PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks still can’t figure out the Mets, losing three of four in New York

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

After Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly both have bad outings against the New York Mets, who can this team turn to get the starting rotation back on track? We are discussing how bad starting pitching was in this four-game series loss, if Jordan Lawlar will remain on the major league roster, and more!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 WATCH YOUR FAVORITE TEAMS: https://www.fubotv.com/phnx WIN MONEY THROUGH SPLASH SPORTS: https://www.splashsports.com/phnx Head to https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50 and use code phnxdbacks50 to get 50% off.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Score 25% off a bag of your favorite OGeez! Fruits of Creams. Go to https://theflowershopusa.com, add a bag of OGeez! to your cart, enter promo code “PHNX” and pickup at a local The Flower Shop dispensary.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, welcome in to another edition of the PHNX, T-BACs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia. And if you were watching a son's podcast about a good basketball team, can I interest you in a baseball podcast about quite possibly a terrible team? I am joined here, of course, by my one and only, the man in charge of public works around this place, Mr. Electric himself, Sean DeBaz. Of course, that's your Thundersick and my vice mayor down there. That's just a freedom.

And yes, these last. two games couldn't have gone worse for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Really, at the end of the day, we know that we, or at least we thought the two guys that the Diamondbacks could count on, and the starting rotation was that Gallon and Merrill Kelly. And both of them have back-to-back terrible starts. In fact, every starting pitcher had pretty much a terrible outing against the New York Mets. The Diamondbacks just can't seem to figure this team out. And that very much goes with Kodai Sena as well because he was absolutely unhittable in this game.

I mean, it makes sense, right? I mean, the Mets have Verlander, they have Scherzer. Oh, wait, that's not the Mets team anymore. That's not the Herald Astro. They have, yeah, Raphael Ortega, right? They have Jose Budo. Yeah, the D-backs, I mean, they just struggled in all facets in the series. There's no way getting around that these last three years.

games that they've lost. None of them have really been all that close, frankly. And the one game the Diamondbacks did win in this series was very close, right? I mean, it was Paul Seawald in a kind of a precarious position in the ninth inning, just finding a way to get out of that game with a win. And that's the only game that the Diamondbacks will ultimately win against the Mets this season. This ends the season series. They go one in six against the Mets. I believe they said on the broadcast, the D-backs were outscored 47 to 15 in these seven games altogether. other, you know, the Mets had high expectations coming into the year. I don't think there may be quite as bad as their record says,

but they're still just not a good baseball team, especially after the trades that they made at the trade deadline. And the Diamondbacks have, as you said, Derek, they've had a hard time solving this Mets team. Carlos is trying to somehow peg this on me. And yeah, like, that's the reason why Merrill Kelly was bad to take, Carlos. Go ahead and go ahead and go ahead and figure that. one out. Explain that one for me. Explain to me how the diving backs are one in six against this

New York Mets team this season now. And also not just this New York Mets team, but against the NL East, they're nine and 17, a division that they just can't seem to be able to beat. Honestly, they're three and three against the Braves, which is just the most mind-boggling part of that. They've played better against the Braves than they did against the Mets by a wide margin. They lost both series to the Marlins as well. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know what it It is about the Diamondback to the Mets. We're not, I mean, let's be fair. I'm not talking about like the AL Central.

The NL East has some pretty good teams. It's a decent division. That's a pretty solid. But it's almost like the worst the record gets, the worst their record gets against that team. But Merrill Kelly just did not do himself any favors today. He walked the, he was pretty good in the first two innings, but in the third inning there, he walked the 7, 8, 9 hitters,

followed by a 2 RBI double by Brandon Nimmo. Again, same thing. happened when the heart of the lineup came around in the fifth inning, but that one stung much more. Kelly goes five innings pitch. He gives up six hits. Seven earn runs, four walks, struck out seven. But again, his pitch count was at 98 in the fifth inning. And I mean, that's that that's the outing that he had. He held things together at times, but he really got himself into, you know, especially with the walks, the four walks really came back to buy him. Yeah, they did. I mean, Merrill Kelly has been known as kind of a control artist, right?

And that's like, that's what he's supposed to be as a pitcher. That's what makes him good. And this year, he hasn't really been that in a sense. I mean, he came into this game with a 9.3% walk rate, which is actually higher than the league average. And it's by far the highest of Merrill Kelly's career. He's improved this year in a lot of ways. His strikeout rate is also the highest of his career. But it's also come with this downside of, you know, a few more walks than would be

ideal and he was great in the first couple innings. The first couple innings, his command was extremely sharp. And then the third inning came around facing the seven, eight, nine hitters. He walks all three of them in a row. The Mets wound up only scoring two runs in, in that situation. But yeah, really from that point on, from the third inning on, Merrill Kelly just didn't really look like himself out there. Yeah, I mean, you, you, he's the mainstay for a reason. I feel a little, not foolish, because I still believe it, but it, but it looks. looks a lot worse talking yesterday or earlier this week about wanting maryl to start that last game in a series or whatever and then he started obviously not in the postseason but he started

the last game of this series and they didn't go well at a time when they really needed it to go well and so the mainstay not being the mainstay is certainly a little bit of cause for concern especially when you put it in the context of basically nobody pitching well yeah it's devastating to have both Gowan and Kelly pitch poorly in back-to-back outings, especially when they absolutely needed the best out of both of these guys at this point of the season. In fact, before the series started, we found out that they were going to be relying on Gallin and Kelly

for the majority of the starts. Those two guys were going to be getting half of the starts for the remainder of the series. So I don't know if that pressure may have gotten to them, understanding that a lot of it relies on their shoulders. That seems to kind of be the key with this team at times. we discussed it off air but the pressure getting to this team really feels like they can't that that that seems to be something that that really causes them to have like this kind of offensive output where they only get four hits and one run in a game and i mean yeah kodi sen guy was was good but he was very good he you know against the he's been against the good against this team the entire he's giving up one earned run and 14 endings pitched against the diamondbacks like he's just 22 strikeouts.

Yeah. It just seems like I don't know what it was, but they were coming up against a guy with a pitch that they call a ghost. I just knew this was not going to be very good for the... You said it on bets. I did say it on bets. But you also said DeBack's money line on Bates. I said the DBAX money line was because I wasn't trying to be negative, but I did originally

have Kodai Sanga strikeouts. Yeah. Because I had said that yesterday on DeBass, I think. Or on the show, I think. But yeah, man, it's like it's in any sport. Obviously, like when you start thinking about it, you don't perform. It's like hockey, the old grip in the stick too tight, stuff like that. They've said that about like, I mean, we've heard Diamondbacks players specifically.

Yeah, exactly. If you're, if you're thinking at the plate, you're already. Yeah. It's, it's over for you. Yeah. And obviously, there's no way for us to get in their heads and know how the pressure is actually affecting them. But it would be a, I guess, logical explanation if it was that, you know, the pressure is getting to them. and they are overthinking things a little bit

and gripping the bat a little bit too tight. Feeling like every at bat is too important. Yeah. Like every moment is it too important because at this point there isn't a lot of time left to be frank, right? Exactly. That's absolutely the case. There's now 14 games left for the remainder of this season.

14 games left, yeah. And I mean, of course, Gallin and Kelly are going to have their opportunities to go out there and kind of write this wrong, but who knows if then that, you know, maybe piles up. But Gallin was bad in his outing. He went five innings, gave up eight hits, seven runs, six earned, walked two, struck out four. And quite possibly sealed his fate on the Siyang Award, which, again, to Carlos is a point, my bad.

I mean, I wasn't really trying for that, but I definitely didn't want to see Gowlin go out there and end his chances at the Siong with an outing like this or, you know, any of his remaining outings. I definitely wanted to see these guys kind of lead the way. the two pitchers combined in the series, 10 innings pitched, 14 hits, 14 runs, 13 earned, six walks, 11 strikeouts, which either of these guys could have had on their own normally in one of their starts. 11.70 ERA and a 2.00 whip. It's not great. It's not great. Who broke them? Who broke them? You apparently.

Yeah, I guess it was. I guess it was you. I ran the numbers on Zach Gallen, the rest of the way. He's got three more starts. If he were to go seven scoreless in all three of those outings, the lowest his ERA in that situation would go down to 3.16, which is probably just still not low enough in order to actually have a real shot. Blake's doing his story. And yeah, that is also a very much a best case scenario, right? I mean, even Zach Allen at his best.

Three, nine inning, complete game. Even that would probably be, it'd probably be above three. It still might not even be low enough. But if you end the season with three straight, complete game shutouts, You better with the damn sigh of us. We'll cross that bridge if we get there. But in, I mean, in Gallen and Merrill's defense, the Diamondbacks scored one run yesterday.

And they scored one run today. Even if Gallin and Merrill went out there and were at their best, Diamondbacks might not be winning these games anyway. The offense has really struggled. If you compare the Mets top three hitters, which in my mind is Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Indore, Pete Alonzo, with the D-back's best three hitters, Corbyn Carroll, Christian Walker, Cotel Marte.

These numbers are pretty ugly. Brandon Nimmo was 7 for 17 in the series. Two doubles, a triple, two RBIs, a walk, three runs scored. Lindor went three for 15. Wasn't quite as good for him, but he still had two RBIs, two walks, a double, three runs scored in the series. Pete Alonzo had a Homer and two doubles went five for 16. On the Dback side, Corbyn Carroll went one for 14.

Christian Walker went one for 14. With that one hit coming in the last of the Corbyn's one hit. Carol's one hit coming in garbage time, frankly, in the game today. And then Cotel Marte, he had a decent series. He went four for 15. A lot of that, I believe, came in in the first game of this series at the DeBax won. But yeah, those three guys combined in the series went six for 43 compared to the Mets top three hitters going 15 for 48.

I mean, that's the difference in the series right there. I mean, the Mets did get some contributions from the bottom of the lineup. But that top of the lineup for New York, it felt like every single time it turned round diamond back's pictures just just really really struggled and that was the difference in the series in my mind well one man had that production on his own and for that reason he is our king snake he was on a bench tour in new york and he is none other than Tommy fam well man went six for 14 uh with a 429 batting average in the series two rbi the one home run and most impressive uh which didn't make it on here but two stolen bases uh and i mean of course jesse pointed out he's the oldest

player in baseball to reach that 20 stolen base mark. Well, he's, yeah, I'm not sure about that. The stat that I tweeted out is that he was the, he's the, it's very random. He became the sixth player since 2010 to steal 20 or more bases at age 35 or higher. And the list of players that have also done that since 2010 was fascinating. I don't have in front of me, but I think it was Juan Pierre, Rajai Davis, Ichero, Yes. Jimmy Rollins was in there.

These are the kind of guys. Fastest guys. Yeah. Let's go Tommy. Bobby Abrayu is the other one. Oh yeah. It's like it's an awesome list. That is a baseball fan list.

It's a list Tommy fan absolutely belongs. There you go. It's incredible. So of course, we thank you guys for being here in the PHN Sports YouTube channel right now. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever we go live or any of the wonderful shows on this network. Go live.

Big shout out to the side. Suns crew. They had the new voice of the Phoenix Suns, John Bloom on today. So like that was really cool. Syracuse University grad by the way. That's right. Let's go, Syracuse. And honestly, don't miss out on any of the stuff we got going on here. Subscribe, sign up for notifications. Leave us our little attaboys.

That's the likes, the thumbs up. We always appreciate those. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, please leave us a review and make sure you subscribe there as well. We always appreciate your feedback. Most importantly, if you want to get over a game like this, a good way to do so is with our friends at Wink.

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And now listen to Shane, who we miss dearly talk about the disclaimer. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler. Colorado, D.C., Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming. Call 8778, Hope & Wye, or text Hope & Y, 467-369, New York. Call 1-800 327-5050-50-Massachusetts. 21-plus to wager. Please gamble responsibly.

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I don't. You don't? You're sick of his ass, right? Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Made our lives busier. Yeah, that's how I can't. That's how I feel about one of my two-croses.

That would be a reason for me to miss him is because he made us busier. Let's take a look at the numbers for this series because guess what? This isn't pretty, so let's just get it over with fast. Yikes. 28 runs to 10 runs, 40 hits to 26 hits, two Mets errors to three Diamondbacks errors, a starting pitching ERA of 10.80. The higher the better, right? Yeah.

No, no. versus the Mets 1.17. No, the way ERA's work is you want it preferably to be as low as possible versus batting average, which you want it to go in the other direction. No, this is not good. This last turn to the rotation,

so it was Brandon fought on Sunday, right? That was six innings, four runs, which granted he didn't start the game, but it's kind of the bulk guy in that game. And then after that, you had Zach Davies and Ryan Nelson starting this series, right? Davies was four innings three runs.

Ryan Nelson was four and a third, six runs. And then these last two days with Zach Gallon and Merrill Kelly, right? Gallen gave up seven runs, six earned yesterday over five innings. Merrill today, seven earned over five innings. That's a brutal turn through the rotation that the Diamondbacks just went through. And honestly, I mean, coming away with one win, like, kind of glad you at least get one win out of this in some ways. It's just a really brutal stretch here for the rotation. In reality, I think that if we want to look at a silver lining here,

if you match this with the Cubs series and you would have said, oh, hey, they split both series and went two and two in both of those four game series, we probably would have taken it and been like, that's not the worst outcome. So they did go three and one against the Cubs, and now they go one and three against the Mets. So it's essentially the same outcome. But this hurt, and it's very discouraging. That 10.80 starting pitching ERA is absolutely.

disgusting and we already had enough things to worry about as far as the starting rotation. We did not need Zach and Merrill to also now make us concerned, right? We also thought that, you know, adding Jordan Lawler to the lineup was going to bring this team some sort of big offensive boost. We tried to temper expectations a bit, but we did a terrible job at that. There was definitely hope. I know it's a small sample side. It's only five games, but the man went two for 17 with eight strikeouts. Yeah. I mean, for me, the defense is more concerning at times because I feel like should not be as big

of an adjustment from AAA as Major League Baseball. He's shown some really good defense at times, but then at other times he has made the ball slipping out of his glove. Basic errors, the miscommunication with Catele Marte. He had a mad throw to Emmanuel Rivera late in this game. Like, yeah, it's, yeah. I mean, and it's hard to know how much of it is. kind of like we were talking

earlier, like the pressure because there was a hope that like him not having been a part of this playoff race would make it like, I don't know what's going on here. I'm just here to play baseball type of thing. I don't really think that's the case. Like it obviously could very much be the other way

where he'd throw this young kid into the middle of a playoff race where every at bat on top of being his first at bat's in Major League Baseball are also super important for the franchise. Yeah. That's like a tough situation to put a kid in. And so I'm not necessarily going to blame him if that is why he struggled a little bit in the series.

Even as 2 for 17 isn't great because both of those hits were infield singles. So it wasn't, you know, anything. Yeah, one of them was a beautiful bunt, which I guess we have to give him, got to give him credit for that. It was a nice play. But yeah, I mean, at some point to stay at this level, Jordan Lawler is going to have to impact the baseball. He's going to have to find the gap. He's going to have to, you know, get the ball over the fence. Pretty much everything has been on the infield at this point.

maybe everything. I haven't gone through and looked, but I can't off the top of my head recall even a flyout to an outfielder at this point. And yeah, it's five games at 17 to bats. You know, you're not ringing the alarm bell or anything about

whether Jordan Lawler is a bust or anything like that at this stage. That would be ridiculous. But the Diamondbacks clearly need, you know, a certain level of production. They didn't call up Jordan Lawler. They didn't call up Jordan Lawler. Yeah, they didn't call up Jordan Lawler

to just kind of, you know, see what they have. and, you know, get ready for next season, they called up Jordan Lawler because they thought he could help them win games right now. Yeah. And if he's not doing that, then you have to wonder if the Diamondbacks would consider, you know, pulling back on his playing time or, you know, sending him back down. The main question I have was sending him back down, though, is, okay, who's your backup shortstop then?

You need someone else on the roster that you're comfortable playing shortstop. And I'm not sure if you want to, you know, put Catell Marte in that position or put Jase Peterson in that position, even though those guys, I think have something. Marante definitely has experience there. I think Jace Peterson does too, but it might have been a while. So, yeah, you know, without Nick Ahmed in the organization, there isn't necessarily a clear backup plan here. So we'll see what they decide.

I mean, obviously we know that they could go with Pardomo there at third and one of their other options, or at shortstop and their other options there. But like you said, as far as a backup goes, if they were to send them down, Which I don't want to see really. I mean, of course, it's just this very frustrating thing with this organization. You can't really trust the offensive numbers in any way, shape, or form for Reno. Because guys just all look like absolute studs there. I mean, the guys they've called up that were hitting like 340 or better is countless.

I mean, Jake was hitting that well. You got, you know, Kyle Lewis, obviously, that's constantly hitting that well. you know, Jordan was putting up some incredible numbers himself down there. So it makes sense to give all of these guys a try and to continue giving them opportunities. But it's like they come up, they kind of struggle,

you know, and then they kind of make a quick decision, especially in the case of like Kyle Lewis, who doesn't seem to get a lot of time to adapt to back to the major league level. So I think that's the reason why I would like to see them, like give them some time, give them some more at bad.

Yeah. I mean, at this point, he's not the main focal point of the reason why the offense isn't good. The main focal point is the guys you addressed earlier in Catelle-Marté and Corbyn Carroll and Christian Walker, those guys and the fact that they are hitting, basically producing the same as Tommy Pham did on his own in this series is what's really were. That is really the reason why this team was not able to compete with the Mets in this series. But you pair that with the starting pitch. Six hits, right? And those three guys combined for six hits.

That's really easy. The starting pitching obviously did not allow them a chance to win these games, but, you know, the offense didn't come close to keeping them in it as well. You know, like you said, they could have gone out there and pitched a gem to run, two run masterpiece. And of course, maybe that would have impacted the hitters differently mentally because they were closer, you know, but it just definitely doesn't feel like, you know, that even a good outing would have supported this offense. If I'm reading this right,

Jace Peterson has never played more than 10 games at third base in the season and has not played any, or at shortstop, and has not played any shortstop since 2021 from Milwaukee. Yeah, so that, I mean,

if anything, it's an emergency option. So Blaze Alexander is in AAA and is on the 40-man roster, so that would be an option for them. I looked at Alexander's numbers in September and he has an OPS in Reno around 650, and he's got like seven strikeouts in his last three,

games. I'm not sure now is really the best time to pull that trigger. So yeah, I would I would suspect the Diamondbacks will will stick with Waller and you know it's 17 of bats. You know, you have one good game and suddenly the numbers look a lot better. But yeah, you know, it's not just two for 17. It's it's the, you know, the soft contact. We haven't really seen him drive a ball at this point yet. So, you know, hopefully he's able to he's able to do that. What do we do from here? I don't know. Because we're not in the organization. So I mean, they're the ones. What do we do from here? We watch baseball.

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sporting team did. So check out our friends at OG's brands for yourself and try one or a few of their many delicious flavors. You can check them out across all socials at OGs brands and online at OGsbrands.com to find them at a local dispensary near you. Must be 21 or over to enjoy and please enjoy responsibly. And also, a big thank you to all of our diehards for being diehards. If you're not a diehard yet, check out the membership at gophynx.com. It honestly pays for itself and we do try to provide you with the best content coverage here in the state of Arizona for our local sports team. Jesse does an incredible job with all of his writing. So make sure to check everything that he has to offer out. And of course,

if you do get that membership, you won't miss a thing. You also get all of the wonderful writing from Craig Morgan, Howard Ballzler, and all of our writers here. You also get a free piece of merchandise from the PHNX Locker.com, 20% off all future purchases, access to members-only discounts with our partners, access to members-only events, and so much more. So make sure to get yourself a wonderful diehard membership today. Let's take a look ahead because I really am starting to feel a little desperate. These series feel more important. Yeah, like, I mean, I'm like, I don't want to start getting back on the like,

am I going to declare their season over yet, Trane? But you did. So, yeah, wait, we now haven't discussed this. What's the punishment for you? Because you did declare this team dead. If they made the playoff. I did a time. No, no, I did not.

I never once did I declare the team dead. He literally came down to the final day. I was very close, but I have never. actually said if they lose tomorrow on this show, and they didn't. They won the next day. I have not. I've been very particular. I've said it's over many times.

He said it's over. He says it's over every single day. But I've been very particular. It's Jover, but I've been very particular about saying that they're dead because I have, they're not, they're not dead yet. In fact, I created a tombstone meme. And then I, we didn't, we never got to use that. But, yeah, no, I did, did clear him dead.

I gave them a time of death and everything. And I think that that still stands. But we'll see what happens. especially in this Chicago Cubs series here at home because again their back is against the wall and this is a very important series against a team that they are in this race with, followed up by another two-game series with the Giants.

So this five-game homestand is critical. It's critical. As a matter of fact, looking ahead, they basically need to either win this series and sweep the series with the Giants or at least split it and win some more games down the road against the Astros for them to hit that goal of 85. games but let's take a look at the

Chicago Cubs at a glance because this team still remains good but because of the Diamondbacks that last 10 games well not looking so good They lost a series to the Rockies. They did lose a series to Rockies so they're kind of going through some of the same thing the Diamondbacks are which is they're playing very

important games and right now they're not playing very good baseball. This has been the story of all season. Everyone that's in this Wildcut race is not playing good baseball at the same time or they're all playing good baseball at the same time or they're least didn't win because the Giants got rained out yeah yeah yeah I mean the it is nice that the Cubs haven't been playing well and that it kind of feels like we did that to them um but this is still the Cubs

I guess still Cody Bellinger there uh they're on a different level yeah especially with how our pitching staff has been performing recently their offense still very much scares me starting pitching year a for the Cubs is 4.09 relief pitching ERA is 3.97 OPS for the team offense is 748 and they have 39 defensive runs saved much different than the like minus 25 the Mets came into the series against the Diamondbacks the Cubs don't really have any any clear weaknesses on their team they starting pitching ERA is ninth in baseball the reliever ERA is 15th their team OPS is 12th and defensive runs saved at 39 their fourth and they're just ahead at the Diamondbacks at least entering today so yeah they don't have any any glaring weaknesses and you know they haven't played all that well

recently, obviously given the Diamondbacks taking three out of four and then the Cubs losing two out of three in Colorado after that. But I mean, they're plus 93. Like they're a better baseball team than, you know, the Marlins and the Diamondbacks and the Reds and the Giants, these four teams vying for that third spot. It feels to me that the Cubs are just better in pretty much every way almost. But yeah, this is an enormous three game series and the pitching matchups don't really bode well for the Diamondbacks. as we've discussed. If we take a look at those,

you'll see that, yeah, it's not, it's not. Yeah, man. Oh, buddy. Justin Steele. At least we got our aces. Yeah, Justin Steele against Brandon Fott on Friday, Kyle Hendricks and Zach Davies Saturday, and then Jordan Wicks and Ryan Nelson on Sunday.

Oh, Ryan Nelson. Just the way you guys draw it up, right? Yeah. I mean, this is, and I mean, even if they were throwing out not great pitchers, has been very little about this team of the last few days. It would suggest to me that they were going to get to those pitchers anyways. So now we have good pitchers that they're going up against.

And that's not encouraging at all. And then you look at the pictures that we're going up against or that we are sitting up there. And that's even less encouraging. I mean, who knows? Because like the story with all of our pitchers is not that they have been bad all year. It's that they have been really good at times and then really bad at other times. So who, like, there's a, there's a chance that we come into the, where we are out of this matchup.

we've been we've we've I would regardless of how many games they've won have had three straight pitcher duels because all of a sudden Zach Davies is is good Zach Davies is Zach Davies no right after the injury yeah so like I don't I don't know the thing that's more concerning to me is obviously the pitchers that they're throwing out the end yeah what the Diamondback's offenses look like recently that is yeah Justin Steele is not exactly a get right game for an offense right but that's that's who the DECS are getting on Friday and they could not pick up Kyle Hendricks change up in Chicago and that's who they're getting on

Saturday. And you gotta wonder what kind of pressure is on these starters at this point. Knowing, especially when considering our offense and the pitches that they're throwing out there is like, if you give up more than two runs, you're probably losing the game. It kind of has that vibe at this point. So

like, not two runs. I mean, a little dramatic obviously, but I mean, you're right though. I mean, it does really feel like that. It feels like the Diamondbacks. I mean, even in this game, I feel like, I feel like we were being a dramatic and I feel like we were kind of in a dark place after the last two games. But when Merrill Kelly struggled there in the third inning, it felt like it was over then. And guess what? It kind of was. I mean, he could have gotten things back on track again and

maybe only given up one more run in his outing. And that still at this point would have been too much for the Diamondbacks offense in this game. I think going back on the comments there, Jacob, a little bit, I think Carlos might actually be working in this office with us because I'm fairly sure we said something exactly like this. He said knowing this team, we're going to win the series against the Cubs, say we're back, only to lose to the White Sox and have us say it's over again. The only thing you got wrong there

is that we say it's Jover around here. Apparently. We don't really know what that means, but I'm still saying it with these guys. The worst part of that situation too would be that basically everyone not named the Colorado Rockies in all city would have something over us at that point. Because we would have lost to the White Sox, the

Cubs and the Phillies would be in the playoffs. I don't want to. And then, you know, at least we're not the Rockies. At least. If it gets bad, you can always say, at least we're not the Rockies. Can we put that on a shirt? At least we're not the Rockies. Have the Rockies fan make a shirt that says at least we're not the Rockies?

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Probably a good. That's probably a good move. Well, of course, we'll see what happens with this team. We'll see if their future gets any brighter. Of course, if your future is looking bright.

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Well, that's the other thing. Jokes is like, scientifically speaking, wearing sunglasses makes you hotter. It's true. That's just a scientific fact. People are more attractive when they have sunglasses on. He's not talking about thermally. He's making attractiveness. There are levels of attractiveness increase.

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Try for yourself the shades rated by five stars by over 250,000 people. Saul's in here causing trouble. Like, he just comes into our room. It's just looking for, just looking for trouble. It is really funny. Because I feel like this, it doesn't matter what show it is. If you walk into a room during the show, because I have Blue Coyotes all the time. People will point it out.

He's like, oh, the boss is here. Boss is here. I'm not silently letting you just be and around in the bathroom. It's not that. I don't really know why it's a big deal. I wanted to break up. I know you have another aderee, but like, Lonnie in the chat, are we sitting here? We're complaining about MLB rules like in September?

There was an hour and 50 minute baseball game today. What's their action? A hour and 50 minute baseball game. That's hot. That's good. Lonnie, come on. We all have better things to do with our lives. The only person here I wouldn't agree with that is Jesse.

Oh, Jesse. Derek just wants the game over. No, he doesn't like it. He doesn't like the action. He hates his job. He persecutes me with the, hole he doesn't like baseball you know what I also don't like three-hour fucking movies I don't like three-hour movie unless it's Oppenheimer I'm in that's why I'm not or or way miss I will

not watch that second avatar movie yeah I will never I will never watch come on bullshit they've told me it's just like the first one I will never watch that avatar movie again oh my god I will never watch that avatar movie again but you know I will do I do I have started going to movies again which is something as a father I didn't do for about 10 years there because I did not. Well, unless it was an animated movie or something of that

that I was taking my daughter to. But regardless, whether I'm going now with or without her, the one thing I will do, I will stop by Circle K and stuff candy into my pocket. I was going to say,

unapologetic. Cargo shorts. Those people at the theater do not care that I come in with 10 pounds of candy. They respect the game. They respect the hustle. I just wish there was a more,

we got to figure out a way to sneak polar pops in. Yes. That's not as easy. Yeah, no. The drinks and the popcorn. How can I get popcorn in there? Just take them in your pocket.

No, you're right. Polar Pop? No, here's an Axel Polar Pop. Circle K does have some amazing popcorn. They have the cheddar caramel blend and it's a little sealed bag. The problem that we got here is that like back home, it's always hoodie weather. Yeah. So like you're going to look suspicious.

Now it's like you got a hoodie on and it's like it's 103 degrees outside. What are you doing there? Yeah. Give it a couple months. Do it a couple months though? Yeah. You know. Either way.

That hoodie pocket is huge. You're going to save money. And get to Circle K brand it's nice. They're better than the other ones. The candy is damn sure better. It is. It is. And also, you can get down on the Inner Circle membership program, which gives you all sorts of discounts on all sorts of wonderful things.

But right out of the gate, it's a free membership program that will save you 25 cents per gallon on your first five Phillips, which I got yesterday. I'm approaching Philip time. And I'm actually a little excited. He was so right. I'm a little excited to see all. That's 25 cents drop off. 25 cent drop off. I'm a little excited about it.

Yeah. So make sure to get down on that. You also get by five, get the six one free on a selection of Circle K. products like pizza, coffee, and those ice cold fountain drinks. He's going to sneak into the movies. So join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details.

I think a cross-body bag is probably the best way to try and sneak in a polar pop. That's right. John has a lot of experience trying to sneak stuff in the movie theaters. Before we get out of here, should we look at the wild card standings really fast? Because I know we didn't do that. but let's take a look anyway. You know what? Things aren't that bad.

They could be worse. Story of the year. They could be worse, right? Look at us. We're all losers together. And I mean, I mean, really spiritually, that's a three-way tie for that last spot. But technically, the Giants are a good. Yeah, it's basically a three-way tie.

The Diamondbacks have two games against the Giants left. So, I mean, that's meaningless right now at this point, as far as I'm concerned. They're a sweep, correct? They have to. They have to sweep the Giants. They have to season series. I'm not even joking when I say, looking at the schedule ahead, I kind of gave them some passes. I gave them some series losses.

But for the most part, they almost have to win every series down the stretch to hit that goal of winning the 35 games, 85 games. They need nine more wins. Yeah, that would be tough at this point. I mean, you'd have to go, you'd have to go nine and five in order to get to 85 wins. It's going to be fascinating to see how many, how many wins is it going to take to get that third spot? That's like the million dollar question. And I keep going back. and forth. I used to think it was 90. But it's definitely not going to be that. It might just be 80 at this point. The rest of the way.

Yeah, I mean, all these teams are either three or four games over 500 right now. So maybe maybe 83, maybe 84. Debacks obviously, you know, lose a lot of tiebreakers here. So they might, it'll probably have to be one game up on all these other teams at least. So stay of the season, man. Yeah, it's going to come down to the wire. Oh, man. It's fun, man. It is, this is all we asked for.

It's what we did ask. We want meaningful games in September. Yeah, it's a fun time to be alive. We could be like a lot of these eliminated teams like the White Sox that have nothing to play for at this point, like the Rockies, like two of the teams. But the Rockies getting their job done nonetheless. They did. They helped us out.

So shout out to the Rockies. But in the meantime, we thank you guys. Shout out to you guys for being here and for watching this show. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at K underscore Kaveman with the K. Sean is at Sean underscore to pause. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Jacob over there is at Jacob underscore Franklin 4.

I got it Of course our show is at PHNX underscore D-backs But all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter Instagram and Facebook Who said Damon can take a day off Yeah I didn't sign off

Yeah we forgot to acknowledge Faj even being here And that he's just awesome And that way of him so Damon Being a benevolent Overlord Allowed him to have the day off Guess what? We're not Damon's dogs to do

Except for Sean. Sean doesn't get any face off We're Jacob's dogs But anyway How dare you do that to Damon? I really did. That's terrible. You're all replaceable to be.

Every day of you, I want you to know that. Oh, man. But anyway, all right, well, we thank you guys again for being here, except for Damon because he's not here. Rat bastard, but. Not even in the comments. Yeah, not even in the comments. He didn't even watch the show.

He just took a full-on day off. Yeah, it's this fucking guy. But anyway. Disrespect. Personal boundaries. All right. All right. Well, we thank you guys again for being here.

And remember, kids, baseball is fun. But it is so much more. fun when Zach Gallant and Merrill Kelly actually dominate.