PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs Recap: D-backs Take Series vs. Blue Jays

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks keep the momentum rolling, securing another series win by taking two of three from the Toronto Blue Jays. Derek returns from his hiatus to break down the D-backs handling business against a struggling Toronto squad, Ryne Nelson flirting with a yes-hitter, and Corbin Carroll’s monster grand slam turning into instant concern surrounding his exit the following game due to lower back tightness. Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-offer-youtube WHILE SUNS ARE IN PLAYOFFS Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $32: https://gophnx.com/suns-playoff-offer-youtube JOIN THE SUPPORTERS CLUB ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/yc6km2r4 An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ ALLCITY — including us here at PHNX — is teaming up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America for an exciting three-year partnership. To learn more, visit https://www.bbbs.org/allcity/ Branded Bills: Use code BBPHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 15% off your first order! Husband & Wife Law Team: If you’ve had a serious injury, Call The Husband & Wife Law Team first at 602-783-8841 or visit https://husbandandwifelawteam.com/?utm_source=allcity-padcasts&utm_medium=digital-phx&utm_campaign=allcityShowNotes bet365: https://www.bet365.com/hub/en-us/app-hero-banner-1?utm_source=affiliate&utm_campaign=usapp&utm_medium=affiliate&affiliate=365_03485317 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and bet $5 to get $150 in bonus bets! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Shady Rays: Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 40% 2+ pairs of off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Circle K: Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome in to another edition of D-BACs Recap. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. I'm thrilled to be talking about your Arizona Diamondbacks winning yet another series this time against the Toronto Blue Jays. First, I want to say happy 420 to those of you who celebrate the holiday. I got my celebration on early by being on another planet. And when I say another planet, I mean the reggae rise-up festival out at Tempe Beach Park this past weekend. Damon and our guy Alex Dagestino did a great job of stepping in for me on Friday night. I appreciate them so much.

And covering the Diamondbacks winning the first game of this series there with an excellent performance once again by Michael Soroka, who is now 4-0 this season with a 2.78 ERA. He gave the Diamondback some length in this game versus what he's kind of been able to do in some of his other starts, right? This was a lower strikeout performance. He did only strike out five. He didn't walk anyone. He did give up two run runs and five hits. But he did give the Diamondback seven innings, allowing their bullpen to kind of rebound a bit there.

And it was a good day there from our guy, of course, Cotell Marte, who went two for five. But a big day for Nolan Arnato, who finally had. had one of his biggest performances of the year hitting his third home run of the season and the fourth inning. He was two for forward to RBI. He also delivered another RBI late in the game as well. And the Diamondbacks were able to win that first game by a score of six to three. Paul Seawald comes in for his inning of work. He does not allow a hit, does not allow an earn run, gets one strikeout, and once again gets yet another save, his seventh save of the season.

I can't explain it. Neither can you. And I am just thrilled that the Diamondbacks were able to push their win total from 12 there on Friday to 13 on Saturday with a win in game two. And that got them the series. That's probably the most important thing here is the Diamondbacks have not lost a series this entire season yet outside of that opening series against the Los Angeles Dodgers where they got swept. They did split the season or series, excuse me, their four-game series with the Braves. But outside of that, they have now won every series that they have played in. And on Saturday night, it was another good performance from starting pitching where

Zach Gallen once again kind of bent but didn't break. He gave the Diamondbacks five and two-thirds innings, but he did allow a lot of hits, nine hits in this one, two earn runs, only three strikeouts. But still, again, a performance where he was able to hold the Blue Jays to just two earn runs. And then the bullpen did an excellent job of coming in and getting the job done. Ryan Thompson, another inning of work where he just allowed one hit. And that's it. Juan Morillo, one in a third innings pitched.

He just gave up one hit. And he did have two strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 2.61 this season. Ryan Thompson still has not allowed an earned run in 2026, which is just amazing. And then Kevin Ginkle closed things out there with an inning of work allowing one hit and two strikeouts overall. But the Diamondbacks, you know, they did the thing in this game, even though they allowed 12 hits to the Blue Jays. Corbyn Carroll stepped up big and delivered with a huge grand slam there late in the eighth inning to basically take a tie game that was 2-2 for the majority of it

and put it firmly in the Diamondbacks hands there. And Corbyn Carroll, again, just has this ability to be big. in these moments and this was a huge one for him also nice to see her Aldo Pardomo have a bounce back game there he was three for four on Saturday and he did push his league is his batting average up to 229 so things are working in his direction he's starting to get things back together and again Jose Fernandez still continues to deliver when you start Jose Fernandez good things happen and that's what happened once again in the series meanwhile

the bad of this series would be the finale where the Diamondbacks did have a chance to finally sweep a team and could not get the job done. And not only could they not get the job done, but Ryan Nelson absolutely melted down. It wasn't necessarily a yes hitter,

but it was as close to a yes hitter as you can get. It was ugly. Early on, Ryan Nelson could not get an out. He allowed, I believe, seven straight hits, eight total runs. in the first inning.

It was a disaster. He ended up giving up eight hits. He did get one out. But again, eight earn runs. He walked one. He had one strike out. That was the one out that he was able to record. But it was just a weird situation where he was not really able to land his slider just outside

of the strike zone or on the edges. It was landing firmly in the middle, off center, maybe a little lower than middle, of the plate and he really was not able to get his pitches working for him in this game. So it was unfortunate to see Nelly struggle the way that he did and the Blue Jays just teed off on him. Eventually Andrew Hoffman came in to save the day for a little bit. He gave the Diamondbacks two and a third's innings. He did give up an earned run two hits, but he struck out three, walked one. And that allowed Brandon fought to get himself ready and come into this game and save the Diamondbacks bullpen from being absolutely

picked apart in this one, or at least just exhausted, even though they have an off day today on Monday, it gave the bullpen a chance to, you know, be back at 100% in preparation for the series with the Chicago White Sox that starts at home on Tuesday. But Brandon Fott was excellent in relief. And this was his first appearance from out of the bullpen. But it was a start. He basically gave the Diamondbacks the start. He went out, gave him six in the third innings pitch. He allowed four hits. He gave up one earn run, two walks. and three strikeouts. So all of that kind of sucked. But again, it was great to see Brandon fought be able to give the Diamondbacks that length

out of the bullpen, save the bullpen. It was a great weapon for Tori Lovelo, and he was very successful in doing so. So you hope to see it continue. You also hope to see Ilomar Vargas hit at the rate that he's been hitting at. The man is incredible. He now has a 15 game hitting streak to start the season. He has an MLB best 18 game hitting street going back to last year. And it just a really unexpected surprise for this team, as has been so many other sources here in regards to their offense overall.

Adrian Del Castillo is hitting 333 with an 898 OPS. He was two for three with an RBI and a walk on Sunday's game. And again, just unexpected, you know, production here from guys that they weren't. expecting to get that from. Barrosa was one for two as well with two RBI in the loss on Sunday. So aside from that, the big news here is that Lourdes Gouriel Jr. has returned to the lineup and he is back. Not only is he back, but he is playing in left field, which has been somewhat of, and, you know,

a surprise. I thought that we were going to probably see Lourdes D.H. For a stretch before we saw him get back in the field, but apparently he is 100%. he is ready and he is getting back out there so great to see the diamondbacks getting geryl back and and hopefully his bat can get back to get back in a rhythm he was one for four and the loss on Sunday with a run scored so overall it was an ugly game but the diamondbacks were still able to cut into it some and make it not so ugly and again the bullpen and brandon fought were able to make it not be an embarrassment so

10 to four loss there for the Diamondbacks. But, you know, you think that you can't expect to win every game. And you just got to be happy overall that they were able to take two out of three from a struggling Blue Jays team, who you know is most likely going to get things right. But they have had a slow start and they get out of the gate here, you know, with some struggles on both sides of the ball. It was just nice to see the Diamondbacks catch them at this time. and, you know, be able to take care of business.

This was going to be a difficult stretch. Again, we're going to talk about the schedule a lot, considering how well the debacks have done over this stretch. You know, they have no business really having 13 wins already, considering how difficult the month of April was supposed to be, even the beginning of their March, and obviously coming out of the gate, getting swept by the Dodgers made things look like it was going to be

uglier possibly than we anticipated. But instead, this team turned things around and have done an excellent job at finding ways to win games, finding sources of offense, even though their offense is not doing a great job right now, hasn't been very consistent. And most importantly, they've been getting some incredible pitching.

Even pitching on a day where everything collapsed for their starter. You know, starting pitching up to this point has really been a strength for this team, but Ryan Nelson's performance is probably going to drag some of those numbers down. I'm probably not going to see that starting rotation in the top 10 any longer. However, it doesn't matter. Overall, they've been getting great performances out of everybody else. I am a little concerned about Zach Gallin after his last two starts, even though that they haven't been bad.

They've looked like they were going to get bad. And credit to him for holding things together. But I hope he can figure out a way to maybe limit as many hits as he's been giving up. But great job from, like I said, guys that, you know, have been providing offense that you wouldn't necessarily expect it from. And you kind of feel like once Marte, Perdomo, and Corbyn Carroll, all kind of can get going on all cylinders offensively as well, this team is going to be a powerhouse offensively once again.

Speaking of Corbyn Carroll, he was removed from Sunday's game with lower back tightness. Thankfully, he did tell reporters after the game that sound like he was just kind of a precautionary measure. They do have the off day today on Monday. and he hopes to be back in the lineup here against the Chicago White Sox. So hopefully our homegrown Wonderboy will not miss any time. And this team can keep things rolling against a fairly weak White Sox baseball team. I say that now, but, you know, up to this point, it's been nothing but challenges.

I wouldn't be surprised to magically see this team struggle out of nowhere against the team that they have no business struggling against. So like they just at this point need to keep every, you know, every, challenge in front of them and and just take it one game at a time. So far, they've been doing an excellent job and they still have a lot of reinforcements still on the way, even with Lardis Guerrille Jr., now back in the lineup. So we will be back with another postgame show. In fact, we're going to be bringing you five postgame shows this week. We're going to bring you a postgame show for all three games against the White Sox. Then we will be off on Friday. And then we will be back on Saturday and Sunday with post-game shows after both of the games against the Padres in Mexico

City that Damon and I sadly will not be in attendance for. But in order to capture our sadness, we will be having a watch-along on Sunday. Please join us for that. Please join us for all the post-game shows. Again, thank you guys so much for subscribing and listening to our audio-only podcast. We hope you enjoy. I think Rock and I will be back here later with a little conversation on what's going on with the Players Association, the CBA, and how scared I am about baseball in 2027. But that is for D-BACs after dark. This is not that.

This is a D-BACs recap. And again, we thank you for your time. You can follow me on social media at Capp underscore K-Man with a K. Of course, you can follow our show at P-HNX underscore D-Bax, but as always, all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys again for tuning in. Appreciate your time. We'll see you back here on the postgame show.

And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when your pitchers don't have what we call yes hitters.