PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Critical defensive errors lead to another GUT-WRENCHING Diamondbacks loss in extra innings

Episode Date: April 6, 2024

Tommy Henry deserved better. After he pitched an absolute gem, outdueling Braves ace Spencer Strider, the Diamondbacks committed several defensive mistakes in the 9th inning that lead to a late comeback by Atlanta and a walk-off win in 10 innings. We discuss what went wrong for the Snakes in this one, how bad they’ve been in extra innings over the last 12 months, and more.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/phnxdbacks50Arizona Lottery: Visit http://www.AZAdventure.com for more information on how you can take an adventure with the Arizona Lottery and for a chance to win $1 million in cash and Arizona travel prizes! PrizePicks - Download the PrizePicks app today and use code PHNX for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy!Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Empire: Schedule a free in-home estimate with Empire Today! Receive a $350 OFF discount when you use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details.Gametime: 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. Someburros: 20% off your order of up to $100 when you use code PHNX at checkout for the whole month of March at https://www.someburros.com/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.

Hello and welcome to a terrible, terrible edition of the PHNXTBacks podcast after a miserable loss. Jesse, this is the first time he's hearing the loss music. This is awful, Derek. It doesn't even really sound sad. Like, I kind of like it. It doesn't sound sad. This is us marching to our death off into the sunset, Jesse. But of course.

It's called Day of the Dead, Jesse. Okay. I mean, the title of the song is fitting then. Day of the Dead. Day of the Day of the Day. Yeah, of course. I am your mayor, PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia.

He's your vice mayor, always known as your thunderstick, occasionally known as Jesse Friedman. And this show is brought to you by our friends at Factor Meal Kits. And when we say that, we literally mean both of us are powered by Factor Meal kits regularly these days. Head to factormeals.com slash PHNXDBax50 and use code PHNXDBax 50 to get 50% off. Well, that was an absolutely miserable loss. And the first thing I think seeing the Diamondbacks lose this game, the way they did in the ninth inning, is that Tommy Henry deserved better.

Sure. Tommy Henry deserved better. And this, the errors just were really compounded there late. Unfortunately, I think we saw a few too many Blaze moments there in the ninth inning where Blaze Alexander absolutely made some critical mistakes that cost this team, at least the lead there late in the ninth inning. and then the team loses the game in the 10th. Yeah, so going into the ninth inning, the bottom of the ninth, probably felt pretty good about this, right? Braves did get a run back in the eighth inning.

It was a 5-3 game. You've got Kevin Ginkle on the mound. Kevin Gingle with a two-run lead. I feel pretty good about that situation. The ninth inning starts, and Austin Riley rolls over the top. It's a slow roller toward shortstop. Blaze Alexander had entered the game as a pinch hitter.

and he was not able to make that play. It was a fielding air on Blaze Alexander. But even then, it's a runner at first. This is Kevin Ginkle. You've got a two-run lead. You're still in a pretty decent spot. Then Ginkle misplaces a pitch to Matt Olson, which doesn't usually end well.

Matt Olson hits it into the gap. That runner scores. Now it's a 5-4 game. You've got a runner at second with nobody out, representing, of course, the tying run. And given how good this Braves offense is at that point, the devax were in a very, very difficult spot. And it only got worse, Derek, a couple of batters later,

after a Marcel Ozuna ground out for the first out of the inning, Jared Kalinick hits a lazy pop fly down the left field line, sort of in no man's land, but a ball that absolutely should have been caught by someone. By either guy, to be honest. But again, in that situation, we kind of debated it here in the office a bit. We'd love to hear what you guys think in the chat.

Lordus definitely should have taken control in that situation. I don't know if he just failed to call Blaze off or if he did and Blaze didn't hear him. Obviously, it ended up that at least the two didn't collide, but it looked like they very much impeded each other from making that catch. And it looked like a very catchable ball when it came to Lourdes coming in to catch it. It almost felt like Blaze, who covered a lot of ground trying to make that catch, definitely got in the way of Lourdes, you know, catching it cleanly. Who knows if he would have without Blaze being there?

because we don't live in that reality, in that timeline. We live in this dark timeline where this game happened and it went down the way it did. And I don't like this timeline. Damon hit the nail on the head with this game. If you want to repeat yourself, people producer over there, I proved. All I said was he's the people's producer, by the way. There's a distinction between calling him a people producer and the people's producer. Okay, so go ahead.

All I was saying is that we went into this game expecting, a loss. No one is upset about the loss. Fair. We're upset because of how we lost because we should have won this game based off of how it went. Like it was kind of a scheduled loss with Strider versus Tommy Henry. We knew that going in. But this is just disgusting, man. Like just disgusting. Thunderbolt, great to see you in the chat. We knew we would count on you being here after a loss and being miserable. First game of the season. As always, can you get up to Elise's comment there? Not that one. The other one that she had. She said, Blaze seemed.

to get in Lourdes' way that very much seem to be the case. Yeah, I think it's a, you know, it appeared to be a breakdown in communication. Somehow, I'm sure the stadium was loud. That's the problem. Yeah. When you're the outfielder, you have to communicate or else the infielder

is told to sell out for the ball until he's explicitly told not to. Correct. And you have to make it very, very clear. But you could tell Blaze did not know where that ball was. The way he was looking over this way and that way. He didn't know where it was. And ultimately as people are saying in the chat, he he got in Lordus's way.

I think it's a catch that is probably fairly routine even. I mean, maybe you did have to cover a decent amount of ground, but a play that was not very difficult for Lordus to make if Blaze isn't there. You know, I think Blaze is inexperience probably shows up in some way in that moment. And honestly, based on what we've heard from him,

it's kind of characteristic that he would be like that, right? Like, I mean, I don't really want to say that. No, I'm not saying it was a dumb play. saying that he was attempting to make a spectacular play he was going all out he was putting all of his effort into it it's not to say that if lordis would have called him off he would have still came on

or anything like that i think yeah ultimately came down to miscommunication and and to his credit blaze covering a lot of ground to get over there to also almost make that catch like he it would have been a little obviously much more difficult for him than lordis but i felt like if lordis wasn't there, he might have even had a better chance at it. It felt like both guys got in each other's way. Yeah, Blaze might have been able to make that play on his own. He didn't necessarily take a great route to it, so it's hard for me to say for sure. But at the end of the day, Blaze Alexander is a rookie, right? Blaze Alexander is a rookie. He's only played in a handful of Major League games. And it's just part of being a rookie, right? Like, I think back to Corbyn Carroll last season for as great of a

season as he had. He was the unanimous rookie of the year. You pretty much literally could not have asked for anything more from Corby and his rookie season. And I still remember moments where he forgot how many outs there were, right? Like, I think there was a time when he, he thought he had caught the third out of an inning, but it was actually not the third out. And so a runner was able to tag and score from third easily or something along those lines. We saw multiple rookie mistakes from Corbin Carroll last year. I don't think this necessarily says a ton about Blades as a person, player. It just says to me that Blaze Alexander is a rookie and he's going to, there's going to be some growing pains. There's going to be some, you know, potentially kind of embarrassing moments in

big spots like this. It's just part of the game. And the Diamondbacks missed Heraldo Pardomo today, right? Not having Geraldo Pardomo. If he's in that spot, he has the experience. If he's in that spot, I'll be the one to say it might come away with this. Perdomo doesn't get hurt. We got two more dubs right now. Last two games. I'm just going to come out and say that. He gets a big timely hit like he always does against the Yankees and then we win this one because he's a good defender. Two extra dubs. The line between the Diamondbacks being four and four, which is what they are and being six and two, is very small.

These are two games that you feel like they probably should have had both of them and especially this game. I mean, if neither of those defensive mishaps happen in the ninth inning, the Diamondbacks win this game five to three. Matt Olson is the only guy who actually had a legitimate hit against. Kevin Ginkle in that ninth inning. So this is, in my mind, this loss is even more egregious than the one against the Yankees, despite all of the many mistakes that they made along the way.

There's a few of you in the chat have said essentially that these games, you can't let these games get away from you, especially when they end up proving to be so crucial late in the season, how close the margins are there. And piece of Yoshi, yes, we all slander Jace for him to get a hit and the other shortstop to make a pivotal error. Not me. I wouldn't do something like that. Oh, yeah, like you didn't. I have a tweet that contradicts that, sir. I think really when it comes down to it, we've got to give Tommy Henry his flowers because today he absolutely outduled Spencer Strider.

Yes. Not that that mattered, but that again is why it's kind of compounded here like what Damon was saying. Like Jesse said, this was a game we expected to lose. And Tommy Henry goes out there and shoves against Spencer Strider. And the offense was very effective early against Spencer Strider. The Diamondbacks once again scored those first inning runs, three runs in the first inning. They have 15 so far in eight games, so they've been very good about being able to get those runs early. It's just adding on those late runs that have kind of been a problem for them, right?

But Spencer Strider, four innings, pitch, gave up seven hits, five earn runs, three walks, four strikeouts, 88 pitches. Just Strider's second starts since the beginning of last year in which he had three or more walks with four or fewer strikeouts. the Diamondbacks were patient. It paid off because at one point it felt like he just wasn't pitching in the zone at all and they were taking advantage of it. And meanwhile, Tommy Henry, he walked the tightrope at times, but he was very good for this team and he absolutely gave them a chance to win against a very, very tough Braves offense.

Tommy Henry is the reason that all of you were invested in this game to begin with, right? I mean, the pitching matchup, we talked a lot about it going into this one. Strider against Tommy Henry from just like a depth chart standpoint. You can't really drop a more challenging matchup for the Diamondbacks than that one. But yeah, I mean, credit the offense for doing what they did against Spencer Strider today. It was really impressive. There were multiple hits even in 02 counts. Ketel his home run to lead off the game wasn't an 02 count.

We couldn't even get our watch-along started before. Yeah, we did a watchalong for our diehards, which by the way, become a PHNX diehard, if you haven't already. We did that in the first couple of innings. Yeah, we hadn't even been able to fire it up yet before Catel Marte did what he did. So yeah, the debacks really kept it on Strider. They made him throw a lot of pitches. They got him out after four innings. But as you said, it's not just about, you know, putting some runs on the opposing starting pitcher. It's about continuing to tack on runs after that. And after, you know, Strider went four innings, seven hits five runs, the Braves bullpen in this game went six innings, two hits, no runs, three walks,

four strikeouts. Like that's sort of, it was sort of like flipped, right? Like if I had given you those two lines before and you probably would have figured that Strider was the one who threw the six scoreless innings. And then it was the bullpen that maybe the debacks were able to get to. They really put it on Strider, but once Jesse Chavez came in the game, there were a lot of quicket bats. That trend pretty much continued the whole way.

The debacks didn't really threaten a ton. There, of course, was also an opportunity to win this game in the 10th, right? The Diamondback still had an opportunity. It was just a tie game after those two disasters in the ninth inning. But not only were they unable to score in the top of the tent, they weren't even able to get Jock Peterson over to third base, which is, you know, especially tough. So all the way around, I mean, I think this game is going to stick around in our heads as being one of the worst losses of this season for quite a while.

because it just it hurts so bad it we were so close and really it was you know you you had said it while we were watching the ninth inning you were we were like that should be the ball game when lord when lord is caught that ball you know if you don't have blaze make that mistake lord just catches that ball you know we're we're out of it there is something to be said about the bullpen for this team and honestly that's probably the thing that I'm most worried about right now. The bullpen does not seem effective. Unfortunately, it seems exactly

like the same scenario that we had last season where it feels like no matter who Tori puts in in high leverage situations, even though right now he's mostly relying on Kevin Ginkle and Kevin Ginkle has not really been it for them in that closer role, despite how good he has been for this team in any other role that they've asked of him. But it's not just Ginkle.

You know, obviously Scott McGuff going through it because he is not effective at all when put into these high leverage situations despite the fact that Tori started to lean on him more based on how well he was performing early in the season when he was kind of that middle reliever guy. So the bullpen right now is really exposed. The loss of Seawald is apparent and it has kind of made this a difficult that you would think that everybody just kind of moves forward one spot. Yeah. And they attempted that a little bit. But tonight they had to bring in Ryan Thompson a bit earlier than I'm sure Tori wanted to use, you know, him. I think they probably brought in Thompson there just because he wound up facing the middle of the lineup. So I don't know.

Maybe even if Seawald is healthy, maybe they're like, yeah, we want to use Thompson in the sixth. And then maybe go, you know, go Man to ply in the seventh or whatever. But yeah, to your point, if Paul Seawald is healthy, I don't think Miguel Castro pitches in this game. Right. And Miguel Castro gave up a very pivotal run in the eighth inning. he faced three batters, two of them doubled. Yeah. And that, you know, that set up the diamond backs for what was, what was ultimately, you know,

a really, a really tough loss. So they're feeling the, they're feeling the impact of not having Seawald for sure. They're certainly feeling the impact of not having Herala Pardomo. They did get Randall Grishick back. So they did, uh, they do have one player back from the injured list. We, I imagine we'll see him a good amount this weekend with a couple of lefties coming up for the Braves. But the backs are banged up right now.

and you're definitely seeing that manifest in these games. They're going to have to turn to Ryan Nelson or Tommy Henry or maybe even both of them to be bullpen guys for this team. I mean, that's potentially. That's potentially what needs to happen. I don't know what they're going to do, but they need some bodies down there and they need some guys that Tori can rely on.

The new guys for this team offensively continue to get it done. Gino has been excellent. This is his fifth multi-hit game in its first eight games as a deback, which is second in franchise. history behind Adam Jones who had six multi-hit games. Adam Jones, there you go. I love Adam Jones. He was awesome to be around.

He wasn't very good. That was a little bit past his 8-A when he was playing for the devax. But yes, a very, very cool baseball player in general for sure. Jesse, this man complimented my shirts every single time he saw them. That's right. That's the story I like to tell. That's why we can't get you to stop talking about Adam Jones. That's right.

But remember, the crucial part of that, is that he said it in a way that made me think that he didn't recognize me as the same guy from the day before that he had just told. That's fascinating. Yeah, I, I, like, mustache, beard, it doesn't matter. Apparently, I have a very forgettable face. Don't forget, Cotell Marte introduces himself to me every season. Mucha gusto.

But Jock Peterson, Gino, they've been getting it done. The two guys together, 18 for 44, with a 409 average, seven walks, seven strikeouts. 52 plate appearances, all seven strikeouts belong to Gino Suarez, because Jock Peterson still hasn't struck out. Isn't that something else? It's crazy. Jock Peterson is hitting over 500 right now. It's like 19 plate appearances, I think. Yeah, you don't have to bog it down with details.

It's just amazing. He hasn't struck out yet. Jock Peterson, let me see on this. I want to get an actual 500. The man is hitting 500 with a 1.203 OPS. He is 7 for 14 with 5 walks. And as you said, no strikeouts to start the season. Gino is 11 for 30, I believe.

So pretty impressive stuff. Like I know a lot of people are talking about Corbyn Carroll in the chat, which we should probably get to is another rough game for him. But I don't think the debacks have felt the effects of that as much offensively because Gino Suarez and Jack Peterson have been huge for this team. And obviously those are the two big additions to this lineup that they made over the offseason. They didn't have those guys last year.

And combined they are. are 18 for 44. They are hitting 409 with seven walks and seven strikeouts between them and 52 plate appearances. You really, really can't ask for anything more than that. Do we give someone Kingsnake? Do we just take it from the team?

I feel like we should, I want to give Kingsnake to Tori's jacket, which, by the way, by the way, don't get sassy with me on Twitter, D-Backs admin. But I guess we do have to give it to somebody.

So, Damon, Let's throw it up there. Do we have a, we have a Let's care of King Snake. It's Tommy Henry because he got robbed. This man absolutely got fucking robbed. Five innings pitch, two earn runs, two walks, 5K. When you say what could, what could we possibly get out of Tommy Henry tonight against this Braves lineup?

That's it. That is it. That is like best case scenario. Like if I told you that, Jesse would probably say, eh, I don't think so. Like that's asking a lot. I would have done it in that again. exact tone of voice too. That was a great impression. Derek and I actually have noticed both have really good Jesse impressions. Well, it's because it's not like we're not allowed around him a lot or

anything like that. You know, God forbid, we have to listen to this man constantly question us. I'm going to put some money in the swear jar just for that swear and for more swears. But go ahead. Talk about Tommy Henry some more. Tommy Henry was, he was good. He was good in this game. He had 14 whiffs, which is more than more than Spencer Strider. I think if you had just told me that Tommy Henry was going to have more whiffs than he was going to outwif Spencer Strider in this game. I probably would have been pretty impressed by that. He gave the Diamondbacks a chance to win. And every time that Henry's spot or Nelson's spot come up over these next few weeks while

these guys are in the rotation, that's what you're hoping for. You're just hoping to have a chance to win the baseball game. And especially against this Braves lineup, which I think is maybe the best lineup in baseball. I mean, we can have the Dodgers versus Braves conversation, I guess. They're both extremely, extremely good. But yeah, going out there, five innings, two runs, it wasn't always pretty. I think both of us as we were watching this game, we agreed that Tommy Henry maybe should have been removed from this game earlier than he was in our minds. It seemed like things were kind of slipping a little bit as he got through the third time.

Braves hitters came up for the third time. That can be a bit of a shaky time. But yeah, he hung in there. He was able to make some big pitches at the end and get through five innings and set up the Diamondbacks for success. A lot of talk, a lot of concern about Christian Walker in the chat, or if that's what you want to call it,

a lot of concern about Corby and Carroll. Understandably so, Carol had some better at-bats tonight, even though there wasn't the success behind them. You found them to be encouraging. at least steps in the right direction versus his negative 7% launch angle and thing like that. Right, right. Seven degree. Sorry, not percent.

He's going to yell at me later for that. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I would say the quality of Corbyn's and bats were spectacular necessarily, but I think the contact that he made was more compelling. We saw him hit a ground ball that had a positive launch angle that was almost 110 miles an hour off the bat. I think it was the longest hit ball of this game, at least for most of it. And we did see, we saw some contact that looked more Corbyn Carroll-esque. We saw him go the other way with a fly ball. He didn't quite get enough of it.

But something that at least when I saw it, it was like, oh, yeah, that like that's what Corbyn Carroll does. It didn't land for a hit, but that looked like something he would do. But then in his last about of the game, it was another pitch up in the zone that he swung at, first pitch of the at bat, and it was a lazy pop-up again. which of course has been a trend for him. So is Corbyn Carroll right currently? No, he clearly is struggling.

He's trying to find his swing here early in the season. He has not been able to barrel up the baseball as we're used to seeing. But it's eight games. And I feel like that's all I have to say. It's eight games. I would not be worried about Corbyn Carroll too much at this point. Players as talented as Corbyn Carroll are tend to figure things out. I agree.

I agree. I'm not worried. I'm just more frustrated. And I will take it back to what Damon said earlier. It's the fact that this game on paper, I wouldn't have really given them a chance. I don't think we did when we were previewing this series. However, they did make it through eight innings with a lead.

They had it. And they had it. Tommy Henry delivered, the offense delivered. They gave them everything they needed. The defense late just blew it. And I mean, honestly, you could blame a lot of it on Blazell's out. Alexander. He's a new kid. They're going to make mistakes and they're going to get better at

baseball just like Corbyn Carroll, just like some of the other concerns we have. It's understandable, though, to be upset, especially considering that like Yoshi said earlier, right, we all clamored for Blaze Alexander to be in the starting lineup today. And it turns out that Jace might have been the guy that we should have left him in, you know, in the game. Honestly, if Jace does make the same mistake, people are screaming for Tories. Oh, if Jason made that mistake, man. It'd be a dark day on Diamondbacks Street. It really would be.

One thing that does stand out to me is that I think as a fan of a baseball team, something that people often miss is just the rookie factor of calling someone up from the minors. And you see big flashy numbers in Reno. You see big flashy numbers in spring training. You expect big things. and you, I think at times can discount the importance, or I guess the value of players who have been there and done that for a long time, right?

And we saw this last year, I think, when the Diamondbacks made a pretty aggressive decision to move on from Nick Ahmed and bring in Jordan Lawler, within a few weeks, it was like, oh, man, like Jordan Lawler just made a rookie mistake. Like, Nick Ahmed probably doesn't make that mistake, right? And I think we understand the reasons why the Diamondbacks made that move, certainly. And we understand why the Diamondbacks made that move, certainly.

And we understand why the Diamondbacks. DeBacks, you know, are certainly willing to use Blaze Alexander even in big moments. But I think oftentimes people forget, like, oh, Jace Peterson, maybe he's really struggling at the plate. But like, he's been around for a long time. He knows how to handle big crowds, big moments. He's been there and done that before. He's not going to be as prone to these kind of mistakes as, you know, a guy like Blaze

Alexander would be. And that's not to say the debacks shouldn't give Blaze opportunities whatsoever. It's just a difference that I think a lot of people are not always always. aware of. One thing I will say is that they have seemed very complacent due to the fact that they've been able to generate those runs in games so early. They've typically had a lead in almost every single game that they've played, right? They've been up early in every game. They've been able to generate that offense early. It really does feel at times like they let their foot off the gas a bit and they're not still trying to create those runs, create those situations where they're putting

runners in scoring position and trying to convert those. You know, so it, they're, There's definitely a lot of questioning right now of the management of this team. And I think Tori has made some errors already as a manager. And that's for those of you that want to criticize, you know, and get crazy with it after these games. It's understandable. Like, it's been some crushing losses, especially these two in a row. It's very, very, very, very bad, you know. But it's mostly compounded by the fact that they were in it.

Right. When they're in it, it's a lot different than, you know, like that first game against the Yankees, right? Where they really didn't get a chance to really feel like they were ever in that game. But at what point do we talk about our late inning struggles? Like Jesse, we were talking about it a little bit during the game. They stink. They stink with the ghost runner. Awful. Oh, yeah.

Like, I've never seen anything like over the last 12 months, they have been atrocious. They lose every time. Yeah. They can't get a guy from second in with zero outs. It's shocking for such a good team. I guess the counter example, of course, would be that yesterday they managed to score, or not yesterday. A couple of days ago in that finale against the Yankees, they managed to score three runs. In the 10th and the 11th together, they had two in the 10th.

They had one more in the 11th, but they were very much helped by the Yankees defense. Anthony Volpe made a really big throwing air in that 10th inning. And then in the 11th they were able to get one, which, I guess was legitimate, Jorge Barrosa, who is now back in Reno. But he came through with a big hit that did give the Diamondbacks a run. But yes, on the whole, the Diamondbacks in extra innings over the last, going back to the beginning of last season, it's been pretty rough. Smokey Bear, absolutely correct there when he said we're definitely going to be in the market

for bullpen help in July. I feel like I could have said that before this season started. The diamond backs were probably I mean most contenders in general are looking for bullpen help at the trade deadline but the diamond backs after not adding anything at all in that regard over the off season it seemed pretty inevitable to me

Tony says chug that beer Derek maybe that'll help wash this loss out of our system I don't I don't hate that idea at all he also said should have kept the discord session going LOL yeah maybe it is all maybe that's maybe that's what it is Derek maybe maybe it's on us. We should maybe take the L on this one. Well, I appreciate you. Thank you so much. And in fact, the diamondbacks weren't as bad as we thought, by the way, in 2023. They were

five and four in extra innings games last year, believe it or not. I think they went on a surge late in the year because I remember a time like maybe halfway through the season, a good way through the season where they had almost never even gotten a man from second to third base. I think I remember having that conversation. But the Diamondbacks played so well down the stretch as the playoffs were nearing that I do think they kind of turned things around and started coming through a bit more in extra innings then. Oh, well.

Oh, well, this is all I can say. But I will say. They're not two and six. I mean, they're four and four, right? Yeah. They're playing the Rockies after this series. So whatever bad happens in Atlanta, Derek, they can reverse all of it in Colorado immediately. Jesse, thank you. Also, it is good for them to make these mistakes and to get mad about this kind of stuff early on. Hopefully it's better than, you know, making, like, as crazy as this is to say, I would rather it happen kind of now than the July that they had. So let's, if we could keep a July from happening and just kind of make some of these mistakes and hopefully pivot and make some changes early on, we can avoid that bad of a month at any point. But I will say that right now I am properly.

fed. And luckily that is due to factor meal kits. So thanks again to factor meal kits for filling one in the office. The office fridge right now. He does. Our office fridge tends to look like some sort of factory advertisement when you open it up. There's a lot of us eating factor. And that's because they're ready to eat meals are delicious. They're fresh. They're never frozen. They're ready in two minutes. And honestly, they just have some incredible combinations. I've talked a lot about the sauce. Sauce is really what makes it. I don't care what. the sauce is. I don't care what the flavor it is. It's on point every single time. So, of course, there's no prep. There's no mess. Factor meals are ready to eat and heat. So there's no

prepping, cooking or cleaning up needed. If you make it too complicated for either one of us, we're out, you know, especially with all the food that we can eat around here. But food around here can be expensive, especially food in the ballpark, as many of you know. So we have to do our best to not do that. And they've done the math for us. Factor is less expensive than takeout. and every meal is dietitian approved to be nutritious and delicious. Plus, you can take it on the go. Head to factormeals.com slash PHNXDBax 50 and use code PHNXDBax 50 to get 50% off. That's code PHNXDBX50 at FactorMeals.com slash PHNXDBX50 to get 50% off.

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You heard earlier, I don't know. Did you tell them about your parley? I did. I think you did, right? Yeah. I didn't say anything. Yeah, okay. Well, this is parley money.

I need the Braves to win by three. Everything else in my parley hit. And I was happy with a Diamondbacks win to make my parlay lose. But when the Braves win in that fashion and I didn't win $100, I like am sick to my stomach. Right. Go to prizepicks.com slash PHNX and use code PHNX for a first deposit match up to $100. That's PRISPX.com slash PHNX and use code PHNX. Pick more, pick less.

It's that easy. Yeah, you guys. Oh, there's people. calling for Corbyn to be sent to Reno and it's Thunderbolt. There's a couple people that are coming after Corbyn. It is absolutely insane. I, like, you guys obviously

want everything to be perfect all the time with baseball. And unfortunately, that's not why. That's not how baseball works. It's kind of like Lordus Guerriel being the National League player of the year and then going 0 for 13. National League player of the week. Flash. Oh, yeah, not that year.

That's definitely crazy. But National League player of the week and then going 0 for 13 in his next 13 at bats. It's good again today. He was good again today. But let's take a look at the count with the rest of the numbers from today's game. Okay, he'll have in a second. Because, of course, we have ourselves, again, another close game. This time, at least a lot of the things that we have here on today's breakdown make a little bit more sense as to why Atlanta won.

But still, I mean, again, the Diamondbacks had their opportunities with runners in scoring position. They did convert those going two for eight with runners in scoring position. Braves four for 16. So obviously Braves had themselves more runners. A lot of that was actually, I mean, Tommy Henry did allow some base runners, but he absolutely did a good job of keeping a lot of those from scoring. Braves had 12 hits to the Diamondbacks 9, three walks to the Diamondback 6. And then I think, yeah, both teams had one home run each.

So again, very close battle. Numbers show that. But the Diamondbacks just just blew it there in the ninth. The Braves had had way more opportunities with runners in scoring position, right? Four for 16 versus two for eight for the debacks. So, yeah, this wasn't a game. Like if the Diamondbacks had gotten out of there and won five to three or five to four in that ninth inning, it wouldn't have been a particularly dominant win.

right like there were some balls that kind of bounced their way i think uh the braves expected batting average when tommy henry exited the game i think was was over 300 they had some they made some hard contact against him and they kind of continued to make pretty hard contact throughout this game so the braves are the braves man i mean they're just a really really good baseball team and again this is a game that going in you didn't expect the diamond backs to win but they should have they should have won this game Based on how well Tommy Henry pitched and the way that they were set up even, you know, in that ninth inning, even after the air that opened that inning, they still should have been able to get out of that if, you know, the second defensive mishap doesn't happen as well. So we do have, we do have some words from Tori Lavello on this incident, which I think is interesting. Tori Lavello, I guess, is just from the broadcast audio that you might have caught on the post game show.

speaking about that Gurriel Alexander situation, the Jared Kellenick fly ball, Lavello said it was in the air a long time. Blaze was charging after it. Gurriel might have seen how aggressive Blaze was coming to that ball. The last thing I looked at was Blaze redirecting, trying to get in line with the ball, and might have run past it.

I'm not sure. So the key line there, I guess, is that Gurriel might have seen how aggressive Blaze was coming after that ball. And that's why he kind of peeled off and wound up not making the ball. That's horrible, though. That's, that's, Lordus needs to be a veteran in that situation. Yep.

Get out of my way. Yeah. That's how baseball works. Ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, ball. As loud as you can until he runs out of the way. Yeah. I mean, I guess the idea is, I don't know, Lordus's side of this story, but maybe Lordis was saying ball, ball, ball, ball.

And Blaze couldn't hear him because of how loud it was. And, and Lordeus didn't want to just run into Blaze. I mean, it would have been a pretty ugly collision. That might be loud enough. but that comment makes it sound more like Lordus just passively let off so that Blaze could go after it based on Blazes, you know, how, you know,

how he was getting after it, right? I think, I think the critical thing here is, is even if Blaze makes a circus catch and does a great job of grabbing it, he's not going to be in a position to throw out the runner. And that run could still score if he has to like tumble on the ground in order to catch that or do something.

Whereas Lordis absolutely has the ability to have a line. on throwing it in and he's going to keep that runner there like this was it was it was a terrible play all the way around lordis probably would have thrown the ball like into the stands or something i mean his inaccurate oh let's calm down all right there we got we're just would have he would have been close uh to home played at that point i don't i don't think anyone's trying to score from third base at that point so yeah i don't i don't think that the responsibility is fully on lortis or fully on blaze it's on both of them it It is on both of them.

Both screwed up. But yes, Lourdes should be the one making that play at the end. It's an easier play for an outfielder to come in there than a shortstop playing in to go out and, you know, try to make an over-the-shoulder kind of catch. There was some sort of a miscommunication and, you know, hopefully we'll get more information on exactly how that went down. We do need to talk about the bullpen, though, some more, I think, because again, the bullpen, you know, you can't. expect pitchers to go out there and and completely hold this braves lineup scoreless but it really did feel like you know that Miguel Castro was ineffective and then you also have you know ginkle who wasn't great but still like a lot of that wasn't on ginkle I don't feel like

no I mean he was asked to get four outs too on top of that yeah in the box score ginkle pitched inning in a third he really had to get six outs because there was there was an air made well And then there was also that play that wasn't called an air. It was called Kellynick's pop-up was called a double. He had to get, he got six outs. I mean, that's really what Kevin Ginkle did. So I don't think Ginkle was at his best today necessarily. When he first came in the game, he left a couple of sliders right in the middle of the

zone to Ozzy Alviz. And all of us watching were like, oh, this is not going to be a good ginkl out if he keeps throwing it there. But he didn't. He settled down and by and large pitch pretty well. did make the mistake to Matt Olson, but he should have converted this save. This blown save is really not on him at all. Thank you to AZ Sports Girl 224 with the just handsome as hell profile picture there.

Thank you for your super chat. That's a hot picture. She says, as someone who played softball in middle school, that error by Blaze gave me flashbacks. Yeah, that's it. That was probably really weird for the audio listeners to hear, by the way. me just talking about how hot someone's profile picture is and not realizing that it's me. Yeah. A sleep.

That's a good point. I'm glad you. I just wanted to make sure I could provide that for the audio. Good job, Derek. Good job. Thank you. Now we have Jesse's, of course, numbers that don't lie. Here are numbers that don't lie.

What do you got? The numbers never lie, Derek. Today's number is 76, which is the percentage, 76%. This is Tommy Henry. first pitch strike percentage. If you watch the entirety of Tommy Henry's outing today, you might have noticed he was up 0 and 1 on the vast majority of the hitters he faced. 76% is very, very good.

I looked up Tommy Henry's, his numbers over the course of his career. He had never had a first pitch strike percentage this high in a major league start. So that was a big part of how Tommy Henry was affected today. He was locating really well today. He really was. Yeah, I mean, there were still misses here and there. sure sure but just getting ahead oh and one is really important and yeah that was a big part of why Tommy Henry outpitched Spencer strider when all was when all was said and done um all right

well oh people are accusing me of having Stan accounts um maybe that might be a thing I don't know what to tell you um people people find me to be adorable but uh that's only the OGs talking and of course uh OGs is a great way to get over a loss like this this one's Definitely a performance to forget. And a great way to forget a performance like this is with OG's brands. It's gummy madness season, Jesse. We had an elimination tournament take place. We had different gummies seated and facing off against each other in this March madness bracketed tournament.

And your 2024 gummy madness champion, sleep edition gummies. Oh, there we go. That is right, the sleep edition gummies. And everybody knows that. You know why? Because the sleep edition, like everything else is cool. It's cool to have a happy balance. It's cool to have a microdose.

And it's very cool to try out an indica and then go watch the Transformers movie from 1985. It's incredible, actually. But I'll tell you, the sleep edition got me. He's helped you get a good night's sleep. And for me, not only did they help me get a good night's sleep, but they got me back on track as far as my sleep schedule goes. I can get a great night's sleep now and not just sleep four and a half hours like I used

to at one point. This guy knows what I'm talking about over here, not because. because he uses the sleep edition gummies, but because he only sleeps four and a half hours every single night. This is true. We need to get him on a sleep edition, sleep something, sleep schedule. Did you know it's flavoring Friday? Oh, it is flavoring Friday as well, but of course, you know, go out there and get this.

What we got for you is your gummy madness, bogo deals. And all week long until April 8th, you can get buy one. Get one free on OG's brand. So make sure to check them out wherever you get your wonderful. goods, I'll just call them goods at, to learn more about OG's Gummies where you can find them, head on over to OGsbrands.com. Also, if you want to check out baseball, especially when this team comes back here to Phoenix, a great way to do so is with GameTime. And right now, if you're watching baseball, no matter where you're watching it at, you can get an extra special deal with the code first pitch. Now, Jesse, Game Time is the first place I go when I want to go to a baseball game and I'm not in the city.

And of course, whenever I travel, I immediately try to figure out when is the next baseball game and can I go watch it while I'm here. I should be in Philadelphia right now for WrestleMania. Yeah, but you wouldn't have gotten to see this lovely baseball game. See, that's what pisses me off more is that I did. I stayed here to watch this fucking dog shit game. I put a couple of dollars in there. It's fine. It's been cleared.

But of course, it would have been a lot better to see these games in person. I don't, maybe it would be worse. I don't know. But of course, when I travel, I definitely use GameTime to get those tickets for all of those away games. And you can also get them. You can get last minute ticket deals on all sorts of stuff, not just sporting events, but on concerts, movies or not movie, sporting events, theater events, comedy shows, which I love going to. Game Time is the place for last minute tickets. You can save up to 60% off by buying your tickets through them.

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Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. Can I talk about something that's happening in the chat right now? Sure. Conversation that's happening in the chat. People are talking about Ryan Thompson and how it was a little weird that he came in in the sixth inning. I actually really liked that decision. if you put Bryce Jarvis in in the sixth instead, he gets Arcia and Darno to start,

which is a pretty good one too. Sure. But then you've got Acuna after that, and Bryce Jarvis would have to face Acuna no matter what, right? Because of the three batter minimum. So the Diamondbacks, if he had only come in to face three batters, I think it would have been weird, but he not only got Arcia and Darno,

he struck out Ronald Acuna. He also faced Ozzy Albies, and then he faced Austin Riley to start the next inning as well. So he went from the number eight. hitter all the way through the number three hitters. So he really did face like the top of the of the Braves order. He just didn't that those guys just weren't up immediately when he when he came out. If Bryce Jarvis comes in that spot and he gives up a base hit to Darno, then you've got one on one out with a Cooney at the plate and Bryce Jarvis and then the big boppers of the Braves coming up after that.

I just think it would be a, you know, a more difficult spot. I agree. I agree. And they are in a difficult spot right now and we don't know how long the Geraldo Perdomo injury is going to persist for but we didn't get some encouraging news today. Actually, we got both. We got encouraging news first from Nick Picoro and then he followed that up quickly with a reply that changed things quite a bit. Yeah, yeah, that that did happen today. Piccora originally tweeted that Perdomo was doing some drills on the field. He wasn't in the lineup, of course, but he'd been doing some drills out at Truis Park in front of some of the Diamondbacks medical personnel, Pecorro said that he seemed to be moving well. And then when they did the pregame interview with Tori Lavello, Tori revealed that

Pardomo might have looked okay, but he did not feel okay, and that he would likely get an MRI on his knee tomorrow. So we sort of expect that to be the next step. Of course, getting imaging doesn't necessarily mean that anything is seriously wrong, but it is not a step in the right direction necessarily either. Are you okay? Damon's depressed. I'm not okay after these last two games. Like I'm so,

I'm so angry. Doubled over in his chair holding his stomach right now, and I was concerned about him. Are you all right? Yeah, well, you got JJ over there. Things don't get better for this team. I mean, they get a little better because we got Brandon fought on the mound tomorrow. but let's take a look at the probabilities for the rest of the series

because it's still difficult. The Braves really send up some of their best here in this series against the Diamondbacks. And right, we still got quite a ways to go. I mean, honestly, today wasn't on Tommy Henry. It really wasn't. So as far as that goes, hopefully we can get similar performances from both Brandon Fought and Ryan Nelson,

fought less concerned about tomorrow going against Max Fried and is 40.50 ERA. I mean, we have to win tomorrow. I feel like we do, right? You can't lose to a guy with an ERA. This is the earliest must-win game in the history of regular season baseball. I was going to say, let's chill. It's the earliest must-win game ever.

We talked on the watch-along with the die-hards about what you'd be satisfied with in this series. And Derek, you basically said, if they get one out of these three games, you don't necessarily feel great about it. But that's sort of like a neutral outcome. Like I don't think that would really be bad. If you go in against arguably the best team in all of baseball with your number three through five starters against their number one through three starters and you lose two out of three in that series, that's honestly fine.

And we also talked about how they faced the Rockies at Cores for three games after that, got an opportunity to get some positive momentum going immediately after this series. So yeah, I mean, if you're the debaugs, you'd like to get. You like to get one of the next two, right? I mean, of course, you'd like to get both of these. But if they can just find a way to win one of these next two games, you leave Atlanta and you feel okay about yourself. Well, today was a weird day around the National League West anyway.

We had the Cubs pull off a fairly unlikely win against the Dodgers. So that helps us out. But then Jesse had to be Captain Naysayer over here. It'd be like, eh, does it? And then say, like, we know the Dodgers are going to dodge, but we know the Cubs are going to be a potential opponent for the Diamondbacks when it comes, you know, like to one of those wild card spots. I'm just saying like toward the end of last season, D-BACs fans didn't give a crap what the Dodgers did, right? If the Cubs and the Dodgers were playing in September last year, D-Bax fans wanted the Dodgers to destroy the Cubs, right?

Because the Cubs were a team in direct competition with the D-Backs. The Dodgers were so far ahead that it didn't really matter. And I'm not necessarily saying that that's going to be the case this year. But I think that's the most likely outcome if we're being realistic. Like you don't want, if you're the debacks, you don't want the other wild card teams doing well. The Cubs figure to be one of those teams. Granted, yeah, it's probably a little early to be having like postseason picture conversations at this point. So I digress.

Thunderbolt's losing his mind. He says with all these injuries, do we talk about the strength and conditioning issues? No, this is baseball. Thunderball. Is this your first year watching this? I think the biggest thing that we heard during spring training, the biggest concern from every single guy was health. Yeah. You'd be like, how'd you do today?

I'm just glad I stayed healthy. Like, it was wild, but you just hear this over and over and over again. And it's because with this, you know, with that stretch, with the way that they go out there and they work out every single day, it's hard, right? You ever work out? How like, are you sore that day? No, you're sore the next day. And guess what? You're probably even more sore two days later.

Well, that's when they're still out there running around and doing PFPs and working out in the workout room. Like these guys, it's rigorous once they start their spring training schedule and they start doing all of this stuff. I don't think it's an issue, like a bigger issue with the Diamondbacks. It's the reason why they added as much depth as they did and still didn't feel like they added enough depth. And honestly, like Jordan Montgomery being added at the last minute might end up being the, key thing that gets this team, you know, to the postseason this year based on what we've seen already. Not sure how great it would have been to go throughout the entire 2024 season with, you know, and either of these guys in the starting rotation right now. And we might still need them

in the starting rotation, you know, everybody might not continue to stay healthy. Almost, I think it is almost for sure that the Diamondbacks will still need at least one of Ryan Nelson or Tommy Henry the rest of the way. I mean, you know, we talk about how you're going to need like 7, 8, 9 starting pitchers to get through a season. It's not as if, like, if you have a couple guys who get hurt early, I guess Erod's really the only one who's hurt. Jordan Montgomery is just kind of ramping up.

But yeah, even after those guys come back, the odds of the Dback's front five starters staying healthy the entire rest of the season is not very high. Well, of course, we will be back again. Not tomorrow. This is Friday. Well, we will. In audio only format, we will be back tomorrow. That's right.

And we have a lot to discuss, including the Dodgers absolutely hosing a fan that Codgio Hautey's first home run ball as a Dodger. And a former Major League baseball player erecting a baseball field in his backyard here on some sort of island with no HOA and no laws. So make sure to check out that audio podcast tomorrow for sure. Also check out AZ. lottery. The AZ lottery is all about sending you on an adventure this time of year. It's a beautiful time of the year to go on an adventure. And you can actually win big with their new AZ adventure promotion. Arizona Adventure lottery tickets do feature three iconic landscapes. That's one way you can win. You can also enter tickets online for a chance to win more money, win $1 million in cash

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the ninth inning and they wound up winning 10 to seven so it was almost another day at course field it was almost an all city sweep but of course the white socks i think blew it i believe the white socks blew it. So, you know, they're... We blew it. We go, yeah. I mean, what are you talking about? Yeah, that's fair.

The Diamondbacks also didn't hold up there in this market. We very much blew it. I mean, what are the odds, though? What are the odds that the White Sox and Rockies win on the same day? Like that, like, there's only like six or seven of those out of a full 162 game season, right? I mean, you better hope the D-Backs and Cubs and Phillies come to play those. To be honest, now that you're not. You said that, Jesse.

I kind of want to do a White Sox Rockies Parlay and just put $5 on it like every single day. See whenever it happens. And then see if it comes back profitable or not because they're going to be plus money every game. Every single time it's got to be. Yeah, for sure. Oh, well, all right. Well, we will be back, like I said, with that audio podcast tomorrow. And then we'll be back on Monday with another 1 p.m. show.

Make sure to join us for that. Make sure to get us your mailbag Monday questions. We will be sure to answer them. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. This maniac next to me is at Jesse N. Friedman. Our show is at PHNX underscore D-BACS. Drop a like before you go.

Make sure you subscribe. Go over to the audio side. Subscribe over there. Drop a like to make Gabby better. Drop a like. Yeah, let's get Gabby back over a 200 batting average. If you want Corby and Gabby Moreno to get out of the early season slums, it starts with a thumbs up on this YouTube video.

That's the rules, Derek. That's the rules. Of course, I left out the people's producer, Damon. He's a Damon dog. That's a DAWG. I don't know if we feel like barking tonight. I'm always willing. I'm always willing to bark.

Whether I'm willing to bark for Damon tends to kind of depends on the day. I'll be honest, guys. I'm one of the day. It's the effort that he puts his end to his performances. He always gives a good effort. It's just sometimes, you know, we know that he can do better. Yeah. Is that fair?

All I was going to say is, if anything, like my guy is the reason that we're losing these games because he's not available. I've been pounding the table. Jerry P. Jerry P. If he's available, we're winning these ball games. So I feel like I deserve every I deserve all the plotts.

We are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Our show again is at PH&X underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at pH andX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys so much for your time tonight. We appreciate you stopping by. And of course,

We'll see you again next week. In the meantime, stay classy and remember kids. Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you don't experience a blaze moment in the ninth inning.