PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs cannot overcome a mediocre day from Merrill, lose second series of the year to the Marlins

Episode Date: May 11, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks have seen enough of the Miami Marlins. Despite outhitting the Marlins in the series, the D-backs lose two out of three for the second time this season to Miami. We take a look at where things went wrong and the necessity to bounce back during a month filled with weaker opposition on the schedule. 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 in. Long time, No, C. Your friendly P.MX. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This guy's your vice mayor. It's Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman. And we are both fairly miserable after this particular loss. Your shoes are like playing mind games with me, right?

got a lot of color going on. We're seeing the bottoms of the shoes and somehow that's still extraordinarily colorful. They're just white on top, but then they're colorful underneath, which, I mean, there's always a nice little colorful surprise when it comes to me, right? The bottom of this hat is actually pink. That's not my hair reflecting off of it, believe it or not. And I went Apo Taco, for those of you that weren't in our watch along with the hair

to see if I could get a little bit more Lourdes-type volume or length or craziness there. I don't know if it's working out, but whatever I need to do. trying to help the Arizona Diamondbacks overcome a tough series loss to the Miami Marlins. Another series loss, their second series loss of the year. And luckily, they don't get to see the Marlins anymore for the rest of the season now, but they don't really get any kind of revenge or redemption against this team. They lose, what, four out of six total? Four out of six total.

Not great. And I believe the two games, the Diamondbacks did win against the Marlins this season. We're both with Zach Gallon on the mound. And the D-backs went 0 and 4. in the games that Zach Gallen did not pitch in. So, yeah, a rough series overall. It just felt like the debacks offense was never really able to get into a groove. They had a decent game on Monday with 13 hits.

The five runs scored there. They kind of started slow in that game. We're able to figure some things out later. But the debacks were not good at all today or in this series with runners in scoring position. We'll talk about that more later. And Meryl Kelly in this game, Derek, was just not. He wasn't terrible. He gave you six innings.

There were some good moments. His velocity was actually up across the board. It looked early that his stuff was pretty good. But give some credit to these Marlins hitters. They put some really good at bats against Merrill Kelly. And, you know, they were able to score four runs off of him. And then, you know, Andrew Chafin and Miguel Castro giving up the go-ahead run in the ninth inning. The debacks weren't able to respond.

And you've got a tough one-run loss here to the Marlins. The Diamondback seemed a bit listless on offense. I think the score feels like this game was closer than it felt watching it. It was a tie game like for most of it, basically. I mean, it was scoreless up until that was the fourth inning, right? And then. And Merrill gives up the three run home run. He gives up total four earn runs, four hits, six innings pitched.

He walked one with six strikeouts. The answer backs, answer back. They did what they do. Immediately in the fourth inning, in the fourth inning, Marlon scored three, D-back scored four to get back on top. Merrill gives up one more run in the fifth. Like you said, at least he's able to go six, which is, was important. And honestly, those those are in runs. It was one home run that he gave up after walking, you know, one batter and just kind of being erratic all of a sudden there in that fourth inning. Like Merrill just kind of got, uh, just kind of out of sync and he

couldn't really get the ball in the strike zone. It resulted in those three runs being given up. But I mean, it still feels like Merrill is able to give up something like that and lock it back in and continue at least being able to keep the team in the game, not give up more runs, which is something we can't say out of Brandon fought in game two of this series. It didn't feel like fought could go through a rough patch and then lock it down. It really felt like he was going to kind of continue to bleed runners or bleed runs there and just let the deficit kind of grow. But, man, this Marlins team really has the Arizona Diamondbacks number. it seems like. Yeah,

yeah, Jazz Chisholm doesn't have Zach Gallin's number. He does not. That's well established at this point. Or does the Marlins, do the Marlins have Zach Galins? No,

but yeah, other than that, the Marlins are just, you know, he's got some pesky hitters here who had some success. And the Marlins bullpen today, my gosh,

they did not get a good start whatsoever from Edward Cabrera. He went three and two thirds innings, gave up four runs. They pulled him pretty early in this game. And then they, They go to the bullpen and you get, you know, over five innings of work. You get 10 strikeouts.

I think they gave up three hits. Right. No runs. Just an extraordinary performance from the Marlins bullpen. And you were here for the watchalong. I mentioned this crazy stat with the Marlins bullpen where they are, they rank in the bottom half of the league in bullpen ERA. Their bullpen has not been good in that sense.

But they entered today somehow first in the league in win probability added from their bullpen, which basically just means that in those big. situations when it really matters, their bullpen has been basically the best in baseball. And you saw that today in a very tight game, the Marlins bullpen was able to hold the debacks at those four runs. And eventually they were able to get the fifth run they needed to win this one late. How good are the Marlins in close games? They are very good.

They are undefeated, in fact, in one run games. They are currently 12 and 0 in one run games, which is fairly impressive for a team that has struggled at times. And I mean, that's where a lot of their way. wins have come in those close games. But, uh, I mean, this is a team that I think before this series was dead last in major league baseball and run production. Yeah, I mean, the Marlins are 12 and 0 in run games and they're seven and 19 in games that are not decided by one run. So I don't know, I don't know what's going on. There's the key. Don't be don't get no one run game.

Apparently. That's what the Arizona is. Don't play the Marlins close. I guess is, I guess is the takeaway. Uh, yeah, the Marlins are minus 54 this year. And we talked about it coming into the series. They have allowed way more runs than they have scored. And yet they're sitting here with a 500 record because they're winning. They're winning these really close games. And I think according to, you know, you can take a team's run differential and you can convert it to like their projected record.

That number for the Marlins or that record for the Marlins is 13 and 25. That's their projected record based on how many runs they've scored and how many runs they've allowed. But in fact, Eric, they are not 13 and 25. They are 19 and 19 and right in the thick of, you know, still very much in the early going here, but right in the thick of, you know, the playoff mix in the National League. So give them credit, I guess, for, you know, being good when it counts. I still sort of have my doubts about the Marlins being sustainably good in the long term

because this roster just doesn't look that good to me. But the debacks have had some problems. And they are now two and four against the Marlins this season. They struck out 15 times today against the Marlins, which, I mean, at the very least, they were trying to put together some longer at bats than we've seen out of them. But we still saw like Corbin Carroll pop up a few times, I believe, on some, you know, like first pitch, first pitch strikes and things like that. Corby and Carroll also tried to get the offense going with a bunt play where he tried to bunt and make it to first base. It wasn't exactly a sack button. It felt like Corbyn was going all out, and he was called out for leaving the base path, which, why?

I would like to imagine personally, Derek, a world in which the base path's rule didn't exist. So you could you imagine how electric that would be? You could go on full on tag, basically, right? Yeah, yeah, basically. You have a first baseman who has the ball in his head, and you just have a runner who's giving him the shimmy and the shake trying to get around him. You can go left and go right. Corby and Carroll could run into the outfield if you wanted to and then like make his way, like circle back and run towards first base. I think it would be good fun.

I think maybe the maybe the Savannah bananas should get on this. I'm not sure if they've explored this rule change at all. We've been trying to add some rules. A couple of other rules we tried to add during our watch along was if Corby and Carol were to say hit a ball that was an inside the park home run. But it got so lost and buggled around that he was somehow able to make it all away. around and back to home that he could then turn around on home base, thus scoring a run, and also get another single by still continuing to run around the diamond to first base. Well, why not just let him get a single if he scores and then makes it back to first?

Why does he have to... That's what I mean. That's what I mean. Okay, so all the way around. Then he just keeps going. And now, however, wherever you can keep going. I may, maybe you score multiple runs if they're really just having a problem with it out there. You know what I mean?

I'm bit. Even with Corby and Carroll's speed, I'm not so sure about. and inside the park home run plus an extra base. You know what? Exactly. It's not going to happen often, but it could happen. Let's leave it out there as a rule. Also, from the broadcast the other day on MLB network,

they suggested letting mascots be essentially a 10th member of the roster in the stands. So if a roster were to catch a fly foul ball in the stands, it would count as an out. That would be incredible. We did see Baxter make a very acrobatic attempt at a ball. That was the play that that called for it, for sure. That was the play in question. I don't hate it. Yeah, see, these are things.

Some mascots are a little bit more fit in athletic than others, though, you know? Shots fired. Like, I'm not sure the Philly Fanatic is going to go, is going to go out there and, you know, like make some leaping grab in the stands or something. You can't even defend yourself, let alone catch a fly ball. Yeah. Are the, is there any rules preventing people in the stands from, like, assaulting the mascots as they're trying to go. about this. A fan just spearsed back to

trying to catch a ball. That wouldn't be one way to get fans involved. Like fans are not allowed to make the place directly, but they are allowed to try to prevent the mascots from making those plays. Jesse's asking for those fan conduct conduct cards to be added to all the seats in the first 10 rows

just like we saw in the NBA game. We didn't get to see the home run snake either, so that's another gigantic miss here. We've only seen it slither its way out to the dug out once when Evan Lenguery hit the home run last night. But we still have to give our King Snake out to someone. And really, nobody deserved it.

So we're going to give it to Zach Gallen because Zach Gallen deserves it. Zach Gallen was the only starting pitcher here that really gave the Arizona Diamondbacks exactly what they needed, which is stability. He is the Diamondbacks only source of stability right now when it comes to pitching. In game one, he went seven innings, one earned run, seven strikeouts, one walk. on a day that before we even talked to Tori LaVolo or Zach Gallen, Jesse Friedman knew, knew was going to be considered a mediocre outing, at least in Zach Gallin's mind.

And in what world are those numbers that I just showed you a ho-hum day? But that's how Zach Gallen views it. He wasn't talking, Mike. My expectation was not that Zach Gallen would necessarily say it was a terrible outing because results-wise, it was a very good outing. Just didn't have his best stuff. But yeah, I mean, I think it was pretty obvious just, you know, up in the press box, looking at some of the numbers and just watching the game that Zach Gallant did not have his best stuff whatsoever on Monday.

And so, yeah, after the game. And Zach Gallons of Fibber. And that's what Tori Lovello said. After the game, I asked Tori Lovello, you know, what does it mean to you to have a guy who on a day where he doesn't have his best stuff, which was just sort of me projecting that because I knew that that's what Zach Gall was going to say after the game, which in fact he did. Tori, I'm not going to say he took offense to it, but he almost scoffed at you at the idea of someone being able to have that pitching line and not having his best stuff. But here's what Tori had to say back to Jesse in regards to Zach not having his best stuff. Is that what he's going to say?

Do you think that he had to do that was best stuff? That's my guess. I always think he has his best stuff. I just, I'm from a row seat every single day where I'm watching. I'm just executed a very high level and just drive pitches. in his own. You know, he, I know the last time when we faced the Marlins, I think it was heavy fastball, change-up, fastball, breaking ball. Like I said, he was fastball cutter today. There were some breaking balls and were some change-ups involved, but he just, he switched up the deck,

and he was throwing fastballs by for some really good fastball hitters. So, um, what does it say to me? Um, I, I think he's a favorite and he always has good stuff. That's what I'm putting my core. That's what I'm making every single time. It goes out there. That is one of the best quotes that I think, I think Tori Lavello has ever given in a post-game presser. Usually you're just kind of going through the motions and saying sort of the normal things. But yeah, so Tori Lavello comes out and says, I think Zach Allen is a fibber for so consistently saying after good starts that he didn't have his best stuff.

And this is before we had talked with Zach Gallen that night. So a few minutes later, we go in the clubhouse. We talk to Zach Gallen. And I asked Zach about this. I said, Tori Lavello, you know, this was after the part of the interview where Zach had already talked about how he did not have his best stuff whatsoever. Gallen literally started his presser on Monday night with saying that he didn't have much semblance of an off speed pitch. So in his book, this was about the lowest of the lows for Zach Gallen in terms of not having his stuff. But after he said that, I asked Zach, you know, Tori Lavello just said that you're a fibber for so consistently saying you don't have your best stuff, even when you put up the numbers.

you know, that you did tonight, here's what Zach Gallant had to say. Yeah, I mean, honestly, I didn't really have much semblance of an all-speed pitch, really. It was a lot of fastball tonight. But, yeah, my defense played really well back there behind me. So that is not the clip that we were hoping to play of Zach Gallen. That is the clip that I was alluding to earlier

with Gallen talking about not having his best stuff. we'll have to circle back and see if we can see if we can get that for another show. But Zach Allen has a fiver, and what did he say in regards to? Yeah, it's on our Twitter account. Basically, Zach just said, I'm so particular. And so he was basically talking about from his perspective, you know, even though it's a results-oriented league, and even though, you know, he was able to go out there and give the deback seven innings and only allow one run. In the long term, what's most important for him is that,

the feel of his pitches is on point. That's really what's going to lead to long-term success for Zach Gallen. And so he was like, I'm just being honest with you guys. Like, I didn't have that today. So, yeah, I mean, you can understand where he's coming from. I think it's a valid, a valid perspective. It makes sense because we see him have a successful night. And in our minds, it's kind of that perfectionist thing almost, right?

We're almost like, man, why are you being so hard on yourself? You did great. And it's not a perfection thing. not a heart on himself. It's that Zach Gallen had to rely heavily on his fastball in that game because his off-speed stuff wasn't really working for him or he didn't have a feel for, right?

And so that's from his perspective. Like the night that he feels good is a night where he feels like he can throw any one of his pitches comfortably and has that feel for them. If there's ever a night where he literally has to avoid throwing one of his key pitches because he doesn't have a great feel for it that night,

it doesn't matter what the results are going to say he's going to come back and say, I didn't have my best stuff tonight because his best stuff is when he has that variety of pitches to throw and he can throw anything and he can use those pitches in the scenarios specifically where he wants to use them and have confidence that he's going to use them successfully. Yeah, he also, something that was really interesting that he said after the game is that for him it's really important even when he doesn't have his best stuff to make sure that he's still at least throwing all of his pitches occasionally. he wants to keep hitters from eliminating pitches that he doesn't have that day. And so you saw that even though, and I totally agreed with Zach Allen, honestly, his curveball and changeup were not very good at all on Monday. But you still saw him kind of sprinkle them in every now and then in order to just kind

of keep that idea in the hitter's head. And even that can work. It's almost like Zach Allen doesn't necessarily need his curveball and his changeup to dominate. He needs the idea of his curveball and change up in the hitters. heads in order in order to have the kind of success. And he doesn't, the batter doesn't know he doesn't have his best stuff. So the batter doesn't,

they probably pick up on certain things. I mean, I'm sure they do. They might be communicating back and forth in the dugout. Like he's not throwing his cutter or he's not, or not cutter. He's not throwing the curveball or something like that. Yeah.

Or such and such a pitch doesn't look as sharp today or whatever. But yeah, it's amazing what it can do when you just keep all of that in the hitter's head. And the hitter also has to know that, you know, even if the curve ball wasn't great in the first or second inning, that doesn't necessarily keep him from throwing a really darn good one in a one-two count or something later in the game. Also, is there anything more appropriate than Zach Gallen wearing that free and easy don't trip hat that he's wearing in that scene that we briefly watched?

I feel like it's almost too on point for someone like Zach Gallen. It's also ironic considering it's someone that's totally going to trip over his own performance even when he has a good night. But ha-ha-ha, all jokes aside, Zach Gallen is our king snake and he deserves it. He should probably get that home run snake wrapped around his shoulders for that. But something they also need for that home run snake is a pair of Shady Ray sunglasses because every stuffed animal needs a pair of sunglasses. They just, it's just a natural thing that you as an adult do when your kids have stuffed animals around the house. But you also need some very, very good sunglasses and Shady Ray's is the independent sunglasses company that you need to check out. They have a world-class product.

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That's pins and aces.com. Jesse, let's take a look at the numbers in this series because once again, baseball will baseball. And despite a lot of the things not making sense here, the Diamondbacks did not win two out of three games in this series. They definitely lost two out of three games in the series, but they out hit the Marlins, 29 to 25. Marlins had the only error in the series.

And of course, look at that, the ERA there. pretty things things once again find a way to be very similar but man that marlins relief pitching er a was just un otherworldly the marlins bullpen was good but there's one there's one stat here that for me just kind of tells the story of the series and that's just hitting with runners in scoring position it absolutely which it's it's honestly sort of obnoxious how big of an impact that has but at the end of the day it doesn't so much matter you know how many hits you had in a series versus how many hits the opposing team had. It's like, when did you get the hits?

Did you get them in the important spots or, you know, where you just get in first and second and then, you know, leaving everybody on base? So, yeah, the debacks at 194 with runners in scoring position in the series, the Marlins at 2.92. That sort of feels like the, you know, the difference right there. The debacks did have other opportunities to score today, although not many. They did not have nearly as many base runners around in this game today. So, you know, I think their approach a little bit earlier in this game was somewhat questionable.

They were taking some early hacks against Edward Cabrera, which I wasn't a huge fan of. But we were having this conversation in the Nat series as well, Derek. The debacks, I think in that series went four for 31 with runners in scoring position, and they had another rough go of it here. So it's the kind of thing that, like I said before, compare hitting with runners and scoring position to like shooting three-pointers in the NBA. It's, it's streaky. You're going to have your great nights.

You're going to have, you're not so good nights. The debacks have been one of the better teams in the game at doing that over the last few weeks. And you're just kind of seeing things balance out a little bit here. 10 walks to four walks. The Diamondbacks were more patient. But it's honestly incredible. The Marlins only had four walks in three games. It's crazy.

But the Diamondbacks struck out Jesse 30 times in this series. including 15 times in today's game, seven yesterday and eight in the win on Monday. So the Diamondbacks have been patient, but maybe too patient. Maybe some of that patience at the plate is resulting in falling behind in counts and striking out more often.

I mean, I don't know if I would, I don't think they've been too patient. There are still some guys like, Josh Rojas is really fighting it at the plate right now. Corbin, Corbin hasn't seemed very patient. Corbyn Carroll is in a little bit of a rut, which is fine, right?

I mean, Corby and Carroll has just been outstanding for the first few weeks. So you're not really all that concerned about that. But there are still guys in this lineup who could be better than how they've been. And we're saying that even though the debacks have scored, I don't know what it is right now, but top five, top 10 at least in runs just around the league this season. This offense has still been really good. And there are guys like Josh Rojas definitely comes to mind. you know, you've still got Alec Thomas struggling.

You've got Jake McCarthy down in Reno. There are other contributors that really could step up their game for this team, even though the offense has been pretty good to date. Other thing is that Gallen remains good at baseball. We knew that already by giving him our king snake. But in game one, he dominated. Gabby Moreno had three hits. Rivera Walker Smith had two hits.

The debacks have, in fact, won six of Galen's last seven starts, and three of Merrill Kelly's last four coming into today. They've just been very good in games where the Diamondback starting pitching can give them that lead, give them that ability to win a baseball game. But unfortunately. It's unfortunate they only have two guys. I was going to say the exact. I was going to say the same thing.

Fortunately, they only got two of them. And as much as we've been trying to clone Zach Gallons in the lab below this building, they are not turning out well. there are definitely some broken eggs down there but brandon fought got sheled again and i know that's still a big topic of conversation uh for debacks fans i think that we still remain patient i think we still remain hopeful to see him get things back on track but also i mean it's not as much about being impatient but as much as wanting the diamondbacks to be careful with his development we've kind of thrown around dray jameson's future at times where we talk about where we want it and whatever. We want to disregard him being a starting pitcher and want him back in the bullpen just so that he can help his team win. But these are all the things that this team right now needs to still remain patient about because despite their early success, they still weren't expecting really to be in this position at this point of the season. So I think they still need to

put their young players development first as a precedent before they get too wrapped up in possibly, you know, doing some of these things we've seen happen to other guy's career with someone like Brandon Fott or Jameson. Yeah, I'm going to be really curious to see how the debacks handle Brandon Fott after his next start. I want to say that if Brandon Fott goes out there against the San Francisco Giants, I don't think they've officially named him the starter for Sunday, but that's what he lines up for. So I'm assuming he'll start on Sunday.

You have to feel like if he struggles again, that you might just pull the plug at that point and send him down to Reno. Another thing we should mention is that Zach Davies is getting pretty close to turning. I believe it was two innings that he threw in his last. He made a rehab start down in the Arizona Complex League. He's going to make another one of those. And then after that, you could probably bring Zach Davies back into the rotation. So you're probably at about the 10-day mark, or roughly, to where Zach Davies could return to this rotation. And that would sort of line up for if Brandon fought struggles in his next outing, you could probably just plug that spot with Zach Davies

if he wanted to. How do you feel about this? Do you feel like if Fott struggles one more time, if he has another game where he gives up a couple homers four or five runs that the D-backs would move on at that point? What does Fott need to go down to the miners to work on? That's my question.

What is the benefit there, right? It's like if a guy is struggling with something, then I can see him going down. But like in this case, he's just struggling mainly with command, which we have seen him have at a minor league level. And if we send him back down and he has that command at a minor league level, again, great.

And then you're going to call him back up. And then what? Maybe he struggles again at a major league level. Sure. I would rather see him have at least two more outings before I would determine his fate and really make a big decision on sending him back down. And if I did send him back down, I'm not playing that game of bringing him back up and sending him back down.

He's probably going to have to stay in Reno for. a bit because I mean I just don't I don't know what the point of doing that would be like guys are going to struggle even major league pitcher struggle at you know at a major league level and they kind of go through through through a growing process and they come out on the other side having you know being a better pitcher I feel like that's what this is for fought right but like I said earlier I'm also very worried about his overall development I'm worried about the impact sure this could have on him. I just think, again, you know, we've talked a lot about

him and what he can add to this team. We've talked about him being kind of a vital part of their future and part of their rotation because they don't really have anyone that's shown that they can be better. Fott's just not showing it right now at a major league level, but the stuff he has, especially

the way Strom talked about, like his arm slot and how effective his stuff can be, is really, really something that you're not going to get anywhere else right now. or at least that the Diamondbacks can find and afford. So I just think it's about trying to get him right. I think being with Brent Strom is a very good thing.

I think he's going to be very coachable, unlike what we heard about Bumgarner yesterday, right? So I think having him with one of the best pitching coaches in all of baseball is a good thing. And I think they're going to find a way to work him through this because it's not really like a mystery of what he's doing wrong. Yeah. And it's not like he's forgotten how to throw the baseball.

Just stop throwing him down the middle. Yeah, you know what I mean. And I'm sure Strom even probably feels like that. He probably doesn't have a lot of panic. It's just like it sucks because how do you make that happen? How do you make a pitcher start getting back on track? And like for Brandon Fott, I'm sure that he wasn't trying to throw pitches down the middle.

It's just a matter. It's kind of like it's just that readjustment now instead because you threw the last one so far outside that now instead of your next adjustment bringing it closer to the edge like you would thought based on it. being six inches outside, now you're just dead center. Now it's like overcorrected. Now it's, you know, right down the heart of the plate. A couple of things coming to mind for me. So first of all, I think it was some video that I found at one point. Of course, there's been all sorts of content made about Brandon Fott, just given his prospect status. I've seen a pretty good one. Yeah. Yeah,

there's also, yeah, there's one that's especially great. There's one video that rises above all the others. But I was watching another video about Fought the other day that showed his heat maps from AAA. specifically with his fastball location. And they did point out that Brandon Fotz's fastball location last year in AAA was significantly more fine than it was this year. He still had pretty good results in Reno this year, not quite what he had last year. But, you know, I think the debacks were still able to look at the numbers he was putting up in Reno and be like, yeah, I mean, this guy is pitching really well.

Yeah. He deserves this call up. But there has been a bit of a setback this year, it seems, in terms of his fastball location and we've seen that in the big leagues that's exactly what the problem has been he's just throwing his pitches not just his fastball but occasionally the change up in the slider he's just throwing them center cut and and they're absolutely getting destroyed um so i do think that you could send him down kind of on a mission like try to get your fastball command in reno back to where it was last year and once we see that then we'll bring you back up and we'll give you another shot i think

that is one approach they could take. The other thing I'll say, an interesting tidbit from Nick Piccolo's story from yesterday's game, he spoke with one rival evaluator. It's an anonymous source that said that Brandon Fott's fastball life was better in the past when he's been at his best. People have seen Brandon Fott's fastball life be significantly better than where it is right now. And we've talked about the spin rate that the speed rate. the fastball has, the fact that you feel like it should sort of move all over the place,

and it just doesn't. The shape of the fastball for fought is pretty standard, and that's why he's just not really getting away with anything. Even if he was locating it better, I still think there would be some issues with fought just because the fastball doesn't have the same shape as it's had in the past, according to what that evaluator said. So a couple of notes there. Well, he's talking heat maps, and I don't know what the opposite of a heat map would be,

but I think it would be whatever the Circle K store locator is. Very good. Yeah, that feels right. You head to CircleK.com slash store-dash locator to find CircleKs near you. Get yourself a polar pop according to a guy that looks a lot like me on the video. And just cool yourself down this summer here in Arizona. We're excited to partner with our friends at Circle K, and you can check out your local Circle K for the best coffee, beer, and snacks.

selection, premium gas, I was snacking on their beef jerky. I guarantee you, I challenge you to find another beef jerky that's better than the Circle K branded beef jerky. Taste tested, blind taste tested. I dare you. You can't find it because it's incredible, just like all of their other snacks are. And of course, the polar pop cheapest way to keep yourself hydrated and cool. They also have their other stuff. They're 12 packs of beer. You can find our friends at four peaks there. They have all sorts of 12 packs of beer for just 999. They have Red Bull and Monsters on sale as well. Make sure you're not missing out on all of this great stuff right now.

Text PHNX to 31310 to join the SMS subscriber club, and you will get a buy one, get one free offer on a 32 ounce polar pop. So go do that now. And of course, make sure to check out also our friends at Four Peaks. You can grab their beer at Circle K. You can go down to the A Street Pub or you can get their beer wherever you get your beer. Four Peaks are four teachers, and this is Teacher Appreciation Week. I just want to say, Jesse, I appreciate you.

Aw. Yeah, as a teacher. No connection to me being a former teacher. You just wanted to say you appreciate it. No, I said as a teacher, but I was going to say it has my teacher. It's unsolicited teaching. I don't even want him to teach me, and he teaches me stuff all the time. But, of course, teacher appreciation week is this week.

Thank a teacher and nominate them to win grants, four-peak swag, and a grand prize of a custom makeover of their teacher's lounge at school. go to 4Peaks for Teachers.org to nominate a teacher or to donate. And right now you can win yourself some Arizona Diamondbacks tickets. So let's go. One lucky winner, we'll get four seats to an upcoming Diamondbacks game. And tickets do come with debucks. You can grab some food, some ice cold, wow wheat or hop knot.

Enter by going to Four Peaks Brew on IG. That's at Four Peaks Brew. The link is in our bio. You can also check out at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest at Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks. And please drink responsible. Jesse, what are the Arizona dime backs going to do about this bullpen? I don't mean just how did they fix it because again today,

Andrew Chafin was pretty damn good in an inning they needed him to be in the eighth, but then Tori Lavello brought him back out in a move that made sense based on the pitching matchup. However, he did give up the double that ends up being the go-ahead run for the Marlins and they end up winning. Miguel Castro could not close the inning out with the inherited runner, and here we are talking about a loss. So what do the debacks do?

I mean, there's not much that they can do, to be perfectly honest. What are you going to do? Those are their two guys, right? I mean, Andrew Chafin and Miguel Castro are the two guys. Fix it, Jesse. At the back end, I don't know what to tell you. We did talk about Dre Jameson. We've talked about Jay Jameson a little bit in the last few days,

the possibility of him coming back up. He's really the one other guy that's had some success in the bullpen that the debacks aren't using right now. So I still think that's an interesting route that they could go down in the future. But for now, he's continuing to pitch as a starter at Reno. The debacks don't appear to have any intentions of moving him back into the bullpen for right now

as far as we can tell. So I don't really have any great solutions, Derek. I guess wait till the trade deadline and try to make a move. That's about all I got for you. I don't like it. I don't like it. Anything going on in the miners that we should know about?

I know there's a few things. Jordan Lawler hit the show. shit out of a ball the other day, that's for sure. Yeah, Jordan Lawler hit a very, very long home run yesterday. So he is not, not hit well, frankly, in Amarillo this year. But that was good to see a step in the right direction. Jake McCarthy was two for five yesterday with a home run of his own. He's up to 333 with a 990 OPS since being sent down to AAA Reno.

So pretty good stuff there. Blake Walston yesterday, an outstanding outing for the Reno Aces 7 and a 3rd. third innings, one hit, one run, two walks, seven strikeouts. That's 83 pitches. He pitched into the eighth inning, possibly the most impressive start of Blake Walston's young pro pitching career at this point. So good stuff there. He has a 2.36 ERA this year in for Reno, which is really impressive.

The peripherals haven't been the prettiest in his recent outings, but yesterday, two walks, seven strikeouts, only one hit allowed, hard to do much better than that. Let's take a look at the probabilities for the upcoming series with the San Francisco Giants. Again, another series that the Diamondbacks here, they have four games against a team that hasn't been playing very good baseball. And hopefully they can more than split this series. The Diamondbacks definitely need to take three out of four in this one against a National League West rival.

If the intention of this season is to be. be competitive. I know that might sound very drastic. If the intention. If the intention is to be competitive and make a playoff push, this is, this four game series is one that they definitely need to once again get greedy

and beat up on the opposition. Tommy Henry kicks things off against Cobb. Then we got Nelson versus Stripling. Galley, Gowan versus Jesse, could you please? Anthony Dechlafani. Dechlefani. It's that dish in the front that always gets me. And we got Fott

versus Webb, not a very easy pitching matchup there for Brandon Fott. But again, the Giants, they've not been incredibly good this season. And the Diamondbacks definitely, this is that portion of the month where the

diamondbacks have some competition that they can win against. The pitching matchups aren't great, Derek. I'm not going to lie. No, starting pitching is pretty good for the Giants. Yeah, like Tommy Henry against Cobb. You don't necessarily feel great about that one. And you've got stripling against Nelson, feels like sort of a wash.

You obviously feel good about Zach Gallen pitching the Saturday game, but then you got Logan Webb against Brandon fought in the Sunday game. So the debacks have their work cut out for him here. Their offense is the reason that they are 20 and 17 right now. It's the reason they've been a good team. So, you know, they're going to stare down some maybe not ideal pitching matchups and still feel like the debacks have a chance to win. But yeah, this is going to be a big weekend for the offense, because, you know,

Because, you know, when you've got a four-game set and you're only getting one start from the Gallen Kelly duo, your offense, you know, at least with how things have gone so far, your offense is really going to have to step up in those games. D-backs have done a pretty good job of that so far this season, but they're going to need to continue that against a giant team that is better than the Marlins, at least in my opinion, better than the nationals, better than the Rockies, the Royals. This is the best team the D-backs have seen in a while, in my opinion, even if the Giants still aren't, you know, right in the think of the playoff picture or anything right now. Well, yeah, they're struggling offensively and they're coming into a team that has some pretty good starting pitching that. Yeah. And that's kind of been a weakness. The Diamondbacks this year have consistently made starting pitching for the opposing team look pretty damn good. So the Giants offense is just, I mean, it's, it's interesting.

I mean, Tyro Estrada has been their most valuable offensive player by far. far this season. He's sitting 338 with an OPS like over 900. What? J.D. Davis has had a pretty good year for them. Lamont Wade Jr. is off to a pretty good star. Michael Stremski. Just a thorn in the deback side. Yeah. Their offense has been, has been pretty decent. But the rotation has been a little bit hit or miss. And the bullpen has been very poor for the Giants. So that's, that's been probably their biggest weakness so far this. season. We try to say pretty rational. At least you do. And you try to keep me grounded as much as you humanly can. Right. But I still feel very dramatic about this series. I say that because it's the

National League West and it's a four game series where really if, I mean, if their struggles continue and they go in and lose this series, they don't even split it. They drop three out of four. That'd be a gut punch. Yeah. It really absolutely would. Not only what it's a little. the fact that I don't have to get a tattoo based on this team's success in May. But it would also really mean some things about just, I mean, I mean this team's competitive nature. Like it's the giants. As far as NL West opponents go, it's the toughest one that they have, you know, until we come back around to the Dodgers and the Padres in August. So I feel like they need to need to show something. Now, yeah, the problem there is is that we might continue to

see them do what they're doing wrong, which is trying too hard. That seems to still. be the theme and Brent Strom talked about that and even when he talked about it with the pitching and with Brandon fought. He also talked about it just in general with with baseball. And I think that is the one thing that this team just needs to do is just relax a little bit and realize that games are going to be one and one and lost on team efforts and that they're not the only person. They're not the hero of the game. They don't need to be. But what they need to do is go up there and get on base, find a way to do the thing. The one thing we complimented Josh Rojas about a lot

was that Josh Rojas was just pesky, right? Yeah. He found a way to get on base. He found a way to be involved offensively some way somehow. And we're not seeing that out of him lately. And it's almost like the team is kind of a reflection of Josh Rojas is not being in that gamer mode

where he's almost a nuisance to the opposing team, which is that's the Josh Rojas we need back. We need chaotic open shirt Josh Rojas on the baseball diamond. and we need it immediately. But the debacks, they definitely are not. The whole create chaos narrative from early in the season. They haven't quite been that team.

Yeah. Corbyn Carroll tried with his bunt today. Yes. But that didn't quite well. But one guy alone can't do it, right? And it really requires this team to try to get their way on base, which they did today with walks. They absolutely got on base,

but you just didn't see them trying anything out of the ordinary to get runners in. They didn't have this sense of urgency when they did have the bases loaded. when they did have those scoring opportunities to really capitalize on it in some way. And like you said, that creating chaos mentality, that way that they were being, that has kind of disappeared a bit. We don't see them stealing bases. We don't see them trying to do things to cause, you know, runners or, you know, defenders to make, you know, quick decisions and things like that. So hopefully they can get back to that.

I think part of it is just that Corbyn Carroll is kind of slumping right now. Joshua O'Hoss is kind of slumping right now. And Jake McCarthy's in Reno. Right. So it's kind of like, I mean, those are sort of your three primary. Troublemakers? Yeah, troublemakers. Chaos producers.

Chaos producers. For the debacks. And there's also an element with how well this debacks team is hit overall without high their team batting average is, you don't necessarily feel the need to play small ball quite as much. Right. This has actually been one of the better offenses in the game. You don't need to be dropping down bunts every other hitter.

So I think. there's some elements of that. But yeah, you would like to see the debacks maybe take up the aggressiveness just a little bit once those guys, you know, are able to find, find it again. And I have no doubt that Corbyn Carroll and Josh Rojas will be able to work their way out of this rut. And, you know, I think both of those guys are going to be obviously Corbyn Carroll. I think Josh Rojas is also going to be a big part of this offense this season. Well, fellow parents, we have like nine days until the kids are out on summer vacation. And you know there's nothing worse

than trying to figure out something to do with them. You can figure out something to do with them. I mean, it's not, well, like, figuring out what to do with your children. It's not the care. It's not the care. Because we have jobs. We have lives, Jesse. And we live a normal life.

And all of a sudden, there comes this portion of the year where the kid is at home. Now she's just at home every day. She doesn't go off to school. She doesn't have Girl Scouts. She doesn't have student council. No band practice, nothing. I'm like, my God.

I have to, you know, what do I do with her? I'm going to take her to Octane Raceway and Mavericks. That's what I'm going to do. They have their summer passes right now, which will help you ease the cost and give those kids. Plenty of memories, so much fun over there with their cart racing, their axe throwing. Let the kids throw axes.

Come on. What more dangerous can you think can you think of to do for as a kid? That's awesome. You can buy it out for the best rate. They have, of course, all sorts of events coming up. We are looking at Mother's Day, brunch here this weekend and they have an extravaganza from scratch brunch half off mimosas until 2 p.m. and a free $10 game card with every brunch purchase plus all moms get free

axe throwing and a free race with one paid guess come on I think I know where me and my mom are going to ditch the ditch the walker we're going racing uh you can book some fun this spring and octane raceway and mavericks cart racing virtual reality laser tag axe throwing bowling arcade and they have great and drinks absolutely so tons of different events throughout the summer check out octane raceway com and mavericks.com to learn more and if you want to get out to some sporting events some other events concerts whatever you need to go to this summer check out game time game time is the place for procrastinators to come get their tickets to all their events especially diamondbacks games it's the last place for last minute ticket deals and it is the fastest growing ticket app in the country

for a reason because you can snag tickets with game time without the stress download the game time app an account and use code phnx for $20 off your first purchase terms do apply again create an account and redeem code phnx for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed can't wait to see you guys out at the ballpark tomorrow uh jessey and i have a 1 p.m show tomorrow and then we will be out with you guys at chase field for our takeover event against the san francisco giants uh and yeah we got tommy henry on the mound right so there you go let's root on Tommy Henry, root, root, root for the home team. We will be out there meeting up at the Four Peaks draft room in Chase Field.

So that is right field. There's an elevator that takes you right up to that from the main concourse in case you're wondering and $32 for our diehards. Make sure to join us. We're going to be having a blast. If you're there at Chase Field and you're not part of the takeover, still say hi, text us, call us, come over and check us out. We will be hanging out as a group and we love to see us.

So we thank you guys again so much for joining us. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at K underscore K-Map-U-M-W-A-M-W-A-K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Damon is at Damon Dog. 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 guys so much for joining us, even after this miserable loss. On behalf of the crew here, we appreciate your time, as always. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun. when your players produce chaos.