PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks Get POUNDED By Padres In First Inning, Lose Pivotal First Game Of Series

Episode Date: September 28, 2024

The first inning couldn’t have gone worse for Merrill Kelly and the Arizona Diamondbacks. But somehow after allowing four runs to start the game, the D-backs made it a fight until the end, losing game one to San Diego 5-3. We have more on what went wrong for Ketel Marte and the defense early, Corbin Carroll hitting another leadoff dinger, and the mess we are currently in with just two games left in the regular season. Join Damon, Derek, Jesse, and Kevin for the PHNX Diamondbacks Show LIVE!! An ALLCITY Network Production SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtube ALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports MERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-locker ALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of Phoenix PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/ bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer! Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/ Bluechew: Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code ALLCITY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That’s https://bluechew.com promo code ALLCITY to receive your first month FREE. Visit for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.. Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code PHNX. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/phnx for details. Branded Bills: Use code PHNX at https://www.brandedbills.com/ for 20% off your first order! 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. Gametime: 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! 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. Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items. Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to http://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code PHNX for 10% off! When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, welcome in to another edition of the P HNX D-Backs podcast, brought to you by our friends at Circle K. Damon there is in Studio K at PHNXHQ. I am here in my home, and I might never leave after watching the Diamondbacks lose tonight's game. I'm very sad, and I'm going to just basically bombard myself in this building. Diamondbacks lose tonight by a score of five to three to the San Diego Padres. There's no sugar-coding this one. It was a very important game that the Diamondbacks. Backs needed to win, and they didn't.

And they did not play well to start the game, especially that first inning. Of course, my name is Derek Montia. Occasionally, note, as your mayor of PHNX, this man next to me is the people's champion, the one and only Damon Farrell. And of course, we also have our guy, Kev on the ones and twos. Jesse Friedman, your thunder stick, not mine. We'll be joining us from Chase Field here shortly. Damon, what were your immediate thoughts on this game?

I mean, considering the way it started out, this is total loser talk but I thought the Diamondbacks at least did a good job after that fourth or that first inning went the way it did of fighting back and making this a game but unfortunately it's like the damage was

too significant already after that first inning yeah I mean you you come out the gates that slow like it's unfortunately you just didn't you weren't well prepared for the game you know that's just that's the sad reality of how it is and and it's a you know, it's a long line of losing, I feel like these big games down the stretch here where it's like, now they're going to show up, now they're going to show up.

And then they continually are laying eggs recently. So it's it's not a good spot to be in as a Diamondbacks fan. The lights were too bright for them to know. That's for sure. Of course, this show is also presented by our friends at Bet365. Download the Bet365 app. Use that code of PHNX365. When you sign up, choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365.

That first inning, let's just get. into it because obviously things went horribly for the Arizona Diamondbacks that lead them now to a record of 88 and 72 with just two games left in their season. The lead off double in the right center field gap by Luis

Rise who just continued to be a problem for the Diamondbacks all night long getting extra base hits. The man has like a 317 batting average but a sub 800 OPS. It doesn't make any sense to me but he gets on base a lot. that play looked potentially playable there by Corbyn or Pavin and neither guy was able to get there.

I mean, I think, you know, if Alec and Corbin is the combo out there, potentially, but there was a few balls like that tonight weren't there. Like I think Pavin Smith really hurt this team defensively tonight. Kattel obviously hurt this team defensively tonight on a pretty loud level. after he's had a fairly solid defensive season overall. You know what I mean? So it's it's really just inopportune timing. I feel like the Diamondbacks, this whole stretch has been just the worst possible timing on the season.

And yeah, the defense tonight, you saw Merrill. Merle looked very frustrated coming off the mound because he felt like he should have been out of that inning. Yeah, yeah, Yoshi, 170 batting average. Like that's obviously that, that gets caught most of the time. So it's unfortunate.

Spooky boy says I was told her eyes only hit singles. Not in this game, apparently. After Dodgers, I was going to bring this up. After Dodgers fans were roasting him for going Ofer in the three game series against the against the Dodgers a couple of days ago, all of a sudden, then he comes out tonight. He was the joke of baseball Twitter. And then he comes out and he just owns us in this game. Him and Jackson Merrill.

And Jackson Merrill. He makes me so sick, Derek. He makes me sick to my stomach. I can't stand that guy. Those balls he was running down out there, that play off the wall on the Gritchick one. Like he made that a close play at second base. Gritchick drilled it off the wall. Like, I mean, it just.

He played it perfectly. He played it like he plays at Chase Field. It was amazing. Jackson Merrill playing center field, we win this game tonight, you know, from a defensive standpoint. So it's, yeah, it's, it sucks. and it sucks that they have a rookie who's basically kind of their version of Corbyn Carroll, all things considered.

Yeah. Well, and he has a good chance to win the rookie of the year this year. Yeah, he does. Last year, he got their second run of the game with an RBI single. There was just that run shouldn't have even been there because like you said, Catelle Marte had not one but two potential inning double plays that Catell just absolutely blue. You had the Manning Machado hit that looked like a potential ending

end end in double play, but it went right through Cattell's glove. Then you have the Xander Bogart's grounder that looked like another potential ending ending double play, but Ctell too slow to get there, air mails it to first base, three nothing Padres at that point. And I mean, again, I think

it's frustrating considering how well the team played the rest of the game. There were still some other mistakes made. Paven's defense was not great out there. And we're going to talk about maybe why Jake, it was a huge mistake to not start Jake McCarthy here in a little bit. But Merrill Kelly settled in after that. I mean, it felt like, like I said, the damage was already too significant after a four-run first inning.

You knew the pop weren't going to stay off the board completely. And honestly, the Diamondbacks did a good job of at least holding them just to one more run after that point. That's what's frustrating about this game. There's a lot of things that are frustrating. and I know fans are very angry about a lot of things, and rightfully so. But I think the thing that makes it worse is that, man, if you limit the damage, if Kattel gets out of that inning with either one of those double plays successfully being pulled off, you know, this is a completely different game.

And I mean, obviously, team morale is probably pretty low after that, right? You know, you can't feel great about giving up four runs in the first inning to any team, let alone in the San Diego Padres, right? but Kelly only gives up the RBI triple to Luis Arise later that, you know, and that was the only other run allowed in this game. He gave him five and two thirds innings pitched, eight hits, five earn runs, one walk, 8K. R.A, you're not wrong.

R.A. says, how do you not start Jake on his T-shirt day? I'm going to give you some numbers that are going to make it even worse for you. In his last nine games against the San Diego Padres, McCarthy is hitting 400 with two doubles, a home run, five RBI, five walks, and a stolen base. Now, maybe the matchup wasn't great with you, Darvish, but I don't care about matchups at this point of the season. I care about you putting the best players out there to make something happen. And again, pitching matchups are what they are, but who knows how different this game is, potentially, if you have Jake out there instead of Payman Smith. I mean, Payvins, obviously, has had his, he's had his big hit.

So I'm not taking anything away from Pavan at the dish. I'm just saying that Pavan has not been great in the outfield. And that's been a known thing about, about Pavan. Yeah. And it's, it sucks because Pavan went O for four tonight. And obviously hindsight is, is 2020. But if he's going to, if he's going to give you an O for four game and play outfield, I mean, he's killing you.

Like that can't. Yeah. It destroyed the team tonight. So, I mean, because Jake could do no worse than no for four. That's, it would be impossible. So, I mean, at least from a defensive standpoint, you might have Corbyn running down those balls out in the right center gap with with Jake out in center field. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, like I, I don't want to be that guy because I'm not, you know, I love.

B.M, put up, put the mask on and be that guy. I think Tori, I think it's fair to say Tori has had a bad year. He's pressed a lot of the wrong buttons, I think, this year. You know, the same way that in the playoffs last year, he pressed all the right buttons. Every move he made was gold. You know, he was King Midas out there. I don't, I don't think he's had an especially strong year.

I think there's been some, some times where maybe we sacrificed winning a game here and there for the long term. but the long term is going to be unimportant if they can't even make the playoffs. So I mean, honestly, I just think it's been a little bit of a rough year on that. I think it's easy to say that, though. I think it's easy to say that with all of the injuries and everything that they've done and to forget and put out of your mind everything that this team did in July and August, I think is criminal in regards to Tory, right?

Like there was a significant period of time where this team was depleted as far as personnel. And they had to just figure out a way to field a competent team. And they did so to the point where they won a lot. Right. So there's things, though, that I don't put on Torrey. Paul Sewell's poor performances on put on Tori. Tonight, maybe you start Jake McCarthy. You got to put that a little bit on Tori.

How long? he could have pulled how long especially after going for 10 saves straight saves like i mean you can't really say that he he's stuck with him like oh absolutely we were all begging for him to to be pulled out of the closer role troy stuck with them i think a little bit a little bit too long in one game could be the reason this team doesn't make playoffs i think that's absolutely you're going to go back and pick those games apart if they don't make the playoffs quite a bit you're going to go back and look at that game where they just lost an eight run lead to the brewers and that game should be the game that a lot of people dwell on should the Diamondbacks not

I mean, yeah. But tonight. Not about a lot of games right now. I'm not even. I'm not even. I don't even care about Pavin's poor performance because you weren't playing someone else other than Cotel Marte out there. So again, let's blame the guy that is the All Star and that is the was the potential MVP for

botching two huge double plays that in the first inning that could have gotten out of this without nearly the amount of damage that was done. I mean, like, again, talking about Tori. he's managing like I don't know I like if there was somebody I would trust defensively it would be Catell right like that was just a really bad game for Cotel Marte and again that's not a guy that you could say he was going to manage out of the lineup I mean again you're you you could question a lot of things and I did I was the one that said Jake McCarthy probably should have played in this one because Pave and Smith is not good in the outfield I just don't I don't know I mean maybe maybe he was

the difference there maybe he could have been there. the difference. I know we saw a bad, bad plays out in the outfield recently as well. So it's not like, you know, you, you can't. None of these outfielders are playing as well as some of the best defensive outfielders that we've seen in the league. None of these outfielders playing like they were playing last season when it was, in fact, one of the best defensive outfielders outfields in the league. I think it's like, I'm not saying that I don't think anyone's arguing that Tori is, is at fault for Cattell's mistakes in the first inning. Like that is that is indefensible from katelle's standpoint of course tory's going to start katell at second base and play kattel like that's that's not I don't I don't think that's an argument anyone's making I do think that the paven thing is criticizable though and the and there have been moves here and there throughout the season that really just haven't been I just don't think it's been his strongest year I'm not I'm not a fire tory guy I'm really not I you're sounding like a fire tory guy no sounding like thunder you know thunderbolt over here I think it's you have to be able to

to to criticize the people that you that you like and root for as well like i absolutely i think tory's a great manager overall but i just don't think it's really been his year and i think we've sacri like i mentioned earlier we've sacrificed a few games here and there for the long term and it's going to end up probably costing this team of postseason birth unfortunately and that's that bears criticism not just on tori on everybody but that's specifically what i was talking about at this moment there's just a lot of guys that aren't playing well right now to be honest i mean That's fair. There's Christian Walker was not, you know,

Christian Walker still is great defensively. You could say that a million times over, and it's never not going to be true. But Walker is not contributed offensively like he has. You know, they're not getting that help out there. Corbyn turned things around for this team there after that four run first inning by hitting that lead off home run in the bottom of the first. It really did feel like that was a great way to just answer back against you, Darvish,

and to get things going. It was his fourth career leadoff home run, which is one shy of Marte's team leading five. It's also tied for fifth most lead-off home runs in the national league with Mookie Betts. Cotel Marte scores the debacks then, of course, scored more. It runs in the first inning, but then really don't do much after that. It's another case of the Diamondbacks scoring early. They got a Gino RBI single late, but not really much here.

And if there's a lot of guys here, there is a lot of guys here that are, I think to blame for not contributing more. Bullpen did a great job. Bullpen once again held. You know, held you got Jomath to play for one third of an inning. Thompson goes out there, gives you a clean inning. AJ Puck of all people was the only one that really struggled. After getting his first two outs, you know, he allows a two out,

double the Croninworth and he walks the pinch of her Solano. He looked really shaky there. And he barely got out of it. It felt like that ball was very close to leaving, the field. So the bullpen did their job to keep this team in it. They just couldn't muster up that late comeback, which again, that's kind of been a problem with this team as far as the early struggles this season where they would go down by two runs and then you don't feel like they can ever make that up or once it's down by two runs. And today was another one of those days

where they were down by four early and they just couldn't make it up, despite the fact that they did do a good job of holding the Padres, you know, from that point on. But we do got to give Kingsnake to somebody. I already gave it to nobody the other day and nobody deserved it in that game. But we're going to give the Kingsnake to Corbyn Carroll. He was one for three in this one with two walks. He had that big home run. And yeah, he's just, it unfortunately feels like in a lot of these losses,

we find ourselves saying, like, it's not Corbyn Carroll. That's the problem, right? And I say that, unfortunately, because it just feels like, It doesn't feel like he's getting a lot of help. And, I mean, their contributions were from everybody on this team at one point. It really does feel like Corbin is the only one at times taking good at bats, getting on base somehow, still getting home run, still making the dream of 22 and a half over, keeping that alive.

Got two more games to hit that one. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. But he's a 22. Well, he's a 22. So I wanted to give a shout out to some of these super chats we had real quick. Can I say on Corvin? Oh, please.

I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah. No, I think that it's, it's just like, you're so right. He's been, Bees in the chat mentions it. It's a perfect storm of bad things happening right now. You know, I'm not like I think it's, you know, a bad call by Tori to play Phaven over Jake in this game. It's, you know, a bullpen decision here or there.

It's a Catell making, playing his worst defense of the season. It's a culmination of all these things that are happening that are the reason the dyingbacks can't win these games. But Corbin Carroll is. been like the one constant that seems to be kind of peaking at this moment of the season. And he's the guy who is hitting that stretch right when we need him to. It'd be great if we could get Corbyn some help. And yeah, I mean, potentially there's going to be this guy in attendance tomorrow.

That would be a great time to hit over 22 and a half, Derek, who knows? It would be a great. That would be great for you to be able to celebrate that accomplishment in person. I'll lose it. happens for you. Speaking of in-person, our guy Michael Rokickey says, just got in my car at Chase, bad loss, but until there's an E next to their name, keep the faith, was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Oh my God. It's a great movie. I don't think that's how it, I don't think it's not how it works. It's hilarious from a quote standpoint, but no, it's not, that's not historically

accurate, but it was not over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. You're absolutely right, Michael Rokeke. Thank you so much for your super chat. Too soon, too soon. We got our guy Adam Gross, a Padres fan. Hello, Adam. Welcome. I know you're probably here just to tap dance on our grave a little bit, but we're not dead yet. We're not dead yet. Adam says Padres fan here. Don't worry. We're going to sit everyone next two days and get rotation ready for Wild Card Series at Petco. Hopefully against you guys, rather play you than Sail Freed or Mets pitching rooting for you the next two days. It was kind of a backhanded compliment, but it was as nice as it could be. It's not even backhanded. It's not even a backhanded Derek there.

It's another Padres fan. I think it was Tatis Jr. put it in the chat, which that's another thing I got to bring up to you. Jesse Jr. is M.I.A. But, uh, excuse me? No idea where he is. As if things couldn't be worse, Jesse Jr. is missing in action.

I was searching all over the office forum for him for this game. Can't find him. I left him in your care. I left him in your care. I think someone might be, might have stolen him. I'm pretty concerned right now Derek I don't like this I don't like this

but Tatee Jr. said in the chat he that the tawgers are going to rest their starters next two days so that they can play us that's that's how he framed it so that's yeah play us yeah that's that's that's a little bit meaner I think but still the same message and that oh that's what they want but that's my silver lining here that's my silver lining here okay the way that I was going to say we did have some potential good news as crazy as it sounds about the Padres winning.

And that is the Padres have won. And all the Padres really needed to do was win one game to secure their spot as the top wildcard team. At this point, the Padres have literally nothing to play for. There's nothing that can change their position no matter if they lose these final two games. And yes, I mean, honestly, maybe. you do want to play the Diamondbacks. If you're sitting there from a Padres standpoint, that's crazy to me because this team just, you know, again,

I feel like did a good job of playing you despite the fact that they made all the mistakes you could make in the first inning and still somehow made this, you know, a two-run game, right? If the offense was just a little bit more locked in, I feel like they might have been able to, you know, put a comeback together here late, right? But credit to the Padres for also keeping

the Diamondbacks, you know, to just three runs, right? Like, this is not, not trying to loser talk this. I'm just saying, like, I'm not saying that the diamond, this game didn't make me feel like the Diamondbacks are overmatched by the Padres. The amount of mistakes they made, a five, three loss is still not the worst thing in the world, you know, right? So, yeah, but if that's the case, and that could be the case, right? Like, we talked a lot about this whole situation with teams' motivations,

and there was someone in our, you know, in our, YouTube comments that, you know, kind of scoffed at the idea of motivations. It's not necessarily what, like, these teams are, like Archie said. No one's going out there and trying to actively lose a game or doesn't care to win it. It's just a matter of personnel and who they put out on the field and the way that they plan these games. The Padres have TBD for their starters for the next two games for a reason. And that was based on the outcome of tonight's game.

I hope so. I hope so, too, right? So the Padres have lost or the Padres have won, Diamondbacks lost. The Diamondbacks cannot catch the Padres for that top wildcard spot. They cannot have a home, you know, playoff series. And right now as it stands, the Diamondbacks are actually the team on the outside looking in at the playoffs, right? But there's still two more games to be played by the Diamondbacks Mets and Braves plus that series on Monday. So anything can truly still happen with the Padres potentially going out there and putting

you know, backups out there or playing, you know, their, you know, worse pitchers, this could potentially be the best case scenario that that's out of the way. And now the Diamondbacks might still be able to pull off winning two out of three of the series against his Padre's team. So that's the silver lining here. That's the silver lining. But Tatis Jr., thank you so much.

He said, it's all in good fun. Y'all are still a very scary team, but Mets are brave, scare me just a little more. And understandably, so those teams have been. been playing better baseball right now recently than the Diamondbacks have been playing. Right? So yes, I would say from that perspective. It sucks if you're, if you have a division opponent rather would play you in the playoffs than a non-division opponent, that feels a little bad in my opinion. Like I, I'm telling you like personally, we've been talking about it all season. We didn't want the pot. Even when we were ahead of the

Padres, we were playing just as good, if not better baseball than them out, you know, in, in what was it, July? Like we were joking about saying like we wanted them to drop back to that final spot. We still didn't want the pot. We were specifically saying we didn't want the patres. You know what I mean? So, so them, the fact that they don't, that they would like to see us is, to me, that's like, that's, that's not a good spot at the end. It's disrespectful. It's disrespectful is what it is. But that's okay. It's, it's earned disrespect. It's earned disrespect. They're not playing good right now. And it is earned disrespect. So I will. Well, the brewers, the brewers are, are not resting their starters against, uh, the, the Mets. And we, and again, and again, I tweeted this out.

but we forgot how much Reese Hoskins hates the Mets. Reese Hoskins will not take a day off this weekend. He's going to go out there and hit two more home runs before this weekend is over. By all means. Please do. But also like, I mean, I think it's very possible to Padres poll a Brewers or, you know, what the White Sox have been doing even though that didn't work out for them. They said that didn't Grady Seismore say they were going to try to knock the tigers out of the playoffs

because they're rivals with them, their division rivals. Like, yeah. I wouldn't be shocked if the podgers were like, hey, we don't want to get rusty. We don't, you know, like the whole rest versus rust debate. We want to keep playing our guys and we're going to try to knock the Diamondbacks out of the playoffs. I think that that's very possible. And if I see Michael King walk out onto the mound, I'm going to be very scared, Derek. Well, you're going to be angry.

You're going to be angry. And I doubt they're going to throw him. Why would they? I'm begging. We all know what's going to happen. Of course, we got a couple of more super. chats here piece of yoshi uh says the bullpen loki was all bad though i can understand tory sticking with seawald in regards to the criticism about uh tory yeah like it felt like another thing last year

where whoever he was going with at times was suddenly unable to to do it no matter how good they were pitching that's the frustrating thing is that these guys sometimes that tory puts into these high leverage roles are pitching well enough that they earned it and then yet once they are in that role they turn into do-do. I think I can say do-do, right. All right. Mr. Bananas is here. Stephen Bananas,

Stephen Bannas says, Tori's a great culture builder. Was key when team was bad. His mismanagement is fair criticism. Questioning, he's the guy to lead a World Series victory. You guys are insane. The team just got to the World Series last year.

And now we're like, is he the guy to do it? Whatever. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. He did. He did. Not you, but I'm lumping you in with him because you sound like that.

You said, you guys are insane. That was one person that said that. There's a reason his name is Mr. Bananas. There's a reason. You're not paying attention to the comments in the chat, obviously, David, because he is not the only one that said that. But anyway, Benjamin Hunley says the problem this year was starting pitching, and Monty should have been the solution.

If they missed the postseason, it's because he showed up unprepared. It's fair. Well, well said, well said. And honestly, the injuries, but like injuries are going to happen. And injuries have happened to every team. So it's not like you can sit there and say like the diamondbacks, you know, we're different in regards to that. It just hit them early.

Starting pitching was a mess early and they figured it out. Now, though, this is now this is this is the time, honestly, for the dive backs put their best foot forward. Tori mentioned before the game that Zach pitching on Sunday is a possibility should the season be on the line. So we'll see what happens. I didn't see that. That's it's a good, it's a good thing. It's a good thing to see. Of course, we thank each and every one of you, no matter who you root for, for being here in the PHN exports YouTube channel right now.

If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now if you're interested in doing that. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever our shows go live. And at least hit that like button, H-TL, hold the line, hit the like. We got to hold the line for this weekend. This is it. We got two more games, people. We're either making vacation plans on Monday or we're talking Yoffs.

Mother F-N-Yoffs on Monday. So make sure to hit you. hit that notification button and sign up, hit that like, do all that. Swear jar. I'm not, no, no money isn't that. Archie owes money to that, though. We need to send them a bill. Of course, if you're listening on the audio podcasting side,

make sure you subscribe over there. Leave a review. We appreciate that feedback. And of course, we appreciate you. Subscribing on your favorite podcast app. We will have more on this game and the numbers from this game, despite the fact I don't really want to talk about those on the other side of our break. So stay tuned.

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visit play atheela.com for more details. All right, well, let's take a look at the count from this game presented by Desert Financial Credit Union. I know, I don't want to either. I don't want to either, but let's hit up the count. Diamondbacks get out scored by the Padres, five to three in this one. They get out hit 10 to six. Oh, those runner in scoring position, that's a problem there.

The Padres had a lot of opportunities with runners in scoring position. They went three for 14. Diamondbacks went one for seven. Extra base hit, San Diego had five. Diamondbacks had two Corbyn Carroll's home run, the only dinger in this one. And then the expected batting average, actually, higher for the diving backs there, 284 to the Padres 266. And yeah, that always makes me feel sad when that happens.

Yeah, that extra, I mean, that expected batting average feels like that kind of, I mean, it wasn't too big of a differential, but that does feel like how it played out watching the game. Like, for example, Araya's gets that double, his last hit of the night, down the third baseline, just pokes it off the end of the bat, straight over third base, weak as hell. and it's a double for the Padres. Meanwhile, you know, I don't know how hard he hit it. It was Jerry, so it probably was like just like surprisingly slow and looked fast off

the bat, but that ball he hit to Jackson Merrill to lead off the ninth inning. Like at first I was like, oh, that's a hard hit ball straight to somebody. Those Jackson Merrill running down those balls in deep center field. Like in a lot of stadiums, those are home runs. And then of course, the Padres get runs out of a couple of Catel Martes. Hey, errors that should have gone down as out. So yeah, I mean, I feel like really like it's a mixture of playing bad defense and getting unlucky tonight on the offensive side of the baseball and the Padreys playing good defense.

It's kind of just a culmination of all the things that they didn't make mistakes. They didn't know and this. And this, yeah, exactly. This was a game where the Diamondbacks absolutely made the mistakes and they didn't play error free. And honestly, again, I don't want to dwell too much on how close it was because 5-3 really isn't. that close of a game in baseball. But I'll just say like overall, the way that they played the Padres,

it just goes to show that those mistakes early on really were the difference maker in this one. You know, you didn't, if this would have been a game where the Padres would have won 10 to 3 or more, that would be much different. But you look at this, you look at how close this was, and you realize so much of this damage was done early on in that first inning when the Diamondbacks had ample opportunities

to get out of it without nearly that many runs. scoring. And then you don't, I mean, you don't know how the rest of this game goes from that point, right? Like, that's not an alternate reality that we currently live in. We live in this timeline, which might be the darkest timeline based on how the diamond backs perform here down the stretch. But man, I'll tell you this, at least, at the very least, we do have that, the fact that the Padres can game plan now differently and we aren't. We hope, right? And honestly, again, I don't even feel that like that they need that. I don't feel like the Diamond and backs need that in order to win the final two games of the series.

They don't have to happen. It might help. You're going to rest guys. You're going to use the opportunity to rest guys. The wildcard series starts on Tuesday. So even if it's not tomorrow, you know, even if Saturday, they still put out their normal starting lineup, there's a good chance that Sunday could look vastly different no matter what happens in tomorrow's game.

Yeah. It's, I mean, it's, it kind of even potentially the Padres could even start, you know, their regular batting lineup. or close to it and then maybe just not use their high leverage bullpen guys during the later innings of the game like I could see that being a distinct possibility they keep their guys getting A-Bs so that they're still kind of in the rhythm of being high-intensity baseball but then maybe save their arms a little bit down the stretch that wouldn't be the worst of all realities but the other reality is that the diamondbacks

are a team that plays down to their competition it feels like they they don't it doesn't feel like they take advantage of those Rockies games, they take advantage of, you know, like when they play some of the worst teams on their schedule. And then oftentimes you're right. They kind of get up for some of the bigger games. I mean, not in this week. That's for sure.

But, you know, I think we've seen that plenty of times before. And it's really just like it feels like a total wild card. I have no idea what to expect the rest of the way. If I, like if I look at the playoff odds right now, and hopefully Jesse doesn't get mad at me because I didn't do it with him on air

and I know how much he loves these, but the debacks are currently 38.6% to make playoffs, Derek. That's awful. Yeah, the Mets are like 71.3%. So that's where we sit right now. Yeah, well, I will say this in regards to the Diamondbacks playoff chances

because there's people accusing us of coping, apparently, in the chat, Damon. And I don't really find this as coping as much as it's just, this is what it is. Like there is a good point to be made about like if the driving backs can't win now and can't get things on track, what's even the point of making the playoffs if you're just going to get

bounced in the first round or what's the point of us all living and dying on making the playoffs if one they enter the playoffs, they're not going to be competitive with the team that they're playing no matter who they're playing, right? I think the the answer to that is. You just try to get in sometimes though. Like last year they lost their last four games. they went to the World Series.

That's, I don't think that's typically how it goes, but sometimes that's just the way it is. And just got to give yourself a chance once you get in the dance. And that's how we felt last year. That 100% last year. We were almost like, this is kind of a waste of time for them to even be in the playoffs with the way that they couldn't win their way in

and get those crucial wins down the stretch. It's how things, you know, shake up sometimes. Last year was a bit different because it was a team just kind of playing poorly. I feel like this year is a bit more about, again, the losses of personnel and those guys coming back and then not being, you know, at 100%.

Kutel not being at 100%. Christian Walker not being 100%. And I don't even mean like health-wise. I mean not at 100% as far as what we've seen out of them this season as far as their, you know, play as far as their ability, right?

Like so it sucks because of the timing of all of it. But at the very least, You know, we talked about this before. At least they got everybody back. You know, they're not playing their best baseball right now, but at least they got everybody back. I don't know if that's a detriment and removed guys like Kevin Newman and Josh Bell

from the lineup and Jake McCarthy from the lineup. But this is where they're at and they're trying their best to get there. I have no idea what to expect from this team should they make the playoffs or over the next two days. And I have no idea what to expect out of the Padres in regards to how they're going to construct their lineup or how they're going to who they're going to put out there as a starting pitcher but uh this is this this is it this is it we got two more games to see what the diamond bags can do right now of course let's take a look at the updated wildcard graphic uh and see where they're at because you're not going to like this one you're not really not going to like this one uh yeah that that's that's that's the irsone

diamondbacks on the outside looking in and that's a very appropriate picture of tory absolutely i like that's couldn't be more appropriate but padre's sit where they sit. They have clinched that top spot. All the other teams are pretty much not moving. I mean, the brewers, I don't think that they hold the wild or the tiebreaker over the Phillies. So even if they tie it 90, like 94 and 68 there, I don't know if the brewers can swap spots with the Phillies,

but that if they can, then that's a very, very good thing that the brewers have something to play for there against the Mets. And then the Mets right now, they did not look very good today. The Braves, meanwhile, looked pretty damn good against the Royals. So yeah, this is where we sit right now.

And now the Royals don't have anything to play for because they clinch their wild card spot, which is not the best for us either because you would obviously hypothetically like the Royals to be fighting for their season against the Braves right now. And that is unfortunately no longer the case. I don't know if they're locked. They could potentially get the second wild card spot.

I don't know how much they care. about it. They're a game back of the Tigers, but hopefully they still play these final games out and try in them and don't just rest Bobby Witt for the rest of the season. But I guess we'll see. It sucks to go from the Dinobox controlling their own destiny to now us talking

about all these different scenarios. We hope that teams rest their best players. You weren't here the other day. But don't in circumstances that that don't benefit us. Yeah. How can we how can we dangle the carrot for some of these games

or for some of these teams? You know, all of that stuff, right? And yeah, no, I mean, you weren't here for that

with Archie, but it's a nightmare. It's pretty much a nightmare, right? So, Sean says, yeah, you're absolutely right, Sean.

He says it's a nightmare, Damon, and it is a nightmare, because it did go really quickly. But that's the way the season is gone. I mean, I think we just constantly waited for teams like the Padres and the Mets and the Braves to stop winning. And they didn't. And the team that stopped winning was the Diamondbacks here in September.

So, you know, they're still not out of it, but it does, it doesn't feel great to be in this position. You're absolutely right about that. Absolutely not. And they have not played close to their best baseball. I want to preface that by saying saying that. But like, they also haven't been atrociously bad. I don't believe in this month. Like it feels that way because of how.

high their playoff odds have been, but like it really just is the Braves and Mets just can't stop losing games and the Padres, but we knew that. That's been a thing for a while. Like it, it, it kind of stinks. Because the Dinobacs, like, I think they're five and five in their last 10. It's not like the worst baseball that's ever been played. Typically, I think in a normal year, this kind of record would get you into the playoffs without almost a question in the world.

It would have last year. So it's just been kind of a perfect storm. I keep going back to it of just. bad events for this team that, I mean, it's just, it's just completely brutal, man. They're, they're 12 and 11 in September. I don't know if that counts tonight. They might be 12 and 12, but it's not, it's not like they've, they've just completely collapsed. These other teams just are just insane right now.

Elise said it, Elise, who wanted them to win every game down the stretch. She said, won a way in the last week of the season. This week has been really bad. Look, we didn't, we, we, we didn't mean. for the Diamondbacks to test Elise's theory so much that they would be like, oh, you think we need to win every game? What if we didn't win hardly any of them? What do you think about that now, Elise? And I don't like that, Elise, and I'm with you. I'm on your side about that. So, yeah, as much as I scoffed at you for your must win, maybe they should have at least felt like they did

have to win every game. Maybe they would have won a couple of more. Of course, we will have Jesse Friedman joining us here shortly from Chase Field. And of course, we will get more from the clubhouse in regards to this loss. But first, I want to tell you guys about our friends, Zbiotics. Zbiotics, of course, is perfect for a night like this. This is another night where we might have to have a few drinks because I'll tell you this much. This ain't coffee in this mug. But tonight is a night you might have to get over on nights. like this, you should probably start your first drink of the night with Zbiotics, and it'll help you feel better tomorrow, even if this loss doesn't make you feel better.

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So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to Zbiotics.com slash pH and X-Bax and use that code of PHNXBax at checkout for 15% off. You're a bad guy, Derek. I'm not a bad guy. I'm not a bad guy. I'm a good guy.

Well, I'm going to tell you about some really, really good people. And that's the people at Sanderson Ford, Damon. And the reason for that is because Sanders and Ford, not only is a world-class auto dealership that you should go check out whenever you're looking to get a new vehicle. But they just wanted us this week to talk about Al McCoy. They wanted us to take our normal time where we tell you about their deals and their sales and just talk about how much we miss Al McCoy and how much he meant to the Valley, Damon. I know you've been kind of a lifelong Valley sports fan and I mean, I'm much older than you are. and I know that Al McCoy is like the voice in my head of sports.

I can only imagine like how younger people feel about Al McCoy. Well, what's crazy is I make fun of, you know how I make fun of you for being old? I do. I do. And then I make fun of my dad even more for being old. And he's obviously a lot older than you. You're kind of like my work dad. That's why I do that.

But I make fun of my dad for being old. And he's been, he grew up in the valley and was a son's fan like when they were, very early on and he al mccoy was the voice of his childhood and the guy's ancient so that's to perspective how old al mccoy has been around how long he's been around how much of a voice he was in this in this you know industry and in this city and and man it's it's it's it's sad but it's also like a great time to just remember how awesome he was the great things that he brought to this community and just and and and you know shout out sanderson for it for you know, giving us the time to talk about him.

Absolutely. And how lucky we were to have him in our lives for as long as we did. 50 years was amazing. And so we will miss you, Al McCoy. We thank you so much for everything you brought to the Valley. And of course, you know, Shazam, go sons. Their season's starting up soon. We got to support each other.

We need the support. Archie's going to yell at you if you don't come out and support this team. And I have another man here that's going to yell at you for not coming out and supporting this team. It's one and only Jesse Fried. No, he's not. he's not going to yell at you for anything he's going to be very nice to you in fact but jesse tonight's loss stung i was talking to damon a little bit about the parts that bothered me personally most and i think that is that the team really did play so well outside of that first inning

that it's just so frustrating that they played so badly for that frame it was brutal it was brutal i mean i it's hard to i guess the first inning could have gone worse than it did Could have, yeah. But not much worse. I mean, it's one thing to give up four runs, right? Like starting pitchers get knocked around every now and then that happens. But that just wasn't the actual story of that first inning. I don't think Merrill Kelly pitched great.

I mean, he had jerks in pro far in an 02 count. He hit him with a pitch. You know, he walked Jake Croninworth after some of the other disastrous things that happened in that inning. He gave up an RBI single to David Peralta on a fastball that was right down the middle. So I'm not saying it was a well-pitched inning by Merrill Kelly, but at the same time, Merrill Kelly probably shouldn't have given up a run in that inning because if Cotel Marte is able to turn a double play there on Manny Machado,

which I'm sure you guys have discussed, that that's a zero, right? And even if Catell isn't able to turn that play, if he's able to turn another potential inning-ending double play that happened three pitches later. Yeah, Zander Bogart's play, right? Yeah, the Xander Bogart's play. Then it's a two-run inning. and the Diamondbacks wound up losing this game by two runs. So, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, baseball is a sport where you can ask a lot of what-if

questions after games. And sometimes those questions are only about, you know, what if this ball had dropped in or, you know, you get a little bit more, a little bit better batted ball luck or you catch a break here or there. But the story for me, even though I think there was some of that, the debacks did have some hard hit balls in this game that did not actually result in base hits. but you can't really make a case that the debacks deserve to win this game when they made two really, really poor defensive plays in the first inning.

And I guess what's most troubling there is that this was the Diamondbacks best player. This was a guy who's in the gold glove conversation at second base. And when, when, you know, with the lights shining brightest, the most important game of the year, he looked at not necessarily flattered, but it just was not, we're used to Ketel really rising to the occasion in these moments. And he obviously did not do that there. Well, what do we have from the clubhouse, Jesse, because I'm sure people weren't happy with this loss. I did silver line it a little bit, thanks to some of our Padres fans, friends in the chat.

They were all talking about how we're good now. They're going to rest their players for the next two games. And now we're going to have. So that they get the pleasure of facing us. They get the pleasure of facing us. They want us again in the playoffs, is what they're saying, which with the way the Diamondbacks have been playing. lately. I don't fault them for wanting that, right? But yeah, there's a strong possibility here that the Padres might not put up a huge fight these next two games. And the Diamondbacks could

just see a little bit easier of a starting lineup and maybe potentially starting pitcher from the Padreys side of things. I mean, it's not real likely that the Diamondbacks play the Padres in that wild card series at this point because those teams are in a three-way tie, right? the debacks are in a three-way tie now with Atlanta and New York. And that means that both the Braves and the Mets have the upper hand on the debacks as of today. The only way the debacks play the Padres is if they find a way to finish in front of both of those teams, which is not impossible. But yeah, there's the current situation right now.

Yeah, technically the debacks are, they're in a virtual tie. They played a couple more games, but they're in a virtual tie with the Braves and the Mets. And yet the Braves and the Mets are both in definitely. better position than they are. So, yeah, but this was, this was a, this was the day that the diamond backs lost control of their destiny, right? It's not that they can't make the postseason. I mean, we were talking yesterday about a whole bunch of scenarios where they do make the postseason by winning two out of three games this weekend. That is still very possible. And as, as you guys were just saying, the, the Padres now have nothing to play for. This was the perfect scenario that

the Padres needed in order to have nothing to play for. And, obviously part of that scenario is the debacks losing today, which is not a good thing. But maybe with San Diego kind of taking their foot off the gas the next couple of days, that that could help the Diamondbacks for sure. Damon's doubtful of that. He does not see that happening with the San Diego Padres. It's not even not. It's just,

I was going to say, I was going to say at least maybe we get some relief pictures they wouldn't normally use or something of that sort. Like I don't believe that the Padres want to lose this series to the Diamondbacks. I don't believe the Padres want to. roll over and just let the Diamondbacks into the playoffs by winning the next two games. I am sure, just like we talked about with the Mets and the Braves, I am sure the Padres would love to be the ones that ended the Diamondback season and put the nail in the coffin.

So there's still that. But there's there's intelligent managing. And part of that intelligent managing would be to take, give some of your best guys the, the rest so that they're ready to go when this upcoming wildcard round starts. I mean, it does help the Diamondbacks, right? Like, I'm sure that the Padres are, like, there's no way you're seeing Michael King on Sunday. That's not happening. That's a big win for the D-backs.

I haven't seen, I imagine they've announced a starter. I imagine it's Martin Perez for tomorrow. I haven't seen that come out officially. But, yeah, it's helpful at the same time. The Diamondbacks lost two out of three to the Rockies last week. They lost two out of three to the Giants earlier this week. this isn't a team right now that is easy to bet on, frankly, even if the other team is not playing for anything.

And I guess maybe I'm losing perspective a little bit on the fact the Diamondbacks still have 1 88 games. I mean, they still are one of the better teams in baseball for sure. But this week has been brutal. Ever since they blew that eight-run lead to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday, this team has looked very different. The only game that they've managed to win was a game where they had their best starting pitcher going against Mason Black of the San Francisco Giants.

I mean, the gap there was absolutely massive in terms of just the starting the starting pitching matchup. Outside of that, the debacks have looked flat in a lot of these games. It's traumatic to lose an eight run lead, Jesse. Sometimes you just can't shake it. You just close your eyes and you just see those Brewer's runs coming up on the board. And that's all you see. All right. Well, what do you got from the clubhouse?

Yeah, we'll start with just Tori's opening statement here. This one's a little bit longer, but I think there's a lot of different layers to wide. the Diamondbacks lost this game, and actually some things that I think they did fairly well that maybe they weren't rewarded for along the way. Here's what Tori had to say. We had a lot of fighting us today. We couldn't close up that early deficit. You know, the first inning, I think took a little bit of energy out of us. We got some footing in the bottom of the inning made it four to. But, you know, we'll take a close look at that first inning. And and try to get better and learn from it.

I thought Merrill deserved a little bit better, Faddy, threw the ball okay. A couple tough plays that weren't made, resulted in his line score looking worse than it did. He pitched into the sixth inning. I was thinking about giving him that fourth time through the lineup. But with the man at second base, I decided against it. And, you know, he did his job. He kept us in the game despite a rugged first inning. No cramping, no issues, the conditions that the field were on the field were fine.

There was a lot of people here, which we're grateful for. There was a ton of energy from the fans, which tends to heat up the building, but it was fine. So Merrill was pulled from the game because it was his pitch count and the game situation. Offensively, we just kept grinding. We kept getting out that opportunity. We were one hit away a couple times from really closing up, making it a good game or making it more of a game. I felt like if we did, there would have been a tremendous energy in our dugout and we would have won this game, but we just couldn't do it. So that's the problem with baseball.

Sometimes it doesn't work. We're going to be ready to go tomorrow. We know what we're fighting for. A lot of people are asking me certain questions about the stability of our team. Are we okay? We're great. we're fine when it comes to prepping and expecting to go out and have good things happen. So it can't explain it sometimes.

Baseball is a crazy game. We know what's there. We just we can't. We didn't get the victory today. We sure as hell. We're going to do all we can to get one tomorrow. I, like, I know he's in a rough position there, but I, I mean, I, I don't know. He seems way too positive for my liking.

I know you have to stay positive. but like I would like yes Ryan that Ryan is right now that is coping I don't think we were coping earlier but maybe I was coping with the fact that I was coping I don't know but yeah no that's not that that it's like I guess it's the right attitude considering you still have to go out there and try to win these next two games and these next two games are big for this team to win but I'm just I don't know I would love to hear our backs are against the wall now and we know that and we're aware of the moment and we got to go out there and play the best baseball that this team's capable of playing. Like I don't think that would be a bad way of approaching that.

But I also think it's understandable. Tori, maybe he did say that behind closed doors, but to the media, he's saying a different thing because, you know, that's people have a tendency to do that from time to time in sports. I, it's not, it's not the best answer. Like, I think who put it in there. I think it was who. He, I think he was like, what is he even talking about? out, I kind of was sitting there thinking the same thing. Like, what are we, what are we spending our, like, we're just saying the same thing over

and over again in circles. This team is good. We're fine. We're okay. We're not feeling the pressure. But then like just over and over again, like like, like, like, almost trying to convince yourself of it. Well, again, Jesse and I talked about this possibility prior to today, right?

So there probably is some thought internally, Jesse, that, yeah, we knew that. Once the Padres, you know, the Padres would be fighting hard to win one game to try to make sure the Diamondbacks don't leapfrog them. But now that that's done, you, you kind of feel oddly confident about your chances the next two days going out there. He does, at least. We don't, but he does. Yeah, I mean, I guess I have another Tory clip that I'm curious what you're. Oh, this is very, very quick. I'm curious your guys' reaction to this one. This is Tori. He was asked at the end of his press interview

about how the Diamondbacks no longer control their destiny. This is really quick, but here's what he had to say about that. I don't feel great, but it makes me hungry. Makes me want to come here tomorrow be my absolute best for this team. And I know the team feels the same way as well.

I like that. I like that a little, Damon. That's better. Yeah, all right. We're feeling better about that. That's a better answer. Yeah, all right. I just, I need, I need,

I needed something like, yes. Like, and again, Stephen's right. He says, I want to see fire from Tori, right? And Tori gives the fire. We just aren't present to witness it, right? Like, Tori knows what to say to the media and he knows the attitude to have that kind of even keel personality. But I guarantee you that he might not have read them the riot act, but Tori went in there

and yelled a lot of four letter words that I can't say on the show anymore. Yeah, I mean, so, Tori did go out in the first inning. You guys might have noticed this on the broadcast. After some of the chaos, there was that fly ball to right center field that was not caught. Pavin Smith got fairly close, but it sure felt like it hung in the air for an awfully long time.

And yeah, Tori had seen the Cattel plays, that play, and wanted to kind of settle the situation. And he went out and basically told the guys to lock it in. And he looked everyone in the eye. and wanted to see how they would react to that. And he got the responses that he was looking for. And he went back to the dugout. And honestly, from that point forward, I thought the Diamondbacks played a pretty good baseball game.

This wasn't as disastrous as that first inning was. I don't view this game as being, boy, the Diamondbacks did not show up in any facet and just got slaughtered. Like, they had good at bats. They made a lot of hard contact. But obviously, it wasn't enough for the win. All right. Well, we will have more from Jesse and the clubhouse here shortly. but we do have some more from our friends, of course, and some of our partners.

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and then you'll also save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five fill-up. So do not miss out on cooling off at Circle K on a hot day like this. It is America's thirst stop. All right, Jesse. Well, what else do you have for us from the clubhouse? Because I know we got some sad Catelle video. We do have some sad Cattel video. Yeah, Cotel was asked about the Diamondback's current position after losing this game,

his thoughts on that as well as. as the throwing air that he made. Obviously, there were a couple of misplays in that first inning, but he talks about that as well here in this clip. Really? Nothing, yeah, the game of today, there was a few, you know, a few mistakes, few errors that happened today, including my error today, but this isn't done yet, there's two more to go.

Did he just not have a good grip on the ball on that double play? In the play, he's not a good maintainment of the play? We can't say, but that's a excuse. I think that I'm the best there in second, you know, those are things that in the game. I've caused there to go to a career. That's he could have to have done in the game, but I'm going to have to do that in the game, but I'm the best.

You could say that, but it's making an excuse. I think I'm the best at that position right there. So it causes us to lose a run. But I think I'm the best at that position. I'm trying to have tough that first play was. It's a bold statement, but I understand where he's coming from. He's got to stay confident. And he's also not really trying to make any excuses for his poor play there in that first inning.

Like it just, it's unfortunate to happen because, yeah, like Ryan says, when our lorded savior Kattel is down. That's when you know. Yeah. Yeah, he's down bad there. And I mean, I'm sure he feels awful. I'm sure he's trying not to let it mentally break him too much with the fact that there are two more games that this team very much needs him for going forward. And I mean, it's baseball, right? Like, you're going to have nights where you, you don't make the best plays. And I'm sure this isn't the first time

Kattel has done that and had to shake it off and come out the next day. It's just, it's just the, time we need our guys to be the best and we need our best player to be at his best. Corbyn. Carroll arguably is still giving like a hundred percent effort, even on a night where he went one for three. I don't feel like you ever questioned Carol's, you know, I guess, like giving his best effort right now. I'm not saying Catell didn't give his best effort, but it really felt like once he had that first double play kind of go wrong for him, he couldn't get his mind back into it. Yeah, I don't, I don't know exactly if, if there was something mental going on there.

I will say that that comment could tell me about being the best at second base. He said that, I believe, two more times throughout the rest of the interview talking about those plays. So confidence does not seem not a problem in confidence at all. Yeah, that's amazing. It's amazing to have a first inning that you had tonight and still be like, I'm the best in that position. Yeah. That's off to you. That's off. I mean, I think I think that's natural, you know, with when you make an error in that inning. Like we saw it a few games ago. Like it wasn't that long ago with Pardomo, you know, and I think Pardomo seems to be a kind of guy who's somewhat of a mentality monster.

Like that doesn't seem like that he gets in his own head about things often. You know, lots of O2 counts working the count like that's kind of the type of player he is. But he, he made a couple errors in one inning a couple of games ago that really cost this team as well. Like I, I think that's a natural human thing that that can happen. it just it's unfortunate the timing of it especially when it's the guy who's been carrying this team on his back the entire season uh because the diamondbacks wouldn't be nearly as good without katel marty but like it's potential that you know his poor performance tonight could be the reason that this team misses the playoffs it's very possible yeah i mean it hasn't been it hasn't been a

good week for kattel in general right i think he came into today two for 10 with a double something like that. Obviously, he sat out on Monday, which was his decision, not Tori Lavello's decision from what we, what we discovered after the fact. So yeah, I mean, you need your best players to perform in the biggest moments, right? And Catelle's not the only one who didn't, who hasn't been living up to that standard lately, right? I think Jock Peterson has really kind of slowed down here. And really the last month or so, where he just hasn't looked the same. You're seeing him chase pitches is out of the zone more often. You're seeing him have shorter at bats than we're used to him seeing.

And he's a really, yeah, Christian Walker hasn't looked great either since coming back from the injured list. I know we had the one game against the Rangers where he hit a couple of home runs. But outside of that, he hasn't done a ton of damage either. So, yeah, a lot of those key bats that have really carried the diamond backs this season, it hasn't been the same here over these last few days. Well, what else you got from the club? about us there, Jesse. Yeah, we also have Merrill Kelly, uh, who pretty clearly did not think that

he pitched horribly today, nor, nor do I. I mean, I think pretty, it was pretty obvious, honestly, watching this game that I think Merrill Kelly pitched pretty well, uh, despite the, what the final line score would say, those defensive mistakes in the first inning were huge. Uh, but here's Merrill talking about, uh, those defensive mistakes and, uh, just kind of what it's like as a pitcher having stuff like that happened behind you. Yeah, I mean, obviously, you. know, as a pitcher, you feel like you won that at bat. You know, you make the pitch and you get the desired out, or you get the desired outcome of that pitch. And then, like I said, we just couldn't capitalize it.

But like I said, that's part of the game. At that point, we still had plenty of chance to win the game. And like I said, my job is to pick them up. You know, obviously, everybody's trying their hardest. Mistakes happen. Physical mistakes happen. It's my job to, you know, try not to have those. those mistakes spiral and get worse than what they could be.

And I feel like I did a decent job of that tonight, but probably if I look back on it, probably not as good as maybe I could have. I think at one point earlier in the show, I might have said, like, Merrill didn't have his, like, a strong outing or whatever. Like, I, in retrospect, I don't know if that's the case. I might have misspoke when I said that. And I, and honestly, it goes back to me saying I'm really impressed with the way that this team did fight back to stay in this game, despite how.

much that first inning kind of spiraled out of control. But looking back on it, looking back on the results of the plays and how everything went, like this is a night normally where a couple of guys got hits and then a double play gets them out of the inning and we're done. No run score. We're not even talking about the first inning. So realistically, like, yeah, Merrill,

Merle really wasn't at fault for how that first inning went. Yeah, and I think also the couple of balls that Luis Arise hit in the right center field gap. Obviously, those were not errors. Those were those were not mistakes necessarily, but I did get a catch probability on Arise's gapper in the first inning. It was 35%. So not so not an easy play, right? But if Jake McCarthy is out in right field, is he able to get to, or I guess what would have probably happened is Jake is in center and Corby is right is what the debuts would have done. Is Corbyn able to run that down? His routes have looked pretty good lately. It wouldn't. shock me if he was able to. There's a pretty big difference between Pavin's speed and Corbyn's speed

out in right field. And I brought this up earlier, Jesse, but just to ride on the back of that once again, in his last nine games against the Padres, Jake is hitting 400 with two doubles, one home run, five RBI, five walks, and one stolen base. Now, it might be situational. It might have had a lot to do with you, Darvish, but I don't know. I just don't know if it's really worth sacrificing. I don't know if I don't know if Pavin's offense is consistent enough towards sacrificing having Jake McCarthy out there in the outfield and having that outfield of, you know, really good defenders instead of having Pavan out there who didn't really play the best defense out there. Or offense. Yeah, I mean, Pavin did hit a very deep fly ball to center field at one turn in this game that was caught. So I don't think it was terrible for him offensively.

but another question that Tori was asked after this game is, uh, is a fly ball like that in right center field that, the drops in is that kind of part of the give and take of starting Pavin Smith over a Jake McCarthy on a game like this. And Tori was pretty open and said, yeah, I mean, that's kind of part of the game.

Like the Diamondbacks made a decision to have Pave and Smith bat in the lineup over Jake McCarthy's bat. And I think we can understand why. Pave and I believe came in with good numbers against you Darvish in particular. And he's certainly been swinging a, better bat lately than Jake McCarthy has. I wonder how Alec Thomas might fit into this picture the next couple of days because Jake McCarthy is not the best defensive center fielder on this team.

Alec Thomas is after he was called up today. Are you starting Alec Thomas against what I think will be a lefty tomorrow? I have a hard time seeing the debacks do that. But we did see them start Thomas a lot in the playoffs last year, even though he wasn't doing a ton offensively because he's the best. defensive center fielder you have. And it feels like in the biggest moments and the games that you really, really have to have,

uh, it feels like having good defense at premium positions is, is maybe all the more important in these moments. So I'm curious how the debacks approach that the next couple of days. A lot of these games finish on the margins. And when you have Jackson, Merrill out there running down deep fly balls that the, that the dinbacks are hitting really hard off the bat versus plays that probably a lot

good defensive outfielders would make conversely turning into doubles and runs for the opposing team like that changes everything so yeah i mean that that's what baseball is it's you know everyone says game of inches about i mean a lot of sports but baseball's one of them and and i think that that's just that's the unfortunate nature of where this team's at right now they're they're not playing good defense they haven't been a particular i don't think they've been a particularly great defensive team all season compared to maybe last season yeah and uh and it's it's it's showing showing in big moments here. That's very fair.

That's very fair. I did also get a catch probability on, it was the fourth inning when Luis Arise was at it again and hit another one into the right center field gap. Corbyn Carroll apparently was the closer one there. So the catch probability applies to him and it was 30%. So another ball that you're not necessarily expecting to get. But again, if the debacks go with, say, Alec Thomas and center and Corbyn and Wright, it's not all that hard to imagine both of those balls getting caught.

And then if Catell, you know, is able to turn that double play in the first inning, I know you can go crazy with hindsight is 20-20 times in baseball. But the Diamondbacks, if they're able to get that gapper from a rise in the fourth inning, which I think was probably a catchable ball of Alec Thomas is out there, and they're able to, if Catell is able to convert that double play in the first, I mean, the Padres didn't score any other runs in this game. I thought this was actually a pretty well-pitched game by the Diamondbacks overall. But yeah, you have to be able to make those big plays,

and the Diamondbacks fell short on that front today. Jesse Ryan wants you to know what Damon brought up earlier, which is that the Diamondbacks have a 38.6% chance of making the postseason, according to fan graphs currently. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. You know, they don't have the tiebreaker with either of these teams. and you don't necessarily think about that. If, you know, first weekend of the season or not maybe first weekend,

but one of the first series the debacks played this year was on the road against the Atlanta Braves. And in that series, they lost the game where they were. Oh, no, don't remind me of this, Jesse. They were up in every single game of that series, I think. I don't think, yeah, I don't think they were up in the last game. The last game was close. And I think Blaze Alexander had some sort of a miscue. that were maybe the D-Backs could have flipped out in their direction.

But the first game of that series was a day where the D-Backs put up eight runs on Max Fried and had an eight-two lead and wound up losing that game. And then there was another game that weekend where I think it, I mean. You want me to get you out of the show again. And then you want people to do that. Like, I feel like you beg for me to banish you from the show. We haven't even done the numbers that doesn't lie yet. I want to banish you from the show.

Why are we talking about it? There are so many games, Jesse, that we could bring up in regards to this. But you're right. I mean, yeah, like that. But against the Braves, again, the reason I'm saying this is because against the Braves in particular, the Debacks had a game where they were up eight to two and loss. And then they had another game where I think they were up five to two going to the eighth inning. And they made a couple of really ugly defensive misplays in, I think it was maybe the eighth and

the ninth or maybe both happened in the ninth. I think they involved Blaze Alexander. And the debacks let that game slip away. as well. And then there was also a really brutal game at home against the Braves where Sean Murphy hit, I believe a go-ahead home run against Paul Seawald. So yeah, I mean, we can of course do this all day. I understand that. But with the Braves in particular, tiebreaker, yeah. Yeah, with the Braves in particular, the D-BACs had some games that they really look like they were going to win. And I mean, I think that last one against, against Atlanta,

where Sean Murphy at the home run. I think the Braves were down to their last out with nobody on base. And they came back and wound up winning that game. So yeah, that's just it's, you're not thinking about that necessarily in the moment. But right now with the debacks knotted up with both Atlanta and New York, it's hard not to not to have those things come to mind. Jesse says not thinking about it in the moment, but I would almost guarantee if we go back and watch our post game show, Jesse might have like one off mentioned like, you never. know, Derek. This could really hurt you down the stretch in a tiebreaker scenario with the Braves to make the playoffs. Like that was no way he would have said that during the first season.

He would have definitely said that during the last series. But there would have been too much baseball left for Jesse to be getting too doomsday about anything. I don't think I was talking about. I don't think I was talking about tiebreakers. Like four and six or something. He would scoff at you for even doing such a thing, David. That's what Jesse would do. He would say you're crazy for even bringing this up. But like look at how important it was. Look at how I mean there's I think we can all remember fairly significant losses that you feel like changed this season for this team. And especially those against the Braves, especially, you know, the one game against the Brewers.

There's going to be a lot that we pick apart should the Diamondbacks not make the postseason. But Benjamin Hunley, I did see your super chat that they threw up on screen. He said, remember when the debacks absolutely lit up strider and freed early in the same. season. Yes, we do. As we were discussing there, Kang. The Strider one is, the Strider one is kind of sad because that was the precursor to him having Tommy John surgery. That was not, uh, that was not, uh, that was not, Spencer Strider. That's not our fault. We didn't, we didn't do it to him, Jesse. Uh, Kang and the, thank you for your super chat. I'm sorry that you got banished from all of the Marvel movies.

Kang says, went out, uh, forces both ATL and New York Mets to go three and one, go snakes. I love the positivity. And that's all. all we can do at this point, right? Like, we can't do much to control our destiny as a team, but the dimebacks can just win, and that gives them, they can win these next two games. It gives them a fairly decent chance of still making the postseason, which seems crazy to say. I do remember first weekend, Jesse mentioning the whole hurricane scenario down the stretch.

Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, I remember that. I remember Jesse was like, yeah, we better do some. something about these neutral site situations in case of weather or it might come back to bite the diamond bags. Well, you guys, you guys know that I'm big on I love weather. I'm like always randomly looking at weather reports. And yeah, I did have like a five month heads up about Hurricane Helene. So I don't know what all these other meteoros, so called meteorologists. We're so worried about your reputation, but then you're just going to come on this show and be a

fraud like this. It's amazing to me. Well, Jesse is a liar. Damon's also a liar. Who else? Steven in the chat, he's a liar. But we know the numbers they don't lie. So Jesse, what do you have for tonight's number that doesn't lie? Yeah, tonight's number. This is a really big number. This might be the biggest number that doesn't lie that we've ever had. It is 1,2009. Ooh, can I get it? Roll. Whoa. Yeah, yeah. What do you got, Damon? What do you think? Does it have something to do with adding up the foot distance of balls that were hit by the Diamondbacks tonight? It does. You nailed it, Damon. Well, wow. Yeah. So this is, so the Diamondbacks had the four longest, farthest batted balls in this game. Yeah. The farthest batted ball was Corbyn Carroll's first inning homer. That was no, D-backs did not get, you know, Chase Field did not do them in there. That was a home run and a very big one for the debacks to get right up, right on the scoreboard.

after a brutal top half of the first inning. But I mentioned the four farthest hit balls in this game are all by the debacks. You look at the other three. There was a Randall Gritchick double that would have been a home run in 22 out of 30 ballparks. And then there were a couple of flyouts. There was Catelle Martez flyout to straightaway center field.

Jackson Merrill made a really nice play there. Which was the play before the Gritchick hit. So, I mean, hypothetically, if he gets on base, that's a two-run homer that ties the game. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So that was brutal. I mean, Kattel made, he did everything you really could have hoped for in that spot. He worked a 3-1 count and hit an absolute missile. Jackson Merrill, to his credit, is a very good center fielder. But if you're hitting in Chase Field, hitting the ball to straightaway center field is not the choice you want to make. And granted, hitters do not necessarily control. They don't have a ton of control over that necessarily. But yeah, so there was that that Kattel fly out. And then there was also the Pavin Smith flyout that we discussed earlier. earlier as well, which was 105 miles an hour off the bat and was totally smoked to center field. So out of those four batted balls, the diamond backs just wound up scoring the one run.

So, and of course, that being Corvins Homer. So that was tough. I mean, the debacks, again, I think offensively, they had a pretty decent approach most of the night. There were some, some quick at bats in the middle innings there against U. Darvish, but by and large, they made a lot a hard contact and they had opportunity after opportunity. It felt like they brought at least the tying run or the tying, yeah, run to the plate in just about every inning down the stretch there and they just weren't able to get that big hit. Always with two outs though, didn't it feel like?

Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, I mean, we can kind of go through some of them. In the fifth inning, they got a couple of walks from Corbyn, Carol, and Cotel Marte. and that is where Randall, or no, that is where Jock hit a, I believe a pretty hard hit ball. It wasn't 400 feet, but that was a bit of a tough break there. And then, yeah, in the sixth inning, the Diamondbacks capitalized on some unusually poor defense from Manny Machado at third base. Gabby Moreno hit one kind of right at him, wound up at second. You had second and third in that spot with Geraldo Prudomo coming up.

We've seen Brumo come through in a lot of those kinds of situations. he had a chance to tie the game if he could have just hit a bloop single somewhere. He winds up grounding out. And then, yeah, the Diamondbacks had a double in the seventh inning. That was the Gritchie kit. Could have maybe had more if Kattel's deep flyout was not caught. That was kind of an ongoing theme of the night was having those opportunities. But debacks went one for seven with runners in scoring position.

And that big hit just eluded them all night. I hear it now. I hear the coping now, Damon. I can hear the coping when we do. that. Stephen Bannas has a great point, and it's something I wanted to bring up before we left tonight. Steve says, let's all cheer for CWalk might be his last games. And I was going to encourage, like, you guys know me.

I'm not a big give a guy, a standing ovation kind of guy just for the purpose of making them feel good about themselves, and maybe it will help them in there at bats, right? But I think Christian Walker has been an absolute legend in his time here. And he played in the shadow of a very big hero that a lot of Diamondbacks fans were very upset left the valley, right? And Paul Goldschmidt. And I think that he did an amazing job in his time here. And should this be the end of his time with the Diamondbacks, I do think that Seawak definitely deserves to go out with a standing ovation from the home crowd in the final, you know, game and we probably won't really even know if that's the final game of the season or not for

the diamondbacks when it takes place on Sunday. So I would just say if you're there, stand up for that man and give him, give him a round of applause because he deserves it. And he's he's been an incredible teammate, incredible player for this team and just an incredible person. Yeah, I mean, what do you what do you say about Christian Walker and what he's been able to do as a member of the diamond backs? There's a reason that I think, you know, I think the debacks have a shot to retain him totally. But I feel like almost any time I'm hearing a national baseball analyst talk about what such and such team that didn't make the playoff should do over the offseason.

Christian Walker is like always mentioned like, oh, the pirates, of course, they should go sign Christian Walker. The Washington Nationals, they need more. They should go sign Christian Walker. He's, he's just the kind of guy that everyone wants to have on their team. He's a really hard worker. He does the fundamentals as well as anyone. He's the best defensive first baseman in all of baseball has for a good while now.

So yeah, it's remarkable what he's been able to give the Diamondbacks. And, you know, hopefully this isn't this isn't the end, right? I think there is a chance that the Debacks bring him back. And, you know, maybe he winds up retiring as a member of the Diamondback someday. But he is going to be a highly, a highly sought after commodity this winter for sure. I love Seawalk. I hope, I really hope that they bring him back. but I'm going to be the guy

and I'm going to say if this is going to be the end can we please get some big hits out of you in these last couple of games because there's a narrative that is formed that Christian Walker in the biggest moments doesn't always live up to the expectations and it would be awesome if he could find a way to do that

when this team needs him the most and potentially his final two games is a diamond back so I think he absolutely deserves a standing ovation but please, Christian, I'm begging you to get some big hits this weekend because we need them. We just need to go over this one thing, and that is that the lyrics are Walker, Walker, Walker, single double, triple walker, he hits Dingers, Christian Walker, having a day. And we need them. We need them to have a day on Saturday and we need them to have a day on day.

At Chase Field. At Chase Field. There you go. That was for you, Damon. Well, of course, we thank you guys for joining us tonight. you guys are a wonderful group of people, and we hope that the Diamondbacks can make you much happier than you currently might be with these final two games of the regular season.

We don't know what we're going to do this weekend. It's still up in the air, but we promise we will bring you a breaking podcast, an emergency podcast, should anything crazy happen, especially if the Diamondbacks find a way to clinch a playoff spot on Sunday. We will be here after the game. Otherwise, we'll be back on Monday with a whole lot to unpack, and maybe even a watch party for those Mets or not watch party, but watch along.

We'll do it. It's just me and Jesse and David. Sorry, none of you are invited. But you were invited to watch us, watch it with us at the watch along. So make sure to just stay tuned for all of that. The best way to do so, sign up for notifications here for the Ph.N. Xbox YouTube channel. Of course, you can follow us all on Twitter.

I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Damon is at Damon Dogg. That's D-A-W-G. and the two of us, we are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. Bark. You can follow our guy, Kevin, at Kev, Tom Wrights.

That's T-H-O-M-R-I-T-E-S. But our show, of course, is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Bax, and all roads do lead to at P-H-N-X underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Thank you guys again for your time. We hope you have a good night, and we hope you have a great weekend, and we hope the Diamondbacks have a great weekend.

And until we see you again, behave yourselves, and remember kids baseball is fun, but it would be so much more fun if that playoff percentage wasn't at 38% or whatever it's at.