PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Corbin Carroll BREAKS OUT As Diamondbacks Win First Game 1 Of A Series Since Opening Day

Episode Date: May 8, 2024

The Diamondbacks finally broke the streak, winning their first game one of a series since Opening Day. We have more on this complete victory for the D-backs against the Cincinnati Reds, Corbin Carroll being back, and Zac Gallen dealing after 11 days off. We also discuss the return of Paul Sewald while Derek throws shade at Fanatics on behalf of Kevin Newman. An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE 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/phnxdbacks50Desert 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.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. 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.

Ski and welcome in to another winning edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast right here on PHMX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as a man who loves that beat. This man next to me as your vice mayor, occasionally known as your thunder stick, Jesse Friedman. And what a win. What a cathartic win that the Diamondbacks achieved tonight against the Cincinnati Reds, winning the game by account of six to two. Reds, or Diamondbacks now have won two games in a row. Reds, meanwhile, continue to have their struggles.

So, of course, not to get too high on beating up a team that's lost six in a row now, but the Diamondbacks needed a win like this, just a thorough victory where they kind of had everything working tonight, bullpen, starting pitching, and the offense. Everybody got going tonight. Yeah, and it really started with Zach Allen in his return. This was a big game coming back off of that hamstring issue that he had a couple of weeks ago against the Mariners, the Diamondbacks. We're planning to just get him right back in there

and not have him take a day, take a game off. Because of the B incident, they wound up giving him that day off anyway, which is a little bit odd. But he comes back today, and he threw six scoreless innings, Derek. And we were talking about it during the game. This was not a particularly dominant performance

from Zach Gallen, at least like from the eye test. But also, you look at the box score, the man, six innings, one hit, no runs, the three walks, six strikeouts. It's hard not to call that a dominant performance. And sometimes Gallen just does that where maybe he doesn't have his best stuff, but he just kind of goes out there and shoves anyway. And it came at a really good time today for the Diamondbacks. It did.

The Diamondbacks needed a game like this. They needed an outing like this from Zach. He gave them the length. He could have gone longer, but it wasn't necessary once the Diamondbacks were up essentially six to nothing by the time he exited the game. And the Diamondbacks, of course, their offense got going. And a big part of the offense tonight was Corby Carroll getting going. We've said at times that this team really does go the way of Corby Carroll, Gabby Moreno, and a few other guys. And of course, tonight, Corby and Carol finally got things rolling in the right direction a bit.

Gabby, speaking of which, he was off due to an illness. Yes. So he shouldn't miss too much time. Hopefully, according to Tori Lobello, he'll be back in the lineup tomorrow. Corbyn tonight, though, again, just big night. Yeah, this was this was the Corbyn Carroll game Derek and I've been waiting for a Corbyn Carroll game for quite a while. Carol had five RBI in this game for the Diamondbacks,

including their first five RBI of the game, right? Every time they scored up until Catelle Marte's Homer that went back to back with Corbyn in the seventh inning, every run the Diamondback scored was because of Corbyn himself. And this was also the game where he returned to the leadoff spot. We've seen him in the seven hole and the eight hole of the lineup for a good while now. But Toro Lavello has liked what he's seen from Corbyn and his at-bats recently. He did have two hits in their game on Sunday. Had enough faith to bring Corbyn back up to the leadoff spot.

And Corbyn certainly rewarded that today with the game that he had two for five, five RBI, including that home run a really big day all the way around. And for that reason, Corbyn, Carol, is absolutely our king snake of the game for, for tonight's game. I mean, it's still, it's still a two for five night, right? But it's just an important step. And that's what we've seen Corbyn Carroll doing is we've seen him making steps in the right direction. Even when he wasn't having success, he was still getting better at bats as the season progressed. And I think tonight's game is huge for him just to kind of get that first extra base hit since what did you say was? This was his first. Yeah, that Homer was his first

extra base hits since, I believe April 30th, which is about a week ago, but it was his second extra base hit since April 10th, which is almost a month ago at this point. So yeah, the base hits that Corbin has had over these last few weeks, almost all of them have been singles, but you saw some slug. That was a big swing out to out to center field. And yeah, that was that was sort of the big blow of the game, right? I mean, it was still very much a game up to that point. It was. It was two nothing. The debacks were in control, but from what we've seen from this bullpen this year, two nothing leads certainly does not really feel safe at the end of the game. Corbyn delivering that three run shot is really what put this game out of reach for all intents and

purposes, especially given how the Reds offense has rolled lately. It's, they've had, they've had their struggles. Kattel gets his seventh home run of the year. It is his 18th RBI of the year. And Kattel just continues to roll for this team. He has, been the constant. He is hitting 303 with an 891 OPS. Yeah. And again, he added to it tonight. There's a few other guys that are still struggling. And of course, this team kind of goes the way sometimes that, you know, again, someone like Corby and Carol goes and tonight was a big, a big step offensively in the right direction. Of course, Diamondbacks also win two games in a row. That seems like a big deal. They win their first game one since opening day. I believe it's 11 or 12.

series now in a row where they did not win game one of the series so that's wild that's i think and that's what's important about tonight right is like tonight was an important game for corbin and the team to kind to get past some of those weird you know struggles that they've had so far early in the season hopefully put some of this behind them where they can you know start winning some game ones and start putting themselves in a position to not only win the series early but potentially sweep the series it's really hard to win a series if you lose the first game every time, you know? Yeah. It's kind of the way it is. If it's a three game series, you got to win the next two. That's the only way to pull that off. And the Diamondbacks have, I mean, look, they've lost two out of three in almost every series they've played

this season, right? They took three out of four from the Rockies to open the year. They did beat the Rockies two out of three the following week. They took two out of three from the Cardinals at one point. Outside of that, the Diamondbacks have lost two out of three in every single series, with I guess the other exception being that they split with the Giants in San Francisco. But it's been rough. I mean, they just have not been able to really string together any kind of consistency in any capacity. I mean, I guess the starting pitching has sort of held up more or less throughout the season. But especially offensively, they were very, very good at the beginning of the season.

And it's fallen off dramatically here in the last couple of weeks. weeks today was certainly a nice bounce back in that regard. Elise in the chat says Saturday was the low point. We're on the upswing now. Saturday was not a low point for me. Saturday was an absolute high point for me. Saturday was the day that we met Elise. That we met Elise.

Exactly. It was anything but a low point. So I want to say it may have been more of us as a community coming together on Saturday that rallied the Diamondback. Sure, it didn't take. We didn't rally the Diamondbacks in that game. That's for sure. And she's right.

That might have felt like a low point. But our togetherness provided enough magic, I think, for the Diamondbacks to feel the energy and turn things around. Because since we were all together, if you don't want to count that game, the Diamondbacks haven't lost. So that's the direction that I'm going to go in. Yeah, too well. You know, again, maybe if we would have gotten together earlier, maybe if we would have all met on Friday, we could have prevented Saturday from having, who knows. But what I do know is that the Diamondbacks were able to survive Vic Carpazza's strike zone tonight because, holy crap, bad night for the home plate umpire at times. And on both sides of the ball, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Diamondbacks ended up getting more calls their way than the Reds even did because Zach Allen was getting some calls out of the strike zone on strikeouts that were fairly egregious, fairly egregious.

But of course, we do want to give a shout out to the return of the one and only Paul Seawald, who not only was reinstated from the 15-day IL prior to day's game, but he did pitch today. It wasn't a perfect outing. He did give up a home run. But what a perfect scenario to have him return under. We know that like when he first joined the team, he had his share of struggles before getting it locked in back when they traded for him. And of course, tonight again, not a perfect outing. He does give up that home run.

but still just great for Paul Seawall to be back. It feels right. It feels good. He came into the stadium looking like an absolute beast tonight wearing the Jordan shirt. I think we do we have that, David? Yeah, we have. I mean, we're about to have it in a second. I really wish we went to it in segment three, Derek.

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know. I didn't know we were supposed to go do it. Derek's going to go. My bad. I jumped ahead. I jumped ahead. My fault.

I was just talking about Paul Seawald today. I'm a terrible host. You guys all know that. But Paul Seawald again, it was the perfect opportunity for him to come up and at least, you know, get this kind of soft landing before, you know, his outings can truly matter. Because the way this game was going at one point, giving up that one home run might have been a big deal. That's a great point. Yeah. I mean, and Tori said it before this game started that if this had been a safe situation, if the Diamondbacks had.

had a one run lead in the ninth inning. Tori was ready to use Paul Seawald in that situation. He's the closer of the seam. That's what his role has always been. And Tori wasn't going to back off that just because this was Seawald's, you know, first game back from injury. So he was ready to throw him in that spot. But it does seem like a good thing that the diamondbacks were able to put Paul Seawald

in a lower stress environment. Still the ninth inning, but with a five run lead. And yes, Seawald did give up that home run. But it didn't matter very much because it, you know, made a five-run lead, a four-run lead. Seawald was still able to work out of the inning. And it wasn't a perfect inning. Otherwise, you know, I think he got some other outs on some.

There was a high sweeper that he got a ground out. There was a, or maybe a pop-up, and then there was a sweeper right down the middle that I think somebody rolled over. So his command maybe wasn't perfect. But getting Paul Seawald back on this team is so crucially important. He was such an enormous part of what this Diamondbacks team did toward the end of last year. the bullpen narrative of the 2023 diamond back shifted almost immediately once Paul Seawald was acquired. So yeah, the impact there is enormous. And even though this wasn't a perfect day for him,

just getting him back, not only the guy he is on the field, but the guy he is off the field has always felt really significant to this team as well. A really big day for the diamondbacks just because Paul Seawald is finally back. And J.A. makes a great point about McCarthy. McCarthy does seem like the McCarthy of old right now. Jake McCarthy is hitting over 300. He got the scoring started early. He got that walk and eventually scored a run. And I mean, he did it with getting, at least getting going on a hit and run there where Tucker Barnhart was able to move him over. And, you know, again, there were some elements there in the first inning that we saw with Jake, where it very much reminded us of what this team was able to do with their speed, putting the pressure on the opposition. It very much felt

like the starting pitcher tonight for the Reds knew exactly what was going to go on once Jake McCarthy got on base. And it seemed like it threw him off and allowed Tucker to get that hit. Things kind of went their way once the timebacks got up early. But again, it was just the fact that Jake was able to find a way to get on base and find a way to impact the ballgame. He's really been good lately. I mean, Jake McCarthy, as we stand right now, is sitting 307 with a 756 OPS. Just thinking about how Jake McCarthy has been in the least. off spot for a decent portion of the last couple of weeks.

Like, that's not necessarily something we saw coming going into the year. Granted, Corbyn's struggles are a big part of why McCarthy landed there. But it's hard to say he didn't kind of deserve it in some ways. I'm hitting over 300 and getting on base as much as he has. I still think there's more to prove there. You know, I still would maybe like to see it over the course of a longer period of time before I'd say, you know, this is the This is the second half, 22, Jake McCarthy once again. But I think we all have understood for a while that if Jake is like the fourth outfielder on your team, he's a pretty good fourth outfield.

He's a great option. What he brings on the base pass, he's a solid, solid, you know, outfield defender as well. And when he's able to wreak havoc and lay down buntz, as we've seen in recent days and just find ways to get on base at a decent clip, he's a really valuable player. He also reminds me of Alec Thomas in the fact that he makes plays look very simple. That, yeah, they might seem simple watching them as a spectator. But he really does do a good job of tracking the ball well and finding a direct route to it. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, see Pave and Smith playing right field sometimes. So. But there's a difference between seeing Jake and Pave and play right.

A little bit. A little bit. There's a difference. But of course, the really good thing here is Corbyn Carroll getting going. of course we talked about a low point for this team we talked about a low point for us as fans being on Saturday night but it very much felt like Corby and Carroll had hit a low point and this was him discussing his hitting struggles and what he's kind of been going through this season. I snapped out of that fun class dog as by swinging at everything so I don't I don't it doesn't feel like the answer this time to be honest like just there have been some mechanical things that you know been trying to address and I feel like

are headed in the right direction and our coaches feel like are headed in the right direction I just I like I made my swing too flat and so it's been a lot of work to try and create better attack and goals and better vertical bad at it that is a man that is absolutely frustrated with with everything going on has analyzed it maybe even understands it and still

doesn't know how to fix it but what we've seen has been much better at bats compared to his struggles early on in the season and I feel like again a night like tonight can build so much confidence for someone like Corbin who it really feels like that's kind of what he's lacking right now more than anything is just confidence belief in himself yeah yeah so I I did some research search on this, you hear Corbin had never been this specific about what was kind of going on with him mechanically, right? That's a question that we've been trying to get answered for quite a while. And generally speaking, Corbin doesn't love talking about those kinds of things. And you can understand why. Like, he doesn't want other teams already have so much information. They already

know so much. And he doesn't want to help them out and give them more information than they would already have. So Corbyn, generally speaking, doesn't get into ultra-specifics with the media on that kind of stuff. But he did hear. He basically just straight up said, my swing got too flat. And it's been a lot of work to try to fix that. And you heard there, he sounded like things were trending in a positive direction. But me, of course, being the baseball nerd that I am, I had to find some data, Derek. I had to find some objective data that confirmed what Corbyn was saying that his swing was indeed too flat. And courtesy of swing graphs, which is a website that I discovered in the last few days,

it's behind a paywall. But you can actually get swing path data, which is something that's not available on statcast, at least not publicly. But they have swing path data on swing graphs. And I looked up, this is called the, let me drop you here real quick. I did, I did pay for this. Yeah. So this is the vertical bat angle.

That is what this statistic is called. and it's basically just a measure of the steepness of your swing. So is your swing flat or do you have like more of an upper cut swing? Right. We see pretty frequently, you know, a lot of power hitters tend to tend to have that. Corbin already had one of the flatter swings in baseball last year. But I looked it up, Derek, and Corbin Carroll had, according to this website, the flattest swing in baseball by a pretty considerable margin.

Corbin Carroll was that, I believe this is measured in degrees. If I can scroll all the way to the bottom of the list here, I have to go to page five, which It would make sense why he's struggling so much with a high fastball. Exactly. Yeah, a flat swing. It would make it hard to get to a pitch up in the zone because you're, I mean, you'd have to start your swing like very, very high in order to get to a pitch like that if you don't have kind of that upper cut element to reach a pitch like that.

So yeah, they have him at 20.8 degrees. And the next lowest number for a hitter that has like enough data here. year is Johann Rojas of the Phillies at 22.5. Oh my God. So he was, yeah, and this generally range is from like 20 to like 35, something like that. So yeah, Corbin was sort of like an extreme outlier on the lower end here. So what he was saying about a swing getting too flat is 150% confirmed by this website that I found.

You're talking about the flattest swing in all of baseball. And this data is current as of April 30th. So he very well might have made some changes in the last week or so. maybe this has trended in a better direction. I'm sort of led to believe it has given the results that he had in this game, the results that he had on Sunday. But yeah, I was pretty, I was pretty struck by that. I figured I'd look this up and he'd be maybe on the lower end, but he was literally the lowest

of players to have enough data in this website. It was pretty incredible. Well, I think we have that image of him being back. I think this is Paul Seawald being back. no that's that's that's that's gross what is that what just happened is that corbin that's unsettling oh tall corbin yeah no tall corbin's no that's weird i don't can we have the other one no it's fine you don't have to give me it i don't want the other there it's real palsy oh man i don't ever like burn that other image with fire please

speaking of fire and speaking of clothing i have some clothing related uh issues to speaking of burning too well speaking of burning um i'm gonna throw a little shade can we maybe throw a little shade at fanatics for what they did to kevin newman today dammit can you give me the fire beat and some intro it's up to crazy going on because i need to throw some shade all right uh he's going to take this one off uh this one's on me now uh fanatics nike what the hell are we doing I didn't want to even discuss any jersey related items with you anymore. I didn't want to talk to you about this. I was done.

Jesse's done. We were done with this. But then I feel obligated to speak on behalf of Kevin Newman, who is a professional major league baseball player and did not deserve what you did to him today. Damon, do we have the footage? Throw the footage up there. Where is this piping? Where is this man's,

Piping! As if these gray drab road jerseys weren't boring enough, this almost blends into his skin tone. Where is the man's piping? This is egregious, and I know it's just a detail. I know it's something small, but can we really not get everybody on the team the same jersey? Can everybody not have all the same details? Can we not be a connected and dangerous team? Without the piping, we can't be! Kevin Newman deserves better than that

That's all I got I'm not gonna I don't I don't feel like being this angry after a win Especially two in a row But get your shit together Nike or fanatics or whoever is to blame It's one of you but anyway All right, let's go ahead and get that back All right well of course

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requirements bonus bets are non-wisproscing casino and hotel see betmgmgm.com for terms us emotional offers not available in new york nevada north carolina ontario or porto rico puerto rico well jesse it's time to work the count and we know a few guys on this team that haven't been working the count but we're going to work the count of this game presented by Desert Financial Credit Union. Diamondbacks end up coming out on top, six runs to two. They out hit the Reds eight to three. Diamondbacks went two for seven with runners in scoring position

while the Reds went 0 for two. Each team had two dingers where the Diamondbacks were a little bit more relevant. And then, of course, neither team hit the ball very hard in this game. Jesse is weathered the blame with an imminent tornado bearing down there in Cincinnati? That was a little unnerving. Yeah, they're just casually playing a baseball game. You start a baseball game like in the middle of a tornado watch. That doesn't seem right.

Yeah, yeah, not maybe as much hard contact on the devac side as you would have expected. But when you hit a couple of big home runs, you don't necessarily need a whole lot of that. What really stands out to me most about this, Derek, is that the Diamond Beck scored six runs, which is like a normal number of runs for a winning team to score. Yeah, they didn't go crazy or barely. win. Because on Sunday, that game still felt a little sketchy because it was like, all right, they scored 11 runs. They blew out the Padres. But we'd seen this movie before. Absolutely. The Diamondbacks, absolutely. They love themselves a good blowout win, right?

Oh yeah. You know, it's scoring five, six, seven runs, something like that that we haven't seen a lot from this team of this year. And the Diamondbacks were able, we're able to do that. They didn't, they didn't feel the need to score the 14 runs today. They just scored six and it was more than enough. And we'll see if this offense can be more consistent in the coming days. That's, that's really the key is finding a way to consistently put up five, six runs a game. That's really how this team is going to get on a nice run. I feel if you want to be a pessimist about this game, you could say, yes, it's the Reds who have been struggling. They came in losing five in a row. So yeah, they're going through it right now. You really shouldn't get too high on this win,

which is fair. But at the same time, it's the Diamondbacks needed to win a game like this. They needed to win against a team that they should beat and they needed to win in a scenario like this on a game one where they can just kind of put you know that some of these struggles so far behind them and and maybe look to beat up on some of the teams that they can beat up on right now that are struggling you never know looking ahead in the schedule you know what those teams who those teams are going to be but the diamondbacks play the reds an awful lot right now in fact they They play six games against them over the next, what, week. So it's a great time for the Reds to be struggling and for the Diamondbacks to try to do everything they can to capitalize on getting these wins against a struggling team, right?

Not only can it help them get going, but it can obviously help when it matters down the road because this Reds team is still very good. And, you know, just like the Diamondback struggles, it doesn't always make sense. A lot of the guys on their team are not hitting very well. I think Ellie Dele Cruz and maybe Corbyn's seeing Ellie Dele Cruz across the diamond from him made him step his game up a little bit tonight. I don't know. He's been doing well, but there are a couple of guys for the Diamondbacks that still need to get going. There are, yes. Lordus Gurriel Jr. continues to be right at the top, kind of right in the middle of Diamondbacks lineup and is really going through it. He came in a two for 33 skid in his last eight games. No walks in that span, five strikeouts, three double play balls. Today he was 0 for 4 with a couple of strikes. Outt's Lardis Gurriel has a 663 OPS on the season, which is not what you're looking for from him and, you know, nor is that what you're looking for from a guy who's been hitting second or third. I believe the entire season. I don't think DeBaks have put Guriel anywhere else in the lineup. So they really need him to get going at some point.

And then the other guy we've talked about recently for sure is Gino Suarez. He came in on a six for 41 skid in his last 11 games, 15 strikeouts in that span. And today he was also 0 for 4 with a couple of strikeouts and his OPS for the season is now below 600. Gino has a 598 OPS on the year. Last year, the Diamondbacks from the third base position had a 64 OPS. So as of this moment, Derek, Gino Suarez on paper has actually not been an upgrade for the Diamondbacks at third base. I mean, we kind of took that as being obvious going into the season, right? Like even if you don't get Gino bouncing back to his former self and being, you know, a 30 homer guy.

At the very least, he would be an upgrade over what the debacks got at third base last year. So far, he really, he really has not been that. Both guys might be putting too much pressure on themselves, especially considering Lordus resigns with the team and stays here. Gino comes in and is supposed to be that answer at third base. But one guy that is not putting, who is absolutely not putting that pressure on himself is Jock Peterson. who has a 925 OPS. The man is hitting 295 and should be probably above 300 because like tonight, when Jack Peterson struck out, he was absolutely right about that strike three not being a strike.

And Jock just seems to be a very effective hitter. Not at all the type of hitter I thought we were going to get out of him, but just a very effective hitter. If things aren't going the team's way, Jock will get on base via a walk, via a single, via whatever he needs to do. I mean, we're not seeing the power out of Peterson. I think

like the Diamondbacks kind of needed from some of their free agent acquisitions. But the man has a 925 OPS. Like, he is just contributing in many ways. And I was, I'm still kind of surprised at the fact that he's such a well-rounded hitter

for this team and not just that power guy that they were bringing in as a DH. 100%. Yeah, Jack Peterson is not, he's not a power-only hitter. I mean, this season, I think we all would be an agreement that Ketel Marte has been the most valuable position player on this team. By far.

But Jack Peterson, man, I mean, I know it's a platoon situation. He's mainly just facing Ritey's, but he has a 412 on base percentage. That'll play. Like, even if you're a strong side platoon, like, you're doing enough damage there against Ritey's that it kind of makes up for you not being much of a factor against lefties. So at some point, we'll revisit all of the different D.H candidates that we discussed over the off season and kind of compare all of them and see where they stack up jadinez is out here not hitting balls but hitting people's arms so i'm apparently yeah i don't know if that was really jaddy martinez's

fall but yeah hopefully hopefully wilson contraris is uh so i mean i don't know if he's really okay it doesn't sound like it's a forearm fracture yeah it doesn't sound really okay hopefully he's able to get back soon that was a scary moment but tim brings up an interesting point but i feel like he singles out jock too much he said jock's not clutch at all right now i don't don't really think many people on this team are clutch. That's my honest opinion. Jock's not clutch. Let's see.

Runner's in a scoring position. He's one for 13. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, so goes the whole goddamn team. I mean, Jesus.

I mean, this team right now, that's been the biggest problem. It hasn't been their ability to get on base. It hasn't been their ability at times to get hits. It's getting timely hits. It's getting hits in high leverage situations. It's not allowing leads to slip away.

I mean, we've seen this team kind of be all over the place. Like, I don't know what the hell to expect out of this team on any given night, to be honest. Tonight was a pleasant surprise. But, I mean, again, this feels more like tonight's victory felt more like the team that this team is, that we know they are. It's more of some of these losses. It's the mistakes. It's the way things have gone for this team just have gone completely haywire, whether they were leading or, you know, the game was close or whatever the case may be. It just feels like this team doesn't have that ability to, you know, just settle in,

even though things might not be going their way in any given inning or in any given game and just try to rebound and get their, you know, their production going, get their offense going. You know, a bullpen pitcher in here that can, you know, slow things up, right? Like there is definitely a lot of things that have gone wrong for this team. That might be in the past, probably not, but at least for, the last two games, they've been moving, just like Corbyn Carroll has been moving in the right direction. This team as a whole has been moving in the right direction. Tonight's game, tonight's one was fairly complete, though. I mean, yeah, the bullpen gave up a couple of, you know,

solo home runs. And yes, you could argue if this game was closer, those might have been more of a catastrophe. You could also argue if this game was closer, Zach Gallen probably would have stayed in longer. Ryan Thompson probably would have come in and things could have gone completely differently, right? So for the most part, it felt like everybody, did their job offense produced that gallon was good on the mound and and this is you know as as as good of a diamond backs win as i think we've gotten this year without the gigantic blowouts that seemed ridiculous and silly you think corbin is back what is your what does your what is your heart tell you derrick is he going to be 860 ops the rest of the way like i forget about the first month i think

corbin is still going to struggle but i think corbin is going to be more consistent than what we we've seen. And I feel like we already saw him moving in this direction. So a game like tonight isn't that much of a surprise. We've talked about watching his BP. We've talked about seeing him do some of the things that he's done on the field and kind of just have some bad luck, you know, getting some of those balls caught at Chase Field that you then look up the metrics and see that it would have been a home run in 17 out of 30 ballparks and things like that. Right. So, you know, again, things are going his way. I'm not ready to get over. excited about a two for five night i understand the five rbi is important i understand him being

uh you know involved in the majority of the production of the offense is important but it's still a two for five night you know and and again two for five is pretty like you you go two for five every day i mean it's not terrible i'm not saying that's terrible i'm just saying it's a two for five night on a day like it's it's not like he had five hits it's not right it wasn't quite that it wasn't him in my game yesterday on MLB the show 24 where I went four for five with him with two home runs. That was way better. That's the standard. That's the standard.

That's the standard that Corbyn has to reach before Derek is really going to buy in. Yeah, I think that's fair. And I mean, Corbin, like his first at bat of the game still wasn't great. He popped up in foul territory. How many times have we seen that over this rough stretch? And his last about of this game, he struck out on three pitches, right? Yeah. So I'm with you that we need to see more of Corbyn Carroll, you know, more.

This was a very good game. If he continues to have games like this, even if there's a strikeout to pop up. Right. Yes. You'll live with it if he's driving in five runs. But yeah, you know, he does have a little bit more to show. But it's so clear just the impact that Corbyn has. When Corbyn Carroll is hitting like the Corbyn Carroll that we've known for basically his entire Major League tenure, the lineup just makes so much more sense.

If Corby Carroll goes over five tonight or for four tonight. Yeah. The Diamondbacks lose, right? I mean, two to one. Without his five RBI, the Diamondbacks lose two to one. I'm just saying that based on the way that the numbers are. I know obviously the game would have been much different. But without if Corby and Carole struggled tonight, if he went 04, if he had one of those nights and does not bring in five RBI, who knows the way that this game goes, right? It just adds so much depth of lineup. Like when you can have Corbyn doing Corbyn things and Kattel has been so consistent this year, there have been. We talked. about Lordus's struggles. There are maybe some some concerns there, although Lordus is so streaky. And, you know, you feel like he'll probably be maybe you'll have a miserable May and then he'll win the Player of the Month award in June. Like, that's just sort of how Lordus tends to roll.

There's going to be some ups and downs. But Walker has been pretty consistent this year, Jock, as we discussed earlier, has been good. You just need to really stack together like four or five hitters at the top of the lineup. Yeah. They can consistently give you some offensive. production. And we haven't really seen that yet this year outside of the first maybe few days of the season. You know, it's felt like, okay, Kattel and Lourdes are going, but Walker's struggling.

You know, guys have kind of taken turns. But there's a world in which this offense can be pretty good if you get some of these guys kind of clicking at the same time. Beatrice Birdman just burst in here and said, why the hell aren't you showing the Phoenix Mercury game, you dumbasses? It's because we don't have the rights to show it. If we wouldn't get sued for doing so. Oh, I would absolutely. Look, look, do you think a Mercury game isn't going to get more views than this face? Those are screaming about fanatics jerseys?

Those are on board, Beatrice. From Beatrice there. Big, tough words. It's fine. It's fine. I mean, she's at least two of us are dumbasses in this room. And it's probably not this guy. But anyway, of course, we thank you guys again for being here.

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So make sure to check out Circle K and everything they have to offer. It is America's their stuff. Me and Damon know everything about Circle K. What? How affordable. We went out of our way. To go to a Circle K? To go to our Circle K.

Yeah. For those of you who do not know, me and Jesse partook on a little road trip yesterday. Absolutely did. It was a boys trip, some people would say. Yeah. And we didn't invite Derek because, as we've said, many. said many times on the show we don't do that we don't like we don't really want to hang out there i was like boys it's a day off with me and the misses i got stuff to do like remodeling a bathroom

so right now i'm getting it it's two against one and that jesse and damon are saying that we didn't invite derrick and derrick is trying to tell the audience the great people watching of this program the one hundred and twelve of you watching please drop a like please if you if all of you drop a like Did get invited. That's not true. It's absolutely not true. We shut up, Jesse. Don't have to tell them that.

But yes, Damon, yeah, I think we all know what's happening here. No, I'm just trying to move on. Derek was not invited to the road trip. Yeah, that's a lie. He's very jealous. I got text messages that say otherwise. The whole thing. I'll show them to all of you.

And he's really trying to convince all of it. Photos shop exists, Derek. Whatever, but that's fine. We don't have to go through all this. They wanted me to come very much. I refuse to be in a car with these guys for longer. Look, we have a set amount of hours per week where we're supposed to be around each other. And I'm supposed to like be with them extra outside of that.

Especially when you stop. A connected team is a dangerous team. That's true. Outside of the 100 hours we spend together a week here in this office, that's insane. A connected team is a dangerous team. And I want to be a dangerous team. What do you want to do to get there? The Kyrrish sounds like nothing.

And both of them wanted to kick me off the podcast. That's how connected we are as a podcast. Some of us are connected. Well, because me and Jesse are feeling pretty like, anyway. Pretty good after coming back. We're moving on now because we have roster news to discuss. And that's more important than your stupid road trip that you took.

Let's just end it off by saying we went out of our way to go to a Circle K. Not by much, just by a little bit. Just because we knew Circle K, best gas, best, you know, snacks and stuff inside. What a place. It was like $370 too. Yeah. The disc track is coming, Ryan. Don't worry.

I'm going to work on that tonight. But of course, the Diamondbacks did reinstate Paul Seawald from the 15-day IL prior to today's game. The corresponding move was to option Scott McGuff to Reno. Yes. So just take, if you guys want to take a moment, we'll just allow you to have your time. Scott McGuff going to Reno is interesting, considering that he had. do accept that option. Is that how that works?

I don't know. That kind of was what I had in my head because, you know, Scott McGuff is not, this isn't a totally normal situation where he was just like drafted, brought up in the minor leagues, came up, had some options that he didn't use and just pitched in the majors for a long time. He, of course, went overseas, pitched in Japan, came back, signed with the diamond backs. And as far as we are aware, Scott McGuff has. minor league options remaining.

According to Fangraphs, he had two minor league options remaining entering this season. So as long as his contract didn't interfere with that or change those details at all, this appears to be just a totally normal send out where he didn't have a choice. The debaq just decided that they were sending him out. That's at least how it appears to me. So yeah, the debacks made it. I mean, this is still a big decision for them. McGuff was the Diamondbacks closer for a portion of last year and actually a very good one for a while there.

You know, I had some good moments, but you look at McGuff's numbers, you know, the way he started the season, the second half of last year up until to when he got hurt toward the end of the season, he's just been really rough. And the Diamondbacks got to a point where they just need him to go try to kind of figure things out elsewhere and move on with the guys that they have. And we've seen more of those sorts of decisions in the last year with the D-Ox being a little more aggressive and being willing to do that kind of thing. and they went and did it. Scott McGuff is no longer on this team right now. Well, and I think the, you know, one thing about it is the fact that it's not like he hasn't been given opportunities, especially during the Diamondback struggles there. He was given multiple opportunities.

And, I mean, the Diamondbacks even kind of counted on him in high leverage situations, which he kind of proved himself to not be able to handle. That's still got to be the most confusing and frustrating thing as a manager when, you see a pitcher pitch. You know they have good stuff. You know that they're able to go out there and get out. Except when you send them out there, when you need them the most to go out there and get out.

And that's what it feels like Tori has gotten back in return from a few of the relievers in the bullpen. Unfortunately, they just didn't have any other option. And now with Paul Seawald coming back, some of the bodies coming back, and also with the organization turning to some of the young arms in the minor league system, it does feel like they would rather give somebody that is unproven an opportunity.

For sure. Rather than trying to give guys that they've given multiple opportunities to and have not come through for them yet another opportunity. Right. So that's where we're at with Scott McGuff. It'll be interesting to see how his career with the Diamondbacks go. And if the Diamondbacks look to bring him back at some point, I'm sure there'll be a need at some point.

And I wouldn't be surprised to see him go down to Reno and shove. and then possibly be called upon again. I mean, yeah, like I said earlier, there have been times where McGuff was a pretty big part of this bullpen and actually was like legitimately effective. I mean, his strikeout rate was pretty high last year. It wasn't that he couldn't strike anyone out, although this year his strikeout rate has fallen significantly.

He just has to be able to command his pitches. And it feels like every time Scott McGuff has entered a game this year, he's just spraying the four seamer kind of all over the place. and his splitter, which he tends to have kind of inconsistent feel for, that splitter, it only plays if the fastball is being located well. Right. That's what's really going to make the splitter more effective. And McGuff's, his command has just been all over the place pretty much the entire year. And the result is, you know, 16 innings, 18 hits, 15 runs this year.

Same number of walks as strikeouts. It's been really bad. And, yeah, this felt like the move that the debacks probably should make. they went out and and they did it. There is possibly a command issue amongst the Diamondbacks pitchers. Like at times that really feel we talked about that with Zach Gallen tonight. Frankie Montas was absolutely dealing to start tonight's game. I mean, he was hitting 99 miles per hour.

He was hitting his corners. I don't know what happened to Franky Montasas in the first sitting of this game. Right, right. I don't either. Like that was so not him, but that's what the Diamondbacks were dealing with. And it felt like another like, oh shit, here we go again situation with the Diamondbacks being up against the guy who was shoving and throwing faster than he's ever thrown and locating. But, you know, Zach Gallen was able to stay consistent.

And again, this was this was a night that really went the Diamondbacks way in every possible possible way, except for one piece of news when it comes to roster news. And that's the fact that Alec Thomas was not part of this announcement, which we were counting on. We thought Alec Thomas was indeed going to be reinstated as Toyland. Lavello had said already by this series with the Reds. And instead, it sounds like he may have reagravated his hamstring injury and has come back to Phoenix from Reno for further testing. It's not great, Derek. It's not great.

It's not great, Jesse. You're goddamn right. We've seen a little bit of this, right? I mean, Erod with a pretty significant setback. Paul Seawald did have something of a setback, although it wound up that he was fine and it seems like he was just sort of worried about something that he was. didn't actually need to be worried about and his oblique was healed and everything wound up being okay but well i know kattel didn't miss time like this but kutel had a hamstring problem that kind of

kept coming kept coming back to right yeah for a while for sure so yeah i i don't i mean i don't know if i want to say like the debacks have have totally mismanaged all of these guys coming off the i don't know if that's totally fair they've been very open about mismanaging the erod situation i think that one's pretty clear we'll kind of wait and see what they're report is on Alec Thomas. There's still a chance that Alec Thomas has, you know, they do reimaging, which I think is going to happen. They're going to have him do another MRI. Maybe that MRI comes back fine. And Alec Thomas just misses a few more days and comes back for the Baltimore series or something like that. But if there actually is some significant reaggravation here where he has to kind

not start from the beginning, but get close to starting from the beginning, that would be a really big development and not a particularly good one for the debacks when it comes to their, their For getting these guys back from injury because it's it's been it's been pretty rough so far I think we have some super chats there Damon would you mind pulling those up real fast Thank you to Andrew dang he said been a while God bless you guys we missed you Thank you for being back said any updates on perdomo I don't think we've heard anything good or bad we know that perdomo was kind of as far as the injuries go due to him having surgery He was the one that was kind of on a set timetable

relatively. Like we, it was, it's a little bit more black and white with Pardomo's time than, uh, let's say some of the pitchers right now. Yeah, Pardomo is, uh, Tori said that he was getting close to full base bot activities. This is, I believe about three days ago. Um, so yeah, you might, you might only be maybe a few weeks away from Pardomo returning at this point. We don't have much specifics beyond that. You think about that over there, God.

Let's fucking go. Yeah. We're back, baby. This is Diamondbacks baseball. That's how we get him back on board is the gift for Domo back in the lineup. Becom. See clearly. Thank you for your super chat.

He said, I gave Corbin the shh. Now he's good. I don't. I've been told on from that one there. I've been told not to ask about that, but we appreciate your super chat. Thank you so much. Of course, the reason why I tend to move on from things is, of course, you know I lie. Damon lies a lot.

Jesse, everyone. while he lies. But you know what doesn't lie is JJ, first of all, because he's a stuffed snake. He can't lie. And the numbers. The numbers absolutely don't lie. Jesse, what do you have for the numbers for this game? Yeah, today's number is zero. Is that a number? Yeah, I guess. Zero is a number, Derek. I was a math teacher two years ago, I don't know if I'd press Jesse. Let's not go down that road. So there were four home runs. in this baseball game, Derek. Two for the Diamondbacks and two for the Cincinnati Reds.

And zero represents the number of home runs that there would have been in this game had it been played at Chase Field instead of being played in Cincinnati, at least according to the stat cast machine that we all have come to know and love. Literally zero of the home runs that were hit today would have actually been home runs at Chase Field. And that shouldn't really come as a huge shock because all of them were hit roughly to center field and we all know how impossible it is to hit a home run in Jaysfield in that area.

So, I mean, how different would this game have looked if all of those turn into doubles? I think the debacks probably still win in that universe. I mean, the Reds were two solo shots, so they're not going to get very far with those two homers being doubles instead. The debacks probably still come out on top.

But I thought that was a pretty fascinating takeaway from this one. That's pretty neat. Well, the Diamondbacks do send Jordan McGo Montgomery up against Graham Ashcraft tomorrow. And then they have in the finale, Slate's Coney going up against a fairly deadly Hunter Green. So Diamondbacks have, don't have a great chance of going for the suite. But anything could happen.

And honestly, Jordan Montgomery, it would be great to see Jordan Montgomery go out there and have a nice outing like we saw it as that gallon. I think at that point, having those two guys go out there and just at least give the Diamondbacks a chance to win. would be a very comforting sign right now for a starting rotation that has been pretty erratic. Yeah, yeah, Jordan Montgomery, getting back to the pitcher that we sort of expected him to be is really big. Obviously, his last start came in a very strange set of circumstances being the day after the B game. And Montgomery was, of course, the scheduled starter for the B game. The delay was so long that D-Baks didn't want him to have to get hot again after, you know, warming up right before the game started. still a really weird situation.

So, yeah, very weird situation. I mean, Montgomery was, he was not going to make any kind of excuses. He didn't want to blame his poor outing against the Dodgers on the fact that he had been scratched the night before. But it's hard not to believe that might have messed up his routine a little bit. Maybe you've had something to do with why his command was so often that game. We'll see what he looks like tomorrow. Well, of course, we will be back tomorrow with another post game show.

In fact, this is just wall-to-wall post-game show week. We are going to be giving you four postgame shows this week and then a special mailbag Saturday episode on Saturday. Saturday, are we allowed to do that? I don't know. You know, we make the rules around here, Jesse. We can leave the lights up through January. That's the way things work around here. But, of course, we do appreciate you guys for being here.

I do want to go ahead and just squash any mercury slander. I don't know if I started that or whatever, but the mercury, like, let's not, let's not, like, let's not slander the true chance. Champions of this city, right? The most successful franchise. Speaking of which, we have a brand new pair of hosts for the PHNX Mercury show. Make sure to check them out. That show is delightful, informative. And I'm very excited to have two very knowledgeable people about the WMBA leading the way there.

So that's going to be exciting to see that grow and that come together. So don't miss out on that. Of course, we will be back, like I said, tomorrow with our postgame show. Make sure to join us for that. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Kp underscore Caveman with a K. This maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, the people's producer, Damon Dog, is at Damon Dog.

That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show is at P.HNX underscore D-Backs, but of course all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you again so much for stopping by. We'll see you guys tomorrow. And in the meantime, have yourselves a wonderful night.

And remember, kids, baseball. is fun, but it is so much more fun when Corbyn Carroll is hitting dingers.