PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks’ Bullpen SPOILS Brandon Pfaadt Gem In Series Finale Loss To Cubs

Episode Date: July 21, 2024

The Arizona Diamondbacks seem to be allergic to sweeping a series, losing the finale in Chicago to the Cubs in extra innings by a score of 2-1. We discuss the bullpen blowing a phenomenal start by Brandon Pfaadt, Shota Imanaga dominating D-backs hitters, and more from our experience here in Chicago. Join Derek Montilla from Almost Home in Chicago with Jesse Friedman joining from Wrigley Field. An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose between either:Bet and Get offer and place a bet of $5 or more and get $150 in Bonus Bets OR First Bet Safety Net offer by placing a bet up to $1000 and if your qualifying bet loses you receive a matched refund in Bonus betsDisclaimer: 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/Indeed: listeners of this show will get a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity. Terms and conditions apply.  Need to hire? You need Indeed.Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks.  $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.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!Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!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.

Well, we can't have everything. We can't have everything we want in life. Sometimes we can't. We got to lose close games like this. Welcome in to the PHNXD Backs podcast right here on PHNX, right here at almost home in Chicago. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as the mayor of Wrigley Field. And I'm joined here by my man Faj, aka Jacob Franklin, on the ones and twos, as well as my son, Jesse Friedman, will be joining us shortly. from inside of that baseball cathedral over there.

But the Diamondbacks do lose today's game by a score of two to one in 10 innings. And this one was a real pitcher's duel that went down at Wrigley Field. I mean, Shoda Imanaga was absolutely outstanding today against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had Diamondbacks hitters absolutely baffled, allowing only two hits and one earn runs

with 10 strikeouts. We also have some late inning managerial decisions to not only dissect but criticize quite a bit. That probably cost the snakes this game, but the team did not lose today due to Brandon Fott, because Brandon Fott was outstanding. Fott had his entire arsenal today. Everything was working for him. And I knew he was going to have a good day when I heard the radio broadcast talk about his last name on the air.

The Chicago radio broadcast was talking about how Brandon Fott spells his name P-F-A-A-D-T. That's weird, huh? And I was like, is it his decision how he spells his last name? No, I'm pretty sure that dates back hundreds of years. I'm pretty sure it dates back hundreds of years. But whether you spell it fought or you spell it fought, it doesn't matter. My man fought hard today. He had, like I said, his full arsenal working, his fastball, his sweeper, his sinker, his changeup.

He had whiffs on all of those. He had two whiffs on his fastball, five whiffs on his sweeper, a whiff on his sinker, and four wiffs on his changeup. So we got to see Brandon fought at his absolute best today. against a Chicago Cubs team that honestly has not been very great offensively. We've had to hear quite a bit from Cubs fans here about the offensive struggles of this team. But today the Diamondbacks did their fair share of struggling. They did not give Brandon Fought very much offense. That's the Brandon Fought curse.

It really is because we either get Brandon Fought to be outstanding for his entire appearance outside of one inning. Sure. Or we get no run support for Brandon Foss. I mean, he's four and he's four and six right now. That's crazy. Quite possibly. And I understand pitcher wins don't really matter because it just, it's so impacted by what goes on. It's arbitrary, right?

It's hard to watch a guy go out there and shove every fifth day and be four and six. He gave up one hit, no runs in seven innings. He was absolutely fabulous today. Brandon fought seven innings picked one hit, zero, earn runs, one walk, seven strikeouts. And we also, I think we got to figure out a little bit more on a personal level about Brandon fought. Jacob and I, I think we got to see Brandon Fott's pregame ritual. Yeah, it's unique. It's unique, but it also makes a whole lot of sense.

We've talked at times about how Fought remains so calm, so even keeled in these big moments. Even in his interviews. Like he's just kind of like, yeah, I'm here. I'm that guy. I'm going to correct you on the pronunciation of Louisville, right? That's what he's going to do. But what we saw today pregame was Brandon Fott lifting to some very calming music. We had some Michael Bubele in there.

Maroon Fah. Like Sunday morning Maroon 5. A little Jack Johnson was in there, banana pancakes. That was relaxed. I was in the clubhouse this morning. I was like, man, I could sit one of these chairs, watch some golf, vibe to the music. Like to the music, go get myself a little peanut butter sandwich from the, from the. Then our search started because it became like a, it was like the first song kind of took everybody to.

Like, this is an interesting pump up song before the game. Now, no pump up. This was not a pump up mix. Right, right. And then it kept going. And then it became a game. Okay. Who's on the place?

playlist. Yeah. Who's got the ox cord right now? And eventually we narrowed it down. People kept leaving the room. It was basically down to like Joe Mantipli or Randtiply or Fought. Right. And you put two and two together there. Kevin Ginkle, there's nothing calm about that man. I'm surprised he's able to sit there in a chair without just screaming randomly. So you know if he had the ox cord, it would be some ACDC, Metallica. Something insane would probably be playing. And then I don't know about Joe Manciply. No, I mean, he's a makes me as a big country guy. Big country guy, right? Sure. I mean, but Brandon Fob being from Louisville is also, like, I wouldn't be surprised if he had some country in there, but it was hard to tell.

It just kind of all of a sudden dawned on us and it was like, is this his pregame? Like on the days he starts, does he just take OX? He had a little notepad and I told Jacob I'm like, the kids, they use iPads typically or other more electronic devices. A little notepad, little ink pen action, looked like he was very much in his element and you could see that translate onto the field today with his performance. Of course, why are we talking about Brandon fought this much? Because he deserves it.

The rest of this team deserves not to be talked about at all. But we have to talk about Tori Lobolo's managerial decisions there because there's a good chance that they cost this team the game. The offense, though, again, didn't give Brandon fought much support today. In fact, they did the minimum. They did the minimum amount of support. They did the least amount you could do. Well, no, they did one.

They had the least you could do is zero. I don't know. I mean, if you're calling it one support. Wait, wait, is zero higher than one in some new world? No, no, no, no, no. Zero is like a absolute abject failure. One is like, you, you, you, you, we did it. You took me out to dinner last minute on my birthday, but you didn't buy me a card. You didn't get me a present, right?

You didn't plan anything special. But, of course, they did manage one run on two hits, and that one run was an Aheuening of Suarez home run that probably landed somewhere near where we are right now. He hit that son of a bitch right out of the ballpark. I'm sure it was the first time that those folks up in the Wrigley bleachers there on the Wrigley rooftops got a chance to see a home run come their way. But it was his 11th dinger of the year. The only other hit was a Randall Gritchick single off of Shoddy, Managa, fairly harmless. And that's probably a good label for the Diamondbacks offense today.

And in this series, fairly harmless. Like they kind of showed out a little bit in game one. But the Diamondbacks really didn't manage a whole lot of offense against the Cubs in the series. No, they were going to like the starting pitching, although the numbers were going to pull them up later and they don't really fully look all that amazing for the starting pitching,

but like they faced steal Hendricks and Imanaga. And like Imanaga's, he's legit. After watching him today, like he's got legit stuff. They got to steal in game one and Hendrix was actually riding like a hot streak coming into the series. Yeah. So like,

I get it. They did enough to win today. Unfortunately, like they didn't do well, but they definitely like, well, did the Diamondbacks? They were heading into the ninth inning. Did they deserve to win this one? Did they deserve to win a baseball game? I mean, the Cubs didn't look particularly great.

You're right. You're right. It goes both ways, right? It does go both ways. It does go both ways. Did the Cubs deserve to win this either? Probably not. No, no.

But there were a couple of incredible plays made defensively by both teams. Mike Taukman had an incredible play on a Pardomo foul ball that absolutely, even though it wouldn't have gone for a hit or anything. Yeah, it was a nice play. It was still a really, really nice play. And then Christian Walker, laying down flat on the ground with the tip of his toe on first base to make a play. Where do you see that?

Where have you seen that? Where have you seen a first base being out like that? That was fairly incredible. That was fairly incredible. So, you know, we had some great defense all around. Again, today was a day where defense and pitching reigns supreme. You know, you have one team getting two hits, one team getting four hits. Neither team really deserved, again, deserved, I guess you could say, to win this game, right?

But what we do have is, you know, the Diamondbacks here coming out on the back end of things and the main reason why is how things played out late with the bullpen. Tori made some very questionable moves in this game that most likely cost them. He first goes to Justin Martinez for the third day in a row for the first time in his career. Justin Martinez has never been called upon to do that. He also just had a rough weekend here in Chicago. Not only did he not register a single out in the game on Friday, But then he comes into this game.

He was good yesterday. You know, we said that. We were very proud of the way the bullpen performed yesterday, and the Diamondbacks needed that with their lack of offense and that win. But in this one, you know, you have Jay Mark come in. He struggles with his command once again. He gives up the tying run in the ninth inning. His line gives up one inning pitch, two hits, one earn run, one walk, zero strikeouts.

A lot of things you could question there. There were some other available pitchers that maybe didn't put in as much work as Justin Martinez did. I mean, you could have looked to Ryan Thompson or perhaps Kevin Ginkl. I mean, I know that. Yeah, Ginkle pitched more than Martinez did in the first two games. So that, before the game, that ruled him out for me. Thompson was probably the name that I went to the most that I was like, all right, that makes some sense here. But all Ginkled Thompson and Seawald, they both pit, they all, all three of them pitched every game in the series before this game.

Yeah. Well, and I, it's a tough decision, right? You and I talked about maybe leaving Jarvis in for a second inning. I mean, Jarvis usually is your guy that gives you multiple. innings of work and he did only walk one in his inning of work i mean you could say that i know here's what it comes down to here's what it comes down to justin martinez right i mean he is the guy that a lot of people want to see in these big you know big game they want him the closer they want him to be the closer they want him in high leverage situations and so far what we've seen out of him lately

is not being yeah consistent it's a 22 year old kid that when you put him in leverage is struggling a little Right. And I mean, I don't know. I don't know what the other options are, but I felt like there were better options for Tori to go to here, right? And then in extra innings, things get more bizarre, right? Like, you already have that questionable decision from Tori Lavello there in, you know, to Martinez goes out there, he gives up the tying run. But then with the ghost runner on second base in the top or bottom of the 10th, they opt to intentionally walk Dansby Swanson. Miguel Amaya loads the bases with a bunch single, and then PCA flies out to Gurriel for one out, but you have the bases. loaded and then Tori Lavello ops to put in Humberto Castiano's and I know this has worked out for this team at one point this season but it didn't work out today and I thought that it was a bizarre move because I really thought that even though you're not having the best matchup at least

Joe Mantiply was out there at least Joe Mantiply was throwing strikes and he could you know he could he could at least try and induce a double play do something better. than Humberto Castiano is going out there and walking Nico Horner and walking in the winning run. Like it was it felt like bad decisions all around. It felt like this bullpen wasn't properly managed throughout this series with the idea that they could win all three games. And I mean, I also feel like Tori just overmanaged this game late and didn't trust his guys, right? Like you're putting Joe Mantipli out there and you're pulling him in that situation. It just felt, I don't know.

Yeah. I mean, you got to, at the end of the day, like, I do agree that there were some questionable things that Tori pulled. And I am not, like, I'll sit here and say, I'm not one to criticize Tori all that often. Sometimes you just have to hope that your players go into the moment that you put them in and perform. Right? Yeah. Like, you hope that the string you pull is the right one. And it's, and I've said this before, it's not just Tori.

At the end of the day, he's the one that walks out of the dugout. He makes the move. but these are all consultations between him and his staff. Could Strom have told him, you know, J-Mart's ready to go today? Yes. Like, that's the guy. Because here's the thing. Thompson, Ginkle, and Seawald, they're not multi-inning guys,

unless they're, you know, 10 pitches or less. Usually, if you see them in the 15 pitch range, they're not going to pitch the next day. On multiple occasions, we have seen Justin Martinez pitch two and three-inning stints. So is that factor into why he gets that? the ninth inning there, right? He'd only thrown one inning in the last game, didn't even finish it, didn't even record it out

in the first game, like, maybe his pitch count provided for the fact that he was the only one available in the ninth inning. However, I think there are other, like, for me, I crossed off Thompson, Ginkle, Sebald. I figured none of those guys were getting in the game. So it comes down to, do you want Castro, Vieira. I also crossed off for Jarvis.

Sure, yeah, I think we all did. So I was a little confused by that. Like, I honestly, probably, the decision I would have made would have been to leave Jarvis in if he blows it, cool. Right. But like, I don't know about putting a guy in for a third straight day coming out of a break. Right.

Well, and this is why Mike Hazen made the comments about trading for a bullpen arm and not caring whether it's a lefty or a righty at this point. I know a lot of people think because Mantiply is the only left-hander in the bullpen that the Diamondbacks are automatically looking for a lefty, but I think they're just looking for bodies that they can rely on right now at the trade deadline. And hopefully the Diamondbacks are in. able to pick somebody up because you have guys you can count on, but you can't count on them every day. That's just a way it goes.

And yes, you have four guys you can count on. Maybe you could say three with one that you're still a little bit hesitant on. Maybe you can even say two. I mean, relievers are shaky at times, so it's not going to be like you're always going to get these incredibly consistent performances. It felt like over the last month we've seen a little bit of, you know, of, I guess, inconsistency. Ryan Thompson had a bad outing. We know Paul Seawald's had a few of them.

Now we have had Justin Martinez kind of going through his struggles. In fact, the Diamondbacks only lose lately when their pitching kind of falls apart. And Jacob has the numbers to kind of back that up. Jacob, what do you got from him? It's been a rough. He had to take a deep side before he gets to do this. Nobody could see that. So they've lost their last six losses.

Let's just walk through these. Blown 9th inning save Blown 9th inning saved Four run loss Okay, sure That's just a loss Yeah, it's a loss You lost to the Braves by four runs

Yeah All right, this is where it gets interesting Oh no Let me take a drink Blown save after a seven run comeback Or blown lead after They tied the game

I don't think they ever took the lead in that game Blown lead and two more blown ninth inning saves. That's not great. It's not great. It's not great. Ernesto in the chat says Tanner Scott solves two problems,

and you're not wrong. He absolutely solves two problems. We'll see what happens with that. I want to bring up the fact that the chat is kind of harping on us a little bit here. Why are you spending so much time on Tori in the bullpen when the offense is the real reason that this team lost this game? Oh, you guys are going to do that to us. So hang on, hang on. I think, I think.

You're going to do that to us. I think realistically why we're at this point where we are right now, we understand that the offense scored one run and had two hits. I think that's the obvious storyline to this game, right? But how long can I sit here and say, you know what? The offense didn't do their job today. Let me just go down the lineup and say, oh, he was 0 for 4. Oh, he was 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.

Yeah. Like the offense is the obvious point, right? You have to talk about. I've even done this, and you people came for me when it came to that, right? Yes, the Diamondbacks had a lead late. Like, yes, you could say they should have done more, but they had a lead in the ninth inning, right? And I mean, obviously. They put them in a position to win.

No team is perfect, but they put them in a position to win. No team is perfect. No team is perfect when they have a lead late, right? The good teams find a way to hold on to those leads late. And the Diamondbacks have been able to do that lately. But, again, you are right, and that's why I went back to, I feel crazy. Did I not say like the Diamondbacks didn't deserve to win this game?

And the reason was because the lack of offense, like the lack of offense really does feel like the Diamondbacks should have lost this game from the go. Right? If you tell me that the Diamondbacks scored one run on two hits, I'm not even going to assume that they were in the game, right? So for them to have a lead late, to have a chance to win the game is something that, of course, you know, you got to give them credit for and you got to kind of wipe out the rest of the game up to that point

because here we are late, one-run lead. It doesn't matter if it was 7 to 6. It doesn't matter if it was 3-2, right? In this case, it was 1-0. The bullpen, you need to find a way to get out of that 9-th inning. Pitchers, here's the thing about baseball. Pitchers' duels are going to happen, right? Like, there is no way around the fact that there are going to be days

where your offense does not score runs. Guess what? The Cubs offense also didn't score right. They scored two. Right, let's get to that point. They didn't score one until the ninth inning. Yeah. Right?

Like, pitchers' goals are going to happen. What separates good teams from bad teams is good teams find a way to win games. Like, to me, the bullpen is the most important piece of a team. Like, a good team, right? Thunderbolts pointing out how much I'm sweating. It is hot in here. That's not fair. Jacob's also sweating.

It is hot. And I don't sweat. Yeah, he really does. So it's warm in here for sure. He's like a dog. He just pants and the moisture comes out of his tongue mostly. But I mean, yeah, this game. is one of those games where there's a lot of places you can place blame, right?

I will say the offense, yeah, they didn't do enough. The bullpen couldn't hold that late league. Tori Lavello made some questionable managerial moves, and those are all of the reasons why this game ended up with the Diamondbacks losing 2 to 1. It sucks. It feels like this team's allergic to sweeping another team, but the one, I guess, silver lining is Brandon Fott was incredible, and he is our King Snake for today's game.

Brandon Fott again went out there. He gave you seven innings, allowed one hit, one walk, no runs, struck out seven. I mean, it might be time to start just admitting that Brandon Fott is our ace. It might be that time. Yeah, I mean, if Gallen assumes form, like, he's clearly better than Brandon Fott when he is pitching at his top level. Not to say that Brandon Fott can't get there, but right now, Zach Gallow. Prime Zach Gallen, he's better than Brandon Fott. Merrill Kelly comes back next month,

probably better than Brandon Fott. However, to sit here and say that Brandon Fott is my three or four at that level of competition, I'm pretty content in that situation. I'm really content. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And honestly, the Diamondbacks, you know, they're going to evolve.

They're going to change. I don't know how that's going to impact, you know, the bullpen. But one thing you could look back on, and we're going to look at it in the numbers today, is the Diamondbacks had two of their starters, one go five and two thirds in the series, and one go five innings, right?

And the Diamondbacks aren't getting very much length out of their starters, and it is putting pressure on their bullpen. We know they have guys they can rely on. Tori, unfortunately, is going to those guys too often, and I feel like we're starting to see obviously the negative effects

to that with, you know, Jay Martin going out there and struggling like you did here in Chicago. But we do thank you guys so much for being here in the PHNXport YouTube channel. You guys are the real MVPs of the series. Go Snakes Go. I had a whole song I was going to sing, and now I can't because they lost. But, you know, you have the Walker song to get you by. But we thank you guys for being here.

Make sure you subscribe to the PHNXport YouTube channel while you're here. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever our shows go live. Leave us a like. Every like makes a beat of sweat. go away from my head. So I need as many likes as I can get. Of course, if you're listening on the audio podcasting side,

you definitely can't see me being a sweaty mess. But what you can do is subscribe on your favorite audio podcasting app. If you haven't done so already, of course, leave us a review. Those reviews mean the world to us, especially those five-star reviews. If you right now are here, you know already what we do here. And you know it's time for us to take a look at the count presented by Desert Financial. credit union, but this is the post-series count. This one's going to get a little weird.

The Diamondbacks outscore the Chicago Cubs in this series by a score of 9 to 4. They out hit the Cubs in this series by 20 to 14. Oh, well, now they ended up getting those two more hits. So I think it's 20 to 16. We might have completed this graphic before that point. But what were they? I think they were 20 and 16 or we were. Diamondbacks of 20 hits, I think the Cubs had 16.

Oh, I added them up. You know what the problem was is that we put the numbers in when this was in the ninth inning, and then they scored more runs. Or they got more hits. So that's the only reason why that's incorrect. But Diamondbacks in this series, five for 26 with runners in scoring position. Cubs were four for 22. Starting ERA, very, very good for the Diamondbacks.

1.23 in this one. They only allowed one earned run in Ryan Nelson's start. between their three starting pitchers. 4.86 starting ERA for the Cubs. Relief ERA blanked there. Both teams, very good. 1.86 ERA for the Diamondbacks, obviously. The majority, one run given up today,

one run allowed in the first game of the series. And then Cubs bullpen, they just look immaculate. And this is something the Diamondbacks can't continue to let happen. I don't understand how the Diamondbacks find a way to consistently make opposing bullpens look so good.

But this is another series where that's the case. Diamondbacks do win the series, though, two to one. And overall, you have to be pretty satisfied. I know that there are probably a lot of fans upset about the way today's game ended. Understandably so, like, especially when you felt like this one was so close to being a win for the Diamondbacks. It's frustrating to see the way it played out. But the Diamondbacks now head out to Kansas City to see if they can keep this winning

ways rolling get over this loss. I do want to say, though, we have had an absolute blast here at almost home and over at Murphy's bleachers. We've had a blast with our CHGO friends here in Chicago, but we have absolutely had a blast at Wrigley Field. I know this probably isn't, you know, I know you're not going to like this because maybe you're still mad at the Cubs and you can be, but Wrigley Field is a place that I recommend that every Diamondbacks fan takes a trip up to.

Incredible. Not only do the Diamondbacks tend to do very good here when they come here and play the Cubs, but there's a pretty decent presence. We've got this meet a lot of great Diamondbacks fans out here, some of them from the Chicago area. Shout out to our guy Evan, who was wonderful. He came and met us up at Murphy's Bleacher. We also got a chance to speak to him wearing a Snakes-A-Live shirt today at the game. But we got let in on a lot of information about Wrigley Field.

One thing that's kind of interesting about this stadium is that it's kind of here in the middle of a neighborhood. So things are just so much different here. This is like a different world of baseball. Since they're in a middle of the neighborhood, that's why they mostly have day games. And that's something that a lot of people, including myself, didn't really know. Like they try to keep it not very loud at night. Also, the PA system, not as loud as other stadiums. Jesse very much enjoys that.

He loves how subdued the PA system here is. Yeah, he likes the organ, no DJ music. Oh, I love the organ. The organ's great. Oregon's great. It does, we talked about this. I think it does get a little bear when the organ's not playing. You need a little ambiance.

It's very traditional for me, though. Like, I like the organ being the, you know, all of the music, right? And that's kind of a lot of fun to watch is we got to see the organ player doing his thing up there. And my God, it looks like something out of the Muppets that, you know, one of the Dr. Teeth would play or something like that. But they did not add lights to Wrigley Field until 1980. I was born. I was playing with trucks and shit when they added lights to that stadium. I know I talk about how old I am,

but I am not old enough to be that old to be around when they added lights to a baseball stadium that had been around for a long time that didn't already have lights. Again, another reason why, because they didn't want to disturb the residents. It feels like everything about Wrigley Field is trying not to bother the kind residents of Chicago

that live around this building. But we did get a chance to also check out the Wrigley rooftops, which that's something people have asked me a little bit about. That's very interesting. Tickets for those range from about $150 to $200. All you can eat, though, and some of them. They are all you can eat some of them, right? They have like a little. Correct.

Yeah. And then they also, from our friend Jody Jackson from the MLB broadcast, she told us that it is very similar to, like, the view you get at Chase Field from being up in, like, the whole beers and cheeseburger. So I found that to be fascinating. Also, those numbers for the Wrigley rooftops, which are all owned by the Ricketts family, by the way, who are in the Cubs. They are not part of the paid attendance for the stadium. So when we were there on Friday, which is an insane day, cannot believe so many people play hooky in this town to go watch baseball. But it was like 44,000 announced attendance. And again, that does not include those rigly rooftop seats.

So I found that to be fascinating, Jacob. Not only did I find it to be fascinating that they don't include those, which I get in the attendance numbers, but I also just kind of found it interesting. Yeah, they're technically not in the ballpark, but you're basically on the ballpark. So I don't know. I mean, I think it's just hard to get an estimate of how many people are up there if you're not the, like, the tickets aren't coming from the team. It's just weird.

I guess from a perspective it would be like counting the people in the hotel at the Rogers Center, where Toronto plays that are like looking out their window. Yeah. I guess. I don't know, but is Jesse here? Yes, that was what I was trying to tell you. Oh, Jesse's here. Well, of course, we want to thank you guys for being PHNX diehards.

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So make sure to join the family over at go phtonx.com. And also make sure to come out and play some pickleball with us. We have our pickleball tournament out at Chicken and Pickle. And that is this Saturday. I believe I don't even know what day of the week it is anymore. Yeah, we've been on the road entirely too long for me to know this off the top of my head. Did the chicken and pickle thing pass? I think it is this Saturday.

It's still coming up, right? Well, a week from yesterday. I don't even know what day it is. He told me it's Sunday. I don't believe him. I have no way to verify that. But, of course, make sure if you are in the Valley, you check out our wonderful pickleball tournament.

Find a friend. Come join us and maybe win yourself some prizes and bragging rights over who's really am. It's you and Max, right? Is it you and Max as a team? Yeah. These guys, their heads are way too big. So I need some qualified pickleball players. Hang on.

Hang on. Hang on, Max's head is too big. These guys, they think they're special. Don't get me and Saul on the court together because we are absolute problems for people. But speaking of problems for each other, there's some internal turmoil on that team. I love him so much.

Well, speaking of problems for people, here's my problem, child, your thunderstick, my vice mayor, the one and only Jesse Friedman coming to us from Wrigley Field. Jesse Friedman, this one kind of hurt a little bit, and we absolutely had some moves by Tori Lobello that we had to question, even though, you know, I don't do that often on this show. Yeah, a tough situation for the debacks where they had several relievers down,

Paul Seawald, Kevin Yinkle, Ryan Thompson, all down in this game for the debacks. I know some people maybe not too happy about that, and I can understand why, you know, back to back to back. It's not something we see too too often, but they do happen. At the same time, you could understand Toro Lavella, wanting to be cautious and knowing that it is a long season, and that you do want to give guys some rest. You don't want to burn guys out immediately coming out of the All-Star break. So I think my biggest takeaway here on the front end, Derek, is just that the Diamondbacks could use another reliever, right? As we look ahead to the trade deadline nine days from now, games like this are why the V-backs could use,

one more guy that you trust in the back end, you know, to finish off one of these games. And from my conversation that I had with Mike Hazen yesterday, that's exactly what he said the Vee-backster are looking for, someone who can pitch in the seventh inning or later, whether it be a lefty or righty. And, you know, a guy like that could have made a world of difference in a game like this. Yeah, instead, Tori has to turn to Humberto Castiano's. They're late. And, like, I know that they're, I guess the low-hanging fruit is to question Tori Lovallo here.

Right. And I mean, that makes all the sense in the world. But we also knew that coming into this game, Tori's options, as far as bullpen arms, were going to be kind of limited. He did say prior to the game that everybody was pretty much available. However, he also said, you know, we also know the reality of the situation. J-Mart gets used for third day in a row for the first time in his career. Is that right? The first time he's had three outings in three-shade days?

I believe so. Yeah, I believe it is. And, I mean, it's like, you can blame Tori, And that's fine. At the end of the day, the pitchers are the ones that need to get the job done. And, I mean, Tori can't constantly avoid some of his bullpen just because they're unreliable. I know that's what managers do, but eventually it's going to catch up to you when the usage of your other guys is too high. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, we've seen this for sure with this Diamondback team at a certain point. You know, you just run guys into the ground a little bit too much. And it does backfire on you.

I remember a game that Kevin Ginkle pitched last year against the New York Yankees. I believe it was where he was pitching on a third day straight and he looked nothing like the same guy. And a lot of relievers, you know, a lot of relievers, it's a similar story. They're not as good on back to backs and they're especially not as good on back to back to back. So, you know, as much as it might be easy to look at a game like this and say, you know, if Ginkle and Seawald pitched in the eighth and ninth like this game is over, maybe it is, but maybe it isn't. You don't necessarily know what relievers are going to look like,

even if they have been really good on a third straight day. So a lot of what if that you can play with this game for sure. Well, I know you have more from Tori. What did he have to say in regards to J.MAR and Humberto Castiano's there late in this game? Yeah, if we have that video, if we have it, let's go ahead and roll Tori's comments on that. Yeah, we had three pieces down on the bullpen today. We've got to remember it's a long season and we're going to have, you know, some grinding days ahead. And we need those guys to stay healthy and be strong.

So three of the four were available. We, you know, we talked about J-Mart's availability and we felt comfortable and confident that he was going to be able to give us that last inning if needed. So it fell on him and he, you know, was close to doing his job, unfortunately. Just going to close it up. And then was Mantiply? Did you consider him at all in that spot? Yeah.

There's some tough matchups for him in there, and I trust Joe. You know, I've seen him go out there and get lefties and right. He's out. But I was saving him for a particular situation. It didn't quite arise. But, you know, yeah, of course I did. Joe's a very trustor reliever. He's got big outs for us.

But J-Mart was the target. He was the guy, and I felt like he deserved that opportunity. What do you mean, Castellanos, it's obviously a tough spot. Yeah. Game on the line coming out of the break. I mean, anything you point to there? The pitches were close. And there's very little wiggle room.

He's a strike throw. And that's why he was the guy that I chose. And I just, you know, fortunately, didn't land the pitches where he wanted to. But sometimes this game doesn't make sense. You get two pitchers that are just going out at your head one and nothing with three outs to go. And you don't get the job done. But the beauty of it is there's a game tomorrow. Jesse, as much as he says that, and you know, again, I am a Tori Lovolo apologist.

I will have to say I question whether or not he trusted Joe Mantepa. I don't think he did. I know he was trying to use him situationally, but I felt like when you go to a guy there in extra innings, it's like a closer. It's like a save situation. You should be going to a guy that you trust to get through the inning and not just to go after a couple of batters,

especially when you decide to intentionally walk the very first batter of the inning. I mean, the way that that 10th inning played out was pretty brutal, right? You guys off to intentionally walk Danes v. Then you have a bunch single. And then you have, you know, Mantiply was able to record one out on Pete for Armstrong. And then it rolls around to the top.

And you've got to walk to finish the game, obviously, Inberto Castiano's struggling to throw a strike. So the Cubs didn't really earn anything in that 10th inning, Derek. I guess you have to tip your cap for, you know, the infield hit on the bun. That was a really, really impressive bun. There wasn't a whole lot that the Mantipli could do in a spot like that. But, yeah, I think, you know, I see people in the comments saying, you know, you guys are defending Tori too much or whatnot. I don't really, I don't really think we're defending Tori too much.

I, you know, you could survey managers around the league, like how comfortable are you going free in a row? I think a lot of managers would probably do what Tori did today and stay away from losing those guys a third straight day, especially given that it's July, if it's September, maybe a, maybe a different story. The one thing that I think you can criticize here, Derek, potentially, is that Tori Lavello did not hold somebody back yesterday. Maybe Tori yesterday could have decided, okay, you know, Ginkle, Seawald, Thompson, Martinez,

I'm willing to use three of those guys to get to a win today with, you know, D'BAC's had a little bit of a bigger lead yesterday. They wound up winning by three runs. Maybe in a game like that, you're willing to use three of those guys, but you hold back one guy so that you're in a better position if you have a close game today. That's the one thing that I think is a fair criticism that maybe. Tori should have done that. But at the same time, it's, even that's not obvious necessarily.

I mean, what are people saying yesterday if, you know, you put in a Bryce Jarvis or you put in somebody else into one of those innings and they blow the game. And I mean, you had a three-run leads. That feels unlikely. But if that happens, then you really felt like you let a game slip away just because you were trying to save relievers for a finale where you didn't know what was going to happen. So it's a, it's the ultimately, you know, the ultimate, you know, the ultimate, whatever situation, these kinds of things happen in baseball all the time. Ultimately, you know,

for as much as we can talk about the bullpen, I think you also have to talk about the Dback's offense. Yeah, which really did not do, did not do much of anything in this game. Gino obviously came through with the big homer. That was an absolute shot of 417 feet. I'm pretty sure it left Wrigley field. That went a long, long way. But outside of that, the Dbacks just really weren't able to get anything going. They didn't score a single run against a Cubs reliever, which If I'm not mistaken, they didn't score against a Cubs reliever the entire series. The entire series. Which is a bit of a problem, something that I feel like has come up in the past with this team as well.

They've certainly performed better in the earlier innings of games than the later innings. And that certainly bit them here today. 10 hits by both teams yesterday, six hits today by both teams. Neither team has their offense rolling. And this one was absolutely a crapshoot late. There are people, yes, Jesse, there are people who are saying, that we don't blame Tori enough. But those people obviously were not watching this entire episode

because we had an entire segment blaming Tori and the bullpen and then we were chastised for not going after the offense. Like nothing worked great for this team today, but again, I will reiterate whether it's a 7 to 6 lead, whether it's 10 to 9, whether it's 1 to fucking 0, this team had a lead in the 9th inning. So I don't want to hear the shit about the offense when the team blew it in the 9th inning, right?

Like there are close games, and sometimes you only have a one-run lead in a close game. When you go and you're, you know, Paul Seawald blows it, that's a situation where you have to kind of blame Seawald. But I felt like this game was a game where you could criticize Tori, not only for the managerial moves in this game, but like you said, Jesse, maybe some of the managerial moves that predated this, right, in the last two games that then lead to him being in the situation that he's in, right? really what it comes down to is the Diamondbacks need some more relief relievers and right now you know Tori unfortunately only has a few guys he can he can count on but the starting pitching situation is getting better and I don't know if the Diamondbacks really need to do much to address that with the guys they have returning but also with the way Brandon fought pitched today

Brandon fought was just absolutely outstanding and not enough can be said about him going out there giving this team seven innings of one hit no run you know performance. He was so good in this game. Brandon fought. This might have been the best start of his career, frankly. I mean, seven innings, one hit, no runs, one walk, seven strikeouts. I don't think he's ever had an outing quite, you know, he's had some good outings. He's, you know, he's pitched seven scoreless before. I do think, but it's never been quite as clean and tidy as this one was. This was really, really good. I mean, the only hit he allowed was an infield single to Christopher Morel in the second inning outside of that. He was, you was.

you know, pretty close to having a no hitter going. D-backs had only allowed one hit as a team going into that ninth inning, which makes this even, you know, even tougher of a game to let get away. But Brandon fought over, you know, his lot, his lost several times out has just been outstanding for this team. And you look on the whole for this season, Derek. No D-back starter has been, has given the team more value than Brandon fought. I feel confident I can say it that way. You could say that Brandon fought has been the best starter on the Diamondbacks this season.

And I don't think that would be crazy to say either. His E.R.A. and Zach Gallen and Zach Gallen's ERA, I don't have them in front of me, but they're very, very close to each other. Fott has certainly been pitching deeper in games on average as well. So I think there's a pretty good case to be made that Fought has just been the best starter on the team this year on an inning for inning basis. But certainly with the fact that he hasn't gotten hurt this year, he's the one guy who's managed to stay in this rotation through and through from opening day. I mean, he has been a huge asset. set for this team this year. And obviously he's in a different category as a lot of the other guys

in this rotation. He's going to be here for a long time. He's a building block for this team. He's the first starting pitcher in a very long time who has come up through the D-back system and had a lot of success in the big leagues. It's hard to say enough about his development here, especially over the last few weeks. And we have more from Tori Lovolo about Brandon Fott and his performance today. Here's what Tori had to say. Not really. The run he got on last year in September, late in the year, and then the post season, I felt like he was poisoned ready to be able to do something like this. And I know I say it every time the same way. It's like six and he's just book it. He's going to pitch you deep into the game and he knows how to, he knows how to change speeds, maneuver the baseball around the zone.

And there's great amount presence and a lot of composure. So he's going to find himself in a lot of games like this for sure. A. Z. Bubba in our chat says also one thing I want to note, Corbin is sitting a game after him. a homer is odd. If we want Corbyn to get the ball rolling, wouldn't you want him to get the starts back to back? Same thing with Alec Thomas. Alec Thomas also hit a home run today.

He also sat. It's another one of those things that you could easily criticize about Tori, and I would not stop you from doing so. However, there's also talk in the chat, Jesse, about giving Shodhita Imanaga his flowers here a little bit. This guy has been incredible all year long. There's no reason why this should be a surprise

considering the numbers that he's put up, but he was very good against the diamond. And that's a big reason why we saw this team fall flat. And of course, we know they didn't do much yesterday offensively. So it shouldn't be much of a surprise that today against one of the best pitchers in the National League this season, the Diamondbacks, weren't able to get much more than one run. He's so good. Yeah, I mean, just as a baseball fan in general, I enjoyed watching Shota I binaga do his thing today.

He's throwing a ton of strikes, filling up the zone. You know, it's mostly four-scene splitter. You see the occasional sweeper, the occasional curveball in there. as well. Yeah, it's 91-92, Derek, but man, he's got some carry on that thing. Guys just don't really see it very well. D-Bax hitters

were getting underneath it all day. I don't think show that I've got a single ground ball in this game, or I guess I stand corrected. Randall Grishick's single. He did. He had a single. Yes. Yeah. That was a ground ball. Outside of that, I believe that every

single batted ball against Imanaga tonight, or today Diamondbacks, was in the So guys just having a really hard time staying on top of the fastball, even staying on top of the sweeper as well. So he's really, really good. It was fun to watch, fun to watch him and Brandon Fott go to work in this game. And Imanaga had a no-hitter going well into the sixth inning, fought in his seven innings, as we said earlier, or only allowed one hit the whole game, and that was an infield single.

So one of the best pitching matchups, pitching duels that we've seen this season. It was a lot fun to walk. And not only that, but honestly, like, he's just, he's just impressive. It's impressive. And, I mean, you got to tip your cap. But we also know that Tori was in a difficult position here. Diamondback's offense didn't do much. But again, like I said, they had a lead late lead.

Damon's in our chat saying that they should have done more for Brandon Fought. And I want to fight Damon. But he's right. Brandon Fott deserves more. support than this. It just still falls back on, at least for me, Jesse, the idea that they had a lead, right? And I, again, everything is, is 2020 in hindsight, but when you get down to the ninth inning and you have a lead, when you, when you don't convert, when you don't, you know, obviously win the game with a late one-run lead, you know, you're going to blame pitching, you're going to

blame, you know, your manager and both are getting blamed rightfully in this game. I just think that Tori is in a situation where he doesn't have a lot of options and the ones he chose today weren't the right ones. Elise makes a good point in the chat. She is right. The bebacks did have one other ground out as well against Soda Imanaga. That was Kevin Newman, which was the last out that Imanaga recorded in this game. So there were two ground balls altogether for the bebacks, not one.

But yeah, I guess circling back to the bullpen thing real quick, we kind of talked about our perspective on the situation. Tori was asked another question on that, basically, like, do you have any regrets as to the way that you handled things? Obviously, yesterday the be-backs were aggressive. Tori wanted to secure that series win and then kind of see how things played out today, knowing that he wouldn't have access to three of his best relievers. Here's what, here's what Tori had to say on that. No doubt.

A win is a win, and you've got to chase them. And those guys have been proven to be able to go out there and do it. So, yeah, I'm not going to second desk against that at all. Especially 3-0, I imagine, versus 1-0. I mean, that's just a tough. Yeah, I mean, obviously I had to balance the two days. I would have probably chose. If I knew it was going to happen today, I would have chose yesterday over today and switch

them up. But that's the beauty of this game. And no, I don't regret it at all. We want a series. We're going to continue to fight, and we're going to win more games. Tori says that's the beauty of the game. I would choose a different word, Jesse, and I don't know which one, but it would probably be inappropriate to say in front of small children.

Yeah, that's sort of Tori's like go-to phrase when something didn't work out and is really, really frustrating. It's the beauty of the game. That's the beauty of the game. That's why we do this, you know? That's why we play the game on the field. Yeah. So again, like I can see the case for maybe, maybe Tori should have held back for a reliever yesterday. Bebacks had a three-run lead.

They still would have been in a pretty good spot to win that game. but you know you can what if the heck out of this baseball game you can think back to friday's game as well where the debacks had numerous opportunities to really put the cubs away and stretch out a pretty significant lead they were unable to do that and because of that they did have to use all of their you know top relievers to get out of there with the win so there's a lot of different things you could point to ultimately yes i know people are talking in the chat about the sweep, the elusive sweep for the Diamondbacks this season, how they still have, just one of those.

They're going mad at you for using the word. Yeah, no broom, no sweeping. It doesn't matter if they're playing the Oakland days or the Colorado Rockies or, you know, however incompetent, you know, I'm convinced Derek that you could play, you know, just about any team in front of the Diamondbacks right now. It feels like they wouldn't, they wouldn't find a way to come away with a sweep. So that's brutal for sure. I mean, this was right there for them.

They were obviously just three outs away toward the end of this game, not being able to pull that out. But in the big picture, taking two out of three here in Chicago, there are much worse ways to start the second half of the season than that. You're not wrong. But with Tori Lavallo, one other thing I would like to criticize, and I don't know if you want to sign off on this or agree with me or not, but Tori tends, and we've heard this from him out of his own mouth,

he tends to say the goal is to win the series. And he's even said, like, sweeping isn't necessarily like the, you know, the success or the focus, right? When he says that, it might be frustrating to Diamondbacks fans, but the team has another game tomorrow in Kansas City that he has to start managing in his head three days ago before even started this Cup series, right? So it's like, yes, sometimes it's frustrating to us, but Tori is looking at a bigger picture. and obviously things don't work out when you don't have a reliable bullpen that you can 100% count on all of the guys in there. No team probably has a bullpen

where they can count on all of their guys in their bullpen. But that's the thing I think we forget about. When we get mad about stuff like this, it's because in a way, yes, Tori might actually be sacrificing this game in a way so that he can win the next series because that's kind of what he's thinking about, especially once they nailed the series win here with their win yesterday, right?

But, you know, I don't know. I don't know. It does feel a little bit like at times this team is too complacent with just taking two out of three. And even though that'll get you, you know, it'll get you back on track, there are times where you really need to go for the jugular against the team like this that obviously has been struggling offensively. And outside of Shodhi Yamanaga, you know, they've not been extremely good this Cubs team. They did come into the All-Star break, though, seven and three.

And that's something to remember. They also had a five-game winning streak, I think, right before the All-Star break. So at least the Diamondbacks were able to keep things on track, unlike the Cubs, where things kind of fell a little bit apart for them with that All-Star break. But I still can't get over what Brandon fought did today. Jesse, we talked about his arsenal. He was using his full arsenal. He was getting whiffs on a lot of different pitches today.

But he got a lot of whiffs on his change-up. He really did. Yeah, we asked. Of course, talked to Brandon fought after this game, and he talked about the change-up as well as just his overall outing and what was working for him today. Here's what Brandon had to say. I feel like I had everything going today. I think through the change-up a lot today, change-up was good, a slider was good, and I think we were able to locate the fastball's when needed in big spots, and I think that was a game changer today. How different is the change-up going out compared to maybe around the last year's?

It's the same pitch. I think the more I throw it, the better it gets. Nothing's changed about it compared to last year. I think just throwing it more, getting a better feel for it, working on it every day. I think it's eventually going to get better, and hopefully it's not done. And the change up? Yeah, I think so. It's always been a good pitch for me when it's on.

I think just when I can find it being on more, I think more I can use. use it. When I don't use it in the games, it's hard to throw in a big spot and trust what it's going to do. So I think even if it's not good early, just keep throwing it and it gets better. As the game goes on, then we can throw it in those big spots. The more I change, the more I throw it, the better it gets. That's terrifying for the league, Jesse. That is a frightening statement. It's taken a huge step forward. I mean, I remember back to when Brandon fought made his major league debut, which was not that much more than a year ago right now, which is,

which is crazy to think about. And, yeah, his change, he just did not have a whole lot of confidence in the pitch. It was pretty clear that he wanted to stick with the fastball and the sweeper. And he was a little bit, a little bit too predictable, I think. He didn't have the sinker early on when he first came up and the change up, not being a pitch he was super confident in. You know, you can understand why he had some struggles when he first got to the big leagues. now you're seeing Fott just have a whole lot of confidence in that pitch.

He got four whiffs on seven swings in this game today with the change-up, which are big numbers. He was getting a ton of swings on change-ups outside the zone. When he can get guys to chase that pitch off the plate, it can be really, really effective for him. So, yeah, I mean, Fott is just continuing to emerge. He's not the same pitcher that he was a month ago. He's not the same pitcher that he was a year ago.

He is continuing to get better. And we've heard Brent Strong, Derek talked about how he thinks that Brandon Fott is going to be an all-star at some point and You know all admit I was like okay that I mean that's a bullish thing for Brent strong to say Based on what we've seen here recently it's not all that hard to imagine Well and he is becoming a consistent form of his post game a post series self from last year and that's incredible to see And the Diamondbacks need him right with what's going on even with Zach Gallin the diamond backs need a guy in their rotation that can come out here eat up innings and give them what Brandon fought has been giving them lately.

So he's really becoming the guy we hoped he could be and maybe thought he could be. And that's pretty fun to see. But, of course, it's time, Jesse. We know that Jacob, he lies to us all the time. He lied to me before the show. He lied to me during the show. What did I lie to you about before and during? No, no, no, no, no, no.

See, look, and he wants to put me on. Liar. He doesn't understand. You lie. I'm lying about him lying. And he lied. He's a liar. Jesse's a lie. We're all liars, but of course, the numbers, they never lie. What do you got, Jesse, for today's number that doesn't lie? Yeah, today's number is 0.77, and that is going back to Brandon Fott. That is Fott's ERA over his past four starts. Holy God.

It's gone. It's pretty good, Derek. It's pretty good. Run runs in 23 and a third inning. He has three walks compared to 25 strikeouts in that span. His ERA has lowered from 460 down to it is 377 now, I believe, and that's in the span of a little bit over a month that he's lowered his ERA by pretty much a full run. So he continues to, as we've been saying, continues to look really, really good for this team. And in a year where Zach Allen has been hurt and maybe not at his best and Merrill Kelly has been hurt and Lardro Rodriguez has not thrown a pitch. And Jordan Montgomery has been sort of a disaster when he's been on the field.

and obviously it's hurt right now. I mean, I don't know where the debaubs would be without Brandon Fott there. It's been huge what he's been able to bring. They called the fire truck because Brandon Fott's so hot right now, Jesse. He's so hot right now. They're coming and put him out,

but I know this is the end of our journey, our trip here, not only through All-Star Week, but here in Chicago covering the team. I've had an absolute blast with you fellas. I'm surprised we haven't killed each other yet, but I do have one final question for both of you before we get out of here. The people in Chicago, they are very, very opinionated about their food.

So I have to ask you both, what is the best thing that you guys have eaten on our road trip? Jacob, I'll start with you. That's tough. Like the full road trip, including Texas or just Chicago. You can go to Texas. Yeah, that barbecue is hard to beat. The barbecue at Hurtado's barbecue was pretty hard to beat. Of course, Jesse didn't get their experience in that joy.

but Jesse what do you have for us what's been your favorite meal so far that that feels cruel for Jacob to pick something that I was here listen Jesse the invite was out there the invite is the invite was there hang on he acts like he was not invited to this thing like he wasn't busy doing work work while you and I go

eat barbecue but that's fine that's fine make a decision it was all-star game day right he was just doing interviews and just his job but whatever let's rub it in his face Jesse what was your favorite thing that you had to eat on this trip Let me, sorry, I can sound like to get me. I probably sound a little bit fuzzier than I got.

Yeah, we lost your microphone. We lost your mic again. I'll give you mine before while you're working on. Okay, go ahead. No, go ahead. All right, as long as you can hear me, that's all I wanted to make sure of. Yeah, so I would have to say probably Piquads. I mean, yeah, getting some deep dish pizza here in Chicago.

You know, no free ads, but also free ads. Piquods is that's really amazing. We're absolutely giving out free ads on this segment and I don't care what Max has to say. He's not here to stop me and according to Jacob, he has a giant head now. So I don't even know if he could run very fast. I'm sure I could get away from them. But Piquads, which I mean, I can't tell you some of the remarks we've gotten because we went to Piquads. It's amazing the opinion people have here on pizza. So if you want to fight people about pizza, come to Chicago. Come fight them about tavern style versus deep dish. Come fight them about. what the different crusts all are. We've had extensive explanations to the different crusts that all the different pizza places have to offer. But I definitely enjoyed Piquots to say myself. Is that your choice? That's my choice.

Okay, so what I was going to say is... You both hit my top two, though. So, like, what I really... We did have Italian beef already. We had Mr. Beef. It was delicious. Mr. Beef was incredible. I think I probably would have gone with something in Chicago.

Yeah. But my only problem comes with when you... say, oh, I really liked this place. Somebody's like, well, that place sucks. You should have gone to this place. He's not wrong. And it makes me like it less. Yeah, you bring us down.

We're positive and your negativity. On the day one. The sandwich at Jay P. Grasianos. That's a close. Yeah, that's close. The point being, if you come to Chicago or Texas, make sure to wear your stretchy pants. That's what I have to say in regards to that.

And bring cash. Bring your cash with you. Some of these places, they don't take your debit card. but Jesse let's go get some food. We're here talking about food. I need you to come over here to the ballpark. I need you to come over here and get some food with me. Of course, we thank you guys for being here.

We thank you so much for joining us throughout this entire journey. We'll be back tomorrow. Actually, we won't. We're flying back tomorrow. We'll be back on Tuesday with a post-game show after the Diamondbacks take on the Kansas City Royals. So make sure to join us back here for that. Again, we very much hope you enjoyed all of this coverage. that we brought during this week.

So we thank you guys again so much for being here. We thank you so much for your comments and for loving this Diamondbacks team, even if you're here to demand that Tori LaBella loses his job today. Of course, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at Kapp underscore Caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman.

Our producer, Jacob is at Jacob underscore Franklin 4 because he's the fourth best Jacob Franklin, but he's number one in my heart. And I do want to give a shout out to Jacob Franklin because he has been incredible on this trip. He has done an amazing job. I've asked him to do way too many things. And he has been amazing.

So shout out to you, sir, for all of the wonderful work. Shout out to Jesse for letting me have fun while he goes and does all the tough work at the ballpark. But again, thank you to all of you guys for enjoying this content, for being here in the chat. We appreciate you guys so much. Of course, make sure to follow our show at PHNX underscore DVEX, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you again for stopping by. We hope you guys enjoy it the rest of your weekend and your Monday. We'll see you back here on Tuesday.

And until then, have a wonderful evening. Have a wonderful day. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when we're doing these shows from the studio back home at PHNX.