PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Brandon Pfaadt struggles as Diamondbacks drop Game 1 to Chris Sale and the Red Sox

Episode Date: May 27, 2023

Is Brandon Pfaadt headed to Triple-A Reno after giving up five runs to the Boston Red Sox? It is hard to see it working out any other way. Meanwhile, the D-backs offense struggled to get anything going against Chris Sale. We also delve into the D-backs' decision to option Dominic Fletcher to Reno and call up Jake McCarthy. 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.

and welcome into today's edition of the PHNXVBAC show. I am not Derek Montia. I am Jesse Friedman. I'm your vice mayor. The mayor is off in Vegas at a bachelor party doing bachelor party things. But today I am joined by the one and only Danielle Cortez. And Danielle, we get to talk about this baseball game that did not go particularly well for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It wasn't great. It was not great. It was not great in a number of different ways. We'll jump right into this, though. Brandon Fought, of course, the story of the evening for the Diamondbacks. This was a start that as of a few days ago, we didn't really expect Brandon Fought to make. It sort of felt like things were lining up where the Diamondbacks would bring Zach Davies back into the starting rotation to start tonight. And Brandon Fott would be removed from the rotation and sent down to Reno.

As things have turned out, it still sort of feels like Brandon Fott is going to be sent down to Reno when all is said and done. But the D-backs did give him a chance to start today. Daniela's final line, three and two-thirds innings, eight hits, five runs, no walks, four strikeouts. He threw 87 pitches, like I said, just three and two-thirds innings, so not able to get out of the fourth inning. And ultimately, the debacks lose this game by a final score of seven to two. But, yeah, Faut's the story, and he was not particularly good today. Yeah, was not particularly sharp. You look at his pitch chart on, you know, anywhere, baseball, football, whatnot, whatever.

a lot of sweepers up in the zone. Yeah. That's not a great way to make a living in the major leagues. He, and as crazy as it sounds, it could have been a lot worse watching the games. He, he left him up there and the Red Sox swung through a lot of them.

It could have been worse. Yeah, just no real command today. You know, first inning, he was all right. He was pretty sharp. So maybe you're like, okay, maybe, you know, there's some holdover from the Pittsburgh game. But sure, yeah, second inning. Second inning came in quick.

It was, it was ugly. Second inning was not great for Brandon fought. So, yeah, I mean, just kind of looking at the line again, he didn't walk anyone. So I guess that was a positive. And only had one less swing and miss than Chris Sale. There you go. There you go. Moral victories.

Moral victories. Yeah. It sort of feels like right now with Brandon Fott that he just has two pitches and he's not commanding them particularly well. I know he did throw a few changeups in this game. He is kind of trying to use that pitch is sort of a show me third option. I think you threw a couple of curve balls as well. But the reality is at the end of the day, Brandon Fought is basically operating as a two pitch

pitcher right now. I was having a conversation with some folks up in the press box. If you're a major league starting pitcher trying to make a living with two pitches, that's a pretty hard thing to do. There are not many guys who have success doing that. Kevin Gosman comes to mind over with the Toronto Blue Jays as being one of the only pitchers in baseball right now that I can think of who successfully operates that way. Someone brought up Randy Johnson as another example, which he's also Randy Johnson. Yeah, maybe that's not a great comp. But yeah, I think the biggest thing for Fott is, yeah, what you said earlier, the fact that he's throwing this sweeper and it's a good pitch. It has a good movement. It's the one pitch out of his arsenal, frankly, that I think is really good. It has some real potential to be a good out pitch in the majors. But welcome to the big leagues kid, right? When you throw that pitch up in the strike zone, it's going to get hit. And that's absolutely what we what we saw today. The other thing with Fott is is the fastball. It just doesn't move very much. It doesn't have a whole lot of.

life to it. As Gabriel said in the comments, just too much hard contact. And yeah, a big part of that is he likes to use this fastball up in the zone. And some fastballs work up in the zone. Brandon Fotz's fastball so far is not really worked up in the zone. Even when it's 94, 95, it still just doesn't have a whole lot of life. And opposing hitters are making him pay for it. Yeah, major league hitters are going to hit velocity no matter what. You see that even with the hardest throwers in the game, right? overall just Chapman had a stretch where he was giving up a lot of runs. Major league hitters just catch up to velocity. That's what they do.

Yeah. That's why they're major league hitters. And it's not like Fodd is throwing like 98 miles an hour. Yeah, he's throwing 93, 94. You're not going to blow away major league hitters with that. No. So, you know, working up in the zone that works in the minors, you can do that. You can change eye levels in the miners.

That's not going to fly in the majors. So, you know, send him down. Hopefully he works on some things. command a third pitch, shoot man, a second pitch. Yeah, yeah, honestly, honestly. Just an ugly game. He just, yeah, he's not, he's not really commanding either of those pitches. I think if, if fought was commanding those two pitches well, I don't know if he'd be a great pitcher necessarily in, in the big leagues at this point. I don't really love the fastball shape quite enough to, to think that. But yeah, he'd probably be at least getting by and, you know, a serviceable back-end starter, maybe if he was

able to command those two pitches. He has not done that well at all so far. But yes, as we've been talking about, Brandon Fott will very likely be sent down following this game. The D-Backs have to make a roster move tomorrow because they are calling up Zach Davies to start on Saturday. So we've got a roster move around the corner and it feels abundantly clear what that, what that roster move is. Danielle, I feel like some D-BACs fans might feel like they were fooled, like they were duped by all of the prospect evaluators who, uh, who swore by Brandon Fought and the fact that he was going to be the next big thing in this D-BACs rotation. And frankly, I mean, uh, you know, we were having this conversation for a few months about how Brandon Fought really belonged at the top of the list of these

of these young starters that the D-backs had. And in reality, with what we've seen, it feels like he is not been as good as Tommy Henry. He's not been as good as Ryan Nelson. Heck, he's not been as good as Dre Jameson, who is now, uh, down in Reno. So, uh, you kind of wonder, like what did these prospect evaluators miss? Our scouts, not what they used to be. You know, but these things do happen. Scouts do have, you know, they do miss on guys. That does happen.

It's sort of part of the deal. And there's also the reality that I'm not sure that what we're seeing right now from Brandon Fought is what scouts were seeing last year. As we've talked about before on this show, I've heard that people thought that his fastball moved more when they saw him in AAA last year, which would certainly have made a big difference. But yeah, it's unfortunate. The debaques do not have a great history with pitching prospects.

There have been a number over the years that fans have gotten excited about, and then they've seen them in the big leagues, and it looks something like this, and it sort of feels like Brandon Fott might be on his way to joining that group. Yeah, it's really interesting. You bring up scouting evaluations. You know, you go to Arizona Fall Week, whatever. You've been to a few Arizona Fall League games over the years. You see, and you see all these, you know, super highly rated prospects.

And the eye test is like, what are they seeing in this guy, right? And I've seen that a couple of times with quite a few players. And I don't want to, we're, we're, take a step back. We're super early in this process, right? This literally is fifth big league start. Yeah, we're not here like, this branded Fott's a bus. Like, no, like, let's like, let's give them some time. But right now, you know, you're not seeing the stuff that.

You were told that he has, right? Yeah. This live fastball, you know, I always had a coach who would say, like, you get out with movement. Like, anybody can hit velocity. You get out to the movement. And so this live fastball, you see it. He doesn't have the velocity.

Um, where to go? So, you know, give him more time. I think this is definitely a case of overhyping the prospects and maybe, maybe placing expectations a little too high. Um, Yeah, it's just, you know, scouting, scouting an imperfect science, right? You know, there are guys who slip through the cracks. That's just how it does.

That's how it happens. So, yeah, you know, give it time. But right now, it's not looking too great. Yeah, it's not looking, not looking too great to say the least. So, yeah, Brandon Faw, we expect will probably be sent down following tonight's game. As unfortunate as that is, you're absolutely right. It's still pretty early to be calling Brandon. and fought a bust, or really anything at this point.

He's just a young pitcher, man. This isn't going to happen. Yeah, five major league starts is really just not much of a sample size at all. And yeah, you know, if he stops throwing sweepers middle up, then he would do himself a lot of good, right? Like these numbers could change in a hurry, even if we still have some questions about the arsenal and the long term, the change up is a pitch in particular that I thought was a little bit better.

It sort of seemed like from what I've heard from people and seen from the, the footage in the minors that it was a little bit better. That pitch just hasn't really been to form in the big leagues. But, but yeah, the debacks have done this up and down thing quite a bit lately with a number of players, right? Jake McCarthy was sent down and has more played appearances in Reno this year than he does with the Diamondbacks. We're going to talk about that whole situation a little bit later in the show.

It's not always a nice, smooth, linear process when these guys come up to the Big League. Sometimes you have to go back down and figure things out. and the debacks certainly have not been shy about doing that. Getting away from Brandon fought for a second, Chris Sale was not outstanding in this game. He did leave the door open a couple of times for the debacks to break through. Story of the last couple games. Yeah, man, hitting with runners in scoring position continues to be an issue. I believe the debacks were one for eight, although that might have changed in the last couple A-Bs of the game.

Not great regardless. just continues to be a struggle for this team. Sales final line, five innings, four hits, one run, one walk, three strikeouts. His ERA coming into this game was a little deceiving. It was over five. But in his last four starts entering this game, Sale was three and O and had allowed only seven runs in 27 in a third inning with three walks and 32 strikeouts.

So he has very much been on a role lately. And honestly, this might be the worst start that he's had in quite a while. but once again the debaq's offense just continues to struggle in some of those situations where they really should be coming through. Yeah, just real lack of situational hitting right now is really been the story of particularly last game against the Phillies. But today as well, does not moving runners over going, you know, it was they had this issue at the beginning of the season. you know the Dodgers series they're they're trying to hit five run home runs every time it looks like and and not not playing the type of baseball we're used to the debacks playing so been an issue concerning not i wouldn't say it's concerning i mean they hit like over 300 with runners in scoring

position in april when it all set it down you're not going to do that for a whole season yeah and and this is just kind of what the debacks are going to be this season i think when you when you relies so heavily on young players. Yeah. You're going to get these kind of games. You know, we were talking before we came on air. Like, the fun thing about baseball is sometimes you just lose a game. The D-backs, like, haven't done that, like, at all lately, though, right?

Like, like, you think of the D-Backs last 11 or 12 games, right? Like, that whole, that whole road trip and a few games preceding it, there was the 13-3 clunker in Pittsburgh, right? Where Zach Allen just got sheled, that was a weird game. Outside of that, the Diamondbacks just, just, Like, we just have no, no feel for this sort of game happening where the D-BACs are down early and they never really are able to catch up. And frankly, you know, even if the debacks do come through in a couple more situations in

this game, still probably not enough to overcome the seven runs that the Boston Red Sox scored in this game. So, yeah, situational hitting continues to be a bit of a concern. I know people are getting very impatient with Christian Walker in particular, who is, who is not a young player, you know, is experienced. And this has sort of been a thing for him to some degree in the past. So I know that's something that a lot of people are frustrated with. He's just kind of going through it in general at the play right now. His batting average is down to 243. His OPS is down to 788. So, so yeah, that's something to continue to monitor. But I think

Christian Walker will probably be fine when all is said and down. And that's something he does over his career. Baseball, I think what a lot of fans don't understand is just so mental. And Christian Walker is, he would know from last year what he went through last year. Yeah, he is, he is harder on himself than anybody. And so you can tell when he's just, you know, spiraling mentally. Yeah. And it just feels like he's in one of those, one of those funks because a lot of early pop-ups. A lot of early pop-ups on hitable pitches. Yeah, right. Which Christian Walker's career says, that's going to hold up. Yeah.

It's just, it's, it's, it's just not, right? He's not a guy who's going to swing through,

through fast balls. Yeah. It's just right now, like we said earlier, that's just baseball, man. Baseball is a weird game and sometimes you can't

really explain it with numbers or anything else. It's just sometimes you lose. Sometimes you're in a funk and that's just kind of how it is. Daniel, you're being too reasonable. You're being entirely too reasonable.

Baseball is the dumbest game of the world. I love it so much. It's so dumb and I love it more than anything on this earth. There is some proof to that. Yeah, I mean, Christian Walker's last few seasons, right, 2021 was kind of a clunker. He dealt with some injuries that year.

But 2020 was a good year for him offensively. 2019 was a good year. And last year was a good year for him too. So I think you feel pretty confident. Christian Walker is going to figure it out. Maybe he doesn't quite come through with as many hits with runners in scoring position as you'd hope for. But I don't think anyone's all that concerned there.

What DeBax fans are concerned about, however is Rymel Topia, Danielle. Because Rymel Topia, Colorado Rockies legend, made his triumphant return to Chase Field today. And of course, you went two for five with an RBI in this game. If you're one of those people who has felt that Rymel Topia has performed, yeah, has personally attacked the Diamondbacks time after time over the years. You are not wrong.

Rimal Topia entered this game with a career batting average of 350, and on base percentage of 388, a slugging percentage of 461 in his career against the Arizona Diamondbacks. And frankly, Riemel Tapia is not a particularly good player. He has not really had many productive seasons in this league. But when he is against the diamondbacks, something clicks for him, Daniel. I'm not sure how he explained this. This is just another example of baseball being the dumbest game in the world. Ramelle Tapia.

It was funny. We were talking in the press box about this. And it was like, I said something like, if you told me he was batting like 800, I would say that's probably a little low. Yeah. Yeah. No, you can't actually recall to mine any outs. Like, have the Diamondbacks ever retired, Ryman Altapio? Jesse, I really think we should have made him King Snake.

He is the King Snake. We probably should have. He owns us. Yeah, I mean, no Diamondbacks player really, really performed all that well today. He's just ridiculous. $350. I have his, listen, I've been up since 5 in the morning. We've both been up entirely too long.

And I have so many tabs open. I'm trying, guys. Meat grind for you guys, man. Hey, hey, those pictures that you saw of the golf tournament, A, no. Danielle was hard at work this morning at our golf tournament taking photos. That was fun, man. I spent the morning with Craig Morgan.

It was awesome. She's worked entirely too long today. 206 at bats, 72. hits, 10 doubles, two triples. I feel like the tripled number is low. Yeah. I think Stat Mews is lying to me. Home runs.

Ooh, I just had a flashback to one of his triples that ruined Archie Bradley's time with the debacks. Oh. Yeah. I don't even guys remember this. I don't know if we're going down a trip down memory lane. It was a basis loaded. I think either bottom eight, like top.

I think I vaguely remember. Top eight, top nine, Archie was rolling, and then all of a sudden, boom, triple, and he was never the same. Daniel will never forget that. Sounds like she stays up at night thinking about that triple. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure she does. The amount of sleep I have lost of over this team is ridiculous. And Rymel Tapia in particular.

It is so painful. This is completely off topic, but there was a stretch last year where I was working two months, two straight months, where I, I didn't see a single D-backs win. Wow. Yeah, and it was funny for about a month. And then I was it, I mean, was it 20-21 where you went to every single game? No, it was 2020 when they weren't playing bad in June and July. I just was at every single bad one.

Interesting. Yeah, it's the amount of sleep I have lost. See, there we go. We got one. We got somebody remembering it. I'm with Gabriel. I think we should sign him. That's the only, that's the only sleep.

The only way to play. That's the only way. Like, why not? You, like, there was a, there was a stat for, for Juan Soto today. He's hit, like, four home runs and five and, like, five at bats at Yankee Stadium. And it's like, sign them. Like, why, like, throw your money at him? Yeah, I mean, Riemeltopia would come relatively cheap at this point.

It feels like it'd be a worthwhile investment for the D-Backs. I don't know if he would sign that contract, knowing that the Diamondbacks were just planning to, like, never play him and just getting him out of a need. Putting him not to face it. There wasn't like Freddie Freeman. Just throw money at Freddie Freeman. Like never play him again. It would take a lot more money to do that with Freddie Freeman.

But yeah, what's really striking is is that just the volume. I believe Rimeo Toppe has had more played appearances against the debacks in his career than he has any other team. Oh, I got a take on this comment. Oh, what do we got? Mark, Mark's comment is it a hot take to say I think Red Sox fans are worse than Dodger fans. Yes, it is. What do you think, Daniel? Guess who isn't an MLB employee anymore who can say whatever I want about the Dodgers?

There we go. Daniel is unplugged. Listen, listen, okay. Who, got to settle down. There is only one team in Major League Baseball that I have to have a security escort for. Oh, it's the Dodgers. And that is the Los Angeles Dodgers. Right.

I am fighting myself not to say the things I would like to say, but I do not have anything good to say about the Dodgers. Their organization, the players, their front office, the fans. Yeah, no, my gosh. Okay, yeah, we'll talk about it. The guy who takes your money in the parking lot outside of the stadium, the popcorn guy. I, yeah, I have had nothing but bad experiences with the lot.

I'm shaking right now. I am so fired up about this. You, you woke me up, baby. Be fair, so you spend a fair amount of time at Dodgers Stadium. I'm going to guess you haven't spent quite as much time as Fenway Park. Like maybe you have a little more experience with the Dodgers organization. I will say I have never been to Fenway Park. But I also know, I don't have to have a security escort because their fans are incredibly aggressive and transphobic.

So yeah, there's only one team in the majors that in my home ballpark that I have to have. that I have to have a security escort. Yeah, boy, I'm shaking. That just get me fired up. Yeah. They get a lot of Diamondbacks fans fired up. Somehow we're here talking about the Dodgers when the Diamondbacks definitely played the Red Sox tonight.

Anyway, yeah, there were a decent number of Red Sox fans at Chase Field. As suspected, the Red Sox haven't been here since 2019, I believe. So been a few years since the Red Sox have been in town. announced attendance tonight was about 25,000. Which I thought that was low. It felt like more. Yeah, it was pretty, pretty decently packed full.

Yeah, I don't know, maybe 50-50 debacks and Red Sox fans, Danielle. What would you, what would you put the ratio out? It was tough to tell because they kind of blend in. They do kind of blend in. Red Sox fans were considerably louder. Personally, I thought there were more D-Backs fans.

Okay. But the Red Sox fans were loud. Yeah, the Red Sox fans were definitely loud. We had a few. They had a lot to be loud about. It's not like the D-backs had anything. Like the one-time, you know, Guriel's triple.

Got the crowd called those. D-Backs were pretty wild. That's kind of when I realized it was probably it was a majority D-Backs crowd. But yeah, that's fair. We do have a King Snake to name, even though you could make the case. And no one on the D-Backs really deserves it after this game.

But Lourdes-Guriel Jr. is our King Snake, mostly because he continued his hitting streak, which is now at 17 games. It is the longest active hitting streak in all of baseball right now. one for four with a triple that you just talked about in RBI. Of course, Lordus Gurriel had that triple with nobody out in the inning. He was at third base with nobody out.

The Diamondbacks were unable to bring him home. As we discussed earlier, that just sort of continues a recent trend. But Lordus Guriel does continue to be on an utter tear. It's still very much in, I haven't looked at the numbers in a couple days, but I want to say he's maybe the frontrunner for the National League Player of the Month award.

he and Ronald Acuna Jr. are probably very close in that. I'll have to take another look. But he has had an outstanding, outstanding month of May and continues to be a huge part of this Diamondbacks team. Non-coincidentally, ever since Derek died his hair purple. We all know that that is what unlocked this whole thing. But Danielle, any thoughts on what you've seen from Lordus Curie all this season? Man, when you're hot, you're hot. He is on a tear and he's just fun to watch. When you go up, he's one. He's one of those guys that he goes up and you expect him to get a hit. You expect him to barrel up a ball. And it's fun.

It's fun when you're on one of those tears. So he's fun to watch, man. Yeah. He's definitely, you know, D-Backs have team MVP. It's him so far for sure. Yeah. Corbyn-Carroll is maybe up there in the mix. Oh, man.

I don't know, man. Overall, Lordus Guriel is better offensive numbers, but Corbyn Carroll steals bases and, you know, does other things. Yeah, he's just, he's just, he's just such a fun player, man,

I love him. He's, he's, you know, watching his brother play, you know, from a distance, he's like,

oh man, you always always barrel in a ball. You expect him to just hit it 400, 400 feet every time. Not quite the player. And he's not cool. Yeah,

but you know, you're kind of getting that same vibe. Yeah. With Lordus right now. Lordis always just had, I mean, he's kind of a bigger guy. I mean,

he's like six foot four. He is not a small man. He is a very large man. And last season, he wasn't really able to tap into much power this season. He's really, really turned that around. And I agree with with Elisa's comment there. There was definite lack of energy today. Yeah, it really.

And I don't know if that's, you know, long road trip off day is kind of hard to get back into it. Or if, like, I mean, just the nature of the game. It was three to nothing in the second inning Chris Sale. was dialed in. This lineup, you're missing your energy guys other than, you know. Jake McCarthy's back. He's an energy guy, but you're missing. I am not going to do that, Gabriel.

We're doing the, this is Jesse's part of the hair. Yeah. So Derek, every month. Every month. Now I have to shave my head. Do I have to do something for June? Yes, I think, I think you're next, Daniel. Absolutely.

Anyway, speaking of your next, you all need to download the BetMGM sportsbook app. We have teamed up with Bet, MGM this season. We'll be using bet MGM lines to make all our picks and we'll have special offers for our listeners each week. You also have probably heard about our knockout night's Cornhole League, which is the first Friday of every month from May through August. So that would be coming up, I believe, next Friday, a week from today. There's food and beverage specials, giveaways, bet MGM prizes. We also have shows broadcast live on site before. So be sure to join us next Friday if you're around, if you're available, and if you're good at Cornhole, which I personally am not.

Danielle, I have a feeling you're exceptional at Cornhole. Is that a fair assessment? I'm all right. I'm all right. I'm more of a ping pong person, but okay. All right. Yeah, I've seen that. I've seen that. If you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code PH&X. There's a few different offers depending on where you live. Before our Arizona audience, you will get up to $100 in bonus bets on your first wager with BetMGM. Again, make sure you use bonus code PHNX. Check out the show notes for details. And now listen to Shane talk about the disclaimer. Disclaimer, 21 plus to wager, visit betmGM.com for terms and conditions.

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1,800 327 5050, Massachusetts. 1,800 bets off Iowa. 1,800 270-1-117 for confidential health, Michigan. So one person tells me I need to shave my head to unlock Christian Walker, and then Mark says I need to grow out my hair in order to unlock Jake McCarthy. I don't know. Who do you think is more important? Who do you like better?

Oh, man. Oh, man. Now we're going there. Before we go on, I do need to tell you all about pins and aces, which we had our Keeping It 100 Golf Classic this morning, which was a raging success. Danielle was out there and took entirely too many photos,

which we appreciate Danielle for doing that. But Pins and Aces is the official golf apparel partner of PHNX and All-City. Also, be sure to check out the Big Drive Energy wherever you get your podcast. They have a pretty cool thing going on over there. We love all of our Pins and Aces gear. We all have a number of things around the office.

People got our incredible Phenux shirt, today out at the golf course, which was absolutely incredible. We're all a little bit skeptical of Phoenix, who's like our little mascot thing. But he does look really good on a shirt. And pins and aces helped us pull that out extraordinarily, or pull that off extraordinarily well. Check out pins and aces.com and use code PhNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.

That's Pins and Aces.com. Be sure to check them out. And I'm told we're having another Keep at 100 golf class. in a matter of maybe a few months. So keep an eye out on that. It was a very fun time. I was able to be out there. I am not a golfer.

I didn't understand any of the lingo that anyone was talking about the entire day. But I still had a great time out there hanging out with you all. Speaking of not having a great time, we now go to not having a great time as the Arizona Diamondbacks are not in a number of ways. That's a really sad transition. I really knocked that one out of the park.

The devax continue to struggle. with runners in scoring position. I said earlier they were one for eight. They were actually one for nine in the game today. You're not going to win too many games like that. Yeah, we've we've talked about it before. It's unfortunate how much, how much game outcomes are ultimately determined by whether you come through with runners in scoring position or not. I mean, a lot of times that's just sort of the nature of baseball games just sort of come down to that. The debacks continue to struggle in those situations today. I do want to talk about a decision that the Diamondbacks made yesterday, which was honestly very controversial about the angriest that I've seen Diamondbacks fans all

season long, frankly, the D-backs sent down Dominic Fletcher, a player who as of the time of being sent down had a batting average over 300, had an OPS over 800, and the Diamondbacks opted to bring up Jake McCarthy. I don't think people were at all angry about bringing up Jake McCarthy. They want to see him back in the big leagues. But there was sort of this odd feeling with sending down Dominic Fletcher, a guy who had a historic start to his big league career with the Diamondbacks, but has faded a little bit over the last couple of weeks. We do have some numbers for you that I think sort of help explain where the debacks are maybe coming from. In his last four games down in AAA, Reno, Jake McCarthy went 12 for 19 with a couple of home runs. that's one way to earn yourself a promotion.

Is that good? 12 hits over four games. Obviously, the PCL is a hitter-friendly environment, but Jake has had a really nice approach down there about his, I think it's an equal number of walks and strikeouts. On the flip side, Dominic Fletcher, Danielle, and his last 10 games with the debacks, went six for 39 with 11 strikeouts,

only two extra base hits. So you can just kind of see how things sort of turned in Jake McCarthy's favor there. we didn't necessarily know if Dominic Fletcher's fast start would be sustainable, if it was just going to be a really fun few days, and maybe pitchers would adapt to him a little bit. And that's kind of what it seems like happened when it was all set and done. Yeah, and I think this is definitely one that the numbers don't tell the full story.

You look at Dom Fletcher's numbers, and they're pretty crazy, but it's pretty front-loaded, right? His first couple games were, were historic, like you said. Yeah. And this is, this, this to me feels like an eye test thing, where you look at his last, you know, five, six, seven games. And he really looked overmatched.

Yeah, he did. And he had to face some tough lefties in there. Yeah. And I mean, you're really just throwing them in there against some, some really good pitchers. But at the same time, like, yeah. You're in the big leagues. They're all good pitchers, right?

Like, he really, he looked overmatched. And like you said, there was a sense that pitchers were adapting to him. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, Tori Lavello today talked a little bit about how Dominic Fletcher wasn't, he wasn't doing damage on the pitches in the zone. It wasn't as much pitch selection as it was just trying to hit that pitch that you're looking for. And we do have a clip of Tori Lavello talking about what he called a very difficult decision to send down Dominic Fletcher and bring up just.

Jake McCarthy. Yeah, we talked to Jake when he got sent out about making some quality adjustments, getting back to a little bit of the finish swing and impact the baseball, and his game was starting to show those results. You know, it's not that we need to be true to our word and say when you do and if you do, this will happen. That wasn't really the circumstance. This is more about, you know, getting Jake back to where we feel like he's going to help us when baseball games. Not that Fletch couldn't. We just was a tough call. You know, it was a conversation that we had. Like, let's get him here and see where it's at. And we know that you can impact games when he's playing at the level that we feel like he's ready to play at. He hit third for us

for most of the year, last year, so we know we can impact baseball games on both sides of the ball. And ultimately, it means that we're a good baseball team. We've got to send down a player like Dominic Fletcher, we're a good organization. I'm sorry. When he sent down a player like Dominic Fletcher, who's helped us win a lot of games, I know where his average is hovering. I know what he's been doing on the field.

It means that we've got some depth that we want to take a look at and we can change these parts up and it's part of the game. We have some depth. That's an understatement, right? When it comes to left-handed hitting outfielders, the Diamondbacks have entirely too much depth. There are a few of them. There's a few.

But yeah, I can understand where the debacks are coming from. Elise asked an interesting question, why send down Dominic Fletcher instead of Pavin Smith. We have Emmanuel Rivera as a backup first basement. That's fair. The debacks don't need Pave-in for that. Yeah, understandable. Definitely see where you're coming from. Dominic Fletcher definitely provides more defensive value than Paveen Smith does.

You're not going to put Paveen Smith in center field unless it's like an emergency situation. So it's 2021 maybe. Oh yeah. Everyone was a center fielder in in 2021. You guys have a lot more connections to the team. So I know you can't say this. So I'll just go out and say it. Paven Smith has something on Tori Lobolo.

Oh my gosh. There's something that he has on him. I don't know what it is. I haven't put my finger on it yet, but there's something there. The Diamondbacks definitely like Paveen Smith. I think Mike Hazen likes Pave and Smith. He talked during the winter meetings about just that he thinks he can really hit. D-backs think there's some untapped,

potential there offensively. And you do sort of see it in spurts. Like Pavin Smith does have pretty good at bats most of the time. He has a really good understanding of the strike zone. When push comes to shove, it just seems like he doesn't do quite enough damage to the baseball. Even if he's not striking out a ton, even if he's drawing his walks, it's hard to have a guy who's only a first baseman slash corner outfielder who only slugs like 375 or 400. You just don't really have many of those players in this league. But yeah, the debacks. certainly think that they have something there. And I mean, we have another outfielder on the horizon as well in Kyle Lewis, who is

working his way back from injury. The debacks might have to make a decision with Pavin Smith pretty soon here as well if he's not able to get things going offensively. Tori also talked about the concept of kind of riding the hot hand when it comes to these young outfielders that, you know, if someone is killing it down in Reno, get them up here. and if someone is really struggling in the big league, send them down. They all have options. The debacks have the ability to do that if they want to.

But there is this element where that feels a little strange, right? That's not something you see teams do a whole lot of. You want to get guys at bats. You want to get them comfortable on the big league level. Maybe you could make a case it's a little hard to do that if guys are being shuttled back and forth from Reno all the time. Dang, be me too. I was about to say that.

Is Pavan Smith, the debacks, answer to Landau? Shammett. Oh my gosh. It, I think Pavan Smith has been better in 2023 than Landry Shamit was in the playoffs for the suns or in the entire season. Like Landry Shammett was one of the worst players in

all of the NBA as far as I'm concerned. Pavin Smith, not great, but he's walked a decent amount. I think he's at least been reasonably productive. But there is, I do understand the connection. I mean, it's felt like the Suns were playing Landry Shamet for no reason. And I know some people kind of feel that way about Pave and Smith. Yeah.

And this, again, and I don't want to keep repeating myself, but I feel like this is another eye testing, not for me, but for the front office and the coaching staff, right? You look at Pave and Smith and you see the guy that you drafted in the first round, right? Seventh overall. Yeah. You see the potential there and you just kind of throw them out there and hope something happens. at some point you just got to got to understand that ain't happening

yeah um yeah i mean he's a former first round pick but it was uh like five years ago now and and the diamondbacks clearly have not let go that paven smith is not going to be the player that they that they want him to be uh and frankly the the draft that paven smith was part of i believe 2018 was not a very strong draft uh so it wasn't like oh there's these 15 other players 2017, thank you, that Pave and Smith should have, or that the D-BAC should have taken instead of him. It was a, you know, you could definitely cherry pick a couple of them.

It's not A.J. Pollock. Yeah, we looked it up and there was like legit, like four players that might be better than Pave and Smith in the whole like first two rounds. Trevor Rogers is in there. I believe that's also the year the debacks took Dalton Varshot. He's one of the best players. Hunter Green. Hunter Green had an outstanding game, by the way, today. Joe, Dill. Joe Adele. I mean, Joe Adel, he feels like a quadruple aer to me.

Yeah, yeah, Joe Adele is. Yeah, a pretty weak draft, huh? It really, yeah, it really was. Stuart Fairchild, former Dback great. Former Dback great. There you go. Yeah, so I don't, I don't know. I don't, I don't really, it wasn't necessarily a terrible draft pick, but it does feel like the Dbacks have other options that, that are better. And Pave and Smith did have a really strong start to the year,

so you understand why they've kept. him in the big leagues for a while, even though some of those numbers have faded down the stretch. Of course, there's also another outfielder in Reno who's really killing it right now, who also happens to that left-handed, and that's Dominic Canzon, who now has an OPS over a thousand, and his strikeout rate and walk rate are both excellent. He's hit quite a few ground balls down there, which is a little odd, but overall the numbers look really good for Canzone. As far as Jake McCarthy is concerned, we talked to him in the clubhouse before the game today,

Um, looking back on just kind of where he's been this season and what he was trying to work on. He talked a lot about just trying to kind of slow things down at the plate that he was getting a little bit antsy, uh, early in the season, uh, that he just didn't really have the approach that he was, that he was hoping, uh, hoping to have, uh, just kind of trying to get in there and wait for his pitch and do damage on that pitch rather than having a bunch of defensive swings, which is kind of what it felt like, uh, he was doing at the beginning of the season. and McCarthy did not have a hit in his first game in the lineup. But granted, Danielle, Chris Sale is not, you know,

not exactly a soft landing if you're a left-hand player. Yeah, yeah. Get called up that day. Hey, one of the best lefties of a generation. Go get him, kid. Yeah, that's rough. Tough, tough at bat. And, you know, you said it.

He looked, he looked to be in his own head for sure. You know, there was a lot of, there was a lot of, I don't want to say pressure, but, you know, it kind of was a little bit of pressure, especially after the devx dealt David Peralta. Yeah. That this was the new guy. He was going to be the new energy guy. He's the new next David Peralta.

And it looked like he kind of got in his own head earlier this season. He was definitely rushing at the plate, rushing in the field. Rushing today, he had a throw that maybe cost a debacks. an early run, but, you know, and the grand scheme of things, it wouldn't have mattered, right? No, no. So getting him comfortable, I think, is the biggest thing, because at the end of the day, you want, you want Jake McCarthy on your team. Jake McCarthy is a guy who's going to win you baseball games. Yeah.

He did earlier in the season with his drag bun. Yeah, that's true. He does the little things that win good baseball teams games. So, you know, getting him right was always the end goal. So, yeah. Who they sent down was kind of. I don't want to say it. I don't want to say it's irrelevant, but it kind of is because, you know, at some point,

Kyle Lewis is going to get back, get called back up. He's going to be back up. So, you know, you're going to lose Don Fletcher. You're going to lose Pavin Smith. It's just kind of in what order do you lose them? Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. And to, I forgot who it was.

I can't find it, but Dalton Varsh. 214. Oh, yeah. Someone wanted to know, 214, 653 OPS. Not great. There's your daily Dalton Varsho update. Not great. Everyone always needs that.

Yeah, if Paving gets sent down, I do think that Emmanuel Rivera would be, would probably be the backup first basement they could get by there. So, yeah, it is tough. The debacks just have too many left-handed hitting outfielders, as we've been saying for a while. And come to trade deadline, that could be, you know, an asset for them. it's it's honestly funny in the debacks traded away get a starter yeah yeah oh yeah we're gonna we're gonna have those conversations uh but yeah i mean you know you traded away dalton varshot but you did also bring back an outfielder i mean lordis scurriel's been an everyday outfielder so you didn't really yeah yeah a right-handed outfielder which is which is helpful but still an

outfielder forgot forgot those existed yeah right yeah it didn't exactly help unclog the the depth chart as far as outfielders are are concerned though We did also talk to Jake McCarthy about his chess game, which we haven't talked about enough on this show, almost every time that we go into the clubhouse before a night game. There are DeBax players playing very heavily competitive chess matches in the clubhouse every day, which is hilarious. They're incredibly competitive. And Jake McCarthy took his chess game down to Reno. He did take his chess game with him. And he says he was getting all of the, all of the Reno people in on it.

They were all playing chess before their games down there. And Jake McCarthy said he is convinced that he got worse at chess since being sent down to Reno. He said he like just, I don't think he taught Dominic Canzone how to play. I assume Dominic Canzone already knew how to play. But I don't think Canzone had played much. And apparently Canzone was just like flat out beating Jake McCarthy over and over again. Jesse, you strike me as a big chess guy. I'm not.

I am absolutely not. Yeah, people are like, oh, you're a math guy. like yeah you'd be yeah you daniel don't you think jesse could could be like in child like chess competitions that his parents signed him up more he's like beating adults i had the speed game yeah no definitely got you got the wrong person i had friends like that growing up but i was not i was not one of i'm actually pretty good at jose that doesn't surprise you're just competitive and i have so many worthless talent just absolutely worthless hell in the dinabacs clubhouse being good at chess is far from a worthless talent, Danielle.

It is almost as important as your baseball skill. Me play. Like, who's impressed by juggling? Like, who's impressed by playing the ukulele? Like, I'm incredibly impressed by all those things. My gosh. Euculele is so cool. Ukulele is pretty cool.

I got my banjo ukulele. It's awesome. Oh, my gosh. We're going to have to, we're going to have to bring in the banjo. I'm just saying Petsu-Karioki night. Oh, my gosh. Wow. We're definitely going to make that a thing.

And I am not going to participate. but I'm going to observe. Are you a Connect 4 guy? Mark wants to know. I'm not a Connect 4 guy. No. A lot of people, they like to stereotype me. They like to think that they know

like the kind of things that I would do and not do. And I pride myself and not fitting in to all the little boxes that people established for me. Was it Shane that called you attendees? No, that was Tootry. Okay. That was Tootry. What's a good Jesse board game?

There are, I will, I will admit, I have a couple of board game quirks. There are a couple of board games. Sellers a Katan guy? I am. I am 150. I knew there was one there. Fully obsessed with Sellers of Katan and play it entirely too much and played it entirely too much in college in particular.

I've sort of backed off a little bit in the last few years. I knew there was something here. Yeah. Yeah. There had to be something. Jesse's into one board game like massive. The other one, I'll just throw it out there while we're on the topic. The other one was Scrabble.

I was a big, I was a big Scrabble guy. See, you're a writer though. So that makes sense. Yeah, I guess it's sort of fit. But I wasn't like, I didn't play Scrabble in like the tasteful, like this guy has a big vocabulary way. I did it in the like I mastered all of the two letter words. And it tasteful were you like doing swears and vulgarities out there?

No, no. No, that's not what I was trying to communicate. I'm trying to say is like I didn't, I don't know. I wasn't the guy who would play like that six letter word that you didn't know. I would find a way to play like four words at once because I would have like three, two letter words involved in like every single thing I did. So I very much like hacked the game and people really hated me for it. Nobody ever wanted to play me in Scrabble because I was good but in like the flukiest way possible. I'm extremely dyslexic. So Scrabble is not my game. That would be.

That's the one game I could beat you in, Danielle. The one game I could beat you in. But anyway, speaking of games, if you're interested in checking out the Diamond Packs Red Sox series this is a This weekend. Yes, yes, that is what we're here for. Check out our friends over at GameTime. You can get $20 off your first purchase with code PHNX. Of course, GameTime, for those of you who don't know, is the most aesthetically pleasing ticketing app.

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you can also watch it from the comfort of our own, of your own home. Oh, come on down. Come to the office. Everyone is welcome. All cook for you. Yeah, maybe do it at your home. Maybe we'll do that at some point. I mean, we kind of do that with watchalongs, right?

We do a watchalong. It's sort of like we're inviting you into our home. But you should go ahead and sign up through www.fubotTV.com slash PHNX. You get 140 plus live channels of sports, shows, movies, and news. You can stream live TV from any device. You can watch the most Arizona sports for the lowest price. Of course, you can watch the Arizona Diamondbacks with Fubo TV.

Use the link in the description to sign up for 15% off your first month of Fubo Pro. All right, we got a few more things to get to here, Danielle. We're going to rein it back in. We're going to become a D-BACs podcast again. I guess we have to. And a D-BAC slash dental podcast, actually, because we are going to talk about Gabby Moreno not being in the lineup today because he had a root canal, which sounds like a miserable procedure,

something that fortunately I have never had to deal with personally. But Danielle did a little Google search earlier in the evening. Yeah, you made the most squeamish one among us, do. Yeah, yeah. So what did you find out, Danielle? What did I didn't, somehow I didn't know. I probably should have known this, but I didn't really know what a root canal is. A root canal is an infection of the inner tooth, and I close the tab, and I'm going to have to open it up again.

I'm just going to hope I don't come across a picture. We need the nitty-gritty details. Here we go. From the inter-de- I'm not even going to. I've been up so long. I'm not going to try and say that word. A root canal treatment is a dental procedure to remove inflamed or infected pulp on the inside of the tooth.

Huh. So not a whole lot of fun. I know my mom has had one. Really? Yeah. Brush your teeth, kids. That's about all I know about it. Yeah, it does not sound fun at all.

And it sounds preventable if you have good dental hygiene. Brush your teeth. Apparently Gabby Moreno's dental hygiene needs a little bit of a boost. So, yeah, Gabby Brino was not in the lineup today. He was, he did. He was, he was, he was, he was getting his tooth drilled into earlier today and got that bad. Yeah.

That's a gamer. I guess the local anesthetic were wore off, fortunately. He was still, still able to get out there. But yeah, I did think it was a little odd when the lineup was first release with a lefty on the mound. Gabby also sat out on Wednesday, which of course is something that a lot of people are freaking out about when, when the debacks lost that game. But yeah, I figured there was something there.

And sure enough, we found out from Tori Lavello that Gabby Marino had a root canal. And he probably could have started, but Tori said he made the decision to bring him in, bring him in off the bench. We've had some fun scratches this year. We had Florida's getting his citizenship. That's true. Yeah, it's a real mystery. We got Gabby getting a root canal. You never know what's going to.

Yeah. Show up to the old ballpark. You never know what's going to happen. There was also, I mean, in spring training, there was a mysterious day where Corbyn Carroll was scratched from the lineup. And we found out after the fact, that was because he was getting a physical before signing an extension. So, yeah, apparently lineup scratches, we should be paying quite a bit of attention to.

You never know. And trade deadline is going to be fun. Did he get pulled because? Yeah, because he was traded. Yeah, because he was traded. Yeah, or did he have a tummy? Or, yeah, did you have to go to the orthodontist? I don't know.

We do have some non-dental injury updates. This is pertaining to a few players who have been out for a while, not necessarily started the year with the team. A couple of these guys we haven't seen at all this season. But Kyle Lewis did start with the team. He played in his third game today with the Reno Aces on a rehab assignment. He is two for 13 so far, so the results aren't great. But he did hit a three-run home run in his first game with the Reno Aces.

I know he said on day one of that rehab assignment that it wasn't so much about the on-field results as much as just the process and kind of getting his timing back and his feet under him and whatnot. He's DHed in two of those games. He did play a little bit of left field and Wednesday's game, I believe. So the debacks are trying to get him some time in the outfield as well. So we don't really have a timetable on that. I believe the Major League Baseball limit for rehab assignments is 20 days. so they can't last for forever. Debacks will have to make a decision with Kyle Lewis,

potentially bring him back up to the big leagues within the next couple of weeks. Carson Kelly has been out with a fractured ulna, of course, has missed the entire season so far. He had five at-bats yesterday in an extended spring training game. Toro Lavella told us before the game he didn't have any updates. He didn't know how those five-at-bats went, but everything seems to be progressing well there. don't really have a firm timetable with Carson Kelly yet.

I don't believe he has got back behind the plate yet in a game, and I'm sure he'll be sent out on a rehab assignment as well. So still looking at probably a few weeks away for Carson Kelly. Last one is Joe Mantiply, working back from a hamstring issue, suffered while warming up in the bullpen a couple of weeks ago. He is now, I believe, eligible to be removed from the injured list, and he threw a 22-pitch bullpen yesterday. that Tori Lavello said went well.

Joe Mantipa would be a big addition for this DeBax bullpen. He looked pretty good when he was back for those few games. Yeah. Extended spring training, it is not major league baseball. Yeah, that's fair. So Carson Kelly's a while off. Yeah. That's kind of the first step you get people in games,

get them to see live hitting again in extended spring training. And then you send them out on the run. It'll be interesting to see how they, how they manage the roster. We talked about this quite a bit already, but, you know, there was a lot of, a lot of good decisions to be made here.

We have, it's been a long time since there's been too much talent on the roster. Yeah. So, you know, silver lining, this is, this is,

this is the product of a good baseball team, you know, kind of like Tori said with, so true, with Fletcher. Yeah, having to make hard decisions is, as it is hard, but it is also a sign

that your organization is kind of doing what it's supposed to do. Yeah, we're not that revolving. evolving door we were in 2021. Yeah, and that's the thing with Brandon fought too, is like, you're going to send him down, but the good news is you have someone, right?

You have Zach Davies to step in right now. You have Dre Jameson down there. Not getting Chris Medlin. Yeah, right. You're not just giving the ball to some, you know, some guy that is pretty clear just doesn't really have like a long-term future in the big leagues. I'm not going to attach any names of that comment.

Dallas Keikle was not great for this team last year. So there's definitely a lot more depth out there in the rotation. And there are more names in Reno, right? Bryce Jarvis, Slate Chaconi, Blake Walston. Those are guys we haven't even seen in the big leagues yet. And they're right at the doorstep. Good problem to have. Good, good problem to have.

Before we go, we want to tell you about the probabilities here for the rest of the series. The debacks have two more games, of course, this weekend against the Boston Red Sox. These games probably line up a little bit more favorably than tonight's game. I know Chris Sale had a bad ERA, but he has really been on fire lately. Obviously, Brandon Fott has struggled. This was not. If you were going to pick a game that the debacks should win in the series, this game was probably not that one. But these two line up fairly well for the devax.

It's Garrett Whitlock against Zach Davies, making his triumphant return from the oblique strain tomorrow. And then Tanner Hauk of the Boston Red Sox goes on Sunday against Merrill Kelly. You still feel like you have a chance to win this series with these pitching matches. You know, you never know what you're going to get out of Davies. Yeah, that's fair. You had one good start against the Dodgers and then one very bad start against the Dodgers. You definitely, I'm not going to put it words in anybody's mouth. For me, I feel better about Zach Davies this year than I did last year for sure.

Do I have numbers to back that up? Absolutely not. I just kind of feel better about it. He did add a four-seam fastball, which is kind of interesting. So, you know, if you're looking at the numbers and going, by feel you're probably not going to win this game right today. But you still feel pretty good about winning the series, like you said. Zach Davies, he's a veteran.

You never know he'll give you. He could give you that start that he had in what, Cincinnati last year. He could give you a blow-up start. Who knows? That's the fun of baseball. But, you know, you feel good anytime Merrill Kelly's going up. Yeah. So still feeling good.

It's baseball. We play another game tomorrow, baby, terrible game. Wipe it from the memory, go out of tomorrow. There you go. Yeah. I think in some ways for fans, it might even be freeing to have a loss like this where you didn't, you know, you didn't have a 5-0-0 lead in the 6th inning and then you lose the game.

See, you know, like I said earlier, this is... Not that happened recently or anything. This is just baseball. Sometimes you lose a game, man. Sometimes it happens. And today it just kind of felt like it. Yeah. So go get in tomorrow.

We did have the return of the kiss cam, which apparently Danielle, we found out was not. This wasn't the first time it came back. Apparently it came back at some point last week, maybe even before that. I don't know. But it sort of felt like COVID might kill, might have killed the kiss cam. And you could make a case that maybe it should have, but the kiss cam is in the back. So however people feel about that, I don't know. It's so cringy.

It is pretty cring. It's just so cringy. My favorite kiss cam was there was a couple years ago back before they killed it. And they, they, it's a couple, they put up there and the girl very clearly mouthed. He's my brother. Oh, yeah, that's always very awkward. Yeah, it's just, it's just such a painful, like, why? Because the camera people have to make guesses and assumptions.

It's 20, 23. Let's just do the Simba Cam every time. Make everyday bark at the park. Yeah, right. Simba cam with your little dog. Yeah. We don't need it. Simba cam is crazy.

It's great, but it's better when it's about with with dogs. Oh, yeah. And you're doing it with the kids, like, whatever. Yeah. I've seen a million. I want, give me the dogs. Simba cam with the dogs. That is, that is undoubtedly.

Just some horrified dog who just had to know all four feet dangling in the air, staring off. Like, I'm about to die right now. There's no idea what's going on. That's the best. Talks are the best. But, yeah, so for all you siblings, you plan on attending a diamond machine in your future. Be warned.

Be warned. Yeah, you heard it here first. You all, if you need to fill up on some gasoline or you just need a polar pop to bring you some ice cold refreshment, you should absolutely check out our friends over at Circle K. They had an incredible deal yesterday from four to seven. p.m. Like all of the Circle K's in the Valley had 40 cents off their gas, which I don't understand how they made that possible, but I definitely took advantage of it. So we love our friends over at Circle K. If you do go to a Circle K, you also might be lucky enough to see one of your favorite Ph&X show hosts invite you inside to go get a pull or pop. I had a traumatic experience yesterday, Danielle, when Derek popped up on the screen for the first time. I literally just left the office. We'd said our goodbyes, and then he's on the screen telling me, to go inside and get a polar pop. But yeah, it's an experience.

You all should absolutely go check it out. They have iced coffee for just $1.89, 12 packs of beer for $999. Red Bull 12 ounce for $2.575, Monster 12 ounce for $4.50. All sorts of incredible deals to be had over at Circle K. In addition to having what I found to be the cheapest gasoline in the valley, we love our Circle K over here on 7th Street in Roosevelt. which always seems to have the cheapest gas in the neighborhood. So make sure you're not missing out on all of this great stuff.

Right now, text PHNX to 31310 to join their SMS subscriber club and get a buy one, get one free offer on a 32 ounce polar pops. Head over to circlek.com slash store locator to find a circle K's near you. Finally, we also want to tell you about our friends over at four peaks, Four Peaks is the official beer of PH&X and they also have the official chicken tenders of pH and X on top of that. We have our kilt lifter right here as our friendly little prop. Me and Danielle are entirely too exhausted to be drinking any alcohol at this point in the evening

and we also are about to head home. But on any other night, I would absolutely be digging into this. And you know that if Derek was here, he would have probably drank at least two of them by now. We love our friends over at Four Peaks. Be sure to follow them on social at Four Peaks Brew and at Four Peaks Pub to get all the latest on Arizona's premier craft brewery. They also have a special deal as far as the Arizona Diamondbacks are concerned. They have a Four Peaks, Four Seats, a little situation happening right now where one lucky winner will get four seats to an upcoming Diamondbacks game. The tickets come with debuts.

So you can grab some food. some ice cold wow wheat or a hop knot. And you can enter by going to at Four Peaks Brew on Instagram. The link for that is in our bio. Once again, check out at Four Peaks Brew or at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest. At Arizona's hometown brewery, it must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks. And please drink responsibly. Well, this is not a great baseball game, but we've hopefully had some fun with it

and got your Memorial Day weekend off to a good start. Thank you to Danielle for being with us and working a, what is it, a 22-hour day at this point on behalf of PH&X. We're pretty much to that level. It's been. Spent a lot of time with Damon today. It's been, yeah. That's never good. Oh, yeah.

That's never good. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. No, we love it. It was a great time. It was great. Be sure to give us all a follow on Twitter. You can find me at at Jesse N. Friedman. Damon is at Damon Dog.

Danielle is Abraka Daniel, if I'm not mistaken. Did I get that right? Yes. We also, of course, have our at PHNX underscore DBAX account, but all roads lead to at PHNX underscore underscore sports. That's on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you all for hanging with us this evening. We hope you enjoyed the show.

We hope to see you back here on Monday. As we have a little Memorial Day edition of the PHNXDBAC show. We're going to do a post game show on Monday. rather than our usual 1 p.m. show. The D-Backs have an afternoon game on Monday, so things are a little bit different there. But for everyone here, we appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being with us.

And remember, kids, baseball is so much fun, but it's so much more fun when Rymel Tapia is not at the plate.