PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Can the D-backs SURVIVE Season-Defining East Coast Road Trip vs. MLB’s BEST?

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks are staring down another daunting stretch of the schedule, with six games against two of MLB’s best teams: the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox. Could this crucial East Coast road trip ultimately define the D-backs’ season? We preview the upcoming series against the Braves, including the probable pitching matchups and a closer look at Atlanta’s season so far. Plus, we revisit some memorable moments from this week in Diamondbacks history and check in on a few recently promoted prospects in another edition of Snake Farm. 0:00 SkeeYee & welcome in to the PHNX D-backs Show  3:00 Series loss to Rockies + NL Wild Card update  13:15 Upcoming road trip vs. Braves & Red Sox  25:10 Atlanta Braves series preview  36:05 Throwback Thursday  45:35 Update on D-backs prospects  51:30 Demetrio Crisantes continues to rise 📈  54:00 MLB owners propose new salary cap & floor JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX15 at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We needed some extra dog help, so we called in an extra dog. And that's because the Diamondbacks are facing a tough road trip ahead against two of MLB's best teams. Could this stretch define their season? Talking about it right now. Today, welcome into another edition of the PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. Love from Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. It is your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia.

thrilled to have you guys here. Filled to have an office dog roaming around. As Damon just said, this is the most tranquil that I've ever been at the beginning of an episode. And it's the dogs ball. The office dogs make everything better. And Lucy is definitely that. Of course, I'm not the only one with a dog here.

You guys got a dog here too. It's Damon Dog, aka Damon Farrell, on the ones and twos. And welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Diamondback show. Bark, bark, bark to both of you. Damon, mostly to you. I don't like to bark at Lucy because she'll bark back at me. But, of course, this show is brought to you by our friends over at GameTime. Go download that GameTime app right now.

Create an account and use that code of PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms do apply. And especially you should do that if you are a Diamondbacks fan in Atlanta or in Boston attending either one of these road games that the Diamondbacks are going to be playing this weekend and next week. In fact, we're going to be having a watch along against the Boston Red Sox next Tuesday. just because of how important that series has now become and how good the Boston Red Sox have also become. But this road trip absolutely matters for the Diamondbacks. And I know that sometimes we do the doom and gloom thing around here. I try to be Mr. Positivity, but my true self shines

through every once in a while. And of course, we do have to ask the question, does this road trip define the rest of the Diamondbacks season? And again, it might be a bit hyperbolic to say that six games could make or break Arizona's season at this point, but they enter today at 64 and 58 sitting right in the middle of the NL wild card race. They still currently have a wild card spot, and they are holding on to that so far. So credit to the Padres, as much as I hate that baseball team for coming on strong, they've won five games in a row and they passed by the Phillies and the Diamondbacks. But again, sitting at 64 and 58 right now, the Diamondbacks have a tough stretch ahead. have, they leave home for a brutal stretch against the Atlanta Braves and the Boston Red Sox.

And obviously Atlanta is the biggest immediate test. The Braves are 73 and 48 this season. And they just have continued to be one of MLB's best teams, particularly at home where they are 41 and 21 this season. Arizona, not very good on the road. They are 28 and 31 on the road. I mean, a fine road record. I'm not going to act like that's bad. But again, this is where they really have no choice but to improve that record. This stretch really does, you know, it really does make a difference here. The Diamondbacks don't have a good stretch against these two good teams. They could find themselves very, very far out of the NL wildcard race by the end of it with how, you know, how close it is, right, and how these other teams that are below them are currently playing. Luckily,

the Phillies have not been playing great baseball. And unfortunately, the Diamondbacks come off of a fairly embarrassing series loss to the Colorado Rockies, where they dropped the series finale 6 to 4. And Merrill Kelly, as we discussed yesterday, got hammered for six runs. If you watch my video, you'll also know I was not very happy about the Diamondbacks leaving 15 runners on base, which is exactly the kind of missed opportunity that can haunt a team fighting for every single win in a wildcard race right now. But the good news is that the Diamondbacks have shown that they can beat the best teams in Major League Base. So playing the Braves and playing the Red Sox isn't something that the Diamondbacks have not experienced already.

Going on a road trip where they were expected to not do very well and then coming out on top on the other side, that's how their season started with that road trip against Baltimore, New York, and the Philadelphia Phillies, right? So plus they just took the season series from the Dodgers and recently put together a huge three-game, you know, series win over that team. It should have been a sweep. but again, the Diamondbacks were not able to convert a very, very winnable game there at the late, in the bottom of the ninth in that second game, right? But they have gotten strong performances from Brandon Fott, who has just been a dude for this team. A guy and a dude and a stud, Damon, he's been everything that we could hope he could be,

as has Eduardo Rodriguez. And now with Michael Soroka coming back and, again, just kind of overall the way that this lineup is constructed, This is just a team that is very much the kind of team that could go in and surprise all of us against the Braves and the Red Sox. But pitching, obviously, is going to be the biggest storyline. And the Diamondbacks adding Zach Lattel, I mean, is so huge right now. Zach Lidell just delivered four and two-thirds innings scoreless against Colorado in his DeBack's debut. And really, it probably will end up going down as the best trade deadline acquisition the Diamondbacks made. which they didn't make very many of, right?

Mike Hazen's conservative trade deadline approach was a concern and still might prove to not be enough to get this team through September. But you don't necessarily need to dominate this road trip. The Diamondbacks don't need to win every game. You probably can't afford to get your rotation blown up every other night, like what happened there with Merrill Kelly, right? But the starters can consistently give the Diamondbacks five to six quality hitting over, you know, these starts, this team has enough offense and bullpen pieces to win

these games. And we're going to go over the probable pitchers for the Brave series, as well as how the Braves have been doing particularly this year. But this is more about the Diamondbacks collective effort here against both the Red Sox and the Braves. The Red Sox are a team that at one point looking at our schedule was like, hey, Red Sox are going to come up there. You know, that's part of an easier stretch there for the Diamondbacks after they play the Braves. Braves have been a good team all season long, but now that's drastically changed with the way the Red Sox have played over the last two months. They're insane. So again, this is really more about the Diamondbacks getting some pieces back over this stretch. That could be the thing that

puts them over the top. They've been playing pretty good baseball with what they have now. But now they have Michael Soroka back in their rotation. Plus, Jordan Lawler, as we've discussed, nearing his return. He just hit a home run in his last rehab start, and Justin Martinez had a 1-2-3 inning in his rehab start with two strikeouts and touched 102 miles per hour with his forcing fastball. And those are the guys we focus on. But Lordus Guriel Jr., Dray Jameson, Ryan Thompson, those guys are all working their way back. Right now, ESPN currently lists J-Mart with an estimated return date of August 17th. And they have Gurriel returning. on August 21st, I haven't really heard that much about Lourdes Gurriel

or where he's at with his progression, but that means that the Diamondbacks could potentially get some big reinforcements during this road trip overall. And I know Lourdes hasn't been playing the best, but he just gives them another bat, another guy in their lineup, and another option. And that's huge right now for this team. This stretch is not the kind of stretch that, again,

at least it's not against teams that you're in the race, against. That's probably the only thing that could define this stretch more is if they were playing the Padres and the Phillies and, you know, maybe like the Marlins right now. But what this, what this stretch does is this shows what the diamondbacks are, who the diamondbacks are, right? Like this is an immediate test and this just shows the question, you know, this is, again, where are we at against the best in baseball? we get high on, you know, these wins, especially against the Dodgers, because there is no better team in baseball than the Dodgers.

Plus, to help them extend a losing streak and look bad during a time where they went out and added the best pitcher in baseball to their roster felt even better, you know, but it's also this weird thing where we are like a team created to beat the Dodgers. Our roster is purposefully put together. It feels like at times to conquer the Dodgers. And no other team, right? So that's the reason why it would be great to see them have, you know, a good showing in this series, in these two series against one of the best in the National League

and one of the best in the American League. And Damon, again, I know that it's probably not, if things go badly, it's not the end of the world, it's not the end of, you know, their season. But it's kind of like the series with the Rockies. losing the series against the Rockies does feel like we just got knocked down in a 12-round heavyweight fight. Like things were going good. We were feeling energetic. We were getting our jabs and our uppercuts in, and then out of nowhere, we got knocked down.

We didn't get K-Oed. We didn't get a 10-count. But we got hit with a right unexpectedly there by Colorado, and it feels like it's, you know, it's one of those things that could be a big setback as far as. everything is concerned. Confidence levels, division record, should they tie a team like the pirates? Like a lot of things. Feels like it matters.

Yeah, I mean, it feels like you really missed an opportunity to maybe separate yourself a little bit in this wildcard hunt. Right. You know, when you look at the standings and I don't have it pulled up so I can't throw it on screen for us. But, you know, you've really let, as Ernesto says here in the chat, you've let the Marlins, the car. the Cardinals back into the race here. If you were playing the baseball that you kind of were getting accustomed to playing over the last couple of weeks, when I was in Alaska, I might add, you would be kind of more in that Cubs vicinity right now. Or how about when you were in Barcelona and the way they were playing then, too?

They were playing bad when I went to Barcelona and we started losing all of our players. So we got to go west and northwest and not. Yeah. Okay. It seems as though. I mean, right now you're in that final spot. I think you have the tiebreaker over the Phillies. Correct.

But still another series to play against the Phillies. Yeah. And then, you know, the Marlins are one and a half out, Cardinals two and a half out. Both playing really good baseball right now, seven and three, six and four in their last ten games. And then also the Marlins have won four in a row. I think that's the race right there, right? Like the nationals are five out and Reds, Pirates, everybody else is five out. It's going to be tough for them to make up that ground.

Right. But you're right. This race now, right now, and with the way the Cubs are playing, they're kind of running away. Agreed. With that top spot, right? So the race is the Padres, the D-BACs, the Phillies, the Marlins, and the Cardinals. That is the five-team race for two spots. And that feels gross and bad because-

It's why the D-backs are at like 45%, right? Because they're currently in a spot and there's five teams for two spots. And it's two divided by five, 40%. It makes a perfect sense, I think. It's probably right about where the Diamondback should be if you're truthfully, like objectively looking at what the odds of them making the playoffs are. I just, you know, it's, again, if you somehow sweep the Rockies, like you probably want to if you're in a playoff race, right,

you're looking at a lot, a lot more ground that other teams are going to have to make up there. I mean, imagine if you were, you know, a full two games ahead of where the Marlins and the Cardinals are right now, three and a half, four and a half respectively. That's a world's difference, right? And you would basically kind of be putting it up to, can the Phillies and Padres sustain it? And it's two spots for those three teams. But right now we're kind of in the muck with the rest of them.

And you've got to keep holding the pace. And that's what makes games against two of the better teams in baseball and the Braves and the Red Sox that much more integral and necessary that you come away with good results in those ones. This one's for Ernesto. just said show the dog in the live chat. Yes, I know. You're the dog, yeah.

And also, Michael Dixon is taking on the responsibility of being the negative one in the chat. We appreciate that, Michael. This chat would not be the same if there wasn't some sort of balance here as far as negativity was concerned. But Ernesto is right. This is now the PHNX dog podcast. Bark, bark. All right. But as far as this trip goes, Damon, I mean, I know it's going to, you can't even ask them to go 6 and O against teams like this.

No. But obviously, five and one is like we're, we're straightening our tie more than we've ever straightened our tie. We're more back than we've ever been back. Oh, I'm running on. And we're winning the world series. I'm diving into the pool, Derek, if we, if we go five and one against these, these two, in these two series.

I mean, I think that three and three, four and two should be kind of the, the goal here. Like, I don't necessarily, you know, think it's, it's realistic for us to go into it being like, we're going to win both these series. I mean, that's obviously the mentality the team itself should have, but I'm talking about it from like an objective fan standpoint of like, which I think those things are kind of oxymorons when I say it. But when I just think that like we might need to hold the pace here and keep the pace and then attack some of these lesser series.

But that being said, the debacks seem like a team that kind of plays up and down to their competition. They always give the doc. Dodgers trouble, you know, especially this season, it feels like they've really done a good job of of going against the Dodgers here, other than that first series of the season, which you probably could argue you should have won that series in two of those games there. But, you know, then you go and you face the Rockies and you lose a series in a really important stretch. So it's like maybe, maybe counting out this team against good teams is not what we should be doing because they show up against those teams, whereas, you know, that we should really be scared about.

about when they get those easier teams on their schedule, how they're going to take advantage of those series in particular, because it doesn't feel like they often do. Right. And Michael Dixon is pointing out Padres have the Guardians and the Mets, not nearly as difficult teams to be facing right now. And then they just beat the Brewers, right? So it's like we needed the Brewers to do us as solid,

the best team in baseball, and yet they just do they're do nothing. It's sickening. And then Portsport points out, that the redstocks have been stumbling, so there's that as well. I mean, better time to face the Red Sox, right? Right.

And I think was it indifference news is saying every road trip seems to be season defying around here. Well, this one coming off. All season. I know. It is the season. Well, again, with this one particularly, I think it's, it matters more because they lost the series to the Rockies. Right. Yeah.

Like you sweep the Rockies. Then I mean, you're like, yeah, this is a tough stretch. But at this point, you're sitting pretty good as far as in the second wildcard spot. And you have some distance between you and the pack. They did not do that. They lost two out of the three games against the Rockies. And that's now why they're in a position where this road trip could define them because it's tough. And this tough road trip, if we're talking about one and five or getting swept consecutively,

we're talking about a team that's dead in the water now. And we're fighting just to stay relevant in September in any way. way. And with these other teams being so close, that kind of road trip could be a disaster. I mean, literally we could find ourselves as far out as, you know, the Cardinals are right now on the other side of it. So that's why it could be concerning, right? That'd be pretty disgusting. And it's funny how different, like three and three feels fine, feels acceptable, feels probably what we should be shooting for. And four and two feels excellent and incredible. And like we've announced ourselves as a legitimate NL contender. That's, that's how

close this stupid stretches. That's how dumb baseball is that we can overreact this much about that small of a margin of wins and losses. Over 162 game season would still over a month ago. And yes, feel like this is a season defining road trip. Well, I think that that's, you know, kind of where the Diamondbacks as a franchise have been the past couple of seasons. Like, I think I saw somebody say this the other day. The past two years, you've missed the playoffs by a combined three games. Because one of them was literally zero games. You had the same record as the Mets and the Braves and you lost on a tiebreaker.

And then the other one was three games last year. And that required a big second half turnaround from a team that traded away a lot of pieces. But they still deserve credit for showing up and having a good second half of that season. It'd be really unfortunate if you missed the playoffs again by, you know, two games, one game, something like that. and, you know, every game really is that important right now. So I understand a little bit of the crash out when it comes to, you know, you can't lose those Rockies series because as you say, Derek, like you got six games up coming here. If you sweep the Rockies and you go three and three, I think we're all sitting here going pretty good.

Fine. Pretty good. But now that you lost a series to the Rockies, it feels like three and three would be kind of eh. Four and two would feel really good. Yeah, four and one or six and O and we're, and again, I'm. jumping into the Chasefield pool. And but then conversely, two and four. We've already won the World Series.

Two and four or one in five or oh and six. And like I'm sitting up here on the next podcast saying like, yeah, man, I think it's over. I think it's, I think we're done here. So this is a really, really critical stretch. It feels like this might be the most important like six game stretch here of the entire season, if I'm being completely honest. I agree. At least at this point, right?

It's become that. It has become that. Just like Boston is all over the place, and it went from a team that, you know, early on in the season, you were circling this date saying like, yes, this is going to be awesome. We're going to be blasting home runs over that short porch

to now being very concerned about playing a very good Red Sox team. I think overall, though, it does come back down to the Diamondbacks have lost games that they should have won. They've put themselves in this position right now. But, you know, they are the kind of team, once again, as Indeference News pointed out, that could all of a sudden lose, go, oh, and say, six on this road trip and then win 10 games in a row, right? So, I mean, baseball is dumb like that.

And with the way this is going, you know, nothing's over until we have that E next to the Arizona Diamondback's name, right? So, but we, we need to figure some things out. And Port's Port Port is right. Merrill Kelly has an expected ERA of two, 30, two, or seven 15? Seven. Seven. Oh, yeah. And also says no more risk disasters, please. God. I mean, and that's the thing about yesterday, and we talked about it obviously on yesterday's post-game show. But like, it's not like the team's full plate approach was bad. They got 10 walks and 10 hits. They clearly had a decent plate approach when it came to non-clutch situations,

when it came to not having runners on second and third base. But the second that they got a bunch of base runners, they forgot how to hit. And it feels like that compounds, that snowballs where, you know, it starts off, oh, yeah, I mean, we just didn't get the job done in the first couple of innings. And then all of a sudden you're in inning number, what was it, eight? And it's the third time in a row you've had bases loaded and you haven't been able to get more than like one run total across the board. And that's where it's like, okay, now clearly it's in the team's head here. And that's unacceptable, I feel like. Like you're tagging these pitchers yesterday.

tagging them. Keep it up. What is changing when there's runners on base versus when there isn't? Like yesterday was so inexcusable. It's hard to even say that it was like a short sample size of like one game. It's like you had so many runners in scoring position possession position opportunities that you need to come through in a few of them. Yeah. That's going to be the game.

I think that a lot of fans, like if we do end up missing playoffs by a game, that's going to be. the game that people look back on and say like, you just can't lose to the Rockies when you get 15 runners in scoring position. Can't happen? I think they actually, didn't they make history with that loss? Yeah, they became the first team since like 2019 to have 10 hits, 10 walks and score less than five runs. I think the staff was.

10 or more hits and 10 or more walks. Yeah. Yeah. Gross. Gross. Well, they have a big series with the Atlanta Braves who is no pushover. They are a team that's good at kind of good at everything they do. And we're going to talk about that on the other side of this break.

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And yes, I mean, going back to the statement earlier, the Diamond Baxter essentially entering the part of the schedule where every series matters, every game matters, every win matters. The Diamondbacks are tangled up right now in the NL race and Wednesday's loss to the Rockies left them in a tie with the Phillies and watching the Padres soar past them, right? The frustrating part is just that loss, that series loss to the Rockies occurring obviously right after the massive win over the Dodgers. And, you know, that was the first time that the Diamondbacks have taken a series season series against the Dodgers 2018. I mean, even when we beat them bums in the in the playoffs in 2023 like we did,

we still didn't have that, you know, kind of record against them during the regular season. But this Braves team is a tough team. And they've had themselves, again, a very, very good season in every aspect of the game. Let's take a look at how the Diamondbacks match up with the Braves here. Again, the Braves have a 73 and 48 record this season. They have a plus 124 run differential. They are three and seven and three. I wish they were three and seven in their last ten. Seven and three in their last ten games. Their team OPS is seven-34, which is seventh best in baseball.

Meanwhile, the debacks finally get over 700 for their team OPS, and they are finally in the top 20 of teams there with a 7-12 OPS. Their ERA is 3.60 for their overall staff, which is fifth best in baseball. Their starting pitching ERA is 3.72, which is sixth best. their relief ERA is 3.44, which is third best. They have 11 outs above average, which is seventh best in baseball. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks, 27 outs above average there for the D-backs. And the D-Backs pitching staff now has a 4.12 ERA, which is 16th, and getting more and more respectable, right? Just like the OPS. It feels like this team is becoming a more well-rounded team,

and the season series is tied at two games apiece after that four-game series they had earlier in the season. I mean, the debacks, like, truthfully, if they just had the offense that they've had the last couple of seasons, they'd be one of the better teams in all of baseball. This is one of the reasons why it's so frustrating, right? We just needed average pitching. That's what we were talking about, and we knew this defense is always pretty much one of the better defenses in baseball in the Tori Lavolo era, at least. Like, if you just could have a top 10 OPS, like, how, what would the record look like right now? Genuinely. Remember when we did have a top 10 OPS? And we had 29th ERA in baseball.

Yeah, I remember. I could never forget it. Oh, my God. But let's take a look at the probable pitchers for this series and how the pitchers all match up here. I mean, I still can't believe Brandon Fought is having the season that he's having after returning from AAA Reno. I really can't.

His ERA is down to 3.36. He has a 6 and 1 record this season. It's nuts. It's nuts. And I mean, it's nuts considering that this was a guy who at one point was, I don't want to say of such little value, but was struggling so much that the Diamondbacks not only put him in the bullpen, but they also, you know, demoted him to AAA Reno. And he spent basically the month of June in AAA Reno. And since then, since then, Damon, the team is 7 and 1 in his

return. He is 6 and 0. He has a 1.32 ERA, a 2.89 FIP. He has given up an 8.5.5. He has given up in eight starts, one home run, and seven walks. I mean, Brandon Fott, since returning from AAA Reno, is one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball, flat out, period, the end. And he's going up against one of the best pitchers in baseball in Chris Sale. So, man. It's a legacy moment for Brandon Fott. It really is.

It really is. Outduling a Hall of Famer on the biggest stage. I mean, come on. Let's go big game, Brandon. Sale is 12 and 7 this year with a 2.20 ERA and 151 strikeouts. That ERA is, I believe, the best ERA in all of baseball. That's going to be a quick game. That's Friday's game.

So we'll be in and out, probably start the post game show by like 5 o'clock for a game. I think that starts at 3. Was it 340? Yeah, we'll probably be done by 5 o'clock. Game two, Eduardo Rodriguez with his 2.70 ERA and his 11 and 4 record. goes up against Grant Holmes, another excellent starting pitcher for the Braves. He is 7 and 4 this season with a 3.47 ERA and 94 strikeouts. In game three, you got Michael Soroka, 8 and 3 with a 2.92ERA, 83 strikeouts,

going up against Bryce Elder, probably the most susceptible to perhaps a win here. His 4.03 ERA and 108 strikeouts for the Braves this season. This is not a final probabilities, by the way, Braves have not actually announced any probable pictures for this series besides Chris Sale matching up with Brandon Fought in game one. And that still isn't official on the MLB website. That was just in the Diamondbacks notes overall. But again, Chris Sale, the lefty. So I imagine that's going to be a nightmare for us when it shouldn't be.

Because usually, like, shouldn't we torch lefties, but I don't know. Anyway, Damon, again, an important series. And we will be here doing a postgame show. tomorrow night for it. So make sure to join us for that. Jason just showed up. So make sure to mark him tardy on the list, Damon. I want to make sure we're not letting him slide on this one. But the rotation has to carry the Diamondbacks in the series. There's no other way to say it. We don't know what you're going to get out of the offense. And the starting pitching for the Braves is just too damn good. Not to mention that their relievers are even better than their starters. So

the rotation just has to carry them. That's the way that this has to go. They're offense can't have a repeat of what happened on Wednesday, where they just kind of got those guys on base but couldn't finish the job overall. And we need guys like Nolan Arnado to keep producing, right? He was at the center of a lot of those moments where the Diamondbacks kind of dropped the ball overall and weren't able to bring those runs in. And we need him because he was the guy that gave us the win essentially on Monday with that grand slam. That's the Nolan we need on this road trip. But also, Gabriel Moreno could be huge in this. He's hitting 305 right now.

He's a 383 on base percentage. And he has been the Diamondbacks most consistent offensive weapon. And we need them. We need them to be that in this series for sure. We need all the offense we can get, especially with how just frustrating it was that the Diamondbacks couldn't break through for that big inning yesterday.

Right? I think that kind of covers it. But runs are going to be a premium. That's basically what it comes down to. And Jason wants to know Vibe Chesh. are we crashing out or are we picking ourselves up? I'm like it's a new day, Derek. You know, I think yesterday valid crash out and I'm on to the next one here.

But like, you know how it is on this show. Every single one of the last results is however we feel about this season. Like Killer X mentioned, you know, remember when Derek and Damon were celebrating the Dodgers series? Like it was the World Series. Yeah, we do that all season long. about every series that has ever happened. And you know that. We would know that if you showed up for the shows. And then we crash out with the losses.

There's literally a whole thing on this show, are we back? Is it over? And we do it after every single win or loss respectively. And so that's how I feel like this Brave series is everything to me right now. I'm looking forward. I got tunnel vision and it's in Atlanta and I just want to beat the damn Braves. And every single winner loss in that series is going to dictate my mood for that day. And then we're going to go to the next series and do it all over again.

He is a miserable person to work with after a loss. I want you to know that. I try to press on. Derek's like, and did I tell you about like this really cool thing that happened to me earlier? And I'm like, Derek, shut up. He literally says that to me. I'm like, oh, hey, I talk to, I don't care. I don't care.

That's his response to me. And he means it. And I appreciate it. I respect it. I do. I don't like when he's mean to me particularly, but I respect it. But we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, I'm going to try to talk about something other than how important this series is coming up.

Killer X just said, quote unquote, be more realistic. On this show. But also him saying it of all people is hilarious. Oh, yeah, I know him. He just, he invents ways to be angry about stuff. That was what we had Jesse for was to kind of bring me and Derek back down to earth, whether we were emotional about wins or losses. are over, unfortunately. And now it's just,

now it's just the emotional roller coaster podcast. You don't like it? Strap in. Door is that way. He's not wrong. He's not wrong.

Especially for you. Especially for you. I have that bottle of champagne chilling. Don't you forget. But we're going to take a quick break on the other side of this break. We're going to do a little throwback

Thursday action. Don't you go anywhere. You're watching the P. NX Diamondback show. Well, if you're looking for the ultimate spot to watch the game, place a few bets, grab some drinks,

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Take a short survey and let us know what we are doing that you love and what we're we could do better and you'll have a chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. Obviously, if you're watching the show right now, you have impeccable judgment, impeccable taste, you are very handsome slash beautiful, you smell great, you are incredibly smart, and most importantly, uh, you love this show and we love you for loving it. But we still want to hear from you and we want to know what we could do better. So head on over to go phnx.com slash survey today to get signed up. And again, take it takes about three minutes. Your feedback will help make us better. Don't you wish you had Mike Hazen's number like this?

Again, everyone who completes the survey will be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. Take the survey today. Head on over to go phnx.com slash survey. That's go phnx.com slash survey. Well, Damon, it is Thursday, and you know what we do on this podcast every single Thursday. So let's get those, let's get those colors right before we proceed. Thank you. Talk about the dog making me like.

chill that makes me chill that makes me chill yeah i think that honestly this podcast probably would be like one of the you know top 100 sports podcasts in america solely if we had the purple and teal yeah i mean 100% like ken kendrick personally is holding this podcast back by not making the switch back it's not just purple and teal let's give credit to the copper where copper like really shines and you know what you're right like copper is the underrated i think you know part of the color combo it's such a subtlety, but it really, you know, brings everything together here. Well, we have some stuff to talk about on Throwback Thursday, including, of course, a day, you know, just a quick memory of how good these two guys were.

But during the same week back in 2002, Randy Johnson struck out 14 Marlins in a game to move past Tom Seaver into fifth place all-time at the time on the all-time strikeout list. And then six days later on August 16th, Kurt Schilling struck out 12 Cubs at Wrigley Field to earn his 20th win of the season. Just let those two things together sink in that we had on our team at one point. Randy Johnson striking out 14 to move into the top five pitchers as far as strikeouts were concerned of all time. And then just a few days later, Schilling earned his 20th season of the year by striking out 12 Cubs. Those were some days.

Those were some days. Another thing that occurred on this week, this time in 2004, this was on August 6, 2004, was that DeBack CEO, Jerry Colangelo had announced that he will leave his post at the end of the season and was replaced at the time by Jeff Murad. And I can't say enough about how instrumental Jerry Colangelo has not only been in Arizona sports, but how instrumental he was in that early success. We sit here now 25 years. This is the 25th anniversary of the Diamondbacks winning the World Series,

and that World Series would not have come. And people across this state would not be fans of this team in the way they are had it not been for Jerry Colangelo. Say all you want about the play of Luis Gonzalez. Say all you want about how incredible that entire team was. Jay Bell, Matt Williams, Tony Womack. I mean, it's just an incredibly legendary team. But it was put together because Jerry Colangelo was the voice of reason in the room.

And Jerry Colangelo was the one that looked at the rest of the ownership group and said, do you chumps want to be losers with an empty ballpark? Or do you want to make this franchise, one of the fastest franchises to win a championship in sports history? and that's what they became. And again, Jerry Colangelo was the only one that understood that this particular fan base was only going to come out for 162 games, well, at least 81 at the ballpark, to see a winner. And they had to make this team a winner. And that's the reason why Luis Gonzalez and Jay Bell and Randy Johnson and Kurt Schilling.

And all of these other guys ended up as a part of this franchise and ended up legends within the confines of Chase Field. So shout out to the true OG there in Jerry Colangelo. On August 15, 2006, the Diamondbacks played their second 18th inning game in franchise history. This time it was the longest and it's relevant because it was against the Colorado Rockies. And I just want to point out how annoying it is to me that the Diamondbacks and the Rockies played an 18 inning game that was five hours and 21 minutes long and the score ended Damon two to one. Gonzalez had a game-winning single in the 18th inning that sealed a two-to-one victory in Colorado over the Rockies, a two-to-one 18-in inning game at Coorsfield. That's nuts.

I feel like nothing that happened during this time frame prior to 2010 was real. Like, it's all just a weird. Who pitched? I don't know. Oh, that's a good question. I just had it up a second ago. I do not know who pitched right now, but I do know that that was, oh, there it was, I had it right here.

I'm sure it was Randy Johnson. It's got to be Randy Johnson, right? Am I not wrong? Let's see. Miguel Batista was the starting pitcher for the Diamondbacks and Jason Jennings was the starting pitcher for the Rockies. I mean, what happened, guys? Did the lineups, like just, was there a party in Denver or something?

They got drunk. Yeah, the fellas were just hammered drunk, both teams. They had some drinks. Miguel Batista went six innings giving up seven hits, one earned run, and Jason Jennings went eight innings, giving up five hits and one earned run in Colorado. Still can't get over that. Also, on this week, we got more Rockies history. The DeBacks on August 12th, 2008, Dback's 4-2 win over the Rockies in Colorado, once again, four-two,

gave manager Bob Melvin his franchise best 304th regular season win as a manager at the time. So shout out to Bo Melville. there. And then we have one more piece of history that it happened this time on August 7th, 2010. Actually, two pieces of history. On August 7th, 2010, the Diamondbacks retired. Luis Gonzalez's number 20, the first D-back to have his number retired. And then that same night, Chris Young became the first D-back and fourth player in the last 40 years to hit a lead-off home run to start the game and a walk-off home run to win it in the same game. Oh, incredible. Incredible.

Well, of course, we're going to take a quick break. On the other side of this break, we are going to talk a little bit about how some of the Diamondbacks prospects are doing, including guys that were recently promoted to AA Amarillo. And we're going to do that on the other side of this break. Don't you go anywhere? You're watching the PH&X Diamondback show. Well, of course, you guys know that we are going to be heading out to Circa resorts later this month. We're going to be doing this very podcast and the PHNX Wildcats podcast from one of my favorite hotels in the entire world, and that is Circa.

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kind of push you need to get going on your next project. So stop on by one of the window depots, eight Arizona locations and see for yourself why they are way more than just a window store. Well, Damon, we got to take a trip down to the snake farm because I cherry pick some stats, and that's what I do. You know, that's what I do around here. But we got some guys that were recently promoted. And more importantly, we, we, We have a name that I can guarantee you I'm not going to be able to say properly within the organization. Not that that's anything new, right? But I'm already bad enough.

So I'm going to give this one a try. And I'm going to give his full name a try. Not just his last name, his full name, recently promoted to the Amarillo Sod Poodles. We got Avery, Kuadwo, Botang, Owusu, A sedu. I think that that is probably pretty good. I mean, the middle names there are really difficult. So I don't think that anyone is like expecting you to to say those on every single time.

No, but I figure. But Avery Ousu is easy. It's that a say do, I think. A sedu, right? It could be Asiado. Okay. But I think a saydu might be it. I mean, I'd love to get some clarification here from our friends at the sod poodles because I hate to butcher names.

It's like the one thing they like teach you in journalism school. It's like got to get names right. Pronunciation, spelling. It matters more than anything in the world. So that's been ingrained inside of my soul. But yeah, I mean, it's definitely not the easiest of names in the entire world. Did Cherry pick some stats for him? Because he was recently promoted to Amarillo.

And in two games, Damon, he has a 625 batting average, 600 on base percentage, which didn't even make sense. to be in Damon how an on-base percentage could be lower than a batting average, but it is. And a 16-25 slug for a 2.225 OPS. Is that good? Is that good? And 6 RBI. Is that good? Is that good? I don't know. He's an outfielder, right field, center field, left field. He plays all over the place. His number is not nearly as good for the Hillsborough hops. He slash 202-289-369 for a 658 OPS. But once again, I think it proves that promoting a young talent isn't necessarily based on their statistics blowing you away. Nor do I think that he is going to continue to hit 625 as a member of the Amaril Assad poodles.

But if he does, get him up here right now. Get him up here right now. Right? Am I wrong about that? I feel like that's pretty accurate. But not the only guy on there. Of course, another guy that was recently promoted was Wellington Aracina. Arendt?

It's Arasina, right? Am I butchering that one too? I know you want to just throw Sina in there, the wrestler fan and you. Wellington John Sina. I think it's Aracena. Arsena, yeah, that's what I was saying. So Arsena there had in 16 starts for the Hillsborough hops, a 4.83 ERA. Not a great whip, 1.559, but he did have 9.6 strikeouts per 9 and less than half a home run per nine innings.

So, again, good stats there as far as not letting the ball travel too far, not giving up too many home runs and pretty good there with the strikeouts, but does get promoted up to AA Amarillo as well. And then last was just since we were talking about some Amarillo guys, a look in at Drew Jones and how he's doing this season. Drew is, I mean, it feels like he's coming along not at a very quick rate, but I feel like every time I see his. stats. Every time I see his numbers, he's doing a little bit better. Right now, his batting average is up to 264. His on-base percentage is pretty good at 364. He's got a 714 OPS, and he's got 45 RBI. Not really driving the ball much, but still, a guy that's improving. And a guy that, again, I know a lot of people, I don't want to say have given up on Drew Jones, Damon, but, you know, You know, he is a guy that I think, based on how high he was drafted, it's hard not to be disappointed that he's not doing better.

For sure. Yeah. And again, it's all about the development. If his development takes a while, it's all fine. As long as, you know, when he gets to a major league level, if he gets to a major league level, if that happens, he is ready. You know, he is ready for it. And he is, it seems like, again, his stats are improving, and it feels like every six months or so,

I take a look at how he's doing overall. And there are improvements. I don't love that OPS. He's got a lot of stolen bases, by the way. Yeah, he does have a lot of stolen bases. That OPS isn't great, though. It's been higher at portions of this season. Yeah.

And it's largely, I mean, you look at the OBP, it's largely down to his slug. His slug is nowhere near good enough for being an Amarillo. Yeah. Like, you need to be. putting the ball over the fence. You need to be hitting it in the gap and, you know, utilizing your speed. And I think that you got to be a little bit concerned about his power numbers here in particular when you look at these statistics. I'm not giving up on Drew Jones yet

because I think that the fielding, the base running is so, I mean, it's so elite that like you just can't fully give up on a guy who's, you know, how old is he at this point? We've talked about this all the time and I always forget, but he's only 22. Like it's not like his career is not set in stone. He can get better at baseball, but we got to get going pretty quick here. And we got to start finding a little, you know, ability to hit with a little bit more pop. I agree. And I mean, again, especially when you play in a, you know, hitter friendly environment like Amarillo, you just want to see that pop. You want to see him doing better overall. But again, the Diamondbacks have some guys that are still killing it.

Jordan Lawler being one of those for Emeril Osat Poodles, by the way. That's a name that we can't wait to see back up on the Major League roster. But again, you said that Chrysontes had another home run, right? Dmitrio Cresontes just, I don't know if the, you know, what we heard was true or not. I don't know if he truly was the prospect that was involved in that trade for Gley Holmes that the Diamondbacks didn't make. it just still can't help but feel good that they didn't have that guy leave their, you know, leave their organization, especially a guy right now that has a 769 slug. Or excuse me, I'm sorry, let's see his Reno stats.

He has a 726 OPS overall, but he's batting 304, 332. Slug kind of went down there for the Reno Aces, but he had a 548 slug for the Amarillo Assad Poodles in, what, 35 games? and right now he's got a 726 OPS at Reno. But also, Chrysontes is a guy that has cruised through this organization. We've talked about this a couple of times, but he played in the Arizona Complex League, he played for the Hillsboro Hopes, he's played for the Amrero of Sod Poodles,

and now he's currently playing for AAA Reno. It feels like it's inevitable that we're going to see him on the Major League roster by next season without things are shaping up, at least as far as how fast his progress is going. Yeah, I think that that's what you mostly look for when you're looking for, you know, guys that are potential major league players and especially like star players. You know, you look for how fast did they rise through the minor league system. And Chrysontes being a guy that, you know, battled with a bad injury last season was a high school prospect, like was drafted out of Nogales and, you know, what didn't go through college.

So you wouldn't expect his run through the minors to be super swift like you would like a. Ryan Walschman, for example, who, you know, went to Kentucky and was a pretty high pick. I just think that, you know, like a guy that was a high school guy had a year off because of an injury and still has found himself just kind of climbing through the system. To me, that tells me that you're, you know, someone with Major League chops. Absolutely, no doubt about it. And so I'm excited for Cresontes. And I'm, you know what, like as much as like it would be nice to potentially have a Clay Holmes right now, you know, I, you know, I, I won,

if we're going to be looking back going like, thank God we didn't trade Demetrio Chrysontes. I wish there was going to be a season in 2007 for us to see that, but we might just have to wait until 2020. And that's a fair point. By the way, MLB owners are reportedly proposing a $245.3 million salary cap and a $171.71.2 million salary floor. How are we not getting behind that? starting in 2027. A cap would be a massive change for baseball,

but that floor is going to be the kind of thing that we just discussed, and we have been discussing, that that is going to truly be the thing that changes baseball and salaries for the people that don't get compensated properly, that don't receive $40 million a year over the next 13 years.

And again, it's going to be an ugly fight, but I feel like the owners are bringing something substantial to the table when it when you're talking about a hundred and seventy million dollar payroll floor how is that not compromised Derek how is that not something for you and something for us as well and it saves the long-term health of the sport so that you can continue rising that salary cap and that floor every so often like you know NBA and the NFL they they rise it every year because they make profit right and I think that the growth of the game is is predicated based off of how How can we make competition much more fair so that the average MLB fan isn't somebody that just wants to go drink a couple of beers and get a hot dog with their friends twice a season?

Which is what that ownership group that originally owned this team thought was going to happen. That's the exact kind of fan that they thought was going to come to Chase Field for 81 games a year. And yeah. And so it's like we need to start building an equilibrium so that fans are fans of their team year around and care about baseball. as a whole way more. And I think that it, you know, like I'm looking here at the, at the, the, the Spotrack salary caps, Derek. All but nine teams in baseball are above that salary cap. So that means 21 teams are below that maximum number.

If we're solely basing off of the floor, there. How many are below the floor? The day, Damon, our opening day salary was like $182 million. The Diamondbacks would be sitting right there at the floor and they are one of of the teams that gets actually credited for spending money. The debacks are at 240. So I think the debacks or 230, I think so. So the debacks are actually almost the team that is right there at the threshold.

Imagine if everyone was spending as much money as the debacks, how good we might be at this sport. But then you look down and it's the, you know, it's 19 down to 30 are all lower than what that floor is right now, including the brewers who have the best record in the league. and I know that people use that as like a way of like, there's parity in baseball without the salary cap for sure. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to make it even more fair for every team. I think that, you know, it's just 11 teams below that floor,

nine teams above that cap. That's indicative of this is going to be good for building a middle class of major league baseball and some of the players that maybe don't make a ton of money over the course of their careers because they're in arbitration and whatnot. will be helpful. Isn't that sweet, Derek? I mean, she's sick of hearing about the salary cap. She doesn't want to hear about how there's not going to be baseball in 2027.

But one last thing that you know I can't leave without saying is that Tommy Henry, Damon, got his 69th start as part of the Diamondbacks minor league system. And that would be the most starts of pitchers ever had. Tommy made his 69th start of his career for the Aces on August 6th, moving in past Charles Brewer for sole possession of the franchise record for most starts made. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. Yeah. But it is. It's just a fact. It's something, and you know I had to use.

I'm not letting a stat involving the number 69 pass without acknowledging it, Damon. That's my job around the show. But we thank you guys so much for putting up with me, and we thank you guys for being here for Damon and his dogs. and his dogs. Also, Killarex, try not to put spelling, like, requests in the live chat. That kind of does ruin the idea of trying to have someone spell a word. But he says, he goes, he goes, Damon, spell equilibrium, and then goes on to say, I don't know what you're talking about, Yoshi, when it uses the misspelling of, wow.

I mean, that's just a disaster, you know, attempt at trying to, trying to get someone on some spelling and then something so basic such as that. Yeah. Yikes. Anyway, we'll be back tomorrow with another post-game show after game one of the Atlanta Braves series. So make sure to join us for that. Until then, you can follow us on social media.

I'm at Kapp underscore Cidman with a K. Damon is at Damon dogs with a DAWG. And we're all Damon's dogs. This might be complicated. Bark. Yeah, bark, bark, bark. You can bark two with them if you want to. Everybody barks.

I would love it if Lucy just barked right there. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACs, but as always all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. A guy Clayton Ginkle, any relation? Maybe no relation? I would be pretty surprised if that was not, if there was no relation there, Eric. Kevin Ginkle wants to know, or excuse me, Clayton Ginkle wants to know. Derek, I need to know what is your favorite WW World title and should it be what the D-backs use as a home run dugout celebration. Oh my God, it shows. So should be.

I think that the big winged belt. Again, this is going to be just nonsense talk to Damon is probably my favorite, along with perhaps the white intercontinental belt. That one was sick from back in the day. So, yeah, any of those. More importantly, we just need a home run celebration. Stop being so soft. Implement a home run celebration.

Now that I can get behind. That's how we're going to end the show. Stop being so soft. Stop worrying about showing up opposition. In fact, we should show up every team that we play. between now and the end of the season. In fact, we have to. That's what we need to do in order to get to the playoffs. And if you're not doing it for me, do it for Lucy. Lucy deserves it. But anyway, we thank you guys so much for your time. Love you. We'll be back here with another

post-game show tomorrow after game one against the Braves. And until then, behave yourselves, Michael, and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you get to a point where every road trip isn't defining your season.