PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks Keep Playoff Hopes ALIVE As Offense SURGES In Season Finale Against Padres

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Ketel Marte and the Arizona Diamondbacks offense showed up in the season finale against the San Diego Padres, while Brandon Pfaadt shoved to give the Snakes the win. Dalton Feely from Jomboy joins the show to discuss Eugenio Suarez hitting home run number 30, Jake McCarthy going 3 for 4, the nightmare that was their final week, and how it is still possible that the D-backs could make the postseason.  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/coll... 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-accou... 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 pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Oh, ski and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX DVax podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. Of course, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me is a triple threat in all the sports over at John Boy. He's also a known snake aficionado. It's Dalton Feeley. Dalton, thank you so much for joining me to discuss the series finale.

That's a wrap for the Arizona Diamondbacks 2024 season. You know, it's kind of funny. You ask me on to come in on today. They win the game. There's something between me and the snakes where I'm a little bit of a good luck term. I don't know. I would have you here for every game. If I could, I would have you here for every game.

But yes, you're absolutely right. The Diamondbacks win today. And they win big by a score of 11 to 2. What, I mean, you obviously posted your reaction. I loved it. I felt it in my soul. But like, what is your reaction, especially after seeing today's win, to just everything that's happened to this team over this past week and how miserable it really has been when they really did control their own destiny.

Last Sunday, we controlled our own destiny. It's an 8-0 game in Milwaukee, and then lo and behold, they lose five of their last seven games, and now destiny is out of their hands, and we are hoping for the downfall of one of the Braves or the Mets. Sorry, Jolly. It's so gross. So gross. We're a little bit of a different vibe right now. I'm wearing black, a little semi-funeral because I'm very worried.

You got the purple. I'm trying to steal the vibes back from Grimmis. Grimmis stole our purple. I'm stealing the purple back. I'm looking a little grimacy today. I don't care who wins tomorrow. I would just like a sweet because that at this point is the only way the diamondbacks make it into the postseason. The Mets win today by a score 5 to 0.

The Braves lose to the Royals by a score 4 to 2. So here we are. We're down to this double header that took place that shouldn't even be taking place. on the day after the season is over. And even though the Diamondback season is done, we still don't know what the future holds for this team and if they'll make the mother effiniafs. And that's where we're at today.

But man, the offense showed up today, and that was really impressive. 11 runs today by the Diamondbacks. You know, Jake McCarthy going three for five. Lordus Guerriel going three for five. Gino going three for five. He hit home run number 30, got RBI's number 100, 101. And I mean, it was just a day where you felt like, ah, there's, there's the diamond back I've come to know and love.

It was frustrating, as Lizzo once said, it's about damn time with the offense. 15 scoreless innings at one point, basically playing the AAA Al Paso Chihuahuas. And finally, finally in that fourth inning, they put up a six spot. They love putting up runs and bunches and it finally broke out on Sunday in the fourth inning. Like you said, Gino joins the 30100 club for the first time since 2019 in his career. First, Diamondbacks, third basement, to do it since Eddie, Eddie Escobar since 2019. So that's pretty cool. That's a positive bright side.

Kind of one game late with the offense. You know, last night, I know you guys talked about it. Zero, zero through eight innings. Randy Vasquez shuts the Diamondbacks down. And it puts the Diamondbacks in a wait and see moment where in reality it really should have been a celebration day for the Diamondbacks. Right, right. And I mean, that's, I think that's the most frustrating part about this is that, you know, again, all credit to Vasquez, right? You know, like all credit to the player that did it.

But this offense, this is the offense that the Diamondbacks have been pretty much the majority of the season. It's unfortunate that they kind of, I guess, just shied away. They went away at one of the most critical times in their entire season. They end the year with a record of 89 and 73, which honestly, if you would have told me that at the beginning of the season, if I would have told you that at the beginning of the season, that would feel like a success. But it's hard to right now. Yeah, it's five more wins than they won last year. And now instead of celebrating being the third spot in the wildcar, we're kind of just waiting on the Mets and Braves. It's the best record the dimebacks have had since 2017 when they went on that playoff experience versus Rockies and Dodgers.

But it's just crazy. I'm thinking of like the Thanos meme where it's like we want on the World Series run. It's like, what did it cost? And it potentially cost it a better record. Yeah. So I'm really hoping this double header goes a sweep from one direction. I don't care who wins as long as you win two tomorrow. And that's the big thing is obviously we know the implications here.

We've discussed it. This was the scenario. One of the many scenarios that we discussed that the Diamondbacks could make it in. Mets won today, Braves to lose today. Diamondbacks win. So essentially we're at a spot where we just need either of those teams to sweep tomorrow, which is kind of a nightmare scenario, right? It's very difficult for a team to sweep both of those games, just in general,

just if they were just being played by both teams because of it being a double-headed. Double-headers tend to, you know, be difficult. The advantage here is that the Braves at least are the home team. the Braves still have something to prove. I think the Braves want to, you know, kind of make up for this disaster of a season that was for them that really hasn't been. Right. Like it could have been way worse considering the catastrophe. Catastrophic injuries that they suffered.

Yet this team hung in there. They won. They played better baseball down the stretch than the Diamondbacks did. And now they're in a position that they could be in the playoffs over the Mets or the debacks, depending on how tomorrow goes. Well, and it's really ironic, too, because the Braves kind of, and got criticized with how they lined up their pitching going into this weekend. Sale was supposed to pitch versus the Mets.

And then once the double header got canceled, he was expected to pitch Friday. The Braves hold him off. And now he's in the line of pitch Monday. So I guess the calling card from the dimebacks, the bright side is that if sale goes game one and the Braves win game one, that's a great, you know, it's a great start. And the only fear then becomes at that point that whoever wins game one, they don't necessarily need to try hard in game two. they probably will try to save their bullpen.

Yeah. And it's just at that point, it becomes a luck factor. Can they, can their bench, can their B squad come through and win the second game of the double-hre? And hopefully that won't be the case. Hopefully there'll be some, I don't know, like a little bit of respect for the game of baseball and a little bit of respect. Like obviously it's bad managing if you just put your starting lineup out there for a game you don't have to win and your best pitcher available out there for a game you don't have to win. I imagine you would want to considering you now, know you have a playoffs.

spot save that player, whoever you had lined up for game two, to probably start in game one, the following, or in the game one of the wild card, right? So at that point, you are going to pull that person, but that's kind of what the Diamondbacks hope here is, is that whoever wins game one just plays strong in game two. And it's, again, it's, there's no guarantee because look at what happened yesterday to the Diamondbacks. A game by all accounts, they should have won, and they didn't. Not only did they not win, but they kind of got embarrassed. You know, like you said, by a AAA team there late in the game. Their best reliever got absolutely rocked.

And, you know, the Diamondbacks got held in check by a AAA pitcher who had an amazing day. But today, again, a big day for the offense. Cattell Marte had that home run. Two for five today. Two RBIs for Cotel. Gino, what can you say again about Gino, considering how slow his start was that this man still reaches 30 home runs and 100 RBI this season? he was three for five today, two RBI, one home run. Again, this is the team.

This is what happens when this team is successful. You have kind of contributions across the board, even though some guys might not have had a great day. You had a pretty great day on average from, you know, a lot of your stars here. Yeah, absolutely. It was nice to see that you had Jake, you had Gino, you had Citell, like you said. Brandon Fott goes out and goes five and a third of one in the prime nine case. He pitches great.

I was a little surprised, Derek. At that moment of the game, it was still, I know it was a 7-2 game when they pulled brand or 7-1, excuse me, the runner was on base and he scored. He's at 79 pitches. I was a little bit surprised Tori pulled him in that moment. I understand it was the third time through the order, but the bullpen's been going heavy the last couple of days, and especially down this stretch. Fought was, I don't want to say he was in cruise control because there was a runner on base,

but he had looked really good. I was, it worked out in the end. I was a little shocked they pulled Brandon in that moment. Yeah, I was too. I think it was going back to last year in the playoffs where Tori didn't really let Brandon go through the lineup a third time and it might have been a little bit of overmanaging like we talked about yesterday.

I mean, not that, not that anyone can blame Tori for turning to AJ puck, right? Like, there's just no way. But with the way things were going, it felt like, you know,

again, he was aggressively trying to make sure that the Diamondbacks, you know, kept this game scoreless, kept the Padres at least scoreless. and just might have taken it one step too far, maybe when it wasn't time for that move yet. And again, it's not Torrey's fault that puck cost them in that moment,

but it did, right? And it was the way that the things broke down. And today, I think it was kind of a little bit more of that. It just went the Diamondbacks way. Diamondbacks in this case, you know, had the bullpen go out. The bullpen, you know, was solid. They did allow that run that Brandon fought, that runner that he was on base. So he did give up two runs, but like you said, five in a third innings pitch,

three hits a loud, one earned one walk in 9K. And for that reason, Brandon fought is our Kingsnake. He went out there today and he did the thing. And of course, that's a big reason why the Diamondbacks won today. The offense was huge. They got lots of offensive contributions. I'm sure we could have probably given it to a few guys, including Gino for getting his home run number 30 and RBI number 100 101.

but Brandon just gave this team the best chance that they could win in game 162 or in the best chance that they could to win in game 162. And that's how they got, you know, got through this one. Of course, you don't want to get too high on this. It's a good day, though, that if the Diamondback should make the playoffs, it's a good day to see their offense kind of getting into a groove, right? And it's a great time for it considering how bad their offense has been over this stretch during this past week.

And the pitching too. I mean, the month of September has not been kind to the Arizona Dimeback's pitching rotation and the bullpen ranking last in bullpen and bottom five and starting pitcher year, right? Brightside, you know, today was a much needed win. It was a must win and they did win. So thank goodness it puts them in a better spot than it could have been. If it was a loss, it was signed steel delivered. That was it.

No playoffs. So at least there's some hope for tomorrow. Yeah. And I mean, I understand fans, especially people on our chat being very negative still. and rightfully so, right? Like this team had a chance to win one more game, one more game, including that game against the Brewers that I don't ever want to really revisit, to put themselves in a position where they could have won, you know, this,

this themselves and not have to be now in this precarious position that they are. It's so ironic that they are. It's so ironic that as, you know, we came down this stretch, there were just some big games that they shouldn't have lost that they did. And, you know, again, it's also very ironic that they won five more games than they did last year and they might miss the playoffs now. But it's the way things shake up. They do have, they need a lot of luck. They need a lot of things to go their way tomorrow.

And that part really sucks. But they won today. And, I mean, looking back on this season, it's hard. It is really hard considering what this team has gone through with the injuries, with all the ups and downs to think of it as a, as a failure if they don't make the playoffs yet i'm sure that's going to be kind of the feeling of a lot of the fan base it's such a weird feeling because there was improvement in the regular season especially the second half of the year at one point the i'm back through july to beginning of september were the best team in baseball in record and it just thinks that the last couple of weeks

there's a little bit of fatigue uh throughout the team where they struggled and put themselves out of a a team of destiny controlling their own destiny to all right, Mets, all right, Braves. We need you guys. One of you guys to choke. I'm personally, I don't want to say this because my friend Jolly is a Mets fan, but I need the Mets to Mets. We all need the Mets to Mets. We've been waiting for it. And they kind of have been this week.

It's the reason why the Diamondbacks are even in it right now. September, I mean, the Braves, sure. I guess they can get swapped. That's kind of like a result that I don't think is going to happen. You're going to have sale on the mound. Shwellenbach, I believe, has beaten him every time he's pitched so far. So I think it's more likely the Mets would be the ones to get swept. But anyone, I don't care.

I don't care who it is. It just thinks you're 100% right. The regular season, I think, is going to be viewed as a failure, though it was an improvement record-wise. Yeah. I mean, overall, though, this team still feels like, you know, if they can get in the playoffs, something can happen. It's just also, it's weird. and there's several people in the chat saying it would be a failure if they don't make the playoffs.

And I respect that opinion. That's obviously like determining whether or not the Diamondback season is a success or failure is kind of like art. It's in the eye of the beholder, right? Like they won more wins. There's they won more games. There's things about it that you could say were a success. But obviously considering the heights they reached last year, making it to the World Series, if they don't do that same thing again.

And honestly, even if they got to the World Series, it's like they would have to win more games or win the whole thing in order for it to be a success over last year. And there are some that call last year an anomaly. Maybe it was. Maybe the way things lined up for them in the playoffs, lined up for them in such a way. But it's hard to call it an anomaly when they beat teams

like the Dodgers and the Phillies on their way to the World Series. It was just baseball. And honestly, like this is one of those. things where the Diamondbacks had a really good run for two months. And unfortunately, that run came at, it came at a good time to get them in this position, to get them the wild card to get them, you know, to have them be part of this race. But it almost came too early, you know, where like they did seemingly run out of steam here in the last week. I don't know if it's energy. I don't know if it's just the pressure of the situation. I mean, I've noticed that at

times with this team that the pressure doesn't seem to bring the best out of them early on when there were those heavy expectations from last year. A lot of guys on this team struggled. I know that a lot of the guys that they added, you know, like Jordan Montgomery and Eduardo Rodriguez, have had their struggles as well. So overall, it's been one of those seasons that you really thought the Diamondbacks had it in the bag early on. And now here we are waiting on the outcome of a makeshift double header to determine if they'll even be in the postseason. I have. I have, a 30 second rant real quick about this double header. It's unrelated to anyone. It is directed. Do we want to time it? I mean, what do we want to do here? You have the floor, sir, please.

Like I said, this is a safe space. Rob Manfred and MLB, this is directed at you. I know you guys are watching, obviously. Listen, it's hard to predict the weather. I understand that. But the one thing that's relatively accurate to predict in the weather is hurricanes. You can track to see what their path is coming through. You knew it was going to rain when. Thursday, Thursday, and potentially Friday. Both teams were off on Monday. I understand they have to plan to travel and hotels and whatnot. I understand that.

That said, it's an, it's an emergency in terms of weather, making sure your players are safe too, to have them in that location during a hurricane and to not move that game up. And now this doesn't only hurt the Mets and Braves to play. This impacts a Diamondbacks playoff odds. It impacts a lot of things, doesn't it? I mean, impacts.

People have said it's not fair for the Mets and the Braves, and that's true. Like the Mets and the Braves now have to play. two games tomorrow while everybody else gets a day off and a travel day. And then they have to play a wild card series starting on Tuesday, no matter who wins and advances if maybe it's both of them. And then both advance and great. They both have advanced, but they definitely are at a disadvantage in that series. The Brewers and Padres are hoping they split tomorrow because then they're getting an exhausted Braves team or an exhausted Mets team of the wild card. The bright side of the linebacks

is that if someone ends up sweeping the double header, they do have that rest day tomorrow. I know the travel plans might be impacted because you're waiting to see what happens, but that said, you don't have to play a nine-inning baseball game or let alone 18 innings of baseball prior to playing a wild card series.

So the Padres and Brewers 1,000% are hoping they split the Braves and Mets split that series. We're supposed to be here today, I guess basically giving a time of death on the Arizona Diamondback season. And yet there is no lab coat. I have no, I have no medical equipment around my neck because there is no time of death being declared oddly enough. And I'm not saying that I just mean like people are saying they're cooked.

People are saying they're done. The odds are not in their favor. That's for sure. But it does not mean that the Diamondback still might not be in the playoffs at this time tomorrow, which is just an absolute crazy thing to say. And yeah, the sports boys believe. If they believe, why can't we all believe? Right?

Let's get out there. What are we doing here? I mean, I get it. It sucks. The way this went down sucks. This team deserves all the criticism. I know a lot of people accuse me, and rightfully so, of being a Tori Lovolo Homer.

Mostly it's because I really enjoy the man as a human being. I have openly admitted that. But also because a lot of times I feel like, the blame gets placed on the manager far more than it does on the players that didn't perform. And there's lots of instances where Tori's made some bad calls. I think Jesse and I would agree with that. And we've had our own gripes. And I'm sure you have as well.

But at the same time, it's kind of wild considering that you know, you're putting your guys out there. You're putting your best players out there. And they're not giving the job done. And I don't, you know, again, when they go collectively cold like they did in yesterday's game, I really don't know who to blame if we should blame Mather, the hitting coach. I don't know if we should blame Tori. I don't know if we blame the individuals.

But it gets to a point where I feel like, especially in baseball, we don't blame the athletes themselves for not performing enough versus, you know, putting it all on the manager. But that's, I get it though. Yeah, I think the manager just becomes an easy scapegoat in that moment. And I think on social media and I'm guilty of this too, it sometimes is a result-based criticism or praise that. the manager. It is. Like, Atec Puck in a zero-zero game had never had not given up a home run this season and gives up back-to-back home runs in the top of the ninth yesterday. Are we going to win Tori for putting in our best reliever in the ninth inning of a squirreless game? No, you can't do that. But I bet you some people were criticizing Tori. And don't get me wrong. Like, you know, the manager does deserve some praise and some criticism. But I think sometimes they get too much not enough love and they get too much criticism. I will criticize Tori when I need to. But I at least for yesterday's instance, The only thing I guess who he could criticize wasn't the lineup itself. I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, Derek. They didn't take BP.

They weren't on the field yesterday. Yeah. That's something. That's something Jesse brought up. And what was odd was I, like, I guess one of the games against the Giants that they went flat offensively, they didn't take BP. And Jesse and I discussed it that day. And so when I was talking about that with him yesterday, he confirmed that, yes, no, in fact, yesterday they did not take BP. Now, that doesn't mean that they didn't go hit in the cage.

but it's a weird thing that I guess Paul Seawald had suggested at one point that kind of helped because it was during the middle of the regular season and, you know, guys were kind of tired and for some reason not taking VP kind of helped out. But I would think at this point we would learn not to listen to anything Paul Seawald has to say and not, no, I'm sorry, that was that was me. I can be mean. Paul Seawald actually brings a tremendous amount of joy to this team. and I mean, again, sometimes suggestions like that from veterans based on their past experiences can be what this team needs.

It wasn't really what they needed yesterday, obviously, based on the result. And of course, you know, when things have worked for you in the past, you're going to continue to try them until they don't work for you. And yesterday was definitely that case with the offense. But it seemed like they took BP today and maybe vitamin D or whatever else they needed to take for their offense to score 11 runs. because this was a big day for this team and just something we really needed to see. You know, this is the Diamondbacks. They had 21 occurrences this season of scoring 10 runs or more, which is the most in Major League Baseball ahead of the Dodgers and ahead of the Twins.

And then the Diamondbacks 15 plus hit games, which today was another one of those. Again, the most in the majors ahead of the Orioles and ahead of the Brewers. I think what you're seeing when you see those stats is the reasons why the Diamondbacks lead the league in offense. And it's not necessarily that they're just this consistent offense. They've just had a tremendous amount of games where their offense blew up and scored a ton of runs. And it puts them in that position where statistically a lot of people look at their stats and say, how are they being no hit?

We even did that yesterday. How is the best offense in Major League Baseball being no hit by a damn AAA pitcher? What the hell is going on here? Right. And the reason why is because the Diamondbacks do go cold in a lot of instances, including, you know, like the game one of this series when it's the game after a day off. And then yesterday, inexplicably, they just go cold against pitchers that they're not familiar with. Like when, you know, rookie pitchers start against them or a team throws a bullpen start against them or anything like that, they fall apart. You put one of the best, you know, pitchers in the game out there like Justin Verlander or Blake Snell.

and they absolutely rock them early and knock them out of the game early, right? So I can't explain this team at times other than the fact that I feel like maybe they plan too much on one game plan and the minute that that gets changed or pivots, they haven't really had enough time to have an alternate game plan,

which might be, once again, poor managing. I think you're right in terms of game planning versus pitchers that they know of Verlander and Snell, among others, where they've had success, because I think when you see a guy and you know a guy, you just know flat out who they are. Especially Brent Strong, right?

Right. You just know how they throw. When it's a picture you haven't seen as much, maybe you don't have as much film on them, it's more of an unknown, the mystery where it's hard to adapt to someone, whereas when you game plan, you feel much more comfortable. Great part about Verlander in the chat.

He had been struggling. And he even said, he had said he came back way too early from the IL. he was trying to help this team get into the playoff spot, which obviously they did, maybe not because of him. But yeah, the game planning, I'm wondering if it's just based on if you're comfortable versus someone, if you know who they are, do you have enough film on them? And just a lack of adjustment, especially in that bullpen game situation.

Yeah. Well, now what we have is the Mets and the Braves who play each other. And I mean, I get it. We've discussed all the reasons why this is bad for the Diamondbacks. But there are a few reasons why you can have some hope, right? You know, it is, Braves do have home field advantage in this one. These two teams absolutely hate each other. And of course, that hate, that spite might be our only hope.

It might be our little light at the end of the tunnel because that might be enough of a reason for whoever wins game one to keep their foot on the pedal in game two and eliminate their NL East opponent. Again, I'm sure the Padres took a little joy in beating the Diamond yesterday and putting them one step closer to the brink of elimination. I'm sure they would have liked to do that today, but just didn't really feel the need to keep pummeling, you know, a team that was already

down. And again, it's not like they didn't try, right? Diamondbacks just did a good job today. You got to give your credit where credit is due. Diamondbacks did a good job today. Padres didn't put their best lineup out there, but they still had Luis Reyes out there. They still had a lot of their starters out there. And they still gave an effort.

They just got beat today by the Diamondbacks. And again, there's some positives going forward based on them at least having a day like this. You know, I know that it doesn't always translate into them going on a roll. It just feels nice to see them kind of be in sync like this, have so many different guys contributing the way that they did today. And then potentially going into the postseason and, you know, maybe having that stay, you know, having that offense, stay hot, stay on a role. But yeah, right now, that's it. That's all we are. Our hope is based on hatred and spite between division.

and rivals who want to end each other's season more than they're interested in potentially taking a game off on a doubleheader. Yeah, it's just so funny that the Braves put themselves in a better spot. They had a five-game winning streak going into today's game where they finally had it snapped, but it was just made apparently. The Braves somehow just find a way. They're just certain teams are inevitable. The Braves going on a five-game winning streak to put them back into controlling their

own destiny, the dimebacks and Mets kind of falling apart this last week, like you said, it's just now one of these teams, please, choke, we're craving it. We need it. And this sucks, man, because, like, again, we've had so many great moments this year. I felt like the Diamondbacks who looked dead in the water after, you know, the month of May had come and gone. It looked like their season was kind of a wrap was, you know, they have this resurgence in the beginning of July. And then they end up being the best team in baseball in several categories and in wins and in stretches. for a couple of months, right?

And that's like it was, it was so impressive to see this team fight back and have guys like Corbyn and Gino who struggled early on kind of come back online. But yeah, this is like this, I don't know. I don't know.

Again, it's Sunday, right? It's football day. We can all relate to fantasy football, right? I had an instant, my fantasy football is not very, team is not very good. I've lost some guys to injury. Things aren't looking good.

over here in the repeat camp for the current. It's really. Yeah, I mean, I know it's early, but you get what I'm saying, right? So there are times when you are a fantasy football player where you would rather the opposition just beat you by like 40 points rather than having to spend a week thinking about the fact that you could have started one of your guys on the bench and that that would have been enough points to get you ahead, right? That's not where we're at with the Diamondback season.

Should the Diamondbacks miss, there's going to be a very, a very lengthy discussion on this podcast, on other podcasts. Get that Waffle House Montia thing off there. It's weird. Yeah, these are months. I was going to acknowledge it, but get it off my screen. But, you know, there's a lot of picking games apart. Obviously, we already talked about that loss in the finale to the Brewers and everything that happened there. games to the Rockies down the stretch, little games that they should have won here and there,

not being able to win the series against the Giants. Like, there's going to be a lot of games that we pick apart. But I'm going to tell you, man, I mean, it sucks to be this close and lose out on the postseason than it would to just have been eliminated, you know, five or six days ago, because this is as close as you can come to making the postseason and missing out as humanly possible. And especially being Diamondback fans, we know. at least in recent 20 years, like the last 20 years, basically the whole franchise history,

it's basically one playoff appearance and then like a five to seven year hiatus and then you're back in. And so I'm really worried where this is, you know, last year was the year we made it. And then it's going to be a little bit of a hiatus again. Is that going to happen? I sure hope not. It's going to be interesting. They don't lose a lot of guys this offseason. They still have a lot of this team.

And I mean, part of that is going to be Jordan Montgomery and Edward, Rodriguez being around next year as well, right? Like it's going to be interesting to see how those guys factor in after having a normal offseason and maybe perhaps remaining healthy and being a part of the starting rotation again next year. And this team might still, I mean, this team might still be good next year, for sure, for sure. Matt is very angry at us.

He keeps telling us to stop whining and such in the chat. He said many other teams would love our chances right now. That is true. Yes. There are teams that absolutely have that E next to their name. And they were, I don't feel like we're whining, but that's your interpretation of it. I feel like we're just kind of like, this sucks, but at least they're still in it, right? Because, yeah, it does suck for it to be out of your hands and it to be dependent on a situation that very much sounds like it's, you know, against the Diamondbacks.

It sounds like it sucks that this double header comes down to, you know, again, these teams knowing that they can be in the playoffs. That's what changes this. Had these games just taken place when they were supposed to, perhaps at a neutral site or in some other arrangement, then those teams would have just played the games normally and they would have played hard because they both would have been trying to make the playoffs. Now instead what you have is two teams that absolutely know the situation. They know that they have no reason to put their guys out there any more than they're already being forced to by playing an extra day a game after the postseason. and it just doesn't, it doesn't shape up well for the diamondbacks, to be honest. We were just talking about both sides of the coin because we're happy this season.

We're talking about the successes that the Arizona Diamondbacks have had. 89 wins is not a bad feat at all. That's been quite impressive. They just had their chances to put themselves in the postseason already. It would have been nice, as we've mentioned, to control our own destiny rather than sitting on the couch and hoping and praying and whatever you're going to do that one of the Mets and Braves get swept tomorrow. Yeah, yeah. That part. That part is not great.

That part is not great. I do want to say, listen, this happened to the NFL, Chargers, Raiders, Sunday night football. If both teams tied, they both got in the playoffs. And you know what both these teams did? They played to win the game. And sure enough, we're hoping at the Braves and Mets. They want to play to win the double header. Sweep the double header.

All right. Well, I got another opinion here. And I value Ina Jackson's opinion very much. Ina says, not going to agree with that, Derek. New York Mets want to own the second place, meaning that the Mets would want to leapfrog the Braves by winning that second game, should they win game one,

and take over the second spot to play the Padres instead of playing the Brewers. And I don't know. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe I would hope so. I would definitely hope so, but I don't,

I really don't know the answer to that. I don't know what to likely, I mean, I think that what you have at the end of, of the day is no matter how much team, either team might want to over, you know, like, obviously leapfrog the other team or get the higher position, whatever the case may be, the problem there is, once again, the way this is set up, which was Dalton's, you know, rant earlier, what he's really fed up with here, right? Well, I mean, it is. It's a disadvantage

for those two teams. So ultimately, whoever wins game one, it's like they want to take all the guys that they can and give them as much rest, even if it's just not playing in a second game consecutively back to back as they possibly can. It doesn't mean that they won't have potentially two lineups ready for tomorrow. That would be lineups that are able to win a baseball game, right? The problem is both teams want to win game one.

That's the problem, right? And so what the advantage there, I guess you could say for the team that does win game one, is that they will probably put a fresh, lineup in for game two, whereas the team that loses game one is probably going to start a lot of the same players that they started in game one because it's a critical game. They want to win it. And now here they are in game two and they're probably going to put their best players out there. So the Braves who don't have a lot of options as far as personnel go are probably going to start

the same lineup should they lose game one in game two. And I mean, there's there, there is an advantage there because you're sending a fresh Mets lineup out there, even though that they might not be as formidable against a Braves lineup that just played a two and a half hour baseball games. Right. I mean, that's a great point. That's something that I hadn't thought of. So it's really well put talking about the fatigue of a lineup going back to back games. If you lose game one.

And the other point is it's a 40. It's a back-to-back double header. It's not one of those double headers. Yeah. Game long extended break. Right. And then go out it later in the night. It is 40-minute break.

That's it. Yeah. It's like 10-10. And then the second game, at least time here. I'm sorry. I know your case goes, but in. In Arizona, it's 10.10 a.m. for the first game and then like 140 for the second game. So, yeah, there is not a lot of time in between those two games, especially if that game one takes a long time, which it could because if it's a competitive baseball game, it could drag on, right?

The fear I have for game one, we just don't want this to go into extra innings. That would be the biggest fear I have because extra innings mean more bullpen arms are going to be used. And I think the team that wins hypothetically, if it goes into an extra inning game, will preserve somebody's arm. point. That's a good point. That's another rooting interest. We hope this game goes on for a long time, but maybe just for nine innings. I hate this.

I hate this so much. I hate it. I love it. All the emotions we're going to have for the next like 48 hours, 24 hours. And again, like sports, you and I were talking about this beforehand. There's things in my life. And I was talking about this with Shane too. There are things in my life that I have eliminated because they bring me sadness, right?

Sports is one of those things that, yes, brings me a lot of sadness, but it brings me a lot of joy, too, right? And it's like some of my highest highs have been based on sporting events. And I know this sucks. And I know like putting yourself out there to believe in a team and trust that a team is going to do something as, you know, improbable as the Diamondbacks making the postseason is, is heartbreaking if they don't tomorrow. right but like let's for 24 hours just put all of our hatred towards whatever team loses game one of tomorrow's double header and hope all the bad things in the world happen to them and only them in game two of that double header so that our beloved snakes can make the world series or not world series but that's eventually that's down the road make the playoffs we got to start got to start

with step one and then we'll get there to the rest of that stuff but dalton what are your thoughts though who do you think maybe comes out tomorrow and do you think we're unfortunately going to see some sort I thought you were going to go with the kumbaya method. It's like everyone be happy, you know, let's go Diamondbacks. It wasn't Diamondbacks positivity. It was more so hatred to whatever team loses. Yes. I'm eating that up.

We have no. We have no, like we can't. Like, yes, the love is there. We reserve the love for maybe when they make a wild card round. But right now, it's a focus laser of hatred on whoever wins or whoever loses game one so that they lose both of the games. I think to answer your question, fate-wise, The Braves will win game one. I think we should say out in the world,

if Chris Sale loses tomorrow, he's ineligible to win the NL. Say Young, like put as much pressure as possible. I'm on board. Go out, pitch your ass off, you know? Like, why not? You want to prove you to Anna Syong? Pitch the best game of your year so far.

Why not? And the reason why I think also the Braves are going to game won? Mets are going to met. I mean, right? Like, they struggled against the Braves. They usually beat the Phillies, but Mets are going to met.

And then game two, all the pressures on a young, Mets team with a rookie manager coming in in Atlanta, in a divisional game, playing for a playoff spot. Hopefully the moment is too big for the New York team. That has seen a lot of struggles recently. The Braves, they've been here. They've been in a lot of post seasons.

They won, what, six or seven NLEs titles until this year got snapped. Yeah. I think the Braves will win game one and in game two. I am, you know, fingers crossed hoping they go back to back and win the second one. One more silver lining before I let you get out of here. And that is the fact that the Diamondbacks did not have to use the milkman Zach Gallon today. So that frees him up should they make the postseason to start in game one.

And that was something that Tori Lavello had suggested that he might pull out of his bag today if the Diamondbacks needed it. Listen, he's warming up too late in the game. He was getting loose. He wasn't getting hot. He was just throwing just getting ready. But I don't think he got, you know, throwing a full pen in. So at least he didn't go 100%. I'm just curious.

My last question is in a hypothetical situation, if you're Atlanta or if you're in New York, like who do you want to play? in the playoffs if you want to get there. Like the Mets had just seen the Brewers, and they had their struggles, except, you know, besides today's game, would you want to see Milwaukee again in a span of less than a week to play Milwaukee in a playoff series? Or would you rather play to San Diego Padres

who's arguably been the hottest team in baseball? I think, honestly, I think that the Diamondbacks getting that final playoff spot and playing the Milwaukee Brewers is the best case scenario for them. And that's just because they did play the Brewers seven times. So these teams do know each other well, there wasn't a real advantage, you know, one way or another. The Diamondbacks got close to sweeping them in Milwaukee,

which is where that series will be played, not to mention the fact that the Diamondbacks absolutely have a, you know, haven't, you know, at least have some sort of track record of having success there on the road against the Brewers. I think that just feels differently.

And again, I'm not like the, I'm sure the playoff environment in Milwaukee is great, but there is a, also something to be said about the madhouse that is, you know, Petco Park and how crazy that environment can be during the postseason. We've seen how crazy it can be during, you know, the regular season. It's still no, you know, it's still not the bank. It's still not other places the Diamondbacks have played that are very loud with very, you know, passionate fans. It's just a

matter of like, I don't know. There's something about Milwaukee. It's very similar to Chase Field. And it's just a place where the Diamondbacks have had some success recently. So based on that, I would rather face, I think, the Brewers than the Padres. But I don't know. I mean, recency biases factoring in there as to how this series went, considering the Diamondbacks almost got no hit by one of their AAA pitchers on a day where they didn't even put their best lineup out there, I don't know if I want that smoke with the Padres just yet.

It's deja vu all over again. Let's face Milwaukee and start what we did in 2024 and at 2023 and do it in 2024 because why not? Let's just do it again, man. Well, hey, Dalton, I thank you so much for joining us, brother. Of course, you can follow him on Twitter. Is it D. Feeley 15? Oh, 14. Close. It's so close.

You're good. DGilly 14. But of course, follow all the wonderful stuff they are doing over there at John Boy. You guys are amazing. You continue to kill it. We are proud to partner together with you on some of this stuff we do. And it's always a blast watching all the fun stuff you guys are doing. I'm blessed to be a part of you guys.

You guys are fantastic. Love seeing your stuff. Love hopping on. So thank you for having me. Just tell Jesse, just tell Jesse if the Diamondbacks get into the playoffs tomorrow, he's got to do a cannonball into the pool. I think that's got to be a requirement. You know, it's why like that's another thing we talked about.

We had, we had Archie on the other day, right? And that's been great to have Archie on, by the way. But to ask him like about like celebrating and stuff, right? Like the Diamondbacks, when are they going to celebrate if they do? make the playoffs like that's most likely going to happen on like the plane to milwaukee right but you still don't want to get maybe too drunk on an airplane ride when you're going to have to like you know still play a baseball game the following day i don't know like i was very concerned i was very concerned about the celebration and when it took place i wanted to be a part of it as much as i possibly could

tell jesse that's the only thing that's the only thing that's the only thing i'm actually allowed to do to celebrate because they have a game to play tuesday if that happens he goes cannonball that's I'll go push him in. I'll go push him in. Well, brother, I thank you so much for joining us. And, of course, we'll have you on again should. Well, regardless of what happens, we'll have you on again. But maybe we'll have again on about some exciting playoff stuff instead of just offseason stuff.

Fingers crossed. Appreciate you, guys. Thanks, man. Appreciate you. Well, of course, we will have Jesse Friedman joining us here shortly from Chase Field. But we want to thank all of you guys so much. I just wanted to take a moment before Jesse does join us. to just personally thank you guys for this particular season.

This is a wrap on the 2024 season, and not to get too mushy with you guys, but this has been an incredible ride. This year has been, I know last year was an incredible ride, obviously, through the Mother F and Yafs and everything that we got to do, but this season was so much fun.

And we are so thankful to have so many of you guys joining us this year. Of course, if you have not subscribed to the PHNX Sports, YouTube channel, you're just here, your PHNX Sports Curious, make sure you subscribe to the channel right now. Sign up for notifications, hit that notifications button. That way you don't miss whenever our shows go live because we do emergency podcasts like this. And Thunderbolt, thank you.

That's the most positive comment I've heard from you in 162 games and I love you. I appreciate you. So it's always a pleasure, Derek. You guys are great. Thank you so much for you. Of course, if you have not subscribed or hit that like button, we got to hold the line. Damon's not here. Damon's doing the Cardinal thing.

But you know what? Damon is still messaging me about Diamondbacks right now as we speak. And he wants you to hold the line for all through tomorrow. We got to hold the line. We got to hit the like button, of course, but you got to hold the line and you got to be here for all the excitement. We have discussed it, and I think we are going to put together tomorrow a little bit of a watch-along. So if you guys want to join us for that, we are going to try our best. to put together our watch along to watch both of those games between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves.

And that starts at 10-10 in the morning. So make sure to join us for that. Of course, this guy here is joining me from Chase Field for the final time, potentially this season. It's the one and only Jesse Friedman. Yeah, that got dark and sad real fast. Sorry about that. But it could be the final time that you're joining us from Chase Field. We have no idea, though, Jesse, because this.

uh season despite this is a this is a a a wrap on the 2024 regular season we have no idea if the diamond backs are actually in the playoffs or not we have no idea yeah and uh this is the scenario that when we were talking through stuff on thursday and the various things that could happen this was one of the scenarios it's not exactly what we talked about we more so talked about it in the context of the debacks going two and one and maybe the met's playing a little bit better uh but it also is very possible and in the situation we have here where the debacks went one and two, but the Mets also lost a couple of games over the weekend,

and it sets up a scenario where, I mean, on paper, getting a sweep in a double header is not impossible. I mean, on paper, a sweep is just as likely as a split, but that doesn't feel like the case here, right? The reality is that whichever team wins the first game of the double header is not going to have any incentive to win the second game,

other than trying to keep a division rival out of the postseason, which I do think is a very real and legitimate thing. So I don't expect there, you know, people are talking about collusion, you know, some sort of a handshake agreement where each team wins one game. I think that's utter nonsense. I mean,

this is the Braves and the Mets we're talking about. These are not teams that like each other, especially with this game being in Atlanta. There is no part of the, of the Braves that wants to see the New York Mets clinch a post. season spot on their home turf, even if it's in a scenario where the Braves also clinch a spot on the same day. So this is a situation where you feel better about the Braves chances of pulling this off, right? Yes. If the Mets lose the first game tomorrow, my understanding is that Brian

Snicker is going to use Chris Sail in game two. And not only is Chris Sail going to win the NLSai Young Award, but he would probably be facing kind of the B team for the Mets because they would have already clinched in in the first game. So I think you have a better shot if the Braves win the first game and they're just trying to kind of stick it to the Mets and keep them from the postseason. And, you know, the still going to be kind of a B roster, I think, in the second game in that situation. But, you know, maybe they're, maybe they're able to find a way to win that one.

But the reality is the odds are kind of stacked against the debacks in this situation. And there's, there's no winners with the hurricane and this whole fiasco. but the debacks are are it's a it's a pretty significant disadvantage for them for sure so chris sale will not start in game one of the double header yeah that's my that's my understanding is that the braves want to save chris sale for only a they will only pitch him in a do-or-die game otherwise they want to save him for game one so i imagine they're going to roll out someone else for the first game of that series and if they win then they're not pitching chrisail and the second game, which again is not, it would not be great for the debacks in that scenario because the

Braves are probably throwing, you know, some guy from AAA or whatnot in the second game. But, you know, Randy Vasquez sure threw a pretty good game against the devax here yesterday. So it's not impossible. It's not impossible for, you know, even a AAA caliber arm to find a way to help a team win in the second game. People are saying Schwellenbach is going to start game one. Is that right? I think my audio is cutting out here. You did. All right. I'm back.

You're back. I sound good again. Yeah. Yeah, I haven't looked, but that sounds totally reasonable to me that Shwell and Bach would start the first game. And then, yeah, if the Braves win that one, I don't think they're rolling out Kersale for the second game. And then, yeah, a piece of Yoshi, who we know is our resident Mets fan around here, wouldn't surprise me if the Mets do what he's describing there. where Luis Severino is kind of the saved bullet for the Mets. So they would hold on to him for game two.

So the reality is the game two matchup is, is on paper will either be Chris Sale against like a AAA pitcher for the Mets or it will be Luis Severino against a AAA pitcher for Braves. Which again is why this weather situation, frankly, it sort of screws the diamondbacks. We called, we talked about this the other day. It is much likelier. this series, that this little two-game stretch ends in a split if it's played last week when neither team knows what they're fighting for and is just trying as many games as they can. And both teams had their best pitchers lined up to start against each other. Whereas tomorrow, it sets up a very lopsided game in, for the second game of that doubleheader.

So it really is unfortunate for the debacks. I mean, if they, if they do not make the postseason tomorrow, it's going to be hard not to ask the what if questions about a hurricane. that changed the schedule. But at the same time, we're also going to be asking a lot of what-if questions about what we saw in the fields and the eight-run blown lead

and what's happened the last couple of days here against the Padres, what happened earlier this week against the Giants, last week's series against the Rockies. The debacks left a lot of games on the table. And if they do miss the postseason tomorrow, it's not just going to be because the schedule, the hurricane screwed them.

It's going to be because they did not play well enough to deserve it. See, Dalton was on earlier, Jesse, and he made me feel so full of hope and joy. And then you came and I swear in less than four minutes just sucked it all. That's why I was so happy to have Dalton on the show because I figured we kind of balance each other out, right? Yeah. You'd give all the positive vibes. Well, well, and one of you could be the stunt double for the others. So there's always that as well. The Diamondbacks at least did what they needed to do today.

It might have been too little, too late, Jesse, but they won today by a score of 11 to 2. And of course, what was the vibes like post game? I imagine that they're still not very joyful despite the fact that they won today. Yeah, we'll be posting a lot of footage out on Twitter, maybe on YouTube as well. So be looking for that. I don't have quite as many clips with me as I wish I did. It took quite a while for everything to be wrapped up after this game. We were not allowed in the clubhouse for quite a while.

I think the players were being briefed on kind of, what the plan is for tomorrow. At least that's my speculation for why it took so long. But, yeah, the vibes in the clubhouse were weird. There's a lot of, I think, hope and satisfaction on some level with an 89 win season that is genuinely a really good thing. I mean, again, if you told either of us before the season started that the debacks were going to win 89 games, I think we'd say, yeah, I mean, that's a pretty good season for them.

That's a pretty good outcome for them. But the reality is that the Braves and the Padres and the New York Mets have just played so well lately that the bar for that third wild card was raised significantly higher than I think any of us anticipated that it would be. So yeah, the vibes are a little bit strange. You know, guys are talking about how it sucks that they don't control their own destiny. But at the same time, things are not nearly as down as they would have been had. they spend the day that the debacks were eliminated, right? It's a very different feel. So just a bizarre, a bizarre situation all the way around.

All right. Well, we do have more from Jake McCarthy, who was three for five today, had a great day against the Padres. We talked about it the other day. Maybe he should have started the whole series against the Padres was how the good he's been in his last, you know, 10, 11 games against that team. But here's what Jake had to say post game.

nervous heading into tomorrow what's that like it's i don't know i mean it's it's it's so weird i've never been a part of something like this but uh i keep saying whoever wins that first game is my my favorite team tomorrow and we'll just uh we'll root for the best that's how we all feel right i mean no matter what happens there we got a root for uh whoever wins game one jesse i know that this might be a long shot i brought up this theory to dalton earlier but there is the idea that whoever loses game one most likely put their best lineup out there. And then they're going to need the majority of those players in game two. Like they might switch a couple of guys out depending on who's starting for the opposing team.

But for the most part, they're going to put their best lineup out again. And so there is that little fatigue factor in a double header of the fact that you know game two for whoever wins it will most likely have a fairly fresh starting lineup of guys that didn't play in the first game. Yeah, it's, again, it's going to be pretty lost. I'm trying. I'm reaching so hard. This is, when they said coping yesterday, this is definitely coping, but I'm coping in the best possible. So your, your case is that the team that loses will have already played its best lineup in the

first game and it's going to have to put out its best lineup again. So even though it's like, close to it, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's reasonable. Maybe some of those guys are. Yeah, maybe a couple left-handed guys, right-handed. guys swapping out or something like that. But for the most part, whoever the Mets put out there in game one, majority of those guys

are going to play in game two again if they lose that game. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's reasonable if you're reaching for positives, you know. I'm trying. I can. Tori did say after the game, he was asked about the situation, of course. And he said that he has, you know, he talked up the Braves organization and the Mets organization. And he said that he knows those managers, Brian Snicker and Carlos Mendoza.

and he doesn't think that either of them has a lay down bone in their body. Something along those lines is how he described it. So his expectation is that whatever team wins that first game is still going to go out and put forth an effort. Are they going to play their best players? Are they going to play pitchers that they expect to pitch in a postseason game the next day? It would probably be irresponsible for them to do so. But what the debacks do have on their side is that other teams have a little bit more pitching depth than they do.

And so sometimes a team going out there with a guy who's called up from AAA or someone who's a lower leverage reliever or a long reliever type, those guys on other teams are not necessarily terrible players, right? We saw that today with the Kansas City Royals and the fact that they were able to beat the Atlanta Braves. That wasn't the best version of the Royals pitching staff going out there and doing that. They still threw some of their better arms. but this is baseball, right? It's what we've been saying in the last couple of days

where really anything can happen. Randy Vasquez can one hit the best offensive baseball for six innings. Those kinds of things happen and anything can happen tomorrow as well. It's gross. It's gross, Jesse. Well, did you have any other things you noticed there from Chase Field? And I mean, again, like when it comes to the Diamondbacks plans tomorrow, how do they plan for this?

do they all sit around at Chase Field and watch this doubleheader together? Yeah, it sounds like the plan for the players is to, I want to say they're meeting here at the ballpark. There's going to be a light workout of some sort. And it sounds like they're more so meeting up to watch the second game. I don't think they're having like a watch party for the first game because frankly, it's not really going to tell them a whole lot. Although again, I will say, yeah, it starts at 10, 10.10 a.m. Arizona time.

Again, I will say, I think it's, it's a lot better for the debacks if the Braves win the first game. It's much easier for me to imagine them sweeping than for the Mets to sweep. But yeah, they're going to do a light workout here tomorrow. They're going to watch the second game together. And then they're going to have an airplane ready to take them to Milwaukee. And they might get on that airplane and they might not. And it's a pretty weird scenario where they're just going to be here and see what happens.

I'm just thinking about that pilot, Jesse, getting that phone call and being like, we don't need you. And being like, oh, thought they were going to celebrate on this private jet that I was flying. It looks like I'll just go put it back in the hangar. But I'm also thinking of how sad we all will be, Jesse, should that phone call happen. One guy, of course, that helped make things happen was Mr. 30 home runs, Mr. 100 RBI, by Gino Suarez, and I know you got a chance to speak to him in the clubhouse after the game. Yeah, Gino had a lot after this one.

So, yeah, we'll go ahead and play the clip. Gino was asked about the 30-100 season, and I followed up and asked about specifically given how poorly his season started, just kind of what those numbers meant to him. And he took the opportunity to thank a whole lot of people. So here's what you know how to say. Yeah, exactly. You know, after you have a, after I have that first half that wasn't that wasn't that good and then be able to the, I had a very good second half and be able to the hot 30 homer after that,

you know, it's awesome. I got to feel proud of myself, proud of my work. And I give you a lot of credit on the hitting coach, you know, they help me a lot. They, they support me a lot. They work with me hard than XER, you know, and that's something that I appreciate it. It's something that I want to say thank you to them and to Tories for believing me, you know, give me an opportunity to play every day, even when I don't doing good for the team, and they believe in me, and that means a lot, you know, that's something that that's why you're here for. You know, you do your best and you work hard and they believe in me and they give me an opportunity.

They wear this jersey every day. And, you know, for me, it's awesome. I just got to say thanks. Thanks so much. Everybody. And my teammates, my family and my wife, my daughters, my mom, my daddy. They're always there. My teammate, they're always there.

when I was bad, even when I had bad days, they, they support me. God, I love Gino. I could have listened to him. Go on. Thank people for a million years, but. Well, he did. He went on for a million years. He cut them off after a while.

Yeah. I mean, I could have thrown a four-minute clip in here. We could have just walked up. Wrap it up. He also thanked the, you know, of this part in the clip, but he also thanked the right. writers. And he said, thank you for all of the bad words that we wrote about him in the first couple months of the season. He said it helped him stay energized, something along those lines. So I thought, I thought that was pretty funny. But yeah, I mean, whatever happens tomorrow,

right, whether the Diamondbacks get in the postseason or not, I think we can all agree that they're picking up that club option on Gino Suarez for 2020, for 2025. They'd be dumb not to. He really elevated this offense, uh, because last year the debacks were a bottom five team offensively, a third base. It was Evan Longoria. It was a struggling Josh Rojas. It was a struggling Emmanuel Rivera, Jace Peterson as well. Gino was an everyday guy who was not only solid defensively, but one of the better

hitters among third baseman in all of baseball as well. So, yeah, only there have only been four diamondbacks who are primary third baseman, who have had a 3,100 season in the past. And I'm curious, Derek, would you like to take a stab and try to name some of them? Is Eduardo Escobar one of them? Eduardo Escobar is one of them. Yes, that would be. He was outrageously good when he was here.

Yeah, that was 2019. I think it was 35 homers, 118 RBI. So yes, that is one. That is one. Matt Williams? Matt Williams. Well done. Yep, 1999.

He was 35 homers and 142 RBI. There's two other ones. Hmm. Chad Tracy. Never Chad Tracy. That's a good guess. He might he probably got pretty close. Yeah. But I don't think he ever quite cracked 30 and 30 and 100. Who do you got for the last two? The last two are Mark Reynolds, 2009. Yeah. I didn't think of that one at first. 2009, 44 homers and 102 RBI. I think it's kind of way more strikeouts than either one of those things combined.

Oh yeah. It was like 220 or something ridiculous. that. And then Jake Lamb is the final one. I should have thought Jake. Yeah, honestly, I kind of forgotten that he got to 100. I think I had 30 homers in my head for 2017, but he did have 104 RBI in 2017 as well. So Gino is just the fifth, the fifth Diamondbacks third baseman in franchise history to hit 30 and 100. And it was a really, really big part of why this offense was what it was what it was this year. Yeah, it absolutely was. And especially considering that most of that production has been since July, the end of June and the beginning of July is, is incredible, right? Like, yeah, it really, he has been a huge part of why the Diamondbacks are in this position, even though

this position kind of sucks. It sucks that they got this close, Jesse. I was making the, the, the metaphorical reference to, like, losing by one point in fantasy football when you had a guy that scored way more than anybody you put in the game versus just getting, like, just losing, just getting beat like by 40, 30 points, something like that, that feels better than having to think about your decisions and having to pick apart whether you start to start this guy at running back or that guy at wide receiver. And the Diamondbacks are kind of in that position right now where should they not make the playoffs, I know we're going to have a lot of games we discussed where things went wrong. And I know that I get that off the screen again, Shane, I told you that earlier.

We have a lot of things that we know went wrong. And I mean, I'm sure fans can think about a lot of scenarios, especially considering that the Diamondbacks could end up tied here and lose because of the way that things went in that Brave series early on this year or, you know, the fact that they just could never figure out the Mets. I know there's a lot of games they gave away that we might discuss once everything, you know, kind of, or they make the postseason. And we never talk about that stuff. We never have to speak of it ever again. We never have to speak of the eight run lead that they lost ever again should they make the postseason. That's. That's how easily they can make all of this go away and just to have our focus beyond their playoff run.

Tori, on that note did say that he was pissed. Those are those are his words. Just, yeah, just thinking about all of the games, the Diamondbacks left on the table of the season, right?

And, Scott McGoff pitch hit. Oh my God. I forgot all about that one, Jesse. Tori. Tori was asked, like, are you mostly just thinking about the games here in this past week? Obviously, the game a week ago today against the Brewers looms pretty large in this situation.

And Tori was like, I'm thinking back to games all the way to the first road trip of the season. And that first road trip, Derek, was to Atlanta where the Diamondbacks left some games on the table. And yeah, and he took responsibility as well. He said that, you know, our guys could have played better and I could have managed better. So I think he's kind of looking at himself in the mirror in some of those situations as well. You know, any season where you play 162 games, you're going to have some that you are in the driver's seat to win and you let get away. And you're going to have some sort of a dramatic comeback. But it does feel like the debacks had a lot of games where they were in the driver's seat and they kind of let them slip away.

And they did have some epic comebacks too, not really early. early in the season, but as the season went on, there were some crazy comebacks for the diamondbacks as well. So it does go both ways on some level, but it still feels like there were more games that it was like, oh my gosh, how did they wind up losing this thing? You just focus on the losses if you don't make it in. And that's the reality of the matter, right? Again, it's like the Brewer's series. You tell me that the Diamondbacks go into Milwaukee with that series being as important as it is. and the Diamondbacks take three out of four and we're pissed about the one loss? Yes, we are because of how they lost it.

It's not because they lost and it's not in the matter in which it's the fact that they were up eight to nothing. And they should have swept that series. And had they swept that series right now, you would be covered in champagne. I would be jealous and we would be talking about the Diamondbacks making it to the postseason. But that's not the reality that we live in. We live in this one. And this one kind of sucks right now. But it could be made better if the Mets take two from the.

Braves tomorrow or if the Braves take two from the Mets tomorrow. And that's where we're at right now. Jesse and I, of course, you'll get the coffee. I'll bring the egg macmuffins or whatever. That's probably a free ad. Max is going to be furious at me. But regardless, I'll meet you at the office very early so that we can watch these games and maybe put together a little watch along for all of you wonderful people that have

been here with us all season long. Again, I just wanted to take a moment. I know I got mushy before Jesse joined us, but to thank you guys again for your support. You already got mushy. Derek. I already got mushy. I was just I had to kill some time, Jesse, until you got here. And so you know

me, I fall back on mushyness whenever I need to kill time. But we do sincerely thank all of you guys. You guys have made this season so much fun for us. You guys, the support for this show has been incredible. It's been beyond our wildest imaginations. I mean, we just had almost

400 people watching us last night after a loss. And that's not something that I think either one of us could have ever pictured. So, we appreciate that we have become a place for you guys. to come hang out after a game, discuss your thoughts, even if you just want to scream about Tori being fired and hang out with us, and we thank you all season long. You guys have been here.

We thank you for that. And of course, we hope we'd get more games. We hope this isn't our only post game show of 2024. So hopefully we can bring you some more fun. And like I said, we will be here tomorrow doing a watch-along, and then we'll do a post-game show after that double header and discuss where we stand. And then, of course, we'll have to figure out our regular schedule.

after that what we do depending on the results and how fast i i need to get jesse a plane ticket so of course until then if if they i mean so the diamond backs have a bit of an unfair advantage here derrick because they've got your mic again the short court it's that we're we're working on getting him a new mic it's all right you got it you're there still hear me yeah you're in your i probably yeah i don't sound nearly as nice as i did her to you're just going to have to bear with me. The Diamondbacks have an unfair advantage here because they've got a charter over at the airport

that's just ready to go if they find out that they are advancing, whereas all of us civilians have to find a way in a very, very small window of time. So tomorrow night is going to be utter chaos on my part if the Diamondbacks actually do this thing. They should let you on the point. plane. They should just let you on the plane. I think that that's fair. You gave Zach Gallen the award the

other day. We didn't even get to talk about that. But they should just let you on the plane. I think that's fair. Also, I think El Gairo in the chat said it earlier, but I did want to bring up this idea. They get on the plane anyway, right? They lose. They go somewhere. Go to an island. Go somewhere together. Go celebrate yourselves and just get away from it all for like two days. Just go get rid of really drunk on a beach somewhere and hang out with your teammates and celebrate the fact that you guys, you know, did this together as a family. You know what I mean?

Like, don't let that airplane sitting at the airport go to waste. At least go get on it and take a trip around and then come back and land. I mean, something. I would take a trip. Yeah. Well, at the very least, Derek, if they're not going to take the plane anywhere, the least they could do is let some of the media members on the airplane.

We've all been grinding away for 162 over. here can we like get a little you know a little free flight a little vacation action at the end of the season you're not wrong before we get out of here jesse let's take a look at this wild card graphic one last time just for you to cover this scenario here we sit 89 and 73 that's why uh tomorrow is so detrimental right all of all three teams braves met's diamondbacks could all end up at 89 and 73 and if they do, because of that tiebreaker situation, that is how the Diamondbacks could end up on the outside looking in. That is the doomsday scenario right now for the snakes.

Yeah, this graphic does not look the way that I expected it would at this point in the season. Number one, I would have expected the Braves and Mets to have played 162 games, but that did, that is not the case. That's true. And to see in the three wild card team era, to see an 89 win baseball team on the outside looking in is pretty wild. I'd have to go back. I know the third wild card hasn't been around for all that long.

Maybe there has been a team with 89 wins that has missed out before. But 89 and 73 is a pretty darn good season. Even before three wild cards, you figured that was going to be enough to make it to the postseason, at least a decent portion of the time. So, yeah, I mean, again, it's not that the Diamondbacks had some miserable season. I mean, 89 is five more wins than they had a year ago, right? Like, 89 wins is a pretty, that's a pretty darn good place to finish.

But the level was just raised so high. I mean, credit to the Mets, credit to the Braves. The Padres finishing with 93 wins. And that's remarkable. I think the Padres were 50 and 50, and they finished the year 43 and 19. Like, these teams just all got crazy hot about midway through the season. And it's landed us in this very bizarre place. It's gross and I hate it, but tomorrow at this exact time, we could be talking about the Diamondbacks actually being in the postseason.

Which is wild. That's the last glimmer of hope that we have. Of course, I'm not lying about that. Jesse's not lying and we never lie to you. We always tell you the truth and you know that. And of course, the numbers, they also don't lie. So Jesse, at least for one time, one last time during the regular season. And what do you have for today's number that doesn't lie?

Today's number is 1408, 1.408. And that is Randall Gritchick's OPS in the month of September. He had just an outrageous month. I think it was 51 plate appearances. So he didn't find his way into the lineup all that often. Again, it's the whole platoon situation. But Randall Gritchick is going to get paid by someone this offseason. I mean, he came in here and not only was very, very good against lefties,

which is primarily how he was used. That home run that he hit today was against Matt Waldron. That's a right-handed pitcher. And I don't have the numbers in front of me, but Gershick's numbers against Ritey's this year were at least good enough to where, like, you should be playing this guy every now and then, right? Whereas the Diamondbacks pretty much just, they gave him at Bats against Ritees, you know, in kind of garbage time moments of games for the most part.

They didn't really start him against Ritey's very. very often. So yeah, the devax dh situation this year was awesome. I know we didn't see jock in this game and he's had a bit of a rough month here. But jock finishing the season with an OPS over 900. Randall finishing with an OPS. And he gets 871, I want to say, is the final number. Like talk about a best case scenario for the debacks at the VH slot. 876. 876, thanks. I mean, yeah, that's just crazy. Even, you know, you have the platoon advantage for a lot of those at bats, but that's still a really, really high level of execution. And, you know, if the season does end tomorrow or whenever the season does end,

we're going to have a lot of things to talk about on this show about how the debacks can, you know, patch some things over the off season. And one of the main questions is going to be, what do you do at the DH thought next year? Because I don't think Randall Gritchick's coming back and I don't think Jock Peterson is coming back, at least not on their current contracts. So, yeah, well, it'll be very. interesting to see how the diamond backs try to patch that for for next season i'm not ready for that yeah jesse put that put that talk in a bag because we have a watch party to do tomorrow and then uh

maybe the debacks are going to the world series and maybe this we're going to sound like idiots derrick we're going to look back a month from now and be like remember when we started talking about the off season like before the team went on some epic postseason run like we saw what happened last year right If the debacks do get in tomorrow, anything can happen. But the odds are a little bit stacked against them on paper. It's going to be tough. Well, of course, you can follow us all on Twitter. And again, join us tomorrow for that watch-along.

We will be live watching those two games. We will also have a, it's going to be a long period of time, Jesse. I'm going to put a caveat on that, Derek, because I don't think we're going to be live watching both of those games. We're going to be live watching a game. We're going to be while I've watched some of one of those games maybe or some of it. I don't know. We'll do something like that. I think there will be some level of media availability here as well.

So we'll have to find a way to kind of thread the needle and sort of be where we need to be. But yeah, we'll be live at some point tomorrow for sure. Like once we know the result, I'm sure we'll be live at that point. Oh, yeah. We'll also, yeah. We'll have a post game show for you guys tomorrow after the double header as well. So, but then TBD after that. We have no idea.

Hopefully that TBD is filled with a lot of playoff games that we can cover for you. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore K-man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse N. Friedman. Our producer, Shane, is at Shane Deef. That's D-I-E-F-F. And he is the man, once again, for helping us out during this stretch where we just refuse to have any days off and just want to do this show,

nod-stop 70s a week. So thank you, Shane. During the off season, we're still going to, we're still going to bug Shane like in the middle of November for like, you know, like, hey, we want to do an emergency pod on Saturday. Yeah, we should just do random emergency pods just to make sure that Shane never gets a day off for the rest of his life. Yeah, we got to keep them. We got to keep them fresh. Like, we got to keep him on his toes. So we'll do that.

But now you, now you're going to a wobble house. My community team is a force to be reckoned with, all right? We are two and one. Although, granted, I haven't looked at. today's results. Maybe Shane has... Until you have one of these, Jesse. You have no room to talk about anything and that's it.

Oh, and Shane says you're losing. Shane says I'm losing. Yeah, I'm 500. That's not a surprise. I'm sure... Better than last year. But anyway, we thank you guys so much for joining us today. Of course, we hope you'll see you tomorrow.

In the meantime, make sure to follow our show at PHNX underscore Dbacks. And all roads, of course, do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We love you. Thank you for showing up. We will see you, hopefully, with some very good news tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy your football, enjoy your evening, and remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you know your fate after 162 games.