PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Christian Walker Goes Yard TWICE, Diamondbacks CLOBBER Angels To Win Series

Episode Date: June 14, 2024

It was definitely another night of feasting for the Diamondbacks offense. Christian Walker went yard twice and Joc Pederson hit a grand slam in the D-backs series finale win over the Angels. We have m...ore on how inconsistent this offense has been, if this is the best bullpen in franchise history, and Derek’s terrible throw to Marvin Harrison Jr.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks. $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.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!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:11 welcome in to another edition of the PHNX Debax podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. Of course, I'm joined by the man dancing behind the ones and two is the one and only Damon Dog. What a big night. What a big night for this guy. This guy saw Marvin Harrison Jr. throughout the first pitch to Geraldo Pardomo and also her Tori Levalos say the words hold the line three times in a row. That's an incredible feat. But also another incredible feat is the fact the Diamondbacks beat the Angels tonight by a score of 11 to 1, and they take this series two games to three, two out of three, I should say. And of course, yes, the Diamondbacks, as Daniel says there, they are in fact a wagon. They are once again on a
Starting point is 00:00:55 roll and let's see what they can do against some of these weak teams. Of course, ski again to you all, welcome in. I am here in Studio K, presented by our friends at Circle K. I'm going to grab some snacks here at any point. But head on down to Circle. K, any Circle K, Arizona location where you can get any size polar pop or froster for just 79 cents. Make sure to grab me one too. I would love one right now. That's on sale now through September 3rd. But Diamondbacks, they're feasting, they're snacking, they're eating. It was another feast night when you talk about this offense being feast or famine. Definitely on the feast side of things tonight as the Diamondbacks were able to score 11 runs tonight. Christian
Starting point is 00:01:35 Walker, the man of the match, hits two bombs tonight. uh jock peterson hits a grand slam that seemed completely unnecessary uh late in the game but hey it was fantastic corbin carroll uh he looked back but he somehow went over four uh and was twice robbed of extra base hits on some pretty great plays by angel outfielders uh story of this season right oh tonight was disgusting especially with the way things were going for this team because everything the vibes were immaculate we had the arizona cardinals there before the game everything felt uh Very, very good. There was a lot of excitement at Chase Field tonight. And the offense that was just flowing, right? The offense was absolutely flowing. And then you have Corbyn Carroll, unfortunately, have a night like he had tonight where it looked like every single one of his hits were hits.
Starting point is 00:02:25 Damon and I were watching a foul ball that they didn't even bother to pan away to that looked like it was a home run right off of his bat. I thought it was going 500 feet. Yeah, I mean, but the offense just absolutely dominated tonight. It was incredible. You had the three run first inning, which gave them an early, lead and essentially gave them enough, gave Brandon fought in this bullpen, enough run support for them to just take it based on that. Kattel doubled, Jock walks, and Christian Walker hits the first of his two home runs tonight.
Starting point is 00:02:54 That was a three-run bomb. Then he hit a monster home run in his next at bat in the third inning. That one was a solo shot, giving him his two bombs. And Christian Walker does appear to indeed be back to his powerful ways at the play. you know what he does at Chase Field. You've heard the lyrics to the song. But yeah, this team just absolutely rolled tonight against the Angels. And I mean, the only thing that causes me pause, causes me to hesitate
Starting point is 00:03:23 is the fact that we've seen them do this before and not have it, you know, translate over to them continuing to stay on a roll. That's very much what they need to do here with the Chicago White Sox coming here to town. Their starting pitching is actually quite good, but everything else about that team is absolutely terrible. But yes, Zona Tucson 93. This was absolutely a great game.
Starting point is 00:03:46 Shout out to all of you guys in the chat. Elise said last night was famine. It was painful in person. Well, we know who to blame that loss on. RDO video says the Jock not Grand Slam was fire. It was absolutely fire. It was an electric grand slam that, I mean, it's, he just, again, jock, what more can you say about,
Starting point is 00:04:08 Jock, what more can you say about what the Diamondbacks are getting out of the duo of Jock Peterson you know the thing I love about Jock in particular is is I feel like more than anyone on this team when the bases are loaded in a situation like that Jock's going up there like I'm going to hit a fucking grand slam. Yeah. Yeah. Like I'm going to I'm swinging for the fences. I'm going to hit a grand slam right. You almost see like every player on this team. You seem like a different approach right. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're right. Yeah. Every player on this team is being a little bit more passive. You throw me a strike. Come to me in that situation. Jock's like, I don't. I'm doing at first pitch.
Starting point is 00:04:39 We're trying to walk and walk a run in or something of the sort where Jock is going up there. He's being aggressive and he's getting results. He had five RBI tonight. He went two for four, scored two runs himself. Jock's now hitting 286 with an 887 OPS. Kattel Marte still continues to be very good. But again, this was a series where Kattel wasn't at his best. And the Diamondbacks didn't need him to win the series because they got some pretty substantial production
Starting point is 00:05:07 from the rest of their lineup. I mean, that's, that's something that is good to see right now. And hopefully this can blossom into them carrying over. Kevin Newman, another guy that just continues to quietly do it. He was three for four again. And I feel like we have a lot of nights where we say that about Kevin Newman, that he was three for four, you know, or that he quietly had a great night. He's just a winner. He's just a winner.
Starting point is 00:05:31 And he has a fire walk-up song. We know that. But the big story, of course, was Brandon Fought. How was Brandon Fought going to come out tonight? Um, he didn't really look sharp, uh, early, but he, man, he got dialed in. And, uh, eventually we started to see Brandon fought get your, you know, get on track and, and be fairly consistent in this game. His sweeper started working.
Starting point is 00:05:54 He got 14 whiffs tonight and seven of those whiffs were on his sweeper. Tori Lavello let him hang in there. He threw 103 pitches. Uh, he was close to being, uh, you know, uh, quality, another, another quality start. or he actually did get the quality start. He ends up going six innings pitched. It gives up six hits, gave up the one earn run, three walks and eight strikeouts. And man, again, exactly what we needed to see out of Brandon fought.
Starting point is 00:06:21 It's something that we needed to see from this starting rotation. I'm sure a lot of you saw our tweet about the current ERAs for the Diamondback starting pitchers. And things don't look very good right now, right? But again, that's not the actual starting rotation. I look, most of the time I don't really go after people for the fire Tori and fire Mike Hayeson tweets. But someone had to say fire Mike Hazen underneath that graph or that information. And I wasn't having any of it. So I dropped one of my, I've been saving that little video with the guys singing the song about the thing being stupid for a very long time.
Starting point is 00:07:02 You should sing it for everybody. Oh, man. It says congratulations. That was the stupidest thing that I've seen anyone post on the internet before. And then it goes into a little dance and stuff. It's great. And I waited, like I said, a very long time. I've hesitated.
Starting point is 00:07:16 I wanted to pull the trigger on that before. But I held back. And I held the line, if you will. And I used it at a very appropriate time. But again, big game, Brandon, six innings, six hits, one earn three walks, 8K. Great night for Brandon. Yeah, there you go. Drop a like.
Starting point is 00:07:32 just for our guy Marr. You know what HCL stands for now these days? Oh yeah. I know. I know what it stands for. Hit the like. Hit the like. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:39 And hold the line. And we'll just, we just need a shirt with both him. Well, I don't know. Probably contractually can't get him on that shirt. But I don't know. Maybe you're best friends of them now.
Starting point is 00:07:49 You might just be able to ask him. Yeah. I was out there watching Marvin Harrison Jr. just casually tossing around a ball. By the way, the man probably through as many pitches tonight as Brandon fought. I think I saw him at least throw the ball. 103 times because he was warming up, told me that he did not want to, you know, mess,
Starting point is 00:08:07 mess this up. You know, he definitely, he was, he was very shocked to find out once they started moving him and Darius Robinson apart. He started to realize what the actual distance was from the mound to, to the catcher. And I think he started to get a little, a little intimidated, but no need. He threw an absolute strike and it was great to see him out there. It was great to see all the Cardinals rookies out there. all those guys are super exciting time for that franchise and it's it was great to to see them out here just kind of mingling uh you know tori had a chance to talk to the guys and gave them some you know a welcome to the valley and such but uh it was it was it was a great night a great night to be a cardinals fan great night to be a fan of the valley and of course the diamondbacks knew those guys were in the house and they did not want to let them down they did not want to you can't look weak in front of the cardinals right you got to step up so they did and the final score definitely not in front of marvin
Starting point is 00:09:00 Yeah, that's a generational talent. You don't, you don't, you don't do something like, I don't know, airmail, a ball that you have a chance to throw to Marvin Harrison Jr. And just completely blow that opportunity. And we'll get to that. But of course, we do want to give out our Kingsnake because this man deserves all of your bourbon. He deserves all of your finest meats and cheeses. And it was Christian Walker with his two home run night for RBI. hitting the guns on the way around.
Starting point is 00:09:33 I like this little hang loose thing that they're doing. I like that much better than the throwing, locking the mouth and throwing the key away. I wasn't huge on that. But I like the hanging loose because right now, that's what this team needs to do. They need to chill the fuck out and they need to hang loose. And yeah, that was great.
Starting point is 00:09:55 Elise said Darius Robinson made everyone he took a picture with look so small. Yeah, absolutely. It's funny because there was one point where I needed to like use my, you know, tripod and get up higher over some of the other cameramen and journalists. And I realized when I looked back on my video that it was like, it was like I was just at eye level with Darius at that point when I went up and held my arm up in the air like that. But, I mean, since we're talking about it, I think that it's time for us to throw a little shade at me. Damon? That's probably the right call. Let's do that.
Starting point is 00:10:32 Eric Montia. You, son of a bitch, you had the opportunity to play catch with a generational talent in Marvin Harrison Jr. You had an opportunity to go pick a baseball up. For some reason, the Cardinals' entire team only had one single baseball to play with. And that one got past him and went to the backstop. I didn't want him looking like a chump. I didn't want him to go have to walk all the way over there and pick it up. I wasn't going to let that happen. So I took it upon myself to go get that baseball for them so they could continue having a catch. And instead, what did I do? Not wanting to look weak, not wanting to look bad in front of this man, I just absolutely sailed a baseball over his head. What did he do? He jumped up in the air in an
Starting point is 00:11:30 attempt to catch it. Could you imagine if something bad would have happened to him at that moment? My God, I wouldn't have been able to show my face in this town ever again. And what? I get an opportunity to throw a baseball on a baseball field in front of fans to a member of the Arizona Cardinals. Who is in fact a wide receiver? And I blew it. Derek, you should be ashamed of yourself. You pissed down your leg.
Starting point is 00:11:56 I really did. I really did. I really did. Oh, that was bad. But anyway, shout out to Shady Ray's, by the way, for at least allowing me. to hide my eyes while I shame myself, but you should get ready for the season. You should get ready for summer. You should get ready for living here in Arizona with quality shades that are built to last
Starting point is 00:12:15 like these. And you can also throw shade when you have your own pair of Shady Rays. So there's a side benefit to that. But Shady Rays is an independent sunglass company that offers a world-class product that doesn't cost nearly the same as some of those quality sunglasses companies that they are very comparable to. Of course, they have hundreds of options to choose from. So you're bound to find the perfect pair to match your side.
Starting point is 00:12:35 style. And also, if you lose them, if you're like me, you're forgetful, you might sit on them once or twice and break them, lose them at the counter at a place that you stop in to make a payment at. And, you know, like I said, I might be talking from personal experience here. They will absolutely send you a brand new pair of sunglasses. No questions asked. Also, if you buy your Shady Rays online and you do not love them, they will allow you to exchange them or return them worry free within 30 days. No risk at all. When you shop exclusively for our listener, Shady Rays is given out their best deal of the season. Head to ShadyRates.com and use code PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses.
Starting point is 00:13:11 Try for yourself the Shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Yeah, I think Elise is saying that mistake is a reason for a recall mayor. Probably. I'm not going to argue with that. But I do thank you for being here. Elise, I thank you, Zach, for demanding a special election. I appreciate you for all of your shame here in the, chat of course if you uh i've not subscribed to the phnx youtube channel yet do so now sign up for
Starting point is 00:13:39 notifications that way you don't miss whenever our wonderful shows go live drop us a like we always appreciate it when you do hit the like button and hold the line of course if you're listening on the audio podcasting side you didn't see that marv has stopped by not once but twice tonight but we do still love you and we implore you to make sure you're subscribed on the audio podcasting app of your choice and we also love it if you leave us a review those five-star reviews help us out quite a bit If you are heading anywhere tonight, by the way, I'm sure there's a circle case somewhere near you. And if you aren't going anywhere, you can make your plans in the morning and stop by, grab yourself a coffee. Or if you're not a huge coffee fan, you just grab yourself any size froster from now until September 8th.
Starting point is 00:14:19 You can get that for 79 cents. You can get any size polar pop. It's a gigantic cup of delicious liquid beverage that can help you stay hydrated in this ridiculous heat that we're facing here in Arizona. Also, if you join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today, you can get all sorts of other additional coupons and discounts. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. When you do, you will save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Philips, and you'll save three cents off per gallon every day after that. So make sure to stop by Circle K and get yourself something to drink.
Starting point is 00:14:54 Get it in you. Damon. Damon, I really needed to still talk a little bit about the perfect night that was this night tonight. And I want to say how sad I was that I wasn't with Damon Dogg. Because like I said earlier, when I heard Tori say hold the line three times, when I heard that Marvin Harrison Jr. was throwing out the first pitch that Geraldo Perdomo was the one catching it.
Starting point is 00:15:22 A little tear drooped down my eye thinking about like. That feels personal. How is this was like Taylor made for my producer. You said Perdomo. the pitch? Yes, from Marvin Harrison Jr. I was just sitting there like mystified by this series of events that essentially felt like it was, it was made by, by a higher being. Did they hand down like illegal Pete's burritos afterwards? Like what's going on here? You're like was it was what was there free margaritas? What was going on here? This isn't great. But of course, what was great was seeing Marvin
Starting point is 00:15:59 Harrison Jr. and all those guys out there. Of course. we did get to see him throw out that first pitch. It absolutely was a strike, or at least according to Marv, this is what he had to say about how it felt to go out there on the mound and throw that pitch. I felt great. I think I definitely threw a strike.
Starting point is 00:16:15 Probably was going to a whole run about through a strike. It's all good, Doug. I feel good. It would have been a ball, but he would have swung. Darius's answer is perfect. It was a ball, but he would have been a swung, so it was all good. Oh, man, it's a great night.
Starting point is 00:16:31 Damon, I just wanted to apologize to you for you not. Fair enough. I mean, hey, as long as we're getting Ws, the Cardinals are getting Marvin Harrison, Jr., you know, Perdomo's healthy, you know, able to squat down like that. I'm, I'm happy. I'm living. That's what I was thinking. And honestly, it was a great night to be there.
Starting point is 00:16:50 Great night to be a Valley sports fan. Great night to be downtown, right? Mercury, we're doing their thing as well. I have no idea what the final score is, so I might be totally acting like they won when they didn't. but this was just a really fun night down at the ballpark. And again, encouraging because this, you know, Diamondbacks did not win game two. They did not get the sweep. And of course, when you see the Diamondbacks lose like they did, it doesn't feel great, right?
Starting point is 00:17:17 Eight to three. I mean, that game definitely felt like it was more than an eight to three loss. But Diamondbacks added some runs late. But let's take a look at how they did overall in the series with the count presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union. Diamondbacks here outscore the Angels in the series 23 to 13 hits. They are out hit by the Angels despite winning two out of three, 31 to 30.
Starting point is 00:17:42 Tonight was a weird game because the Diamondbacks scored 11 runs on nine hits. And that's just kind of wild. That doesn't really seem right. But they did walk quite a bit. Diamondbacks had six walks tonight. So that explains the other base runners. And of course, they did a great job. up here with runners in scoring position.
Starting point is 00:18:01 Not so much in game two, which they were 0 for oh in game two. I actually not joking about this. Took entirely too much time to realize that there was no runners in scoring position listed on MLB.com
Starting point is 00:18:18 and I didn't understand why. And it was because I don't think, I don't know when the last time I saw that they didn't have a single runner in scoring position for an entire game. But that's how game two went for the Diamondbacks. Overall, though, they hit 407 with runners in scoring position they were definitely very good tonight they were four for eight tonight they were seven for 19 in game one so uh when they when they when they got those runners on they were doing a good job of bringing them in uh angels when they're hot they're hot it's it's ridiculous right when they're hot there's nine guys it feels like that are just about to you know lace the ball every time they get up to the plate and when they're cold like they might as well be a high school team it's crazy yeah uh starting pitching ERA is fairly comparable here.
Starting point is 00:19:02 5.40 for the Angels, 6.75 for the Diamondbacks. Not great. I mean, tonight, Brandon Fought was very good. Six, six innings, one earn run, but the real damage here came in game two, Slade going three innings, giving up seven runs. But the relief pitching ERA, quite a big difference here. 14.05 for the Angels, and yes,
Starting point is 00:19:24 that is correct, because I double-checked my math four times. One point four six for the diamond back. It's moments like that that I need Jesse here because I don't even trust my own math when an ERA comes up as being 14.05. Angels use three relievers in one inning today. And Peace of Yoshi is absolutely right about that. So of course, that counts for quite a bit of that lack of production. But we do have a little bit here coming up here from Tori from postgame on Christian Walker's Big Night.
Starting point is 00:19:58 But I mean, this was just one of those games where now you kind of look at this team. And I don't know. I don't know if I'm getting resentful at times when they have these big outings. You want to be happy, right? You want to see them put up 11 runs, hold the opposition to 1 and just be excited about the fact that they had a 10 run victory, double digit victory tonight. It's maddening, though, that this team is able to do this at times and then just go as completely flat as they do. And again, tonight was another one of those nights where a lot of the production obviously came from two guys and guys getting on base.
Starting point is 00:20:35 I mean, you had four of the 11 runs being RBIs by Christian Walker, five of them being by Jock Peterson. So a lot of those runs were scored by those two particular individuals. But I mean, it just gets frustrating at times. And I can understand at times where you see this team scoring like this and not wondering how it does. doesn't carry over to them being a bit more consistent offensively. Yeah, it's, it's incredibly frustrating. It's like, it's basically what we've been complaining about all season long when it comes to this team.
Starting point is 00:21:10 Like, we know they're good. We know they have talent. We know these are good players. We've seen them play for years and years in the league. Like outside of, you know, Corbyn Carroll, who, you know, only had his one season, like, everybody else has pretty much been sustained, you know, success, I guess. Katalmarte, Lordis Gurriel, Chris. Washington Walker, Eugenio Suarez, like, these guys are like big time baseball players and they just haven't been able to like piece it together, it feels like. To me, it feels like when in games like this, it feels like they're putting a big puzzle together and all the pieces are fit and right. Yeah. And then then they have some games where it's like every piece is a different puzzle. Yeah. It's like it's just not even the same. Mixed your puzzles up and you don't have all of your pieces there. I think that the bullpen has been out.
Starting point is 00:21:58 outrageously good. Outrageously good. And when you talk about how good they've been, like Ryan Thompson and, you know, Paul Seawald got into today's game just to get some work in. Because those guys haven't really been called upon or utilized lately. Because again,
Starting point is 00:22:13 it's kind of a feast or famine thing lately where they don't really need Paul Seawald to save some of these games because of the lead they had. But I do want to give a shout out to my dog. By the way, Ryan Thompson. We did talk about the Cornhole tournament over at Torrey. house yesterday a little bit and that Ryan and his dad won the cornhole tournament. I did get a little bit more information. This is the journalism. This is the investigative reporting that I do versus
Starting point is 00:22:39 Jesse's side of things. But I needed to get the full scoop on how the tournament broke down. Apparently, according to Ryan himself, him and his dad were kind of just lucky. They just kind of got through the tournament. Their first round draw was Justin Martinez and his father, who apparently even though they do not play cornhole, we're very, very good at Cornhole, which is understandable with the way Justin Martinez is pitching this season. And I saw his dad when he threw out the first pitch.
Starting point is 00:23:06 He took this, I think, maybe even more seriously than Marvin Harrison Jr. So that man has an arm as well. According to Ryan Thompson, the only reason why they beat Justin and his dad was because of the 21 rule in Cornhole. If you're not familiar, you actually have to hit in Cornhole,
Starting point is 00:23:23 the score of 21 on the nose. but if you score over 21, you have to go back to 11. And apparently this happened to Justin Martinez and his father, not once but twice, which is what allowed Ryan Thompson and his dad to eventually move past them in the tournament achieving victory. And he said that basically it was a series of events like this that inexplicably allowed him to get to the final
Starting point is 00:23:47 and eventually win. I think it was Kevin Newman and his wife that they beat in the final. But yeah, shout out to Tea Time. We also had a great conversation about pro wrestling. And, you know, that's always going to happen every single time we talk. But again, the bullpen only allowed two earned runs in this series. Abby says J-Mart tossing cornhole bags at 100 plus miles an hour. Oh, man, you love to see it.
Starting point is 00:24:14 Yeah, you love to see it. Who said, like Blackjack? Yes, that's exactly, yes, like Blackjack. You don't go over. Only in Blackjack, you bust. And in this, you just go back to 11. but it sounded like a great time. And honestly,
Starting point is 00:24:28 this bullpen is kind of carrying us a little bit. And we need it to do. Because like when you look at our starting pitching staff, our rotation, I mean, is it the worst rotation in baseball right now? Possibly. It could be. So we need our fought lowered his ERA to 4.38,
Starting point is 00:24:44 but Fott leads the starting rotation right now. He's the, he's the best one by far. Yeah, absolutely. And honestly, Brandon Fott deserves to have a lower E. than even 4.38. We've talked about some of this conditional, you know, bad luck and such. But it sucks when you go into the season thinking Brandon fought as your five and he's
Starting point is 00:25:03 your one. That's the problem. That's the part that's hard to take. And if we're going to keep winning baseball games like this team's been on this run recently, we need this bullpen to continue to pitch like this because we're not going to win any other way. Because we're probably going to need more bullpen games too. Yeah. Especially with the way Slade just pitched.
Starting point is 00:25:17 So I don't know. I'm excited about this bullpen. This is pretty much like I don't want to jinx it. Knock on wood here. but like this is pretty much I feel like the best bullpen I've ever seen like with franchise history dude they're so good Jesse wrote a great article about this a while ago I remember yeah yeah and so that's something that we kind of reference and go back to but yeah it there is something to be said there about how good this bullpen is and how in franchise
Starting point is 00:25:44 history the diamondbacks really haven't had that we have talked about Justin Martinez I think his ERA now is down to 0.40, I want to say. I think it might be in the threes. Yeah, I could be wrong. No, you could be right. I just don't know what, uh, when he pitched last. You're right. He's at 0.38 right now is his ERA.
Starting point is 00:26:07 And that leads the team, right? But what's crazy is that the diamondbacks have two other relievers with a sub one ERA right now. Ryan Thompson has a 0.96 ERA. and Paul Seawald has a 0.79 ERA. So get out of here with how good this bullpen is. Obviously, you know, we know Kevin Ginkle had his struggles early on, but ever since he got hit by that comebacker,
Starting point is 00:26:34 it's like he unplugged and plugged himself back in. He's been really, really good. And I mean, the Diamondbacks have other pieces of this bullpen that have also been fairly good as well. Not to mention, you know, we were talking today about which, you know, which of these guys when hopefully these, know, starting pitchers that the Diamondbacks are missing return from injury, which of these guys the Diamondbacks might hold on to as some bullpen depth and
Starting point is 00:26:57 who they might be able to add what that person might be able to bring to this bullpen as well. Do you get me just a stud lefty? Could you imagine? Well, Tommy Henry's a lefty, right? And I know if he's a stud, right? You're talking about trade deadline acquisitions, which is another top. I mean, you said the bullpen, right? Yeah, I said the bullpen.
Starting point is 00:27:14 So I'm talking about like, you look at our bullpen right now. And the horses are ginkle, J. Mark. Seawald, Ryan Thompson, all righties, right? If you can get a lefty that is in that caliber of pitcher and you got five guys like that, I mean, that's an unbelievable woolpen. It really is. It really is. And not to mention that the fact that Derek Hall was on Bickley and Marada today
Starting point is 00:27:37 and said that the Diamondbacks are already planning on making and taking calls regarding the July 30th trade deadline. He said, quote, we're looking in all areas, all aspects, just like we did last year. we're going to be very aggressive. And I think that that is once again, that tracks, right? Because that feels like this team, you know, did kind of push their chips in on this season. This team can kind of look it around at the landscape across the National League and see that outside of the Phillies and the Dodgers, no one's that great.
Starting point is 00:28:12 And maybe, you know, maybe realize that as long as they can stay in the pack and not just, drop back like a couple of the other teams have, which aren't many. Like we've said, it's kind of the Rockies and the, and the Marlins are the only two teams that have kind of dropped back completely. And even they're not completely out of it. That's how close the field is right now for the National League. So it just, it very much, it very much sounds like, you know, this team is going to continue to try to win and will not, like,
Starting point is 00:28:43 barring something drastic happening between now and the end of July, which hopefully should go the other way, right? With the players that are returning, we should see this team improving slowly. We're going to get Zach Gallen back. According to reports, you know, Merrill Kelly is on track to be back now before Eduardo Rodriguez. And that's encouraging because that means that the Diamondbacks
Starting point is 00:29:05 could theoretically get Merrill Kelly back even before the All-Star break. I doubt that's how it will play out. They'll probably allow them to have the extra time due to the break, but we should see both E.Rod and Merrill-Kelly back shortly after the All-Star break. So, you know, this team still has a lot of potential. And I think that the front office knows it, that they, that this record where they're at right now, even though it's not great is still not a true indicator of what this team when they're at 100%
Starting point is 00:29:34 truly is. And that's the thing right now. They're three games back from from being at 500. Right. So, you know, we're, we're almost to the point where we're going to show Ketel climbing up the mountain. We're not there yet. I don't know. I lied. Damon, can we show up Kutel climbing up the mountain? I just want to see them to go up. Let's go, Kutel. That always makes me so happy every single time. But yeah, they're getting there. They're getting close. There's a good chance with six more games ahead of them against the White Sox, again, who are giving the Mariners a little bit of trouble themselves and three against the nationals. This team could be maybe even over 500 by the time that they roll into Philadelphia to play the Phillies and,
Starting point is 00:30:22 and, you know, have that first round of their rematch from the NLCS. So I don't know. I think things are trending in a good direction. And it is very encouraging, I think, to hear, you know, Derek Hall say that. I think that there might be with the way this season is gone. Some people feeling like this team might not be that committed to winning again or might not be that committed to possibly addressing some of their needs. we know the third base thing is weird.
Starting point is 00:30:50 Tori just got done saying one day ago that they were going to try to move in a different direction with Blaze Alexander. And then one day later, here's Gino back in the lineup today playing third base. So Tori has had a tremendous amount of patience with players at times. But that felt a little quick. I'm sure that that's not really. I mean,
Starting point is 00:31:11 I'm sure Tori is probably start going to explore other options. And I'm sure he might start playing Blaze or someone else, potentially even at third base based on the situation based on the matchup but i mean didn't take them very long to come come right back and go right back to uh gino and then you know gino again didn't have a great day today by any stretch of the imagination uh but you know he did score run uh and he walked he was oh for two but that's gino um what else do we got here uh i think that's all we got what did you got anything damon uh i mean we talked about you almost destroying Marvin Harrison Jr's career.
Starting point is 00:31:54 Yeah, no, I don't like to phrase it that way. I would say that I was having a catch with Marv. Yeah, I mean, the boys being boys. Correct. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:04 Yeah. Classic. Then, um, I got a little excited as one would when playing with a superstar. When playing with a generational talent and, you know, I didn't, I didn't want to under throw it. That was what was important.
Starting point is 00:32:16 I just wanted to make sure. I didn't want to spike it in the dirt. I get it. I just want to make sure that we spent. enough time talking about how close to how disastrous. God damn it. I do shade at myself. Damon,
Starting point is 00:32:26 I put on sunglasses to yell at myself. Like that's crazy person behavior and I exhibited it. So I think that I should be forgiven for that. And luckily we made it out with no major injuries happening at all. But we do have some videos from the clubhouse. We got Tori here talking about playing in another blowout. Well, here shortly. Well, let me do some ad reads.
Starting point is 00:32:48 We'll get back to that here shortly. But of course, one thing we did want to tell you guys, if you haven't joined us over here, become a diehard over at PHNX. I don't know what you're waiting for. It pays for itself. If you want to join us for these wonderful events, you get discounts on all of that. You got all sorts of wonderful things. No piece of Yoshi. I'm going to read your super chat, but you're upsetting me.
Starting point is 00:33:08 Of course, you can also upset me like these people do in the Discord all the time in a loving way like they do. We have all sorts of great options here. You get your diehard membership card. You get a free shirt from the PHNX locker of your choice. You get access to all of our premium content, including our stuff that we just offer in the Discord. Jesse's written content, all of that, so much more. So make sure to join us over here. Become a member of our diehard family.
Starting point is 00:33:34 And you can get discounts like the takeover tonight that they had over watching the Mercury. Did the Mercury win? Did we ever get a confirmation? They lost by four to the Aces. Oh, man. They've played the Aces real tight this year. That's disappointing. But a fun thing, fun fact, Mercury will be throwing out first pitch tomorrow night at the Arizona Diamondbacks game on Friday night.
Starting point is 00:33:57 It's Pride night. So as you know, every Monday on the show, every month on this show is Pride Night, is Pride Month. And we are in support of all of that. It's going to be, I think it's Britney Griner is going to be out there. Kalea Copper, which who I'm the name I've absolutely butchered multiple times on this show. And I apologize to her. But we're the Copper State. We are the Copper State.
Starting point is 00:34:17 I think I called her Cooper at one point, but I also called Jordan Lawler, Jordan Walker yesterday. If you start really, if you start nitpicking about the mistakes I make, you're going to realize it's a full-time job. It's not a part-time gig. It's definitely a full-time job keeping up on me and my mistakes. But again, we thank you guys that are die-hard so much for being die-hards. Of course, we also wanted to thank Desert Financial Credit Union for sponsoring our numbers. And also for being here in the Valley for more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trust. local credit union. They are a team of financial experts who are committed to giving
Starting point is 00:34:51 their members and the community helping you achieve your financial goals and offering financial solutions tailored to helping real people achieve their financial dreams. You can look to Desert Financial for checking in savings accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards, investment options, and so much more. When you open a free checking account online right now, you can get $200 and bonuses. Get started by visiting desertfinancial.com slash 200. Well, of course, it's another night of celebrating. It's another night of a wonderful Diamondbacks win, a great night for a Four Peaks beer. And I've talked about having cases and cases of the bad birdie juicy golden ale on hand at all time. It's something that you should do. It's something that I do.
Starting point is 00:35:30 I actually know it's an interesting thing I do with the bad birdie juicy golden ale is I buy cases of it and then I bathe in it. That's how good it is. That's a good move. That's how much I like it. Bathing is kind of disgusting, you know, bathing and beer. that you're probably going to drink might be a little gross. Oh, yeah, you don't get out until it's an empty top. That's correct. That's correct. That's a fun way to spend a Saturday.
Starting point is 00:35:56 Of course, that's also a great way to celebrate an 11 to 1 victory, by the way. And it's so good. It doesn't matter even if it isn't a tub of your own filth. It's probably still as delicious as it always is. You can find Bad Birdie right now in taps across the valley. And, of course, at your favorite grocery store. Right now, visit 4Peaks.com slash locator to find all your favorite beers.
Starting point is 00:36:17 and events. You can check out at Four Peaks Brewer at Four Peaks Pub. To keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks and please drink responsibly. And when I say please drink responsibly, I mean not out of a bathtub that you're laying in like Damon does. But shout out to a piece of Yoshi for your super chat. We love you. Yoshi and Yoshi said, spy on our exes over in New York. Yeah, there were some things that happened, including a J.D. Martinez walkoff home run. I didn't need to see the clip because I felt it in my heart when it happened. I was like, oh, oh, what was, oh, J.D.
Starting point is 00:36:52 must have done something good. That's how it feels when that happens. So, no, we're not, I refuse to, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm not. I'm not spying on my exes tonight. I'm concentrating. Like sometimes you just got to worry about your current relationship. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:37:06 Sometimes, yeah, like, yeah, they're doing things, but I'm also doing things. I got things going on over here. And that's what I'm going to focus on tonight. And of course, I guess my life partner is here. It's the one and only thunder stick Jesse Friedman. It's the vice mayor, Jesse. Welcome. You're looking very bright tonight.
Starting point is 00:37:25 Yeah, yeah. We had a bit of a bit of a change of plans as far as a postgame show location on my end. Suffice it to say there are a whole bunch of doors that are mysteriously locked at Chase Field tonight. They're not normally locked that are keeping me from going to the places where I want to go. So we're hanging out in a suite here, Derek. And we're really hoping, really hoping that someone doesn't walk in. and start vacuuming, which they would be, you know, fully within their rights to do that. But we're going to see what happens to know for the best.
Starting point is 00:37:55 Oh, that's amazing. Well, a huge win tonight, Jesse. We talked obviously about it being another one of those nights where the offense just explodes, inexplicably. We know that this Angels team isn't very good. So it's not that inexplicable. But what will be more inexplicable is when the offense completely disappears in the series against the white socks. And we are left once again scratching our.
Starting point is 00:38:16 heads but this was a big night christian walker had those two home runs and uh was demanding bourbon and cheeses and meats yeah he he was demanding a lot of a lot of uh burbons and all of all of the things tonight uh 464 feet derrick that was uh that second homer went a went a long long way uh yeah watching it it was it was a insanely hard hit ball i had to ask derrick if like he just like heard it happened while live in the ballpark like how that was just like it's like it's like in person. Well, like, I was starting a game and like even sometimes flyouts can be hit very hard, where when you see it in person, you're like, oh, he hit the hell out of that ball. Like it didn't go for a home run, but you're like, man, he hit that ball very hard, very high in the air.
Starting point is 00:39:02 This one was all of those things and it left Chase Field and it looked like it wanted to go out for a drink and some burritos at the Crescent Ballroom. I actually have story time real quick. I forgot to mention this. I can't believe I forgot to tell you this when you came in. Jacob and I were watching the game at that moment. when Christian Walker was up at the plate, there was a guy on first base. And Jacob goes, Damon, what's happening right here in the middle of the at bat? And I go, double play. All negative, all pessimistic.
Starting point is 00:39:27 Wow. One pitch. And that ball's on the moon. Yeah. And I was like, maybe I should just start predicting bad shit to happen all the time. Yeah, it was a crazy, it was a crazy night for Christian going yard twice. And that's all the production they needed with the way that they held the angels to just one run. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:46 The offense continues to be kind of bizarrely feast your famine, where you get, of course, 11 runs today. And then yesterday they scored a few runs late, but it looked like Jose Soriano very well might throw a complete game shutout, like pretty late into that game. Yeah. That's how good he looked yesterday. Then, you know, of course, the day before that, the Diamondbacks scored nine runs in the finale against the Padres. They scored nine runs. But then the game before that against the Padres, they scored one. and they scored only three before that.
Starting point is 00:40:18 So, yeah, it continues to be like either more runs than you probably need or not nearly enough. That's sort of been the story with the offense recently. But I think in the macro picture, the offense has stepped up. I mean, the offense is the reason why the Diamondbacks are managing to stay afloat, despite the fact that their starting rotation has obviously been just so decimated by injuries and so heavily impacted by the guys that they're missing out on. the fact that the offense, you know, has had a decent number of games like this recently,
Starting point is 00:40:49 has been huge for them. What did Tori have to say about the offense tonight? Yeah, well, I guess we'll go to his comment specifically about Christian Walker because Walker was, I mean, he didn't supply all of the offense for the Diamondbacks, but he kind of supplied all the offense that they really needed in order to win this game with those four runs early. Here's what Tori had to say about CWalk. He's a very stabilizing personality.
Starting point is 00:41:17 It's just who he is at his core. He's a very stable at bat, and he's a very dependable defender. So I think it just fits who he is. It doesn't surprise me that that's what he represents inside of this lineup. Because that's what he brings to the clubhouse. The minute he walks in there. And, you know, it's just a pure swing. If I was going to teach somebody a swing, I would tell him to watch Christian Walker.
Starting point is 00:41:41 It's just a really nice, simple approach. There's a high level of intensity, there's a high level of intelligence per rap bat, and he's right in the middle of some really important moments. You don't go 30 plus and 100 plus the way he did without having a real good prep and a real good idea of what's going on. And then defensively you see what he does. He's going to say we're out there. He's clearly ahead of the rest of the first basement of the national league.
Starting point is 00:42:08 There's something else to be said here, Jesse, and that's the fact that home run number two off of Christian, Walker's bat was hit number 66 of his career and it happened against the angels. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot biblical implications there. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:31 This was Christian Walker, as you heard Tori described there, is just such an important part of this team. And the question that I continue to have running in the back of my head is how would the Diamondbacks cope without him next season, right? I mean, he is an amazing pre-agent. That's sort of the ugly reality for them. And his cost is not going down, Derek, with the season that he's having. I mean, he's continuing to put up the numbers defensively. You know, offensively, his numbers had slipped in the last couple of weeks a little bit, but, you know, you have a two-homer game and suddenly the OPS is back over 800. And especially given the offense around the league this year and the fact that I think the league
Starting point is 00:43:12 average OPS right now is like 700, maybe a tick under 700. Offense is sort of down across the league. You have to kind of adjust your sights. Like an OPS in the low mid-800s is really, really very good at this point in the season. So he continues to do it on both sides of the ball. And yeah, I continue to be thinking about how important it feels like it is for the Diamondbacks to keep him here, you know, not just this year, but in the years to come. in the words of KGB from the movie rounders pay him pay that's man his money um because we need him
Starting point is 00:43:49 i mean and again that's a lot of times you just worry about the offense but jesse we see christian walker do something spectacular defensively i feel like every single night we know especially over the last what like week or two that there were a couple of plays that christian that, I mean, Christian Walker might have saved the game for the Diamondback. So definitely feels like he's a huge part, a very important part of this team. He's enormous. Yeah. And we talked to, we talked to Jock after the game.
Starting point is 00:44:20 We talked to Walker himself. Yeah, I guess let's roll what Jock had to say. He talked about his Grand Slam, of course, which was a big moment in this game. But he also talked about what he using. Yeah, well, well, you're about to hear that. I think you might already know. But Jock talks about that as well. Here's what he had to say.
Starting point is 00:44:39 What were you using that? Chris Walker. Oh, really? We had three homers with the walk back. The same exact? No, different model. But yeah, his name was on. The first time you've used his back before?
Starting point is 00:44:54 No, I've used it. Oh, does it? Is it heavier, lighter, longer, any back? Or 34, 31? Pretty standard. What does he mean to this club? That's team? The consistency is incredible.
Starting point is 00:45:09 You know, close every day at first place. Those are good a whole line. Great defense, great at-bats. All around, great teammate. Just a huge component you can build a building. Is there any of you're not aware of as a player or portion? No, I mean, I think when you play 19 times or someone for six years, you kind of have a good idea.
Starting point is 00:45:34 You know, he's got the goal. and love. 30 plus homers for multiple years. So, like I said, he's a franchise caliber of a player that you build around. I really come to love Jock Peterson. I really mean that. I think that you and I were having a discussion today about just certain parts of his personality.
Starting point is 00:45:57 You know, his dad's side, his parental side to his children. I know you're doing some great work in regards to something special. for Father's Day, but we also had like, you know, I mean, his, I know, I know I've seen clips of him and his brother. And I just, like, the more I see of Jock, the more I kind of respect that he just kind of lives life in a way where he just doesn't seem to give a shit about what other people think. And he seems to be a very genuine, very cool guy. You know what I mean? Like, I just, I really like Jock. And I think that, you know, he's brought more to this team than I thought that he was necessarily going to.
Starting point is 00:46:36 Yeah, I mean, another thing about Jock that stands out to me from a few weeks ago is just the kind of the different approach that he takes to hitting where it feels like the Diamondbacks have a lot of a lot of grinder types who are, if anything, they're going to err on the side of taking too many reps and doing a little bit too much preparation and maybe doing some damage to themselves in the process even. And Jock is sort of on the other side of things where, you know, his philosophy from what, from what we're going to be. we heard a few weeks ago is the more the more hits you or the more swings you take the harder it gets you know like it can actually you can actually make things more difficult on yourself by by you know kind of overthinking things or doing a little bit too much work before games so sure it sounds like he's really brought a lot of balance to the to the diamond backs clubhouse uh in in that way well and that's wild and that's also a great theory by the way when he says that you know christian hit three home runs in a row so you want to be using that man's bat that's
Starting point is 00:47:36 That's, that's, that's, that's a very intelligent move to make. I just like, on that, jock uses bats like, like golfers use clubs. Like I imagine Jock going out there and be like, what do we got today? And having like, you know, like one of the coaches, you know, like bany's behind him. He's like, I think you need to hit this one for 64, you know, I think you got a grand slam here. And, you know, he's like, all right, give me, uh, give me Christian's bet. Yeah, I think that one. I love the idea of him having a caddy.
Starting point is 00:48:04 Yeah, right. Someone just dressed up in like a white caddy suit. Yes, yeah, just following him around carrying his bag of bats so that he has them near him so he could pick which one. Situationally he needs. Yeah, we also have, we also have Christian Walker. Here is him talking about not only the two homers that he hit in this game, but of course also the fact that Jock Peterson was using his bat tonight.
Starting point is 00:48:30 Yeah, it felt great. It felt really good to come through for the team early. You get a chance with a couple guys on. You know, to make that count in the first is big. Canning's good. He's, the fastball's electric. You know, he's got plus secondary. You know, he made a good pitch on the first homer.
Starting point is 00:48:49 Like, just happened to get to it. I got the barrel inside of it. I've been working on handling fastballs better. I feel like I've been missing fastball straight back a little bit, and it's been bothering me. So prior to the last few days in pre-game work to get back on the heater. So it was nice to see that show up. And then, you know, the breaking ball, it was, that whole lot that was soft.
Starting point is 00:49:10 Slider, change-up, slider, slider. I wasn't sitting on it, but, you know, still on the heater, but aware that it seemed like he was going to try to get me out with something else. And he has good secondary, so I had to respect that. You know, just spun one that hung over the middle. I was in a spot to handle it. I was about to say, 464 feet. Is that about as far as you can hit him? Yeah, yeah, that might be all I got.
Starting point is 00:49:33 maxed out for sure. Jock said that he was using your bat, or at least a model of your bat. I guess that's just business as usual with him on your team. Yeah, yeah, that guy. The only bats he doesn't use are his own bats. Yeah, he's a bad guy. I like it. We're always talking models.
Starting point is 00:49:50 They're always messing out with stuff. When I'm in between two models, I go to him and make him tell me which one has got the hits in it. But, no, that was an awesome swing. I had a cool perspective from the On-DEC circle. It was driven straight out from where I was standing. So that sweeper came in. He did a great job, but I was staying back and, you know, coming through for us. That things like that, that break it open, change the game big time.
Starting point is 00:50:15 Damon made a great point. Have you ever seen Christian Walker smile that big? I think the only time was when he made that play where he tagged Solair on the head and then was showing Jock on the tablet about his play afterwards. Like, look at how good I did. What a budding bromance that we got going on there. They really do have a budding bromance there. The fact you said that Jock uses everyone's bats except his own got a sincere LOL out of me.
Starting point is 00:50:38 That was fantastic. Yeah, that was pretty funny. I will say in Christian's defense, the iPad moment from, I don't know, was that like maybe a week or two ago? Yeah. I believe he had said after that game that he hadn't actually seen the play yet. At least that's what he said. That's what he said. So if we're taking him at his word, he must have been showing Jock something else on the iPad.
Starting point is 00:50:58 I'm not sure exactly what they were doing. But yeah, it, yeah, you can just tell, like, Christian Walker is clearly embraced Jock Peterson as a teammate, has a lot of respect for him. And, yeah, is very down to take his advice, both when it comes to hitting and also about bats. It sounds like Jock has developed into sort of the bat whisperer, I suppose, in the Diamondbacks bug house. So, yeah, it's pretty cool stuff. Well, our guy, Cam Cox, got a chance to go see all of his bats. That's a great video that he did. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:51:33 It was very interesting to me to see the collection that Jock has. I also like, again, I love the idea of him being like, you know, let's, uh, give me the Salair. You know, like that's, that's just amazing. But the Diamondbacks did do a great job tonight. Obviously, it's scoring runs. A lot of those came from those two guys, uh, five RBIs from, from Jock and four from Christian. Uh, but what, what, what, what was Tori? discussing in regards to, you know, this offense and the way that they can just be so hot and cold.
Starting point is 00:52:08 Yeah, we didn't really touch on on that in particular. I imagine that might come up before the game tomorrow because it is definitely a storyline with this with this team. The offense has been not bad by any means on the whole, but I have been inconsistent. I think is a is a pretty fair way to describe what's happening right now. But yeah, Tori was asked about the comment that he needs. made after the finale of the San Diego series, which I think surprised some of us at the time. He called that finale a mid-season must-win. He put it in that category, which really anytime you don't really hear managers or players
Starting point is 00:52:47 talk about, they don't really use the phrase must win to describe any game up until like the last week or two of the season. Like baseball players and coaches are just so programmed, so familiar with. just playing it day by day and never wanting to put too much pressure on themselves to win that day, but just, you know, doing everything they can and living with results and moving on. We hear all these things all the time. But Tori didn't really say that after that Sunday game against the Padres. He was like, this was a really important game for us, given how, you know, they were coming off
Starting point is 00:53:20 a couple of blowout losses in that case. And Tori didn't, he didn't use the phrase must win to describe this one, but he did say it was really important. The Diamondbacks are, of course, they're trying to claw their way back to 500, you know, eventually maybe get over 500. Tori was asked today, like, you've talked about how you don't want to just hold serve. You want to do more than that. But what is sort of your measurement there? Is there a certain record you would like to have by the time some of the starters come back or whatnot? And Tori just said, being over 500 is a good starting point.
Starting point is 00:53:56 And they're not there yet, but they're getting a little bit. closer of course three games under 500 as of as of the end of the game today well uh tory did comments on playing in another blowout and uh yeah that's got to feel pretty good yeah well this is something that that i that i noticed after this game was that it has now been a week since the diamondbacks have played a game that was decided by fewer than five runs which is actually outrageous. I mean, you think back to the last few days, right? Yesterday was an 8-3 loss. Day before that was a 9-4 win. The last three games of the Padre series were all big deficits or all big margins as well. The debacks won a game in San Diego by one run a week ago
Starting point is 00:54:45 today. But since that game, literally every game they've played has been decided by five runs or more. So yeah, I asked Tori, like, how do you feel about playing so many games with just these bizarrely enormous margins. And here's what, here's what Tori had to say. Yeah, I like more on the right side of it. And we're ahead for sure. It gives me a little stress when we don't, a little anxiety when we don't use certain guys.
Starting point is 00:55:10 Like Paul C.wall, they've gone seven days without throwing. So that gives me, that gives me, you know, a very uneasy feeling. So then I get to pick and choose my times. But, yeah, I like a good ball game. I like a two to one game where you just got a great feeling. grind it out and you know the best team who wins a margin or the team that wins the margin is going to be the best team that night so it's kind of what we do here um but yeah like i like it was 10-1 11 11 11 11 11 11 1 i like 11 11 1 wins for sure it's funny because i i think that
Starting point is 00:55:44 you know when when you are winning those games you're playing in those close games that torrey's describing it also means that your pitching is doing much better than diamondbacks pitching is doing right now right we we sent out that tweet yesterday about what the starting rotation's current era is for all of these guys and things don't look great for this team as far as the starting rotation is concerned bullpen looks solid got three guys with a sub one but you you look at you know what they have going on with the starting rotation and things don't look so great for tory i imagine close games means at the very least that you're playing diamondbacks baseball and it's giving you a chance to win based on the fact that this team does play
Starting point is 00:56:25 good defense does get those extra runs at times based on using their legs and and based on manufacturing runs. And I think that's more in their wheelhouse than these 10, 10 run victories, even though these are great. Right, right. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely not the Diamondbacks team that I think we anticipated coming into the year, right? They didn't exactly come with the reputation of like, oh, this is this is a team that's going to like, they're just going to score 14 runs every now then and there's nothing you can do about it. And especially on the pitching side, he certainly didn't expect the Diamondbacks to be the kind of team that would be, you know, liable to allow upwards of 10 runs in a game on a fairly regular basis. Like we've seen that
Starting point is 00:57:09 at this point for really a month, even more than a month, I think, where these kind of large, deficits, you know, opposing teams scoring a whole, whole bunch of runs. This has been kind of a way of life for the diamond backs in the last few weeks. And a lot of that, of course, goes back to the starting pitching. It's the fact that you have a rotation right now that consists of four guys with ERAs of well over five. And, you know, Brandon Fott, who's just kind of the de facto ace of this diamond pecks team at this point. He has a four three, it's a four three eight ERA after his game today. You know, it was very good, very good tonight for the diamond backs for sure. But yeah, This is just sort of how things are for this team right now.
Starting point is 00:57:54 Like the offense has to carry a big load. And not every night, but a decent number of nights over these last few weeks, the offense has come up and very much done that. Well, the Diamondbacks now move on to take on a Chicago White Sox team, Jesse, that just lost three out of four to the Mariners. They did win tonight in 10 innings. But again, another series where the Diamondbacks, hopefully should be able to keep things rolling.
Starting point is 00:58:24 And honestly, now is a, now is a great time. Like they have a really good opportunity with this rag tag starting rotation and this group of guys that have kind of, you know, had to had to do the thing without some of their biggest, at least biggest arms, right? And some portions of their starting lineup as well. But they've kind of had to hold the line here. And they've had to, as Tori said today.
Starting point is 00:58:51 hold the line that's the that we should have just named this episode hold the line uh but you know i mean they they might they might you know we were we were hoping like can they hover around 500 can they stay close there's a good chance that if they can kind of catch fire here and play well against the good teams beyond these next two series that this team might even have a plus 500 record by the time the the you know all-star break rolls around and that would be such a huge accomplishment for, you know, Tori Lavello and this group to get to that point, to get Zach Gallen back, to get Merrill Kelly back, and to have a team that somehow miraculously has a plus 500 record.
Starting point is 00:59:34 Yeah, I mean, that's going to be tough. Like being over 500 by the All-Star break is no small task. You do have that series with the White Sox this weekend where figure the debacks can maybe pick up some more ground there. But, you know, then you have a nationals team that's not great, but a nationals team that's decent. That's not an easy series, I wouldn't say, although a manageable one.
Starting point is 00:59:57 You got the Phillies for three games after that. That's a tough series, the twins for three games, another pretty good team there. The Oakland A's to round out the month of June. Obviously, not a great team there. They're better than they were last season, but there would be an opportunity in that series. But then going into the All-Star break,
Starting point is 01:00:14 I mean, it's Dodgers, Padres, Braves, and Blue Jays. And none of those series are going to, to be easy for for the diamond backs by any means. So I don't even know if, you know, getting, getting over 500 by the All-Star break, like that actually seems like a pretty bullish goal for the Diamondbacks. Well, the Blue Jays aren't playing great right now, right? The Oakland A's are the Oakland A's.
Starting point is 01:00:35 The Braves aren't playing great baseball right now. The Diamondbacks got swept by the Braves, but remember, they shouldn't have. Like the Diamondbacks, all things considered, should have taken two out of three instead of being swept. But that's not what happened. That's not the timeline we live in. We live in the darkest timeline where they got swept and lost all sorts of games early on in a spectacular comeback fashion, allowing, you know, their opposition to come back from the Diamondbacks having a fairly substantial lead in a lot of those games.
Starting point is 01:01:02 So, you know, this team feels different now. Like they don't feel like, again, I think we're past that point where they were trying to play perfect baseball, where they were trying to somehow replicate what they did last year. They just are going out there. They're trying to do their job every night. I think their head is out. I think they're out of their own heads a little more. And I think that's why we're seeing the better results. But also, Geraldo Perdomo being back is just seems like a huge, you know, help.
Starting point is 01:01:35 Jesse, I can't tell you, even though the guy wasn't in the lineup tonight, feels like you didn't even know it because he's in the background of every picture. He's catching Marv's first pitch. He's just out there. Like at one point, I just saw him out there introducing himself to every Cardinals player. And I don't know if I saw any other Diamondbacks player do that. I could be wrong because I did see them mingling. I saw Tori saying hi to a lot of guys and such and introducing himself.
Starting point is 01:01:59 But I saw Geraldo Pardomo do the thing that we do in the pro wrestling business, Jesse, which it's this weird thing where when you come in before a show, you have to find every person that's there and shake their hand. And it's just kind of like a thing. And like that was like what Geraldo Pardombo was doing. he was making sure that he found every member of the Cardinals that was there and introduced himself to them and shook his hand shook their hand and that was amazing to me especially considering this is a guy that kind of had the night off i kind of see jerry as a guy who's like i have an opportunity to make 13 new best friends and that's kind of how we approach the situation you know that's just that's just the vibes that he has yeah i mean the debacks are there they're six and four uh in the Geraldo Pardomo era of, of 2024 Diamondbacks baseball, right?
Starting point is 01:02:51 They're six and four when he's been healthy. Coincidence? Yeah, you know, who's to say? I think that would make them 27 and 32 when he's not out there. So, you know, the numbers don't lie, Derek. I guess that's my saying. The numbers don't lie. That's a great transition into this next thing we're going to do, Jesse, because, you know,
Starting point is 01:03:12 I'm a liar, and Damon constantly lies. and but you know what? Pridomo probably never lies. He's probably never told a lie in his life, but the numbers, they also don't lie. So let's take a look at Jesse's number for tonight. Jesse, what do you got for us? It's 1,319, I believe.
Starting point is 01:03:32 Yeah, there is 1,000 greater 19. That's a lot. This is how many feet of home run that Christian Walker has hit over the last couple of nights. He hit a home run late in the game last night that might have been sort of overlooked, understandably so. It turned an 8-0 game into an 8-1 game at the time. D-back scratched across a couple more runs, and I could tell Homer before that game ended.
Starting point is 01:03:58 But yeah, that shot yesterday, I believe, was 451. So that was not a cheap home run by any means. His first homer today was 404. Not the longest home run, but it was down the line. So it looked a lot longer than it probably was. And then, of course, his last, his final home run in that third inning today was 464, which I believe is the third longest home run that Christian Walker has hit in his career and also the longest home run that we have had this season at Chase Field.
Starting point is 01:04:30 So, yeah, it's a lot of, that's a lot of, that's a lot of dinger. That's a lot of, that is a lot of long ball. Christian Walker has, has been doing the thing for the Diamondbacks. He's a clean-up hitter for a reason, and he's certainly looked at here. year over the last 24 hours. Well, we will be back tomorrow with another episode of this show, another postgame episode after that first game with the Chicago White Sox. So make sure before you leave, you hold the line and you hit the like.
Starting point is 01:04:55 That's something you have to do. Of course, we have H.T.L. by the like button. Yeah, it's hit the like. Jesse hit the like. Oh, hit the like. Oh, hit the like. Of course, he is Jesse Friedman. You can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore caveman with a k.
Starting point is 01:05:12 Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, Damon is still and always will be the people's producer. You can follow him at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Bark-Bark. Our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at P-H-N-X underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Starting point is 01:05:32 We thank you guys so much for your time tonight. We'll see you tomorrow night for another post-game show. And until then, we hope you have a wonderful evening and a wonderful Friday. We appreciate your time so much. you for being fans of this team. Fellow snake aficionados. Again, we'll see you tomorrow. And remember kids, baseball is fun,
Starting point is 01:05:50 but it's so much more fun when you hold the line.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.