PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - D-backs Recap: Swept From the SEA

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

The Arizona Diamondbacks cooled off in Seattle, getting swept in their three-game series with the Mariners. Derek recaps the lack of offense in the series loss, Merrill Kelly being the mainstay once again, and why it felt like better managing could have changed the outcome in two out of three of these games. Limited-time offer! Become a Diehard for just $36: https://gophnx.com/intro-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 right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. And I am not thrilled to be talking about the Diamondbacks getting swept by the Seattle Mariners in three games this past weekend as they prepare to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in four games at Chase Field. Of course, I'm here by myself today, and that feels fitting considering how depressing this particular series of losses were. Damon and I obviously discussed the loss on Friday and how, I guess, Zach Gallen really didn't give this team much of a chance to win. It was more of the same on Saturday where Ryan Nelson, once again, wasn't his normal self, only given the Diamondbacks, five in a thirds, innings pitched and giving up four earned runs and five total in the last. the game. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks offense really struggled in Seattle and cannot wait to see this team get out of their fast enough. They lose Saturday's game by a score of 5 to 1,

and they went basically the entire game without getting a run at all. The Diamondbacks finally got their first run in the ninth inning of that game. And it was felt fairly meaningless and fairly, obviously fairly unnecessary. It just felt like it was just a courtesy run for them to not be shut out. You know, you got a Perdomo walked and then eventually scored

on a passball. So it wasn't even like the Diamondbacks drove in their run. If it wasn't for a mistake by the Seattle Mariners and Saturday's game, the Diamondbacks would have been shut out. Meanwhile, Sunday's game, a little bit more like Friday's game. Both games go into extra innings. The Diamondbacks lose, both games in the bottom of the 10th due to a walkoff from the Mariners. And both games seemed very winnable based on the way things went.

The Diamondbacks were able to kind of overcome Zach Gowland's bad outing on Friday, tie the game up, but then immediately give it back. They tie it up again in the ninth inning and then they lose eventually in the bottom of the 10th. Meanwhile, on Sunday, this was a bit more. of that hangover from the Diamondbacks not being able to score in game two of this series. They don't score their first run until the sixth inning of Sunday's game. And this was just hard to watch. I mean, honestly, you were seeing the Diamondbacks strike out a lot.

You were seeing them be impatient. The bad at-bats were back. And again, I'm not going to discredit the Seattle Mariners pitching staff because they are incredibly good. As much as I want to be upset with the Diamondbacks' offense and their lack of production, we knew coming into the series that the Mariners had combined one of the best staffs in baseball,

as far as their starters were concerned, and as far as their bullpen. Even with how good their starters have been this year, their bullpen has been even better, right? But the Diamondbacks, they get a run in the sixth inning after we begged the offense to finally do something on social media. Cotel Marte walked with one out and then Corbyn Carroll doubled. Cotel Marte got to third and then he came home on essentially a fielder's choice situation

where he was out at the plate for all the Port Pardomo hit kind of, which just felt like a very desperate at bat, a very desperate move. Marte coming home felt very desperate. Everything in the moment kind of showed the frustration and how desperate they were to get this offense going. Instead of essentially Marte staying at third and having Corbyn Carol at second and Geraldo Perdomo just grounding out, Marte gets cut down at home on a play where neither he nor the catcher Johnny Parada tagged each other or touched the base. It was kind of funny. Ketel slid in he missed touching the base and then Parada missed touching him with the ball.

So the home plate umpire just kind of stood there waiting for something to happen and Parada kind of walked over and tagged Perdomo with the ball and he called the outcall. Meanwhile, in the inning, again, the Diamondbacks, much like game two, would not have gotten this run across the plate without a wild pitch scoring Corby and Carroll during that whole fielder's choice situation. Carroll advanced from second to third and then he comes home on a wild pitch by Luis Castillo. It felt really like the debacks, you know, again, with the weird piggyback situation that the Mariners were going with, it felt like the Diamondbacks once they got Miller out of the game, that they were starting to be a little bit more effective against Luis Castillo, who has had his share of struggles this year. But again, even though it felt like they were starting to get things on a roll, they still just didn't seem very patient, still seemed very desperate there late in the game. They were able to get an additional run in the eighth inning that tied the game up at two at the time, and that's what sent things into extra innings. And again, that's another situation where the Diamondbacks, it felt like the debacks had more going on than they did.

The inning starts with a Gabriel Moreno single. Tim Tawa moves him over with a sack bunt. There was a throwing error by Josh Naylor. Everybody was safe. And then you had Cotel Marte out on the sack fly to left field. at that scored the Diamondback's second run bringing Gabriel Moreno in. It was another struggle for Catell today. And again, another day where you can't help but feel like the Diamondback's offense goes the way that Catelle Marte goes.

He was 0 for three in this one with a walk. He did have the one sack fly RBI. But again, Marte, who was the hottest hitter on the planet for 10 days there against, you know, the lesser teams in the National League West, he suddenly can't buy a hit in Seattle. It's been a frustrating series to watch this offense try to perform. In fact, I threw shade about their runners-in-scoring position situation on Friday. I want to do it again today. I just don't have Damon here to hit me with the music and the fun graphics.

But the debacks 0-48 in a game where it was a tied ball game after nine runs, nine innings. two runs scored 0 for 8. Just a frustrating. And some of those came in extra innings, obviously, that they weren't able to convert their ghost runner in the top of the 10th inning. But it also has to do with just their lack of being able to perform with runners in scoring position, with ducks on the pond, with runners on third. It was a frustrating series.

I did not expect them to play this poorly in Seattle, though I was concerned. because of how good the pitching staff has been. The Diamondbacks at times struggled to put up runs against, you know, far worse teams than the, you know, than this Seattle Mariners team, including the Rockies. So, you know, I definitely was worried that they were going to have their, you know, fair share of struggles here against this particular pitching staff. However, I didn't know that the Diamondbacks were going to get swept or I didn't feel

like they were going to get swept. I wasn't confident they would win the series, but they got swept in two out of the three games. They go to extra innings, and both of those games felt very winnable in regulation. That they didn't have to go into extra innings, obviously. That's not the desired outcome, of course, especially when you're not the home team. But it definitely felt like both teams, Diamondbacks squandered the opportunities they had to score runners. And again, runs seem to be a premium as of late. I feel like this team needs to do a better job of manufacturing runs, of doing the things that you need to do in order to get runs across the board.

Like they've done it, but, you know, they've, it doesn't really feel like at times it's like a, you know, on purpose kind of manufacturing of runs. You know, Elamara Vargas has a bunch of like groundouts where runs scored, but it wasn't on purpose. and it could have easily been a inning-ending double play instead of a play that scored a run in a lot of those situations. So again, it's just a frustrating series against the Mariners team that you wished to see better, you know, better performance, a better outcome here against this team.

Now the Diamondbacks come home, and again, like I said earlier, they have four games at Chase Field against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Confidence, not very high right now. not with us as the fan base, and I'm sure the confidence is not very high with the team. I will say Merrill Kelly deserved better on Sunday.

Merrill was good, not what Zach gave them, not what Ryan gave them. Merrill deserved the run support. He went five and a third innings pitched. He gave up eight hits, two earned runs. He walked two, struck out two, and gave up two home runs for the two runs scored. Merrill did a great job of getting himself out of jams when he got into them.

And again, he just gives you that confidence, once again, that Merrill the mainstay is back. Every time he goes out there, he's going to give you a consistent performance and you're going to have a chance to win. But you don't have a chance to win if your offense isn't able to muster up more than three runs in a baseball game. Easier said than done by me being a chubby guy sitting in Phoenix, Arizona in my cushy office and not being in Seattle in that environment and that particular weird ballpark playing that Mariners' team. I just feel like again, this one with how close these two games are, game one and game three of this series, how close they were, I do feel like better managing of these games would have potentially secured a victory, especially considering that as you're watching the game, you can see that your offense is really struggling to play complementary baseball, to put

together, you know, hits that can link up and score some runs. So I feel like that's the point, especially knowing how good the pit, both the starting staff is for the Mariners and the bullpen is that you need to kind of pivot. And you need to try to do everything you can to secure those extra runs that could be crucial later in the game, as we saw with both of these losses on game one and game three. Game two, they just got skunked. Ryan Nelson wasn't very good. The Mariners were jumping all over his fastball.

and that one was just a loss. Lack of offense, lack of good pitching, down early. Again, just not a great outcome there in game two. Games one and three definitely felt like a few, one or two plays go their way, go differently, get managed differently, and those games are wins instead of losses. And if you wanted to be, you know, like me,

and always be the kind of devil's advocate, you feel like that really was the difference between leaving Seattle getting swept versus leaving Seattle with two out of three wins in your pocket. But again, Diamondbacks now have the team in baseball to face. They have the Dodgers coming here to town, and they have a very, very tough test. Hopefully coming back home to Chase where they have been pretty good this year, they have a winning record, a pretty decent winning record, in fact,

and playing a team that they know, is the best in baseball. Maybe we'll get the best out of them. We will be there covering it. In fact, if you're listening to this right now on Sunday evening, we will not have our typical 12 p.m. show on Monday. We are foregoing that so that we can bring you a postgame show on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Thursday we'll be doing a 12 p.m. show that's so we can join our fellow diehards for our takeover of Chase Field on Thursday night. Tickets are still available for that if you are interested. And then Friday we'll be back with another. post-game show beyond that series there with the Dodgers. So I think they have the Washington Nationals coming to town the following weekend. So again, a team that can't be taken lightly considering how good their offense has been so far in 2026. Appreciate you guys joining me for this quick recap of this unfortunate series loss, series sweep in Seattle.

I promise you I will not make a sweepless in Seattle joke. even though I really, really want to. I really want to have that as like the headline or the thumbnail. I'm sure Damon will not allow that. But again, join us tomorrow for our postgame show after game one between the Diamondbacks and the Dodgers, bringing you stuff from the clubhouse, bringing you stuff pregame as well. You can follow me on social.

I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Our show, as always, is at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but all roads, as always lead to at pHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys so much for your time. appreciate you stopping by. We'll see you back here for our live show on Monday. Until then, have a good rest of your Sunday and a decent Monday afternoon. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you don't suddenly think that we are once again done.