PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks SHUT OUT By Astros, Lose MORE Ground In NL Wild Card Race

Episode Date: September 7, 2024

The Diamondbacks offense seems broken despite the return of Ketel Marte as they get blanked by the Astros in game one of their series in Houston. We have more on Brandon Pfaadt not looking sharp in his outing, the offense continuing to be stagnant, and where the D-backs stood at this time last season.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsMERCH https://store.allcitynetwork.com/collections/phnx-lockerALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX 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/Sanderson Ford: The Sanderson Ford Summer Sales Event is here and they are teaming up with the boys of summer for a final Playoff Payoff Sale. You get the payoffs like deals on 24 Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend. Lease one today for as low as $299 a month for 36 Months with only 10 percent cash down.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.

I don't like that song. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-Backs podcast, brought to you by our friends at Bet365. Go download the Bet365 app. Now use code PHNX365. When you sign up, choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. And this wasn't one of those extraordinary games. This was just a terrible one.

I am your mayor of PHNX, occasionally known as Derek Montia. This man next to me is once again my vice mayor. now and in the future apparently it's the one and only Jesse Friedman. Jesse what a stinker tonight. We knew things could be bad in Houston for the Diamondbacks,

but I think this even exceeded our wildest nightmares. I mean, to be fair here, Derek, the Diamondbacks offense did do better than the Royals offense against Framber Valdez. Because last time Framber Valdez pitched, he didn't allow a single hit through seven innings. The Diamondbacks at least managed two of those in this game.

But yeah, this was pretty brutal all the way around. Obviously, Valdez was outstanding. Yordon Alvarez hit the two, three run homers. The Diamondbacks get shut out. That's something we haven't seen for quite a while. May 24th was the last time the Diamondbacks were shut out this season, just the fifth time it's happened all year. May 24th was that Braxton Garrett,

a complete game shutout against the Miami Marlins. That was also a very dark day. of the season for the Diamondbacks losing to that Miami team. But this is a similarly dark day, Derek. You know, the Astros are obviously a much better team than that Miami Marlins team was. But at the same time, your cushion in the National League is getting very, very small. I was going to say this did feel like one of the worst losses of the season. And I mean, maybe it's just because that's how long it's been since the Diamondbacks got shut out.

you had a, you know, a very limited amount of offense in the previous game now from the Diamondbacks. And this is two in a row. This was a team that even in their losses, even in that series, you know, against the Dodgers where they lost, you know, of course, several of those games. They still put up a lot of runs. And it feels like something broke with this team. And I don't know what it is. I don't know if this is just one of those stretches. But it feels like it couldn't come at a worse time considering.

you know, that you have the Mets, the Braves, the Padres all continuing to win. You have teams breathing down your neck. I mean, it's not even just the Mets now. You also have the Cubs that you've got to start to consider as they come closer into play for the wildcard race. And things are very crowded once again. And this is not a good time for the Diamondbacks to, you know, be losing games like this. This kind of loss could really, you know, you want to flush it. You want to just move on.

But this kind of loss could linger. This kind of loss could make you lose some confidence. confidence. I don't know if the D-backed playing Blake Snell out of the game yesterday so early was some sort of a curse or how to explain the situation, but the offense sure was going good

in that first inning yesterday. Yeah, Blake Snell throw 42 pitches. And since then, I think the Diamondbacks are four for 53 as a team, which is not great. This offense, as you were saying earlier, just pretty much completely shut down here over their last 17 innings of offense, I guess. But at the same time, I'm also reminded of how good the offense has been and the fact that the

Diamondback still lead the league in scoring by a pretty wide margin. I think this team for a while has been relying on the offense a little bit too much because it's been so incredibly good. And we saw it in those first two games in San Francisco where the bullpen had a couple of clunkers, but it worked out because the debacks scored enough runs that it didn't actually matter when all was said and done. You're not going to be able to do that all the time. And the pitching is going to have to hold up its end of the bargain. And I understand that, you know, even if the pitching had held the Astros to one run tonight,

this game is still a loss because it was that bad of a day for the offense. But overall the need to need to step things up for sure. They can have my bat. This bat. I have a this one. one's a Willie Bloomquist bat, this one. They can have this one too. I have a little, I have a little bat.

I mean, I don't know how much this one will help, but I will donate all the bats because tonight their bats were broken and this team couldn't get much done. I mean, I know we're going to talk about Brandon Fott, who actually pitched a fairly decent game until he got into that fifth inning. I mean, it was a really good game until that fifth inning. But we're also need to talk about this offense because it really didn't matter how well the Diamondbacks pitch tonight. The offense just didn't do anything.

And I mean, even in the limited times where they got some base runner, they were just stranded. Diamondbacks got two hits tonight. Randall Gritchick, two out walk in the top of the first, he gets stranded. One, two, three second. Geraldo Pardomo lead off single in the third. Or was it a double? I thought it was a double. Was it double?

Whatever. It was a single and then Jose Herrera bunted him over to second pace. You had a runner at second with one out with Cattel and Corbyn due up. And neither of those guys were able to get the job done in that spot. Walker walks in the fourth. He gets stranded. One, two, three innings in the fifth and the sixth. Seventh inning.

Still not much. Another walk from Christian Walker, Gino singles. And then Jake McCarthy pops up and Newman hits into the double play. there was nothing that the diamondbacks had nothing going on tonight against the euston astros and yeah like you said framber was as good as advertised as good as we expected him to be he stayed on the role that he was on from that that amazing outing against the royals but uh this one just is concerning you know and again it's it's just one game you know the diamondbacks are still in a good position because right now even with the loss, they still have a wildcard spot.

So as much as I want to panic, as much as people in the chat want to panic, and I understand, justified, I'm, I'm panicked, I'm panicking. I am not, I'm not in a good place mentally when it comes to this team right now. But it's still, you know, they still haven't lost it. There's still plenty of time, but there's plenty of time to lose it, too, still. And these teams don't seem to stop winning baseball games. So the offense, though, like you said, what's concerning is the offense has been what is won them baseball games. That's flat out.

I mean, their pitching has been decent at times, but we rarely see a performance from both the starters and the bullpen lately where it's just a dominant win and the Diamondbacks win by five or more runs. And the game was never really in danger. That hasn't happened for this team for a while. they've had to score in order to win baseball games. And in these last two games, the bats are cold, ice cold. Yeah, and I think from a pitching standpoint, I mean, like you said, D-backs haven't had a complete, like innings one through nine, well-pitched game in quite a while.

I know they limited the Giants to three runs yesterday. Obviously, Nero Kelly was outstanding in that game. The bullpen wasn't awful. I mean, you know, they were able to work out of a jam in the eighth inning. Ginkle obviously wasn't able to get an out in the ninth and the Giants walked it off. That was a pretty well-pitched game overall. But still, you're seeing way too many games like this where the Diamondback starter is just not really

keeping you in the game and or the bullpen is making things a whole lot more interesting toward the end than you would like to see. And Brandon fought, you know, I think in those first few innings, he was, I don't, he didn't look sharp to me really from the get-go tonight. I mean, he threw 26 pitches in the first. He allowed a lead-off double to Jose Al-Tuvae. He also hit Kyle Tucker in that inning. He managed to work out of it, which was impressive. I mean, against a good team like the Astros, sometimes you're the innings aren't going to be one, two, three. You're going to have to work around a little bit of traffic. But his command just wasn't sharp out of the gate, especially his sweeper. They were talking

about a lot on the broadcast where he just could not get that sweeper, you know, to the outer edge to right-handed hitters or to lefties, you know, usually he's trying to paint that outside corner. He was leaving a lot of those pitches in the middle of the zone. And when Brandon Fott leaves a sweeper in the middle of the zone, it tends to get hit quite a bit. So we saw a lot of that in this game. We also saw a number of yanked fastballs. His command in general just wasn't great. And two Fought's credit, he was able to make it work for a while. He was able to get through four innings with only one run allowed. But then in the fifth, as we have often seen this season, Derek, the fifth inning has

been his worst inning this year. And once again, it caught up to him. A couple of singles to start the inning, not necessarily hit all that hard. But then Yorda on Alvarez, he hit that one pretty hard into right field. And that turns a one-nothing game into a four-nothing game, just totally blew the game open for the Astros at that point. Dante Ortiz in the chat asks, fought tired with all the innings? Do you think that really could be what it is?

Because I know he's given the Diamondbacks a lot. El Gaiio also says he's hitting a wall for the season. And I mean, while that is true, it also has been an unfortunate, like, truth about Fought's outings, right? Like, even though he might be a bit tired, even though he might be, have pitched a lot of innings, we have seen throughout this season, fought pitch. pitch brilliantly for four or five out of the six, you know, five or six innings he pitches. But usually there's that bad inning that we kind of, you know, joke about and discuss. And I mean, that's been a constant of his year, just having trouble limiting that. And I mean, again, even in some of his better outings, he still has that inning, but he limits

it to just one or two runs instead of allowing it to kind of break the game open. Yeah, it's an interesting question of like, are the innings kind of catching up to him at a certain point? I mean, just from an innings total standpoint, right now he is at 165, which is a pretty big number. I mean, last year he threw 96 in the majors. He threw another 60 or so in the minors. And then, of course, there's about 20 or 25 in the playoffs. So, you know, you do the math there. And it's about 180 innings total last season.

and right now he's at 165. So he's still below that. But obviously, if the Diamondbacks get where they want to get this season, then there's a whole lot of baseball left to be played, right? I mean, they played for about two months from this point a season ago. So in the grand scheme of things, yeah, I think the innings total is totally a valid thing, totally a valid concern,

especially given that these are all major league innings this season for fought. You know, when he spent time down in Reno last year, that's not the same feeling as, you know, facing Jose Altuve and Jordon Alvarez and players of a big league caliber day in and day out. So I think it's a valid question. One thing that stands out to me about Fott recently is that his strikeout and walk numbers have continued to be really, really good. I was looking earlier at his numbers over his last seven starts coming into today.

He had a 6.08 ERA over his last seven starts. and in that span, Fought had 44 strikeouts to seven walks, which is an extremely good, you know, in terms of strikeout and walk numbers, that's extremely, extremely good. His FIP in that span was just above three, and yet the ERA is over six.

And on one hand, I want to be like, oh, that's just bad luck and that's bound to come around. But the eye test is telling me that there's something real to fought just sort of, I don't know if it's losing his composure, but just sort of making a whole bunch of mistakes all at the same time. And when you do that, major league hitters are going to make you pay for it. And we certainly saw that in that fifth inning today.

T in the chat says B-Fought pitches better in the cold. See big game Brandon 2023, no sweaty. So Jesse, obviously, the answer here is ice baths before the game for Brandon fought. There you go. Stick them, even if you're at a way park, stick them in like a cool. cooler for one of the, you know, one of like the concession stands or something until, you know, you get to a point where you're ready to have him start warming up. But don't call it warming up, you know, call it something else that way.

Just mentally he doesn't start to get hot or sweaty. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is. But I still feel like Brandon Fott is, you know, a future ace for this team based on what we've seen out of him at times. He's just been asked to do a lot. And I think right now the Diamondbacks as a whole. hole might be feeling that pressure.

And that pressure is only going to get there. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's only going to be heavier as we approach, you know, the, end of the season. The Diamondbacks may have lost a key member of, of their staff, another injury with Jose Herrera getting knocked on the head by Kyle Tucker's back swing in the bottom of the fifth inning. Jesse, my concern there with that wasn't as much as the fact that it hit him on the top of the head, as much as it looked like it kind of compressed.

his head down and like that he might have some sort of neck injury and something like that could potentially cause her error to lose a lot of time and diamondbacks can't really afford that right now. Yeah, I mean, you know, you hope that Gabby Moreno is is ready to come back fairly soon. But from what we've heard, it doesn't sound like it's going to be anytime super soon. You've still got a little while there. And even so, we were just talking on this show yesterday about how when Gabby does come back, you figure that Jose Herrera might have the upper hand over Adrian Del Castillo at this point,

given some of the defensive challenges that we've seen there. So, yeah, that is certainly another real bummer part of this game for the Diamondbacks. We might have an update in the chat, by the way. Mark R says he passed protocols and is playing tomorrow. So hopefully there's no long term, no time missed there for Herrera because that would be, that would that would be huge i mean the diamondbacks right now need josea rare in there i think not for his offense but for what he offers this team behind the plate he's he's a leader back there and and he does give them a better you know just just a better

catching option right now than a dc yeah and i mean i think another challenge if they had you know gone the route of having to put him on the concussion i l or whatever just to make sure that he was good. You faced the challenge then of bringing up a catcher from Reno who is not familiar with any of your pitchers. And that just, you know, brings in a whole other layer to trying to fill that spot while Herrera is away. So that's good news. Yeah, it sounds like Tori said that on the broadcast after the game. So hopefully the debacks have avoided any concerns there. Well, Roman in the chat or Roman on Twitter asks, is Marte injured again? No, I think they just took him out because they weren't ready to have him run on the base path late in the game.

And it didn't really matter at this point. Like the Diamondbacks, you know, Tori Lavallo waved the white flag when he put Jordan Montgomery into the game. And I, again, completely disagree with the way that LaVolo manages games when the Diamondbacks are down. and this is another one of those instances, but you could argue that all you want. It really didn't matter. The Diamondbacks didn't score. They hardly got anything going on offense.

So as much as I want to agree with many of you about, you know, the fact that he just turns to Jordan Montgomery. That's what Jordan Montgomery is here for now. Jordan Montgomery did not have a good outing, but he did go out there and eat up a bunch of innings. And, you know, he, that's the point is for them to not go out there and have to use, you know,

multiple bullpen pitchers in a blowout like this and somehow then put themselves at a disadvantage for the games, you know, for the rest of the games of the series. So, you know, he came out there. He did his thing. Last time he pitched Minutemade Park, Jesse, ALCS Hero. This time, guess what? Not so much. gave up another three run, home run to Jordan Alvarez, who was just an absolute menace and terror to the Diamondbacks tonight. A couple of dinghees. It was, I think they said on the radio broadcast that it was, you know,

it was death by a thousand paper cuts to Jordan Montgomery at one point because it wasn't all his fault. There were some defensive mistakes. There were some balls that just went in areas that they had no business going. the end result is he did pitch three innings gave up four hits four and runs he walked one and he struck out three um his bullpen's uh er a jesse is six point three zero so it's basically the same his starter era is six point four fours so after as much as we thought is the same basically right but i'm just saying as much as we thought he was going to go to the bullpen and shove and maybe like transform

into this different thing which i'm not saying we thought that but it was discussed, right? Like, you know, maybe Jordan Montgomery goes and shows them, you know, you made the wrong move. No, Jordan Montgomery has shown them that he's, that they made the right move when it comes to moving him to the bullpen. And I don't even know if he has value there at a 6.30 ERA. But at least he comes in and is able to pitch a lot of innings in,

again, in a game like this. And, you know, it ends eventually. it eventually ends and thankfully we it ended but we do have to give the king snake to somebody. I thought about giving it to AJ Green from the Philadelphia Eagles because he scored me a lot of points tonight fantasy football against Max and I figured I should give it to somebody that did something positive for this podcast but instead we're going to just give it to Joe Mantipli because he pitched a third of an inning and he got one out and he didn't give up any hits and he didn't give up any runs and he didn't walk anyone.

He had a flawless night, Derek, and that's not something that you can say about any other member of the Diamond Don't scoff at this. This King Snake is no joke, ladies and gentlemen. This man deserved it. He absolutely deserved it. One note on the Montgomery thing real quick. I remember when we were talking with Scott Boris,

because of course Boris showed up to Montgomery's intro. oppressor when the Diamondbacks made that signing official. We were all, you know, me and several of the other reporters pulled Boris aside and talked to him for a while. And he taught, he referred to Jordan Montgomery as being the Astros assassin. He said that that was sort of within Boris circles. That's sort of what they had nicknamed Jordan Montgomery. And rightful, I mean, understandably so at the very least, because you look at what Montgomery

did against the Astros in the ALCS last year, it was pretty dang impressive stuff. This guy through, let me find my numbers here. This guy threw 15 innings and allowed two earned runs in that series against the Astros. He pitched three times, including in game seven, where he came out of the bullpen and through two and a third scoreless innings at MinuteMade. So that's the last time. Do you were referring to you earlier, that's the last time that he pitched in that ballpark. But yeah, just sort of a sort of a reality check of how things have changed for Jordan Montgomery, right? And, you know, that was, what, about 10 months ago at this point.

It's a reality check for us all, Jesse. It's very sobering to remember that you can still lose a game, 8 to nothing. And again, like we said, before we came into the series, this Frumber Valdez and the entire pitching staff is very good. Their relievers are very good. We didn't even have to test the bullpen tonight. So, I mean, this is not, this isn't a good series. It's not a good matchup for the Diamondbacks right now.

And I mean, the Astros did just lose. What was it? They got swept by the Reds, I believe. I don't know if that's. Yeah, the Astros did just get swept by the Reds, which in our addition of on the record earlier today with Chandler Rome, he said that like the Astros apparently have a thing with never beating the Reds. Like they had lost nine straight games against Cincinnati or something bonkers like that.

So apparently there's some history there with the Astros not being able to. to beat that team. But yeah, they definitely didn't seem to show any ill effects in this one here tonight. Well, we have more from this game, even though I do not want to talk about this game anymore here shortly. But we've got to pay some bills. So before we get to that, I want to remind you all to check out Bet365. Of course, Bet365 has 90 million users worldwide.

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Hit that like button. Of course, we love it when you do. And of course, if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you subscribe on your favorite app over there. leave us review. We appreciate it so much. Our most recent review said that we were saying that the playoffs were dwindling away, Jesse. And I don't know if we ever made that claim before today, but we're going to make it today. Be careful.

Things are getting dicey. And I don't like the direction in which they're going. But of course, I'm sure I'm not the only one when it comes to that. Mostly because, you know, the Diamondbacks, we have won a lot of games this season. We're going to get into where they were at this time. last year. But it's just wild to think with the success they have had that the diamondbacks still have all of these other teams hot on their heels and, you know, in this race alongside of them. So every win is crucial tonight's game. You just forget it if you're one of the members of

this team. You got to move on. You got to pretend like this one didn't even exist. Let's take a look at the count presented by Desert Financial Credit Union. And of course, you'll see why the Diamondbacks get outscored by the Astros 8 to 0. They are out hit by the Astros 12 to 2. Astros went 5 for 10 with runners in scoring position to the Diamondbacks 0 for 3. The Astros had five extra base hits, including some very, very hard hit home runs to the Diamondback 0. And then XBA 337 for the Astros to the Diamondbacks 119 expected batting average. So just got beat.

Just got Mollywop tonight, Jesse. Yeah, and there is, I mean, especially with a game like this, there is a tip your cap element to Framber Valdez. I mean, I think it felt like every pitch that Valdez through was either just nasty and perfectly buried in the dirt or like pin the bottom third of the strike zone. I mean, he was just dot in corners all night long. It felt like, except for the first inning, his command was a little shaky. he threw 12 balls to seven strikes in the first inning made a couple of middle mistakes the debacks weren't able to capitalize on but the rest of the way he was basically in cruise control I think this is about as well pitched of a game as the diamond backs have

have faced all season and you know as much as the I mean the offense is certainly going to have its good days and it's bad days but there's also an element of like alda just pitched a really freaking good game and sometimes no matter what you do offensively it's going to be really hard to get anything going against a certain guy. And Valdez was on that level tonight. I mean, he has been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball here over the last couple of months. And yes, we're only one day removed from the Diamondbacks knocking out a picture in a very

similar situation after one inning. And Blake Snell, he came into that start with outrageously good numbers in his previous 10 starts. But they obviously were not able to duplicate that tonight against Valdez. Didn't have the same game plan, just like the way that they weren't able to adjust when they knock Blake Snell out of this game, Jesse. But I will say that this is one of those losses where as mad as you want to get at any one thing, it feels like, well, this other thing didn't work either.

Nothing worked for the diamondbacks tonight. Starting pitching wasn't great. Bullpen obviously wasn't great. And offense wasn't great. So you could say, well, if they did generate some more runs off of Frumber, if they even had a good night off of them, then this is not, you know, this is a bit more on the, on the pitching. And you're going to be a little bit more mad that maybe towards.

puts Jordan Montgomery out there. There's nothing to be mad at. The Diamondbacks just got beat tonight. And no matter how you want to cut it, you could say Jordan Montgomery is perfect out there. Well, Brandon Fott still gave up, you know, his runs. You could say maybe Fought gets out of that fifth inning without giving up that three runoff.

Pretend Yordon Alvarez does none of the damage that he does against his team. The dimebacks still lose one to zero. Would you rather that happen? Because that would be even more infuriating than an eight to nothing loss, I feel like. But of course, the big news is that Cotel Marte did return in this one. He did go 0 for three with a walk. There was nothing wrong with him again just to quell any concerns.

He just, there was no reason to have him run on the base path for an irrelevant reason. So Luis Guillaume pinch ran for him in the eighth inning. The Diamondbacks did option Jorge Barrosa to Reno, which is to the surprise of nobody, I think. and of course, it's just good to have Catelle back. I mean, you can't expect Christian Walker or Cotel to be the way that they were before going down to injury after coming back because baseball is just a fickle game like that where you just need to, you need to have some time back at a major league level before you're yourself again. It's the good reason why, it's the reason why it's good that they're back this early before the playoffs so that they can return to form a bit. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, you're going to have a few stinkers every now and then, and the Diamondbacks have not had, I mean, I guess they have had a decent number of those here in the last 10 days or so. And I think that a game like this probably feels a lot different if we're in an alternate universe where the New York Mets haven't won eight consecutive games, right? There's just a sudden, there's quite a bit of pressure that the Diamondbacks feel at this point. We're going to get into the, defense of urgency.

Yeah, there, I mean, there, there really has to be at this point. The Diamondbacks are, if, if there was a scenario a week or two ago

where the Diamondbacks could just sort of coast their way into the playoffs and never really have to worry about things getting too close, that, that doesn't exist anymore, right? Because we're in that situation right now. The Diamondbacks have a game and a half cushion on both the Mets and the Braves. That's already a small enough number that,

I mean, plenty of time to make up a game and a half, right? It's not even really that big of an advantage at this point. As far as Catelle is concerned, though, I think the fact that he is back and healthy and, of course, hopefully he continues to be and doesn't have any setbacks like he did earlier, the fact that Catella's back makes me think that this offense is going to be just fine down the stretch. It is really hard for me to imagine a scenario where the Diamondback's offense is a significant issue for them. Now that you have Cotel Marte back in the lineup, and you also have Christian Walker back in the lineup as well.

This offense, I think, is going to be okay, but there are obviously some questions on the pitching side. You know, Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly looked a whole lot better over the last couple of days, but there's some questions with Brandon Fod and with Eduardo Rodriguez and basically everyone in the bullpen not named AJ Puck, right? There are still some guys that have things to prove down the stretch. And their performance is going to, in many ways, determine, whether the Diamondbacks are able to make the playoffs or not.

Well, we did get some good news from Mike Fitzgerald on Wolf and Luke yesterday, saying that Gabriel Moreno's return is expected sometime in the middle of September. While that doesn't line up with Gabby's comments at the autograph signing about it being two weeks, it's actually a little close. And I mean, it's that that gives me a little bit more hope that we will see Gabby back before the playoffs, which again allows him to have that amount of time to, you know, get back to pitching and or catching and hitting at a major league level. Yeah, from what they said on the broadcast today,

Katel isn't, or not Katel, Gabby is not yet to the point of actually catching, obviously, you know, doing the whole catcher crouch thing for nine innings. That's going to take a little bit of time to get there. He also isn't running bases, but he has been taking it back. bat's according to what they said on the broadcast full on live at bats just not actually running the bases after that so that's a good sign uh and it's it's obviously a big step in the right direction and if you can get gabby back in the lineup that just makes me feel all the more like this offense is going to be okay down the stretch they're going to score enough runs to win games

down the stretch but they might not score nine every game and that's where you need your pitching to help help your cause as well well i still feel encouraged by by Zach Gallen and Merrill Kelly's latest performances, the bullpen, parts of it that, you know, are the high leverage guys, they've still done a good job, well, at least AJ Puck. And, you know, like you said, I do feel like the offense is going to come back online, but who knows, Jesse, who knows? I am a known truth teller, of course.

I never lie because I'm a mayor. I'm a mayor of Ph.NX. I'm a mayor of Ph.N.X. then and forever. And of course, I don't lie. But Espo, Espo, he's radical.

He's dangerous. I don't know if you've seen those ads. Also, Petey, who is he really working for? I don't know. They're very catchy, those ads. I have nothing to do with them, by the way, and I'm not lying about that either.

But the numbers, of course, they never lie, Jesse. They are also part of my campaign. What do the numbers? have to say about tonight's game. Tonight's number is 80%. And of course, people probably familiar, Framber Valdez is well known as a groundball heavy pitcher,

obviously throwing that sinker with all that crazy movement and his secondary pitches that move have plenty of movement down in the zone. He's going to generate a lot of ground balls. 80% represents the Diamondbacks ground ball rate in this game against Framber. as they had 15 batted balls against them and 12 of them were on the ground and two of them that were not came in the seventh inning. So their ground ball rate through six innings, Derek, would have been 92%. 11 out of the 12 were ground balls.

The only one that was not was a Randall Grischick flyout that I think happened in the fourth or fifth inning. So yeah, it's pretty brutal. but obviously Framber Valdez he was at his best tonight once again and he's the type of guy who can generate a bazillion ground balls and he certainly did that. Sean in the chat wants you to know, Jesse, it's Fromber. Okay, Fromber. I did just I did just say Fromber.

Yes, but I think I was probably saying Framber earlier. So my, yes, my mistake there. Appreciate you, Sean, making sure we're doing justice to me. We got a, we're terrible names. One of us is at least, and I'm not going to really point fingers at which one of us is terrible with dames. Usually it's me. But, of course, we do have to pay some bills. We do also have to talk about this wild card race.

But first, before we do that, I think we have, speaking of the mayoral election, some more campaign ads to run. Damon, take care of whatever you need to take care of. Hi, I'm Mar McCleon from Arizona's Family Sports and the Extra Point Podcast. In this election season, I'll be voting for ESPO. There's nothing against his opponent, Derek Monta. The man has great hair, great shirts, and great takes. It's just I'll be in the car listening to a postgame show, and my kids will say, Daddy, what did he say?

And I'll say, he's talking about AJ Puck, and they're like, no, I heard that word at school. That's not what he said. And I'm like, shut up, Derek, you're teaching my kids to swear. And I don't appreciate it. So I'm voting for ESPO this election season because a vote for ESPO is a vote for good, clean, American conversation with no potty words. And, you know, Espos has great takes as well, great glasses. I was also hoping to hire him as a lifeguard for an event in a couple weeks at the McLuhan family household.

I actually think, you know, this is a great thing you're doing. But instead of the votes, maybe the two of you could leg Russell, winner and loser has to come on my program next week and discuss. I'm Espo and I approve this message. Mark. Mark? I'm not allowed to say those words anymore, Mark. Tell your kids they can listen to this show. You know, somebody in the chat here says,

Jesus, breaking out more big guns. Well, I haven't gotten personally involved in this election at all yet, Jesse. I haven't put together a single ad. As you know, that weird pack super pack that's making all of those attack ads has nothing to do with me. but I am proud to present to you my own endorsement. Damon, if you would. Yeah, I'm here in my kitchen because everyone is talking about kitchen table issues.

And I'm giving all my delegates and all my support to Derek. He's never been convicted of 34 felonies. He's never tried to overturn an election. He doesn't cheat at golf. That's my guy. I'm going with him. I'm Derek Montia, and I approve this. message. That's Kenny Maine

from Sports Center. I'm just saying. I don't know. I think I think I go Mark McClun personally. I know I knew you would. You're a traitor. That's because you're a traitor and that's it is what it is but it's all right. It's all right. If Kenny's voting for me, everybody

should vote for me and I'll get the entire Tanner says it best. He says take Espo off the ballot. The ESPO just got beat the same way the Diamondbacks did tonight. So, and Anyway. How much did you have to pay Kenny Maine to make this video for you, Derek?

Was it like a what's that website where you can pay to have like a celebrity film? It's called Cameo, Jesse. And I didn't pay a dime. I didn't pay a dime. And in fact, I'll show you when Kenny Maine texted me that video personally to my own cell phone number, whatever this is, this thing, the smartphone. But yeah, no, it is what it is. I just won. Sean said Derek waited to bring out the new.

Look, it's, how did I get Kenny? I know Kenny. Kenny knows this race. Kenny has his pulse on sports and everything going on in the sports world. So of course, he would know about this election. But bourbon and baseball,

I think our friends covering the Astros said, y'all give Fought a break. This is his second year. Why are y'all comparing him to Frumber? I don't think we were. I don't think at any point we're comparing, I mean, Framber Valdez is one of the best pitchers in the league. No question about it. I mean, I guess you sort of have to compare them in a way in an individual game because that was the literal pitching matchup today.

But no, you're not expecting Brandon Fott to out pit Framber Valdez, at least not on, you know, like a regular basis. So, but at the same time, like, fought didn't pitch all that well in this game, right? There's a big gap between what Fromber did today and what fought did, right, with four and two-thirds innings and foreign runs. You'd hope for a little bit, a little bit better than that. All right. Well, we will talk about this wildcard race here shortly, like I said, but we do have some real bills today,

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head to shady rays.com and use code PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. All right, Jesse. Well, people want me to bring back the swearing, and I might soon based on these MLB standings, but let's take a look at where the teams fall right now with Major League Baseball. What do we got here? Oh, maybe we don't have that.

Well, the Mets. I actually, I didn't do the standing specifically because the Dodgers and Padres are still playing right now. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's a good point. And I mean, that obviously could change. But unfortunately, everybody else is winning and things aren't great. The Mets win an extra innings. That is their eighth win in a row.

The only thing I can hope is that our guy, Dante Ortiz is right when he says, someone said it the other day, but it's only a matter of time until the Mets met. right and that's a good point as much as we want to be worried about the Mets they are the Mets and they are going to met at some point right so like this is just them giving their fan base hope making their fan base believe only to let them down only to disappoint them only to make them sad so as much as I want to panic I obviously foolishly shouldn't be panicking Yeah, I mean, the Mets also have a very difficult schedule the rest of the season. I think they have probably the hardest schedule out of all of these teams.

They're facing the Reds right now. They were able to pull off a walk-off win over the Reds in the 10th inning earlier today. They've got the Reds for a couple more games. And they have a Toronto Blue Jays team that's not all that great for three games starting next week. So the next five games, the Mets are still, you know, playing not terrible teams, been on great teams either. After that, though, is when things really start to get difficult for them. They have a three-game series on the road against a Philadelphia-Filly team that is still

probably going to have something to play for at that point, given the buys and obviously having three teams vying for those two buy spots. After that, they get three games against the nationals, which is a bit of a break. But then they finish the season four games at home against the Phillies, three games on the road against the Braves, and then three games on the road against. the Milwaukee Brewers. So that is a brutal, brutal finish if you're the Mets. I mean, you're talking about seven games against the Phillies, three games against the Braves,

and three games against the Brewers. Those are all obviously very good teams. So it's not going to be easy for the Mets to continue on the pace that they're on, right? I think they've benefited from playing some not great teams recently. Of course, they did come into Arizona and take two out of three last week, so they deserve all the credit in the world for doing that. things are going to get a lot more difficult for them here over these next few weeks. And again, unfortunately, the tiebreakers do not land in the Diamondbacks favor in a lot of these

instances. And that's the reason why this is even more crucial that they fight their way in because they do not hold the tiebreaker over the Mets. They do not hold the tiebreaker over the Braves. And they still have one more series to play against the Padres that could determine that. But the Braves beat the Blue Jays. The Padres are beating the Giants. So, yeah, things aren't great. But a lot of baseball left to play.

And the Diamondbacks have a lot of games left against the Giants. And the Rockies, they also have a lot of games left against the Brewers, two more series left against the Brewers. So hopefully the Diamondbacks can find a way to win against those teams while they, you know, the teams they have left on their schedule. But this time last year, Jesse, they were not in so good of a spot and made the playoffs, right? but we know that the field wasn't nearly as competitive as things are right now. But let's take a look.

Where were the Diamondbacks at this time last year, Damon? Yeah, this is pretty crazy to look at. So this is exactly a year ago today what the NL Wildcard standings looked like. And the Diamondbacks right now are 79 and 63. So they would have been with their record right now last season, if the playoff picture had been equivalent to last season, they would have been better than all of these teams. They would have been better than the Phillies and had the first wildcard spot,

although the margin there would have been really close. But yeah, last season at this time, the debacks were 72 and 68. They were a half a game out of the playoff picture. So just sort of right on the cusp, they were basically tied with the Cincinnati Reds in that position. The Miami Marlins occupied that third wildcard spot and the Chicago Cubs, as hard as it made me to believe, Derek,

the Cubs a year ago today were 12 games over 500 and had a four-game cushion on the diamond backs and look to be in very good position to make the playoffs. And yet obviously they wound up falling out of the of the whole thing altogether. So yeah, it's a reminder of a couple things. Number one, that the diamond backs last year were in a much more dire position than they are right now. You would much rather be where the 2024 diamondbacks are on September 6th than where the 23 diamond backs are. But number two, it's also a reminder that the Cubs were 76 and 64 and seemingly in a really

good spot and they wound up missing the whole thing entirely. I mean, you know, both of those teams. Yeah. The Cubs and the Marlins. The Diamondbacks do now. Yeah.

Right. That didn't make me feel better, Jesse. Like you made me feel better for a second. And then you somehow made me feel way, way worse. That's not how this is supposed to work. But of course, you do. have a wonderful breakdown for on the record. If you haven't had a chance to check that out,

make sure to check out on the record with Jesse this week. Chandler Rome was on the show and you guys talked about Alex Bregnon, possibly being an Arizona Diamondback in the future. How? Yeah, I didn't really anticipate like going super deep on free agency on September 6th when the Diamondbacks are in the middle of a pretty contentious playoff chase. But the topic came up when I was when I was previewing. the Steve Bax Astros series with Chandler Rome earlier today.

If you haven't caught that yet, it's here on our YouTube channel. You can also find it on the audio side. We post all of these on the record interviews there as well. But yeah, I asked Chandler about Alex Bregman, who is, wasn't in the lineup today for the Astros. I think he's been a little banged up. But he is healthy. I imagine we'll see him at some point during the weekend.

And yeah, he's a free agent at the end of the season. And I asked Chandler, do you see the Astros, bringing Alex Bregman back. And Chandler's response was, I don't see the Astros bringing him back. And also, don't the Diamondbacks need a third baseman? And he named off a few teams. Granted, it was not just the Diamondbacks. But Chandler is obviously a very well-connected reporter.

Does a great job covering the Astros over at the Athletic. And he mentioned to me that Alex Breggman just moved to Arizona within the last couple of years. and, you know, there's not a ton of, I think there's some speculative components to this. You know, it wasn't like he had sources directly telling him like, oh, yes, Alex Bregman definitely wants to play for the Diamondbacks. But it did seem to make sense from his standpoint. And the Diamondbacks are in a position, an interesting position at third base going into next year where they do have this club option for A. Eugenioz Fares. And if you had asked us a couple months ago, whether they were picking up that club option, we would have said certainly no. But at this point, you really might think about picking up that club option.

I believe it's for $15 million, right around $15 million. It has a $2 million buyouts. The debacks are paying that no matter whether they keep him or they let him go elsewhere. Based on the way the Gino has played recently, I think the debacks really, really might look at picking that option up. But if they didn't, who knows, maybe they would take a look at really landing a big fish in a guy like Alex Bregman. Team might be right here. He said stuff animal snake needs out. Yeah, we need to get Jesse Jr. out win or lose.

And maybe that'll bring the vibes back for this team. I don't know, at least maybe for the offense. Someone wanted to know Jesse in the chat, what you're playing on the PS5 behind you. This is important. This is important information. I'm guessing it's just MLB the show. Good, good eye.

It's like you can't, you can't really see. It's very little back there. It's not like this guy where you see this killer instinct machine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Personally, I have basically not touched the PS5 for a solid pretty much ever since baseball season started because that marks when I officially have no free time whatsoever. But I do.

He spends his free time sleeping. That's what he does with his free time. It's pretty much. And even that, there's not usually enough to go around. But I do enjoy a good game of them. I'll be the show every now and then. that's definitely my go-to on the rare occasion that I actually have the time to do that. So, yes.

All right. Well, of course, we appreciate you guys so much for stopping by. You guys are the real king snakes around here for joining us after this loss. Of course, we will be back on Monday. And hopefully Archie will be back on Monday. He's in Oklahoma. And I don't know. He's hunting wild animals.

And I don't know if we'll get him to come back. but if we do he'll be back on Monday make sure you hit that like button before you get out of here also make sure you follow us on Twitter I am at cap underscore caveman with a K Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman the people's producer Damon Farrell is at Damon Dogg

that's D-A-W-G we are Damon's dogs bark bark bark and that guy you got that guy a cartoon head so I mean that's how much I take care of my constituents by the way just keep that in mind but again our shows at

PHNX underscore D-backs, but all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We again, appreciate your time. We hope to see you guys back here on Monday. We'll have a mailbag Monday. We'll answer your questions. We'll have some fun then. So make sure to join us for that.

But in the meantime, we hope you guys all have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy watching football. I hope all of your fantasy football teams win except yours, Jesse, and everybody else in the Ph. What do you have against me, Derek? We're not playing against each other this week. I'm playing against Damon. You guys, well, I hope both teams lose.

I hope both teams lose. Jesse is getting smoked right now. Getting smoked. Am I? Because yesterday did not go very well for you, Damon. So, you check that out, Jesse. You may come back today?

Is that what I'm hearing? Like none of my players have actually played yet. So we're still in the very, we're still in the very early stages, much like the Diamondbacks postseason race. there's still a lot of games left to be played here. Galen Hertz was mid and Jaden Reed went off. Wow.

I mean, it just wasn't a good night. I like the way Jesse said that, though. I got to admit, I'm kind of team Jesse now a little bit. You're right. Jalen Hertz was kind of mid. That's unfortunate. But we're still in shouting distance.

I still like our chances. Waffle House wagon isn't going to go down without a fight. So I'll tell you that's one place I will not be this year as the Waffle House. But I probably shouldn't have said that. That seems very. It's not going to age well there. It's not going to age well. It doesn't matter.

I'm the champion and I will ride with this. I'll eat those waffles with this ring on at Waffle House and probably get robbed. But that's that's a story for a later time. We appreciate you guys stopping by. We will see you guys on Monday until then, like I was saying, have a wonderful weekend. And remember kids, when you come, baseball is fun. But when you come for the king, you best not miss.