PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Despite a lack of offense, the Arizona Diamondbacks split a four-game series with the Dodgers in L.A.

Episode Date: April 3, 2023

The Arizona Diamondbacks were able to overcome two lopsided losses to split their Opening Week four-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. The bullpen held strong for the D-backs in two close games, and manager Torey Lovullo made some savvy moves that led to the split.WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS HERE: www.fubotv.com/phnxBUY D-BACKS TICKETS HERE: https://gametime.hnyj8s.net/c/3442941/1410622/10874 SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports BetMGM: Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code PHNX (https://mediaserver.betmgmpartners.com/renderBanner.do?zoneId=1693757). Place a pre-game, moneyline wager in the amount of at least $10 on any market at standard odds price. You will receive $200 in Bonus Bets instantly regardless of the outcome of your wager! Just make sure you use bonus code PHNX when you sign up!Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (CO, DC, IL, IN, LA, MD, MS, NJ, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA)21+ to wager. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS, NV), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI). Visit BetMGM.com for Terms & Conditions. US promotional offers not available in DC, Nevada, New York or Ontario.PHNX: Become a Diehard today! Check out https://phnxlocker.com/ to grab your membership to receive exclusive content, discounts on all events and merch, and access to our Discord chats. Manscaped: Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with our code PHNX Bets at Manscaped.com.Circle K: Make sure you’re not missing out on all this great stuff, and be stocked all March Madness long! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Rotowire: Get your free trial and unlock all the best fantasy sports news and analysis at https://rotowire.com/phnxFour Peaks: Drink, eat, find, and experience Four Peaks at https://www.fourpeaks.com/.  Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Mor Furniture: Save big on the best furniture in the Valley when you head to https://morfurniture.com!Roman: Go to https://ro.co/PHNX today to get 20% off your entire first order. 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.

The Diamondbacks win and split a four-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and we still don't believe that it happened or understand how. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, I am your mayor of P-HNX. This lady next me is the finketographer of P-HNX, the one and only Danielle Cortez. Daniel, thank you for joining me again. Man, another D-backs win.

Let's go, baby. This is our Sunday victory hat, by the way. This guy's getting busted out a lot this year. unlike last year where they could not win on Sundays at all. But of course, welcome on in to the PHNX DBAX podcast right here on PHNX. We thank you guys so much for being here. We're very excited about this series and the way things went. All things considered, we're going to get to the numbers here in a little bit.

But the numbers don't look great. The numbers don't look great. And that's not what's important. What's important is the Arizona Diamondbacks managed to win two very close games in this series. Their bullpen was a huge part of them winning these games. and they somehow leave L.A. splitting the series two games to two. First time they haven't lost a series in L.A. since 2018. 2018.

It has been five years since the D-Backs haven't lost a series in L.A. And you know what? We were talking about the numbers. I don't care. You know the only thing I care about is a win. We got two wins, two close games. And like the bullpen, man, where was this the last couple of years? I love it.

Well, the bullpen was very. bad last couple of years as we know. And the bullpen was not bad in this game. Also, someone who was not bad in this game was Zach Davies. Still a question mark, obviously in the rotation. We'll talk about Madison Bumgardner's unfortunate night on Saturday here in a minute. But Zach Davies was pretty great on Sunday, to be honest. Davies pitched five innings, gave up four hits, one earn run, two walks, four strikeouts.

The only earned run was a home run from, was it Will Smith? Will Smith? I don't even understand what's going on with Will Smith, but I will say this. The Diamondbacks did make the other guys beat them, really when it came to this series. When you look at the numbers, you look at who did it to them,

who put up big numbers, it was kind of an odd list of characters and not exactly the Mooky Betts and the Freddie Freeman you would have expected to be leading the way. Yeah, and you know what? You'll take that. Yeah, oh yeah.

Mooky Betts, Freddie Freeman did not have a great series, and boy, you just hate to see it, right? No, it's just, you hate to see it. Let's go, man. Yeah, Will Smith, Will Smith took advantage of a really bad, what was it? I have it in my notes here.

Took advantage of a one-one, like a one-one hanging change-up, and you know, Zach Davies will be the first one to admit. That was a bad pitch, but that was the only mistake he made all game, and you will take that. The biggest thing here was it really felt like this was a close game

where the Diamondbacks had to do everything right in order to keep it close. Yeah. including some of manager Tori Lobolo's calls, some of his bullpen calls. I know we both clutched each other when they brought in Scott McGuff there in the ninth inning after Andrew Chafin had been dealing. But the bullpen was solid. There is a considerable amount of, especially in this game, of credit the needs to go towards the bullpen. Not only was Scott McGuff solid in the ninth inning into Andrew Chaffin, but I mean the bullpen was kind of solid.

entire game. When they brought in guys, I mean, Miguel Castro was just absolutely filthy. Yeah, absolutely filthy. You kidding me? Coming in throwing a 97 mile an hour sinker in there and then that wicked, that wicked slider, we will take that. Yeah, no runs, no hits. Seven case as Michael McDermott. That is how the pen did today. So, but again, there were a lot of little moments that the Diamondbacks tried to make something happen. Some things didn't go right for them like Catelle Marte getting thrown out at a crucial play at home when you could argue that the Diamondback shouldn't have sent him in such a big moment. But they did everything they could on the base path to continue putting pressure on the Dodgers. And inevitably, that was what the big, that was what the big turning point was for them there in the ninth inning.

Corby and Carroll stole both second and third base today. Will Smith was unable to make a thrill either time. Carol stole three bases. Three total bases on zero throws. Yeah. That's what speed'll do to you, baby. Pretty fast. Pretty fast.

And of course, Geraldo Perdomo maintained his wrist king status with an RBI double that knocked Carol in. And of course, Carol getting on base was another key to this game, not only staying close, but being close there late. And I know we have other stuff to talk about in regards to Saturday nights game and the rest of this series, of course. but we have Jake McCarthy who actually had some information, some more, on how this speed impacted this particular game. It's a hard play even the other night without men taking an extra base on me. I feel like speed applies some pressure there, and this series, you know, balls didn't seem to be dropping, you know, feet flyouts, ground outs, whatever.

So I figured that's a, you know, you do the percentages there. I'm a pretty good bunter. I've been working on that play this spring. so, you know, why not? McCarthy used his speed there to get on base in a play that actually, I mean, that's one of those situations where it literally applied that pressure that caused the mistake that was made, right? I mean, that was a pretty fairly routine ground ball,

just like we saw Corbyn Carroll get on base with earlier in this season, right? Where just even a routine ground ball is not an easy out against this time of back team. Yeah, that's DVax baseball, right? Put the pressure on the defense. They won on a, they won on a ninth inning, two-out drag punt. Yeah, that's D-Bags baseball, man. I mean, Jake McCarthy didn't have a hit in this series, right?

But still ended up playing a critical role. Jesse ended up sending a tweet before that ninth inning. I can't, I can't find it's way back, way down there where it was Rojas, Thomas, and McCarthy were over 24 at one point in this series. And then what happened? Jake McCarthy just makes things happen. He is a baller, man. He's just every winning team needs a guy like Jake McCarthy who's willing to do whatever it takes to get that win, right?

Yeah. And you just love to see it. Like, I, like, what kind of, man, what kind of mental fortitude does it take to drop down a bunt with two outs at Dodgers. Oh, yeah. In the ninth inning. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

And you just love to see this. And again, there's plenty of calls that, uh, that Tori Lavello made in this series that led to the two wins that they had. Like his man, his managing of these games was critical at times. I mean, again, even when we talked about there in the ninth inning, we were not big fans of the move to go away from Chafin. And they worked. Both times.

Hats off the story, man. He knows what he's doing, I guess. I found Jesse's tweet. Yeah, Jesse tweeted out, Josh Rojas, Alec Thomas, and Jake McCarthy are over 24 to start the season. And that was prior to, I believe, that, I don't know, was that considered a hit. Let's see. That's a good question. Yeah, that was a hit.

It was hit. So Jake McCarthy picked a great time to get that one down. Lay down the perfect button. Of course, Corbyn Carroll, another big part of this win like we talked about. And he continues to make things happen. Honestly, even if he's not doing great at the dish, he finds a way to get on base. He finds a way to make things happen. And I think we have more from Carol in the clubhouse.

Pretty sick. Yeah, I love it, right? I don't think any of us are really feeling our best of the player right now, except maybe Walk's going to probably feeling pretty good, but just to find a way to grit that one out, right? Like, that's just, that's who he is as a player. And it's awesome to see. And he's not wrong.

Christian Walker was outstanding in this season. In fact, we are giving Christian Walker our D-BACs, PHNX D-Backs, King Snake of the series. Christian Walker, a 429 batting average with the sole. solo run in that thumping that they took against the Dodgers in game three to RBI. But that's fine. The biggest thing here is that Christian Walker looks very good at the dish. He was able to get on base plenty.

And honestly, it's, it's could be a, he could be a catalyst, right? They're hitting in the middle of the lineup. With these other guys getting on base, it really doesn't matter how they get on base, whether it's with the bat or taking walks, you know, whatever way that they can get on base. But, I mean, Christian Walker being there is pretty, pretty key. and doing a great job. Yeah. And I mean, if you look at last season

where Christian Walker was barreling up everything, and it just happened to go right to defenders every single time. There was a, there was a stat being thrown around last year that he was the most, he was the most unlucky player in all of baseball.

Yeah. And so now, you know, you're hoping that you see, you're hoping that you see those balls that he's just been scorching a drop. So hopefully, you know, I'm 420, 429's pretty good, huh?

That's not bad. And also, don't look now, but Geraldo Pernaubon's also batting 400. So you'll take it, you know? Yeah. But most importantly, the most important thing of all, no matter what happened in the series, the Arizona Diamondbacks are 500. Let's get up Mel 500, baby. Throw the graphic up there.

Let's go, David. Let's get up in the 500. Oh, I miss this. Let's go. Get out to the top of there. Can tell. Oh, man. Yeah, this is a lot of fun.

And, of course, Saturday night, not so fun, right? Madison Bumgarner was diagnosed apparently with arm fatigue after the game. And I guess that's what you call it after you give up five run runs and four innings pitch. But Superjet from the buck stops here. Let's go. When's the mad bum vent session? Right now. Right now.

What in the actual fuck, man? Like, come on. I mean, this is ridiculous, especially when you see how well that, like opening day wasn't great. Opening day was not good, but Trace Thompson? You're going to, you're going to give up three home runs to Trace fucking Thompson. Chicago White Sox legend, Trace Thompson. Are you kidding me in one game? Not over six games, not over a month.

Three home runs in one game. Oh my God. It killed me so much. But here's the thing. They talked about this on the radio broadcast. Apparently, apparently, apparently. Thomas has the third highest OPS in all of baseball dating back to the end of last season, which that's impossible.

There's no way that that's a fact. But apparently he just trails Aaron Judge and Mike Trout. Who? Uh, for an OPS. Oh boy. Yeah. Trace Thompson. Yeah, Sean talking about arm fatigue.

Arm fatigue in your first start, your arm fatigue in your first start of the season is not what you want from your, your, your, your five-year, however many million-dollar guy, like, oh my gosh. Like, you got to be. Do we want to talk about how much he's making just this year? No. Do we want to run out? I don't. I really don't.

I could. I have it right here. The information is right here. I don't want to talk about it. You don't want me to talk about it either. I mean, there does come a point where, obviously, it's what everybody's been talking about. It's, you know, when it comes to Mad Bomb, it's not a new conversation. This just reinforces it.

You come off of an off-season. You want, we're rooting for you. We're rooting for Mad Bum. It is not like we want the guy to frame. That's the biggest, that's the weirdest part of this is it feels like we're rooting against him. But we're not. We're not. We sincerely want Mad Bum to be a part of this rotation and be a valuable part of this rotation.

Right. But four, four earnings pitch, four hits, five earn runs, four walks, two strikeouts, one home run. And the biggest thing was he was throwing at like 88 miles per hour. Yeah. Yeah. And that was all spring too. It's not like this is a new, uh, everything rough some Roman

Can we get Petey in here? Yeah, we need Petit in here. Because I can't. I can't do this because Pete is no way. He said the bar. He really did. I mean, there's no Roman ad read today,

but if there were, I would say that maybe, maybe Roman would help strengthen his performance. Maybe he could last longer in there, you know, but yeah, we're not going to go down that route.

But let's get, yeah, let's get the, let's get the, let's get Drey and, there as a starter, you know, like the opener and then just have them go whole six and then have Madhump come in and throw one inning, right? You don't want to sit, like the thing that's really frustrating to me is you have these young talented arms. You have, you have, you have Dre Jameson, you have Brandon Fatt, you got, you got Ryan Nelson. And then you just got Madison

Pumgar who's going up there throwing 88 miles an hour walking guys and and and this has been this has been a storyline in baseball dating back to a point where I didn't even understand it as a kid watching baseball movies, right? The incumbent veteran that obviously kind of gets given that that spot just because of what they've done in the past, but not based on how they're playing now, right? And some, you know, some pitchers is age better than others. I had not to cut you off, but like, no, he's not that old. He's 33 years old.

Merrill Kelly is older than him. So stop the presses on the Madison Bumgarders over the hill. Like, he's had a lengthy career because he's a very good pitcher. But very good pitchers in baseball can have their career suddenly shortened for no reason at all other than the fact that you're, you know, you're old. Michael says Fott got roughed up today at Reno. Yeah, who doesn't in Reno? Everybody gets roughed up in Reno. It's fine.

I gave up two home runs today in Reno. I didn't even, I'm not leaving out there. Veteran presence. I love that. Yeah. Veteran presence. That's what it is. Oh, man.

Yeah. Just some pitchers, you will get mad at Madison and Bumgar. his career. It's not like he was the Zach Granky's cerebral pitcher, right? For so much of his career and even most of his playoff runs is like, all right, here's here's 97, hit it if you can

and most of the time they couldn't. And now once you don't have 97, you're kind of having to really relearn how to pitch. Yeah, but we can accentuate the positives because on the other side, Zach Davies, that we didn't at least speaking personally, didn't have a lot of faith

in going out there and closing the series strong today, did an outstanding job. And if the Diamondbacks get this kind of performance out of Zach Davies going forward, at least four out of five of their starting pitching, you know, pitchers right now could be potentially pretty dangerous. Yeah, you will take that. The debacks, I was thinking, like, I was already so fresh driving in. You have the one, the solo home run in the first, right? Like, oh, God, here we go again. The debacks will go as far as their three, four, and five stars will take them. Whoever that may be throughout the season,

you know, that always changes, injuries, whatever. They will go as far as their three, four and five starters will take them. Yeah. Because, you know, Zach Gallon is going to be Zach Gallen. Merrill Kelly is going to be Merrill Kelly. So, you know, you love to, like, you love to see if, if Zach Davies is going to show up, he's going to be the Zach Davies that we expected last year, then who knows, who knows what's going to happen.

I still can't get over, Trace Thompson, three home runners. Eight RBI. Eight RBI. incredible incredible and will smith was also a problem so again the one thing i want to reiterate when it comes to this diamondbacks uh defense or the pitching staff they took care of business against freddie freeman and mooky bets they still got some hits but they weren't the problem in this series for the diamond backs it really was the other guys uh outman uh surprisingly the opposite of his name not not an easy out quite the opposite uh Miguel Rojas walked like eight

times in the series, if I'm correct, maybe even nine. I stopped counting after a while. Not because I like got bored, but just I refused to count anymore. It was just so absurd after a while. So a lot of things to tighten up, but that's the positive here, is that there was a lot of mistakes made. The offense really didn't show up in the series at all. And they still split the series.

And they still split the series with the best team in baseball, essentially. For the last five years, right? The Dodgers are the team of beat. And as much as we hate admitting that now, that's what they are. And they did it on seven runs in the entire series. I know. So you know what? When this offense starts clicking, I think this was Jacob that was talking about this.

But when this offense starts to click, watch out. We going to be a problem. Watch out. We going to be a problem, maybe. But thank you guys for being here right now in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. If you haven't done so already, make sure to subscribe to the channel. That way you don't miss me in this hat every Sunday. Don't miss all the other wonderful shows going on on this network.

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And now, speaking of the Defenlock, listen to Shane, talk about the disclaimer. Disclaimer, 21 plus to wager, visit BetmGM.com for terms and conditions. U.S. promotional offers not available in Washington, D.C., Mississippi, Nevada, New York, and Ontario. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Louisiana. Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming. Call 8778-N-Y or text Hope, NY, 467-369, New York. Call 1-800-5-2-2-7-0-6-0-Kususon, New York. Call 1-800-5-2-2-2-7-1-1-1-7 for confidential help. Michigan. He's good at that. Man. He's good at that. You know, it's funny because you think it's pre-recorded, but he's just doing, he's in the other room doing it live every, every time.

I am thinking ahead to WrestleMania night too. You're not wrong about that. But until we get to that point, we have lots of fun stuff to break down when it comes to the numbers in this series. Let's take a look at these numbers in this four-game series because it's a little lopsided. And, you know, if all you're considering is the numbers. Yeah. Baseball makes no sense at all. Baseball doesn't make any sense at all.

It's so much fun. Okay, so I don't know what to address here, whether it's being outscored 20 to 7 and, you know, still splitting the series. I think it's impressive that the Diamondbacks almost equaled the hit output, though, right? You know, 25 hits to 29 hits. Errors, the Diamondbacks played fairly error-free, you know, baseball, which is a big part of the way that they were able to eke out two of these games. Yeah, man, just the 20 to 7 and still come away with a split.

I love that. And that's starting pitching ERA. Yeah, starting pitching ERA. Starting pitching you're already, great. Yeah, but you know, you really look to the walks of that. That's really the reason for that. 23 to 1 is not great. It wasn't until the ninth inning today that the D-BAC saw a three-ball count.

And, you know, that's not exactly what you're looking for when you're winning baseball games, but it doesn't really matter because they won two out of four, baby. 23 walks to one walk. That's crazy. The batting average was a little bit better there. It was actually 278 for the D-Backs for five first. 18 and 8 for 30 but 8 for 30 versus 5 for 18 I mean the Dodgers had plenty of opportunities and to be honest they weren't very good with runners and scoring positions they were 0 4 or 04 and two of the games and

that's the two losses so again the diamondbacks were able to find a way to win and that's what's important for a young team that's still trying to I guess develop their identity yeah like we know what they're going to be right they're going to be it's going to be it's going to be team wins like this Jesse's going to be busy in the clubhouse quite a bit because of the fact that he's going to need to talk to so many guys, right? And there's just a lot of guys pitching in. But Zach Davies somehow was by far the best starter for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Yeah, not particularly close either.

Yeah, we're talking about Davies going five innings, giving up four hits. Almost every single, you know, almost every single player here gave up four hits or more. But Zach Davies somehow went the longest at five innings pitch, four hits, one earned run, two walks, four strikeouts. You have Zach Gowan, four and two-thirds, six hits, five earn runs, three walks, seven Ks in his outing. Merrill Kelly, three and two-thirds, four hits. He was very good in not giving up very many runs. He didn't give up any at all, but he had his four walks and his four strikeouts. And then we already talked about Madison Bumgardner. But when you take a look at what the Dodgers starting pitching was able to do, I mean, it was just one stellar outing after the next.

That's the reason why that ERA is a poultry 1.44 in four games for their pitching, their starting pitching staff. Urius gave up two earn runs. Dustin May gave up nothing, barely gave up any hits. He gave up three hits and seven innings pitched. He was their best hit starting pitcher in this series. Kershaw and six innings gave up four hits, one earn run, no walks, nine K's. So an excellent outing for Kershaw.

And Cinderguard today was somehow just incredible mowing down. He was the Mets Cindergarde again, apparently. Yeah, so he gave up four hits, one earn run, no walk, six K's. So the Diamondbacks were up against some formidable starting pitching. Once they were able to get into that bullpen, though, they made some things happen. And of course, the drawing the one walk, that's just incredible. And of course, it was Geraldo Perdomo with the one walk, right? Who he's up there to walk and sometimes he'll run into one, right?

But it's a... Yeah, D-Backs got a lot to work on. You and I talked about this while we were watching the game. To me, it looks like the D-backs are really... trying to adjust to the new rules, right? No shifts. You see a lot of guys going up there, and they're just swinging out of their shoes,

swinging early, trying to pull the ball. You know, you're not going to get on base when you're trying to do that, right? So, you know, once the season gets going, it's not opening weekend anymore, you're not in L.A. You find your footing. I think the offense will be just fine.

I don't think there are a whole lot of people that are too worried about the D-BAC's offense. I certainly am not. Sure. I think this is just a product of facing really good pitching. adjusting to the new rules and adjusting to sort of the new season. There's a lot of new faces. There's a lot of, you know, a lot of stuff going on.

So I will, I am very excited to see what this team can do when the offense gets going. Matthew says in the chat, did my wife just say Christian Walker is hot, not wrong. She's not wrong. Whether you're talking metaphorically in his bat right now or just general hotness. Like, yeah, that's a hot dude right there. yeah, she's not wrong. She's very correct. Also very hot. Miguel Vargas, again, very hot.

You know, he's a hot dude. But hot at the plate because he was able to walk eight times in this series. How? Is it all that time he spent with the bat on his shoulder during spring training? Because it fucking works. The man has an eye at the plate like nobody else. I mean, whatever the Dodgers made him do where he wasn't allowed to swing for so long, somehow worked. It worked in spring training and it's working now.

And he carried over and, God. Like, what the heck is happening there? Like, I don't even know, man. Baseball is so dumb and I love it. It is. It's the best. It's the dumbest game out there, and I love it more than anything. Tori Lobello did talk about Zach Davies today and his contributions.

This was sent to us over by Jesse, who will be joining us very shortly. But this is what Tori Lobolo had to say about the job Zach Davies did. Yeah, it was a big ask. It's a day game. We're down two to one in the series, and we're going to fight to even the series. comes out and is throwing the ball as good as I've seen him all spring training. And it was an aggressive fastball changing speeds. And yeah, he wiggled out of some jams.

And he's just got a good heartbeat. I had a conversation with him. We just felt like in the first outing, we were going to clip these guys short. He'd been built up to 80 pitches. He probably could have gotten seven more pitches. But at that point, it didn't make sense. And he gave us all he had for as long as he had. That's, again, yeah.

Like I agree with him about Zach Davies. I know that they were all going to be on a short leash. But there's something to be said maybe about how the Diamondbacks hitters weren't really working the count much and letting the starters last as long as we did. Because by comparison, it was just, you know, Diamondbacks starters being pulled in fourth regularly. And the Dodgers starters banking it to seven innings. Yeah, both Dustin May and Noah Cindergarde entered the seventh inning with 70 pitches. You just can't do that. You can't allow them.

You can't just go hacking early, right? You can't allow the team starters to go that deep that easily, right? And, you know, like we said, I think that's just a product of a new season. They're pushing. Evan Longoria even said it yesterday in his postgame interview that. He feels like they're pushing. Yeah, they're pressing a little too much. So, you know, wait to see what goes on.

Man, I'm just excited. We've got the two wins. I'm pumped. I'm pumped. And I know who else is pumped? joining us right now from Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. It's the vice mayor of Chavez Ravine himself, the one and only Jesse Friedman.

Jesse, get in here. How you doing, buddy? Yeah, my computer's struggling a little bit with the bright sunshine. You're doing the Alec Thomas thing to us, buddy. The lighting is pretty bright. Can you go close your minds behind you or something? I mean, I can go like this. We believe that you're there.

I know that you didn't go to SoFi, and I know you're not watching WrestleMania. So for the most part, I trust that you're actually there. A little bit. I do have a little suspicion that you might not be a Dodger Stadium. But tell us a little bit more about what you saw today and how kind of unlikely it was that the Diamondbacks are leaving Los Angeles with two wins.

Yeah, yeah. You know, you get outscored 20 to 7 in a four-game series. You don't necessarily expect to be talking about a series split, right? That's true. That's exactly what the Arizona Diamondbacks were able to pull off. Who cares about run differential, right? Nobody. Those are the standard.

Goes into standing. Got out of here with those runs. These two teams both won two games in the series. And at the end of the day, that's, you know, that's really all that matters. I think, you know, if you look at it on a macro scale, the Diamondbacks got outperformed in probably every facet of the game in this series. If we're being honest, right? The Dodgers starting pitching was substantially better.

The Dodgers had a better overall performance from their bullpen. The Dodgers offense was significantly more productive. I guess the defenses were maybe somewhat comparable. But yeah, I mean, this is the type of stuff that good teams do, right? Pretty much everyone in the Diamondbacks Clubhouse and Toro Lavello as well was talking about how the Diamondbacks haven't hit their stride yet, particularly offensively. No one, as I think you heard in that clip from Corbyn Carroll earlier. No, I don't think any Diamondbacks hitter is really feeling all that great at the plate at this point,

as you can see in the results on the field. they have something like 25 hits or something like that over four games. That's not great. But at the end of the day, the Diamondbacks earned a series split. And I saw a tweet from Nick Piccora a few moments ago. This is the first time the Diamondbacks have gone to Los Angeles and not lost a series since 2018. So a series split in this ballpark is a really big thing for the Diamondbacks. Danielle also pulled that stat, by the way, which was pretty impressive.

But, Jesse, I will say this. and it's not, obviously not measurable, but it felt like the Diamondbacks did the little things to kind of, you know, create a run, create a situation where they could get a base runner on, whatever way they could. And on the flip side, it didn't really feel like the Dodgers had maybe that sense of urgency at times.

Like, it really felt like the Dodgers, I don't know if it's a confidence, I don't know if they just thought that, like, they would have a big inning eventually, but it really felt like Tori was trying to do everything he could at times to get a run here, get somebody on, you know, whatever the case may be, even if it didn't work out, it really just felt like he was doing whatever he could to get a win in a close game like this.

I think the Diamondbacks are just better at the small ball thing than the Dodgers are, right? The Dodgers can kill you with Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, you know, doing what they're going to do. Will Smith had a big series for them as well. Yeah, I don't know if it's as much about the Dodgers having less of a sense of urgency is the Diamondbacks just being really good at small ball, right? You saw that a few times in this game. Corbyn Carroll stole two bases in the middle of this game, wound up turning into a run with a hit from Geraldo Perdomo,

who of course came through with runners in scoring position, as somehow he always does. The Risping, Geraldo Ferdomo, right, as we always say. And then, yeah, I mean, you saw there in the ninth inning with Jake McCarthy literally laying down a drag bunt in the ninth inning with two outs. not really the kind of thing that you're used to seeing. But it worked.

And the Diamondbacks speed is going to be one of the biggest assets that they have throughout the season. We've talked a lot about that and how fun that can make this baseball team. And the Diamondbacks basically won this game with their speed. If Corby and Carroll doesn't steal those two bases, he probably doesn't score on that hit by Eraldo Perdomo. And if Jake McCarthy isn't as fast as he is, he probably doesn't put the kind of pressure that he did on Gratterol to make that play and cause him to bobble it.

So the Diamondbacks scored two runs basically with their speed in this game and with how good the bullpen was today and how good Zach Davies was, the Diamondbacks were able to get a win. That's the key, I think, is in these close games, the Diamondbacks weren't able to sometimes do this last year. Like, even if they kept games close, even if they got down to the wire, it felt like the bullpen would fall apart. And the bullpen did not fall apart, not at least in the crucial wins. The losses, yeah, there were some guys that didn't perform still not super excited. about Cole Solcer's performances and still, still a little hesitant on Scott McGuff, but he really showed us something today. I felt like they're coming in and locking it down in the ninth inning.

I just felt like maybe, you know, maybe at times he was thrown into games that were, it was a bit much, you know, it was a bit, bit high pressure and just just was all kind of new to him being back in Major League Baseball in one of those situations at Dodger Stadium. But the bullpen, very impressive, I felt like, in the two wins at least. Yeah, Tori Lavello, after the game, praise Miguel Castro in particular. We went through the middle of this lineup late in the game. Filthy stuff. Filthy stuff.

Yeah, really, really, really good stuff, right? This is what we've talked about all offseason. The Diamondbacks have guys now who can throw 98 miles an hour with a wipeout slider. And Miguel Castro was certainly showing that today. Yeah, this is a really good performance from the Diamondbacks bullpen. As much as we've talked in the last few days about how no one really looks all that great outside of Dre Jameson. and what he did on Friday. It was really good all the way around.

I don't think the bullpen even gave up a hit in their four innings today. So seven strikeouts, just really, really good stuff across the board. Kyle Nelson, I was also impressed with. He came in and faced three guys, was able to get all of them out in that sixth inning. And two of them were right-handed hitters. It wasn't really the typical matchup that you'd expect for Kyle Nelson. One of those guys was Trace Thompson as well, which after. We saw yesterday.

I was speaking about him earlier. You don't necessarily think that bringing in a lefty to face Trace Thompson is a great idea. But yeah, Nelson looked good in that sixth inning. I know he hit about her to start the seventh. But yeah, I mean, those guys were just able to kind of feed off each other and clean up each other's messes at times. And it worked out really well. I think the biggest key here for me was really, again, Tori Lavallo's management of the game. I felt like the wins, you have to tip your gigantic, your big stupid hat to Tori.

And you have to give credit where credits do because some of the moves he made were, you know, ended up being the right moves. And it ended up leading to these close victories. And I mean, that's that's what managing a game is all about sometimes. It still feels like, you know, like we don't know these guys. We don't know who we can rely on. so we don't know when to overreact to Tori bringing out certain guys. There's no Mark Melanson yet for us to freak out about. But Scott McGuff definitely gets a checkmark, a gold star for today.

He was really, really good in Japan. And I know he didn't look great in his first outing the other day, walked two out of the three hitters he faced when he came in this game. I did kind of wonder for a second, like, all right, here we go again. Scott McGuff in a high-levered situation. The last time around didn't go so well, putting him in another really big spot in this game. But, you know, it was the bottom of the Dodgers lineup, which certainly helped.

And yeah, I mean, it was quick and easy for Scott McGuff. And I wouldn't be surprised if he's the kind of guy who's able to mature into that late-inning guy for the Diamondbacks. I don't know if they're ever going to name a closer officially. But if we're talking about who's going to get the most saves at the end of the year, I think McGuff is probably in the mix to get a lot of those opportunities. It felt, today felt right. Today felt right because it felt like he was just managing the game. And obviously the outcome is the reason why it felt right.

In hindsight, had they lost and he, you know, Scott McGuff had been the reason. We would be screaming at Tori right now, you know, and asking why he didn't leave Chafin'in'in and all these other things, right? But I think there is some freedom there, right, to use whatever pitcher you think is going to provide you with the best results in that role, in that scenario, right? And yeah, it might be Scott McGuff a lot, but there might be nights where maybe someone has been dealing and he would feel more comfortable putting a Miguel Castro in that role after, you know, Miguel has been throwing the ball really well

or something like that. Just the idea, the concept of a designated closer being gone feels like it provides Tori with more freedom to do things that might result in a better, you know, less losses by the bullpen than we saw in 2022. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you're not. you don't have your hands tied behind your back with one particular guy.

If one guy is struggling in a role, then you feel the ability to remove them from that role and not keep forcing them into that spot over and over again, like we've seen with, you know, Mark Malanson last year, and Greg Holland and Brad Boxburger, the list of aging closers goes on. Ian Kennedy last year was like the next option, right? Because obviously Kennedy had a closing experience,

but it just didn't feel like he was the right one. But once, you know, Malanson wasn't available and he had to go to Kennedy, It was like clockwork that he would go to Kennedy automatically in those high leverage situations. This just feels different. It feels better, much like Tori's ability to manage this game differently with the speed that he has on this team. It feels like he can manage it differently with the bullpen that he has now. But, Jesse, I did want to ask you about the one play that we saw. I know we have some video here from Tori talking about Cattel being sent there in the ninth inning,

which made us all have a little bit of a heart attack, lose our minds just a little bit. This is what Tori had to say about Tony Parishika's decision to send Cotel in that situation. I know it's easy to be hypercritical in that situation where they have a first and third and no outs and you've got your probably arguably your best run for these are coming up. All's well that ends well.

I'll say that. I love it. What a response. Where did Jesse go? Get Jesse back in here. He made Jesse go away. I kicked Jesse off the show. Sorry, Jesse. That was a pretty funny moment. And I'd be pretty honest. Yeah. It was especially funny because at the beginning of the press conference, when the topic of that play came up initially, I think Tori's exact words where I loved the send by TP. But you can tell it was sort of, you know, like kind of Tori speak a little bit. And then later on when we asked that question directly, he was like, eh, all's well, that ends well. Yeah, right.

Tony Perr's cheek under the bus or anything. But yeah, that made no sense. I think we can be honest here and say that's absolutely no sense. You've got a man on, you've got a man on second base, right? Gurriel singles. You would have had first and third, nobody out with Christian Walker, your hottest hitter coming to the plate. There's really no reason to test the arm of any outfielder, and especially Mookie Betts. Like the guy who literally has arguably the strongest arm in the National League, I'm not really

sure where the logic in that was. But I think what this does for me is it really points to how important Christian Walker was in this game. Because Christian Walker comes out the next play, he singles, and suddenly you're able to forget about that play a little bit. Tori talked about how, as you would expect. Except for the fact that he would have scored. except for that.

We definitely didn't forget about this here in the studio. That is fair. That is fair. Yeah, I don't think you're alone. I think everyone was like great. Yeah, we literally would have had a run right there with that base hit. But that was still really big from Christian Walker to come through right away to give his team some hope that, you know, they still had a shot to score in that inning.

And, you know, Corbyn Carroll wasn't able to get it done. But of course, Jake McCarthy lays down the drag bunt. And honestly, I think if Gratterol makes that play cleanly, he probably gets the out at first base. but Jake McCarthy is really fast and when you have guys who are really fast it puts pressure on the defense and it makes them make mistakes. That's it. It's like Corbyn, right?

I mean, there's other guys that there's other guys in this lineup that could not have done today what Corbyn was able to do, right? Yeah, and speed again too, right? Taylor made double play that he beats out and he end up scoring the next play. They're doing this quite a bit to these guys and they're making it out to, they're putting them in a position

where you have to make kind of a perfect play. and that just doesn't happen in baseball all the time. So it's like, yeah, it's not going to work out all the time. And yeah, we're going to see these young guys with their speed struggle to get on, even with how fast they can get down the line. But it's going to keep defense is really honest. And the biggest thing is that in a close game like this,

that one run meant the world to the Diamondbacks in this case. You know, in a close two to one ball game, you can't expect your bullpen and you're starting pitching to go out and just put up one on the board every game. So this isn't going to work out. for them if they if they can't find a way to unlock their offense and get things back on track and dish but for now they're finding a way like you said the small ball the way to get get on a way to manufacture run to do something to give themselves a run but there was a an interesting series of

tweets that came out about some of the let's talk about some of the losses i know we covered the other ones that we did the post game for but saturday's loss was especially ugly another especially ugly loss, even worse than opening day. But Eno Eno was pointing out. Saris on Twitter. Absolute legend. I was pointing out on Twitter how the Diamondbacks may have been tipping their pitches a bit in that game.

Mostly Kevin Ginkle, a little bit of Madison Bumgardner, but Kevin Ginkle was showing some things that Saris was able to pick up while watching it. He says here, it looks like the debacks were tipping pitches last night against the Dodgers. some pictures. Kevin Ginkle's slider. You can see there's a wrist. You see his wrist is curled there. And you can see that little gap of green in between that the pit or the hitters can also see on their end when they're looking out towards the outfield. And then you'll see here in the next picture, this is Kevin Ginkle fastball. No wrist curled, no grass you can see in between.

So obviously that's a big tip. That's a big tip of your pitches. If you're literally holding your wrist at a different angle, depending on what kind of pitch you were throwing. He also talked about Madison Bumgarner letting run. runner on second C right into his glove and not doing a good job of hiding that. That gets relayed in here. That, I believe, is once again, Chicago White Sox legend, Trace Thompson at the dish who that hit the whole grand slam on this play.

So not great, not great. But again, things that might be able to be worked on and corrected to allow these guys to have more success than they had in two of these games in this series. I don't know how much you guys have talked about Madison Bumgarner already. news that they came out today. But yeah, he wasn't great yesterday. And I don't think it was just because he was maybe tipping some of his pitches. The stuff just wasn't the same yesterday for Mad Bum, right? Velocity was down about two miles an hour across the board. So yeah, he's being sent back to Arizona to be evaluated by the team doctors. We'll see what comes out of that.

It certainly sounds like as of right now the Diamondbacks aren't planning on making any roster moves and he's still lined up to make his next start, which would come against the Dodgers once again on Friday at Chase Field. But we'll see. I mean, if something shows up, maybe the Diamondbacks get Bumgarner off the mound for a little while and try to figure out what is going on there. Maybe it's not just that he was struggling yesterday, which he was, but maybe there's actually an underlying health issue that had a role in that.

Jesse, you're going to get on the road and you are off to San Diego next, which which if you guys want to join Jesse out there in San Diego, that's a fun road trip to have. And of course, you need to stock up at our friends at Circle K before you head out. Their polar pop stay cold longer. Their ice coffee is just cheaper. Why pay $5 for an ice coffee when you can get one for just $1.89 at Circle K? Not to mention all of my energy drinks that I need to survive are available there.

And it's hard to find a better price when you can get Red Bulls 3 for $8 and Monsters $3 for $6. Make sure you're not missing out on all this great stuff and be stocked up all March Madness long. Head to CircleK.com slash store locator that CircleK.com store dash locator to find CircleKs near you. And make sure you get stocked up before you head out on the road for any road trips this summer for going to watch baseball. Baseball road trips are the best. I love baseball road trips so much, especially to San Diego. That's a fun place to go.

Also, while you're at CircleK, make sure grab yourself plenty of Four Peaks beers. Their spring training tours are a wrap, but maybe they'll still. show you where the ghosts help make the beer at over there at the 8th Street Pub. Check out their events calendar at 4Peaks.com slash events for all your beer week entertainment needs. And most importantly, get ready this April 27th for the NFL draft. We are going to be out there. Cardinals, new coach, Cardinals, new GM, Cardinals, third pick in the draft. It's a big opportunity for our team and the best place to take in this pivotal moment and the rest of the NFL draft on April 27th is at the 4Peaks 8th Street Pub.

Must be 21 years or older to enjoy their beer and enjoy responsibly. but chicken tendies those are for anybody of any age is what I need to say but Jesse will be in San Diego taking in the two-game series with the Padres we have the probabilities for that series coming up here Ryan Weathers gets to start for the Padres against Ryan Nelson so the Battle of Ryan's Ryan Ryan and Ryan I don't know Is that not not going to be confusing at all? Is that not the same name?

Do we have to pronounce those two names differently? But in game two, this is quite the matchup, U Darvish versus Zach Gallen. That's a pretty marquee matchup there. Jesse, your thoughts on young Ryan Nelson making his first start of the season, as well as Zach Gallen getting back on the bump after a rough opening day.

Should be fun to watch. It should be a lot of fun to watch tomorrow night in San Diego. I'm looking forward to that one. Ryan Nelson and his last spring start looked really, really good. That game against Cleveland, the exhibition game out at Chase Field. Hopefully he's able to carry that in. to San Diego. The key thing I'll be looking for is, is how much is he relying on that four-seem fastball? Is he able to get to the slider, the curve ball, the change up? Is he getting swings and misses on

pitches outside of the four-seamer? When he has all four of those pitches working like he did in that series against Cleveland, you can kind of see where some people are coming from when they talk about Ryan Nelson being a mid-rotation starter, maybe even a top of the rotation starter at some point in the future. So that should be a fun one with Ryan Weathers on the mound for the Padres lefty. Another lefty on the mound. The Diamondbacks lineup, I'm sure, will be adjusted accordingly tomorrow night. And then Tuesday is U.

Darvish's first start of the season, actually. Yeah. I think because of his involvement in the WBC, the Padres kind of pushed him back a little bit. So that'll be his first start of the season. Padres were able to battle back after the Rockies came out hot and took the first two games in that four-game series. And now, much like Jesse tried to warn us on opening day,

just temper your expectations. because it's early and blah, blah, blah. But, Jesse, we got a four-way tie for first place in the National League West now. So things aren't looking so bad versus how they were looking after opening day. Yeah, I mean, this is the time for overreactions, right? It's a time where, you know, if you're a Rockies fan, then you're convinced that... Oh, they were fucking, they were popping bottles of champagne and shit over there at DNVR. You don't even start.

They were so excited. They were already crowned their asses. You might want to mark April 2nd as the last day of 2023 that the Colorado Rockies had a 500 or better record because I'm not sure it's going to last after after I'm just saying once they get to 2 and 3 I'm not even going to post it online. I'm just posted up sending this right to the NBR in the chat. I don't know. I don't know if they're going to be able to make up that ground once they get under 500. So so although the Rockies do have kind of a history of being pretty good in April, it feels like that's happened.

kind of a lot the last few years and then, you know, eventually it seems like they kind of slow their way down. But yeah, the Padres didn't play as well in that series as I'm sure they were hoping to. But yeah, it should be a fun little two gamer in San Diego. Zach Gallen and talk about him, that Tuesday game for him is going to be really big. He obviously was not sharp at all in his first start here in Los Angeles. So hopefully we see Gallen able to bounce back in that one. There's only one thing that matters, Jesse. And that is the fact that the Diamondbacks are back at the top of Mount 500.

Damon, Jesse hasn't seen it. Let's throw this guy back up there. All right. I've seen it. I've seen it last year. You saw plenty. Hopefully we get to use that one lots this year. Talked about getting over 500 for sure.

But we thank you so much for joining us and all your hard work in Los Angeles. We're very happy that you are safe and that you did not get attacked by anybody, according to Shane's chat GPT story that he wrote about you. Very, very, very factual, very, a lot of details in there. I'm still kind of scared about that. But we'll see you in San Diego. And then we'll see you back here for the opening day here at Chase Field, where we will once again have to take on the Dodgers on an opening day.

Can't get enough of the Dodgers, right? We cannot. We can't get enough of them. We cannot. So thank you, sir, and we will see you soon. All right. See you guys. I don't know if it was your opinion about this or your kind of theory,

but the idea was floated around, obviously, that the Diamondbacks are playing the Dodgers for their opening day or opening weekend just to pack that building, right? I mean... I wasn't, no, that wasn't me. I mean, but that's, what do you think about that? I don't, I don't buy that.

You think it's just a National League West thing? Yeah, I think it's just National League West thing. We tend to, like, we tend to open with the National League West anyways. Yeah, absolutely. So I don't think that's it. I don't know. I like to throw out.

conspiracy theories out there. I just don't want to see them twice. I don't know anybody in that building over at Tazefield that wants to see the Dodgers come to town ever. That was Damon's conspiracy. Yeah, it was Damon's conspiracy. I knew it was one of you.

I knew one of you were conspiracy theorists. But here's the thing. There's a way to watch Diamondbacks games, and that's with our friends at Fubo TV. Fubo TV has 140 live channels of sports shows and movies. You can stream live from any device, and you can watch the most Arizona sports

for the lowest price. Watch your Arizona Diamondbacks on Valley Sports with Fubo TV. Use the link in the description to sign up for 15% off your first month of Fubo Pro. So if you can't make it to the game and you need a way to watch it,

Fubo TV is your way to go. If you want to go to the game and you need tickets, the way to go is through our friends at game time. Of course, we have talked about game time being the ultimate app for procrastinators. And, you know, Thursday, you wanted to see how they were going to play

in this series. Maybe you're still waiting. Maybe you're still on the fence. Maybe you want to see it. they can split the series with the Padres before you commit to going to opening day on Thursday. Understandable, I'll tell you this. First, we will be there. And I will be handing out to some lucky winners, some foam fingers and whatnot. So make sure to join us. We'll be broadcasting live from Chase Field and we'll be having all sorts of fun. But if you want to get cheap tickets, wait until

Thursday and get your tickets last minute through game time. You can get up to save up to 60% on tickets when you buy tickets last minute. And the best way to support us is by buying your tickets through the link in the description. But wait, there's more. We are going to give away two tickets to opening day. That is right. We are just giving away two tickets to opening day. You guys have to watch this show to find out how,

but we will give those tickets away on Tuesday's post-series episode after the Padres. So stay tuned. Join us in the live chat. We are going to be giving those tickets away live in the live chat on the post-series episode. And that way you guys can join us two of you. guess I should say, or one of you and maybe a friend, maybe, you know, family member or whoever, can join us for opening days. So we're very excited for that. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I'm at cap underscore caveman with a K. Danielle is at Aberka, Danielle. Jesse Friedman is at

Jesse and Friedman. Damon is at Damon Dog with a DAWG there at the end. Of course, our show is at PHNX underscore DBAX, but all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We love you. We appreciate you guys for being here. We thank you so much for being in the chat on behalf of this entire crew and the Arizona Diamondbacks splitting the series. We thank you guys so much. And remember, kids, baseball is so much more fun when you can go into L.A. and not get beat down.