one, even though it's been a minute. Our show is at PH&X underscore D-Backs.

We are still Damon's dogs, by the way. I want him to know that if he's here watching. But of course, all roads duly to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We appreciate your time. We thank you guys for stopping by. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you clinch your playoff chances at home.