PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Diamondbacks Win Third Straight Behind Jordan Montgomery's Quality Start

Episode Date: May 9, 2024

Things got tense in the ninth, but the Diamondbacks were able to secure just their fourth series victory of the year with a win in game 2 over the Reds. We discuss Jordan Montgomery tossing a quality start, Kevin Ginkel almost blowing it in the ninth, and Joe Mantiply saving the day.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to Suns Takeovers, Coyotes & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://gophnx.com/events/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Desert Financial Credit Union: Open a free checking account online with Desert Financial Credit Union and get $200 in bonuses https://www.desertfinancial.com/200Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.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!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow 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.

Damanito through the show. Welcome in to another edition of the PHNX debacks podcast right here on PHNX. We won. Good things are happening. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me is my vice mayor and your thunder stick. Occasionally known as Jesse Friedman. The boys are over there watching a little Phoenix Rising soccer.

And he booed me and cheer Jesse. That's pretty much how things go around here. Yeah, that sounds about all right. Diamondbacks win, great win for them. One of the, again, another one of those wins that we haven't seen much of from the Diamondbacks, one where they are able to secure a close victory, especially one late when things looked little bleak. Diamondbacks win four to three. They secured just their fourth series win of the year.

I don't know how to really feel about that. I mean, the other two of those other ones were against the Rockies. One was against the Cardinals, and this one was against a strong. struggling Reds team, but I will take it. The Diamondbacks at least are getting, taking care of business against teams like the Reds that they should. We talked about this yesterday, but they are able to, again,

win a close one against a team that is also having a hard time finding offense. Yeah, this was a bit of an ugly win for the Diamondbacks, but that's not something they've had a lot of this year, right? They've had a whole lot of ugly losses. We've played that game a whole lot, But there's something to be said for winning in ugly fashion when, you know, Jordan Montgomery, like, I don't think he really had his best stuff today. His command was pretty shaky for him to get through seven innings of two run ball. Quality start was very impressive.

Absolutely. Gino Suarez had a big day, of course, the home run, the solo shot in the eighth inning that winds up being the difference in this game. Diamondbacks, of course, just win this by a single run. And then Joe Manciply coming into a pretty precarious spot in the ninth inning. and ginkled just struggled first and third one out a run already in the tying run 90 feet away and mantipli gets a big strikeout and then a fly out to end this one so yeah you know a good team win for the diamond back something that they have not been able to do all that much this year and it gets them to within three games of three games of 500 piece of yoshi says fluke ass win

in regards to this win uh i disagree with that i would say that this is just a win. And that's how baseball goes sometimes. We're going to look at the numbers. We're going to look at the count for sure. But you got to just be satisfied sometimes when the Diamondbacks are able to secure a close

victory like this and do it when things really aren't going their way. It's kind of an example of what, you know, like an example of that is what Jordan Montgomery did today. Like you said, he wasn't striking many people out. His line ends up being he gives up seven hits and seven innings.

allowed to earn runs. He walked to, struck out to through 95 pitches. He was very economical. He was able to last much longer than it looked like he was going to last at times in this game, especially after a very quick first inning. He really struggled to get through the second inning. That's when the Reds achieved their first lead in 42 innings, I believe they said on the broadcast. It was their first lead in a week in a baseball game. So that again can give you an idea of how much the Cincinnati ball club there was struggling. But, you know, the Diamondbacks were able to answer right back on a Paveen Smith RBI double that scored Gabby. And, you know, this team kind of just chipped away.

They had, you know, production kind of from all over the place. But, you know, Gino definitely had a big game back at Great American Ballpark. He hit his 99th home run in that ballpark in this game. And that home run was very, very important for this team in regards to taking the lead and holding on to. The Diamondbacks have now won four consecutive one-run games, which is interesting to me. They are up to five and four this season in one-run games, which still doesn't feel right. It still feels like they've been pretty poor in some of these kind of 50-50 baseball games, but they've apparently really turned a corner in that regard, having won four consecutive there.

And they have a three-game win streak right now, Derek. And that is the first time this season that the Arizona Diamondbacks have won three consecutive games. which is pretty wild to think about. That is wild to think about. But when you go back to the fact that this is the first time that they have won a game one in a series since opening day, it makes sense. Yeah.

Can't win three in a row if you keep... If you lose the first game of every series, that's a great point. But of course, they did get some offense from guys that are struggling tonight. I mean, it's not a huge night, but it is a step in the right direction right when we were doubting them.

Lordis, Suarez, and Gabby all hit back-to-back singles to put the Diamondbacks up three to two. And then Gino hit that solo home run late to make it four to two and kind of secure that much-needed extra run. Because the bullpen almost blew Jordan Montgomery's quality start. He did retire nine of his last 10 and held the rents to just a 336 expected batting average, which... Well, I don't know if I would use the word just in front of that. 336 is a pretty dang eye. Well, I mean, yeah, he was not, he wasn't fooling anybody. He was not getting a lot of swings and misses.

Yeah, not so much. I am a little surprised that he was able to, you know, I guess, maintain out there to limit the damage at times, despite giving up the seven hits. And honestly, I mean, it's what the diamondbacks need out of a starting pitcher. take his last outing against the Dodgers out of the equation. But Montgomery has been able to give them, you know, a much needed innings that some of their starting pitchers have not been able to give them this season, even when they have a good outing. Yeah, I mean, Montgomery's numbers for this season, I mean, he has a 4.70ERA after this game. But at the same time, three of his four starts have been pretty darn good, right?

It's just the one start against the Dodgers where he gave up six runs and three innings. It's really kind of skewing his stat line right now. But he is very much given the Diamondbacks a chance to win in three of his four starts up to this point. And yeah, there was also some pretty good Diamondbacks defense behind him. I know Guriel made an error early in this game, allowing Tyler Stevenson to get to third base on a double. But Guriel made a nice sliding grab later in the game. He gunned down a guy at second base. I believe it was Stuart Fairchild.

I mean, right there in the end. He made up for it right in the same inning. Yeah. We got this note from our buddy Shane over at the D-backs that Lourdes became the 10th outfielder in franchise history to record both an error and an assist in the same inning. So yes, even though he did have a bit of a misplayed ball there, I think that did lead to a run scoring. He was able to make up for it. Yeah. And I mean, if you play out that inning without the air, that run still scores. I mean, there were three singles after that. So that run was going to score anyway.

But yeah, if Gouriel doesn't gun down Fairchild at second base, then that would actually have scored another run in that inning. So that was actually a really big play. We also saw Pavin Smith gunned down a guy at second base on a line drive force out. That was nice. Which isn't something you see every day. So, yeah, there were some good moments for this defense behind Montgomery, which was big in his outing.

But this is what you pay Jordan Montgomery to come in and do, right? Especially at a time where Merrill Kelly is not here, where Eduardo Rodriguez has yet to throw a pitch with the Diamondbacks, Jordan Montgomery has come in, and in three of his four outings has been outstanding, really, for the Diamondbacks. Even in a game like today where it didn't look pretty, I mean, he had he'd given up seven hits in four innings of work. He wound up getting through seven innings with just those seven hits allowed.

As you said earlier, retired nine of his last 10, just seemed to get better and more comfortable as the game went on. which is the opposite of the Diamondbacks young pitchers, which is the problem there with them eating innings, right? Typically when they start getting to the third time through the rotation, yeah, they, the offense,

the opposing offense typically has them figured out. Tonight, Montgomery just did a great job of extending, on a night where it didn't really seem like he had his best stuff. He is not necessarily just like a contact pitcher like this. He's not a guy that goes out there and just kind of gets quiet out. He does get more strikeouts than this. And I'm sure it's still about him settling in.

This has been a weird year for him. Yeah. Especially the last start was a very weird start the way that, you know, the stop and go went for him. But I think that when we see, you know, the season progressed and him get more comfortable. I think we're going to see more outings like this with probably some more strikeouts and a little less contact than we saw tonight. However, just much needed, much needed starting performance.

Offensively, the Diamondback still didn't get a whole lot from this team. They did get a couple of, you know, hits from unexpected sources that led to some runs tonight. Of course, Catelle continues to be Cotell. He has now hit safely in nine straight games. And his defense was also outstanding out there today, too. Yeah, he made a really, really nice play on, I think it was a T.J. Friedel bunt late in this game. Not an easy play by any means having to charge in and do the glove flip, which we've seen Cotel really kind of master at this point. I mean, that's one play they could tell is really figured out at this point.

So, yeah, that was big. Someone in the chat also mentioned Kevin Newman and him just being pretty darn good at shortstop defensively. And we saw that in this game as well. He made a nice play going to his right, getting a force out at second base and a key spot. So, yeah, defense is a really important thing and has been a fixture of this diamondback team for the last several years. And it really hasn't been a fixture of this. the 2024 Diamondbacks all that much. No.

I guess we did talk about the numbers the other day. Like they actually do have some pretty good defensive metrics. If you look at defensive runs, say if you look at OAA, but they've made so many mistakes and key moments that it's kind of put a damper on their defensive impact. But today, all the way around, it was a pretty, pretty well-played game on that side for the diamond backs. Piece of Yoshi says that's fourth among all short stops in OAA. Kevin Newman, do you?

Yeah, that's pretty wild. I mean, Kevin Newman came into this season being like a serviceable shortstop, but Kevin Newman, his defensive metrics at short, were not particularly good coming into this season. It seemed like, you know, you get away with him at second base, like he could be a decent second base in, but if you're putting him at short, it'd be a little bit more of a stretch. That's not what we've seen so far. I mean, the difference defensively between Kevin Newman and Blaze Alexander has been

really, really big, frankly. And you can kind of understand why Tori Lavello has sort of just stuck with Newman in there at shortstop more often than not. The relay there by Lourdes to Kevin Newman that unsuccessfully attempted to get, I think it was maybe Tyler Stevenson at home scoring. I think it was Santiago Espinall.

Yeah, yeah, it was Espinall. It was the second run that they scored. Yeah. I mean, even though it was unsuccessful, I was saying this during the game. It was one of the best defensive plays I've seen them turn from the outfield all season long just in regards to Lourdes playing the ball well off the wall,

bringing it into the cutoff man. Kevin Newman didn't make the best throw, but he still made a really solid attempt with a very quick turn to try to get the Reds runner at home. And it was honestly, like again, it's one of those times where that was much more encouraging than what we've seen out of them defensively from the outfield coming home all season long.

So, I mean, maybe they are making steps in that direction of becoming a bit more solid. Lordis showed us in a single inning how he can both make a lot of mistakes in one play and then make up with it with two fairly solid defensive plays, I think, after that. So, I mean, just the Diamondbacks are, it seems like the mistakes aren't happening as often, and that is yielding their ability to win these close games, right? You got to win the margins and you got to make sure that in a close game like this, especially where it ends up being four to three, you got to value every run.

You got to try to do everything you can to score and to limit mistakes, and they did that today. However, the bullpen, the bullpen really tried to give it away after Jordan Montgomery had himself a great quality start. When I say the bullpen, I really mean Kevin Ginkle because Ryan Thompson and Joe Mantiply were wonderful for this team. It felt like Tori wasn't ready to go to Paul Seawald yet in back-to-back nights, especially in a high-leverage situation like this with Seawald out there.

So instead, after Ryan Thompson comes out for one inning, throws no hits, no runs, gives up one, or strikes out one. Kevin Ginkle comes out, gets an out, and then gets himself into trouble immediately. Yeah, yeah. Ginkle faced four batters and three of them reached. and the Reds scored one run and had the tying run at third base, the go-ahead run at first base, and Joe Manciply comes in. The Reds had gone to Will Benson off the bench,

so it was a good left-on-left matchup. Benson was really good for the Reds last year, but has struggled quite a bit, especially over the last few weeks. Very aggressive. Very aggressive lately. The Manthi definitely used that against him. Yeah, he did. I was able to get, it was a check swing.

It was a close call, but they ultimately decided that Benson did go. And that was an enormous strikeout for Joe Manciply. I mean, Mantiply is not necessarily the biggest strikeout guy out there. So for him to come in first and third one out and get a strikeout, and then, you know, it was a bit of a long battle there with the final hitter of the game, but a flyout ultimately ended this one and put this in the wind column for the Diamondbacks. It was a really impressive game for Joe Manciply.

I mean, he's... Absolutely. He's been on the other side of some of these situations. quite a bit, frankly, but this was a really big game where he picked up Kevin Ginkle, who just did not really have it today. Everything was kind of pointing to this being a disastrous situation there. Once Kevin Ginkle, you know, really, really didn't have it. It pointed to a disastrous situation.

Chat, I know many of you probably were very nervous once Joe Man supply came out, but he did an excellent job. And honestly, he got the Red's hottest hit terrain. now in Jonathan, India to fly out because he's been really good lately, despite the rest of the deem being fairly bad. But, yeah, I mean, that was just a huge, huge situation. We had a little hard time here debating and deciding who really deserves Kingsnake. Yeah.

And then I just overruled everybody. And I gave it to Gino, E. UNi Oswarres, two for three tonight with that crucial solo home run that ends up giving the Diamondbacks that four to three victory. Of course, this could have been Joe Mantiplies as well because the Diamondbacks got a very unlikely source out of the bullpen to come in and close the door on a game that was, I mean, honestly, it was heading in the direction of a lot of the Diamondbacks losses this year. Yeah, I mean, you could make a case for Mantiply.

You could make a case for Montgomery for kind of gutting out of really impressive outing, seven innings two runs it's you know if he if he's not able to do that then that in itself might take the diamond backs out of this game a little bit earlier so yeah you could go a few a few different directions here but i i think gino's a pretty a pretty fair choice i mean the guy was two for three in this game he also is hit by a pitch he also stole a base which isn't something yeah that's right we didn't get the stolen base often he was stranded there he was at second with with nobody out. Diamondbacks weren't able to score him. Corbyn Carroll was also at second when nobody out at one point in this game and he also did not score. So hitting with runners in scoring position

wasn't necessarily a huge success for the Diamondbacks today. But a big game for Gino and as we've discussed over the last few days, D-backs really need him to get going. I mean, he is a big part of this offense. He's in the five-hole or the six-hole, you know, pretty much every single day has been throughout the season, Diamondbacks really need him to turn things around offensively, and maybe this is the beginning of that. Well, and I think winning close games like this, winning ugly games like this, or it's a reminder to this team that things don't have to go perfect for you out there. You know, you can go out there.

But it felt like it did for a while. Right. It was like either you're winning 14 to 1 or you're just not going to win. Right. It reminds me of like when you get used to beating up on the computer in MLV the show. And then you can't stand having a loss or a realistic game where the opponent's tough, right? It sounds personal. It is a little personal.

I mean, when you play on it's life. Story of Derek's life. When you play on easy or whatever, you expect to win every game. But sometimes you got to level up. I will say, though, that, you know, of course, that's one thing that does, you know, just remind this team. Maybe it takes a little bit of the pressure off. You know, again, you might not, you might go out there and go 0 for 4 on a night, but you played some great defense. And that defense helps secure a close.

victory that you know still you can feel good about and still feel like you contributed to right yeah i mean jock peterson is a guy that continues to be good for this team but tonight joc peterson was o for three he had a he had a walk but he still took some very good at bats tonight and there's things like that that the rest of the team it feels like the patience is is starting to carry over and we're seeing uh some better at bats from guys even the guys that are struggling taking those better at bats is going to yield to more successful results period yeah lordis the amount of of times that we've seen Lordus, you know, hit the first pitch up for a, for a pop

out or roll into a double play. Yeah, there's another double play today. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, nauseating, right? But it does feel like we're seeing him at times take better at bats today. You know, Lordus, again, he was one for four. But he scored a run and he was a part of the offense and a part of this win today.

So hopefully those guys can get going based on, you know, maybe taking some of that pressure off of themselves. The Diamondbacks needed to win games. They need to win games like this. They can't just win games when they're leading by 20 runs, right? And they also need to win games that they have no business winning in cases they've lost games. They had no business losing. So, I mean, it's okay for this to go back, you know, go their way a little bit here on a night

where maybe looking at the numbers, they don't deserve it nearly as much. But again, Jordan Montgomery found a way to win and he found a way to go out there and give this team length. And that's exactly what they needed. So hopefully this can carry over and they can go for the suite tomorrow in game of three. Yeah. Is Corbyn Carroll is he no longer fixed? No, he's going over for four.

It's Jober. Yeah, it's Jover for him. He did walk. So that's all right. Yeah, he did still. But no, it might be over for Corby and Carol. I don't know. I mean, one, two for five, he's back and he's the Corby Carroll old. And then he goes over for the next day and all of the belief is instantly gone. Again, it's like I'm not ready to do that yet, but I was also not ready last night to be super excited about a two or five.

You were more measured last night than I expected you to be for sure. And I want to scream about it. I want to look. I mean, again, Corby and Carol is so incredibly important to this team that it's like I want to will him to get going. I want Corby and Carol to get going so much that I'm behind that dumbass idea of getting up and giving him a standing ovation. And you know how much I hate that shit. but I would do it for Corbyn Carroll at this point. I just think Corbyn Carroll is too cerebral for that.

I think he would find it condescending in the same way that I do and he wouldn't like it. However, I don't know. Let's do it. Whatever works, works. I just, I want to do something to get him going because, again, I feel like it's not a matter of, you know, again, it's not a matter of skill. It's just a matter of things, you know, again, a little bit of struggle, a little bit, you know, mental.

I mean, obviously he brought up the fact that there is a mechanical mistake right now with his swing being too flat. And Jesse explained yesterday why that's a problem. And if you miss that, I don't know what to tell you. You probably should show up for every episode so you don't miss crucial information like that. We're not going to go back over it ever again. You have to go back and watch the episode. But of course, you know, again, it's, this is a team that doesn't need Corby and Carol to be right all the time.

They just need Corby and Carol to be productive and be a part of the offense. Like, give me a week. And let's see how he does over the next week after going two for five. Let's see if he really did break out of his slump a bit more. Or if it was just a temporary kind of bump one night. I remain cautiously optimistic that Corbyn Carroll is going to get straight. I just think that, you know, again, it's a matter of the expectations. And you can disguise them as a different word all you want.

But even after he had a good game, the postgame show, they were talking to him about the standard, once again, right? And it's like, you're not really, you don't seem very on board with the, uh, the distinction that was made between expectations and the standard entering the season. You can call, you can call JJ anything you want. It's still JJ, right? Like at the end of the day, we know who he is, right? And expectations are there whether you want to believe they are there or not,

whether you want to try to take them and shape them into something new and have them be something different. It's still fucking expectations. And the expectations are that a young team that made it to the World Series is going to be back this year. They're going to be more successful than they were last year because Ken Kendrick and this front office spent a bunch of money and they added to it and everything should be better. And since it's not, this is a failure and this team isn't going to make it to the playoffs and shut the whole thing down. Right. Like that's what it feels like.

And again, the expectations do make this all kind of out of whack because they made it so far last year. They had no business making it that far at this point in this team's development. But they did. And it still doesn't mean they can't do something magical again this year. It's just a matter of, I think, really trying to find a way to get rid of those expectations, holding the players down and having them just be impacted too much mentally by the fact that this team right now isn't, you know, isn't finding that level of success that they should be. Yeah.

I mean, from what, from what Corbyn described, it sounds. like this is something that he's been working through for a while and that he was kind of made a conscious decision to stick with it, some of the adjustments that he'd made over the offseason to try to fight his way out of this early season slump rather than just kind of abandon the changes he'd made and go back to the way things were before. And I think making that decision, there was always going to be risks that he would struggle quite a bit out of the gate. And of course, that is sort of what has happened. But yeah, you know, one O for four day.

I don't think this means that Corbyn is back to struggling as much as he was a week ago. You know, it still seems like things are trending in a positive direction there. On paper, the Diamondbacks have the kind of offense that has enough depth that we believe that we thought at least coming into the season had enough depth that if a player struggles for a while, you still could be okay with that, right? This team is not built on one particular offensive player. It is not. No.

It never really has been, right? Like last year, I don't think that team for as good as Corbyn was. That team wasn't built just off of him being, you know, an unreal player, even though he very much was that. So that's, you know, that's why you need Gurriel to get going. You need Swar as to get going because it allows guys to kind of go through those inevitable stretches where they're not so great and still be able to score runs on a consistent basis. that's just not what we've seen here over the last couple of weeks. And I think all of these guys have different expectations that might be impacting them, weighing them down, just being something that's there, right?

Because, you know, you got Gino coming to a new team. You got Lourdes, you know, resigning here and wanting to run it back. You got Corbin coming off of his rookie, you know, of the year season and trying to not let the sophomore slump happen and emulate what he did last year. There's just a lot of things here that besides just the success of the team and the winning or the, lack of wins at times that might be putting pressure on them it might be just their individual situations i mean at the end of the day everybody wants to do a good job we all we all want to do a good job and in the case of a sports team the the fans you're all kind of like bosses in a way like

it's not even like your customers you're like bosses that are all kind of you know somebody that all of these players want to at the end of the day make happy and please and make you guys all feel great about their contributions to this team but baseball is a fickle And I think right now, it's, you know, nights like tonight where Gino kind of figures it out, has a good night. This is what it's about. You're going to get contributions. You're going to have different guys being king snake all the time. And that's the DNA of this team, really, is that they're going to win a lot of games, hopefully this season like this where, you know, somebody steps up and is the hero of the night.

But you're not necessarily getting those 20 to one victories that we saw earlier in the season. Of course, we thank you guys for being here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel right now. Elise, yes, Elise is a known baseball GM, so she's literally our boss. Do we want to talk about the fact that Elise is married to a person named Mike, or does that not factor in here? I mean, just allegedly, we've said it's Mike. I mean, we did meet her, so I guess I probably shouldn't be. Why is it significant that she's, that doesn't, I don't understand what point you're making. It's just the connection to us suggesting she's actually Mike Hazen.

That's all. That's it. But you wrote in the joke. Thank you anyway for being here. Hopefully you guys like my jokes more than Jesse does. We know he's not a fan. Of course. I thought she was Alex Anthopoulos.

Isn't that the joke? I mean, you have your own jokes. We've been like we've just had a lot of suspicions about her. Unfortunately, those were all resolved by meeting her in person. But I still like to pretend like she's baseball. GM. Anyway, we thank you guys for being here in the PHNX Sports YouTube channel. Make sure to drop a like. Subscribe to the channel. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever. Our shows go live. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you subscribe on your favorite

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Try for yourself the Shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Damon, what's on tap at Illegal Pee's this week? What do you got going on over there? because I know that's where these people can find you. I was actually at Illegal Piz on Sunday. Ah, yeah. It was good stuff. I'm not surprised.

That was Cinco de Mayo. Oh, just happened to be. What an excellent date is there. But yeah, yeah, I had a, I went there during happy hour. Did you even know it was Cinco de Meyer or did you just show up? I didn't until I got there. It was, uh, yeah, I got a double marguerite, prickly pear margarita for $7.

How about that, Derek? You can't beat that price. No, you absolutely can't. You can't. I don't even know if I can get a soda most places. While I'm munching on a burrito. Oh, my God. And those reverse nachos?

Just the best. Good stuff. The absolute best. They have the full menu. They have the full bar. They have everything you need. So make sure to check them out. Legal Pete's, Margaritas is the strongest in Arizona.

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All right. Well, it's time to work the count presented by Desert Financial Credit Union. Let's take a look at the numbers from today's win. Because again, these kind of explain a little bit more why we're saying this is one, maybe the Diamondbacks uh snuck away with. Yeah, yeah. I mean, uh,

Diamondbacks got out hit nine to eight. As we said earlier, they had, they had some opportunities with runners in scoring position that they didn't really take advantage of. They were just two for 12 with runners in scoring position in this game compared to two for eight for the Cincinnati Reds. Both teams had three walks.

Diamondback's hard hit rate was a little higher in this game at 37.9% compared to 29% for the Reds. Uh, but yeah, This wasn't real pretty, Derek. It really wasn't much about this game. That was pretty. If we look at the expected batting average for each team for the entire game,

the Reds were at 324 compared to 254 for the Diamondback. So I think that was, a lot of that was Jordan Montgomery when he was pitching. There wasn't necessarily a ton of hard contact, but there were a lot of kind of soft line drives that found holes in the outfield. There were honestly just really good pieces of hitting by Reds hitters. So again, credit Montgomery for being able to work around that and find a way to really shut things down toward the end of his outing. I don't care if it's ugly win. I'll take it.

I'll take ugly wins. I'll take pretty wins. I'll take anything right now with the direction this team currently was on. They needed something especially after, you know, the way this series with the Padres went. The Diamondbacks, once again, have not lost a game since we as a group. got together and went to go visit them and talk this out and try to encourage them and get their shit together. They did lose that game on Saturday, which was Gabby Moreno Bobble at night and was possibly the lowest point so far in the season. It really did feel like the Diamondbacks

were on the verge of getting swept. And who knows what was going to happen after that? I mean, luckily they do run into a Reds team that is really struggling and that's going to help get things back on track. But they do also have a very, very, very, difficult, very young, very hungry, Baltimore Orioles team on the horizon that they have to play. And then they get this Reds team again. So really, like I said yesterday, this is a chance for them to feast on a team that might not be this bad all season long, right? This Reds team, luckily the Diamondbacks are catching them when they're catching them while they're struggling. That's true.

They might be able to put it together and be a completely different team later on this season, just like the Diamondbacks could be. But if there's ever a good time to run into the Reds, it's when they've lost now seven in a row, thanks to the Diamondbacks getting in on it. Nicholas in the chat said, Jesse, what is a good normal average hard hit rate? So glad you asked Nicholas. Fantastic question.

The floor yours. The MLB average is 36.3%. So the debacks were just over that today at 37.9. Reds well below that at 29%. So yeah, it is good to like, a reference point for these things because sometimes we we talk about these fancy numbers and nobody has any idea like what's good and what's bad and what's normal. I think that's why things like ERA and batting average have stood the test of time.

Because everyone understands that. Correct. For the most part, right? If you are familiar with baseball, that's usually the first like metric, the first stat that starts allowing you to understand based on hearing it, how good a person is doing. and comparison to other pitchers and other hitters in the league. However, as we've talked about, especially ERA, isn't really a great indicator of how things are going for a player

because there's a lot of other information that really tells you better. But, of course, it comes down to the results, right? And that's what the batting average is about is the results. You can talk about expected batting average. You can talk about hard hit percentage, all that stuff. It all can tell us. The actual results do matter just a little bit. a little bit. I'll acknowledge.

Just a little bit, right? But what all of that other stuff tells you is actually, you know, what's going on with the guy, especially when, like, Jordan Montgomery's night tonight is a perfect example of that, right? Like, what was he doing well that allowed him to get outs? Like, we know he wasn't striking guys out. We know he wasn't getting swing and miss. We know he wasn't really overpowering guys.

But he was throwing his fastball, which he hasn't really thrown much this season. And he kind of abandoned his sinker, which he has been thrown. more this season. Yeah, his sinker, his sinker kind of got hit a little bit today. And it seemed like during the middle, around the middle of his outing, he kind of shifted to the four seamer and started using that more, which isn't a pitch that we see Jordan Montgomery throw a whole lot. Usually it's just like a, you know, a handful every game to change the eye level of the hitter and try to get a swing and miss up in the zone or something like that. But he started throwing that four seamer more regularly around the midway point of this outing. I think a lot of the damage. I think a lot of the damage.

that was done against him, a lot of those base hits were just a matter of location mistakes. I mean, we've said it from the moment the Diamondbacks acquired him. Montgomery is not an overpowering kind of a starter. He's he's someone who needs to live on the edges in much the same way that Merrill Kelly does. Like if Merrill Kelly throws his four-seem fastball right down the middle or his slider or whatever, like it's not going to go well for him, right? It's the same with a lot of starting pitchers in the league. and Montgomery not only today, but also, of course, in his last start against the Dodgers,

the command just wasn't all that sharp. There were a lot more pitches in the middle of the zone in particular than you would like to see. But yeah, he really locked things in toward the end of the outing. He was able to get some chase, some pitches out of the zone that were hit for lazy pop-ups. I think he had a five-pitched sixth inning, if I'm not mistaken, which was a really big step in being able to get through seven innings in this game. Yeah.

He had a couple of really short innings that really helped extend his outing. He also would have had way more strikeouts if he had home plate umpire Vic Carpaza from last night instead of our man, Adam, who was it, Adam Amari today. You can't slander tonight's home plate umpire, Derek. Life found a way. Giving what that made went through. I mean, he was calling a tight strike zone and then life found a way to fit a ball into a tight strike zone. We hope he's feeling better because that looked about as unpleasant as one could imagine that looks. You can't, and I feel like in that situation, like being removed from the game is almost not on the table.

That's just not really something we ever see. I wanted to see him stretcher out. I wanted to see medics come and take care of that man. That's just not very nice, Derek. No, I don't mean. I don't mean that. I mean, that man went through hell and he had to just walk it off and go out there and call a game. No, he deserved an ice pack and he deserved maybe a popsicle.

And he deserved a break. He deserved a timeout and some time to himself because that is fair. In baseball, like when those kind of things happen, it very much is just like, yeah, we'll give you a few minutes. Shake it off. Walk it off and, you know, do your thing. Especially when you're a batter. Like, you're a bad, like, man, I, seriously, I was on the 15-day IL for bumping my elbow on the desk in there. Like sometimes stuff just hit you in the right way.

You didn't break anything and you're not like injured enough to be pulled out of a game, especially a game, especially a sport where you can't be put back in the game once you're pulled out of it, right? But man, sometimes when those batters take, you know, those balls off off the shin, off the top of their foot, things like that. Like, they have to stand back in there. and now still try to hit a baseball and we very much underestimate the pain that people endure in those moments. Oh, man, respect. Yeah, respect for sure. Yeah.

Adam Lari, you get the performance to forget for sure. And not because of your discipline calls behind the plate. Although he was, you know, George Montgomery had a couple of calls that were tight that he didn't get. But his strike zone tonight was far less erratic than last. night and it was definitely conservative as far as being a little bit tighter whereas last night's strike zone uh it felt like at times anything could be a strike and and i didn't see the umpire scorecard on that but i'd still bet dollars to donuts that that things went to diamondbacks way uh for that especially for that galen uh with last night's uh definitely a home plate umpire but

anyway again ugly win i don't care we'll take it at this point we'll take wins in any fashion uh of course you can win by the way by stopping by circle k and when i said you say you you can win. I mean, you can save on gas. Right now, of course, if you are not already part of the Inner Circle. You can join the Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today, and you will save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips. Very valuable right now with how expensive gas is. Terms and conditions apply, participating locations, visit CircleK.com for details. But you'll also save more in the future. You'll save three cents per gallon every day after that. It does also stack with their easy pay options. So you can save yourself

some money at CircleK. You can also save yourself some money on their snacks. which do not sleep on the Circle K-branded snacks. They are incredible. They gave us like full-size, family-sized, like, chip bags now. Yeah, you interrupted the Cardinals show today to go get to go get yourself a bag of chips. Look, I'm just saying, don't put the snacks in Studio B. That's fair. And then have shows going on when I need snacks.

It's like, I was polite. I was, I waited. I was, I was egg-d-dard. Derek's addicted to the camera. Yeah, I can't. He's just a magnet for it. He sees one on and he has to get his face on it. Yeah, sounds about right.

He even walked away and came back into the shot. Damon's still not over me rejecting his invitation to Sedona, obviously. But I do know. We know that you're just a little bitter about it. I have text messages that prove otherwise. But first off, Derek, I do know they stopped in Circle K, by the way. We absolutely stopped in Circle K. The greatest gas station in all the land.

It's where you start every road trip. For sure. It's where you start every road trip. The official. stop of road trips what is your go-to road trip snack damon wow uh there's so many great snacks to choose from one of my favorites has been become the uh chocolate covered almonds that circle k offers wow great just phenomenal covered almonds i don't think i've had those from circle k pretty good man i feel like that's a little bit of a rookie move though when traveling in the

arizona desert in a car how hot do you keep your car on your i don't know you're right mine's pretty cool. I mean, my, my AC doesn't work great right now. That's, that's kind of a, that's very true, though, like, in Arizona, keeping any chocolate, anything in your car. He's a madman. It's going to backfire eventually. Like, it might sound great in the moment. You might enjoy it for a while, but eventually that bag is going to be like sticking to the seats of your car because of the, yeah, it's a good thing. I eat mine fast. I guess that's true. Yeah. I guess that's the, that's the works. I get sour skittles and I also eat them very fast. I get like the rough tongue from eating them too fast, but no regrets. I need all of that sugar. You got to go to snack on your road trips? You're usually driving. Yeah, I'm usually driving. Yeah, you know, chip, chips guy.

Chips guy, open bag of chips on the lap? All of the, yeah. Yeah, it's a fairly manageable thing to eat while you're eating. Kettle cooked? Yeah, kettle cooked. Oh, kettle cooked for sure. For sure. It's got to be.

Another, speaking, I'm getting hungry just talking about this, but since we're talking about being hungry and stuff, Also, make sure to get yourself some chicken tendees from Four Peaks. And also, they're a wonderful beer. You can get their beer at Circle K. You can also check out their beer lots of places, including Arizona Diamondbacks games out at Chase Field. They have the bad birdie, the juicy gold nail out at their Four Peaks stand out there. Delicious, incredible, refreshing, almost possibly, quite possibly a new perfect beer.

Sorry, golden logger for a baseball game. Sorry, I'm just saying. Might be. It is that good. I would consider that slanderous, but like if you've ever had the bad birdie, what is it, the juicy golden logger? Is that technically the terminology there? Yes, it is the bad birdie juicy golden ale is what is golden ale. Yeah, big difference.

Yeah. So good. So, so good. Fantastic. And of course, you can visit forepeaks.com slash locator to find all of your favorite beers and events. Check out at Four Peaks Brewer at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest at Arizona's hometown brewery. Must be 21 or older to drink four peaks and please drink responsibly and don't sleep on the attendees All right.

Well, of course, we know Elise lied about being a baseball GM. We know Damon lies all the time. I don't think Elise ever lied about that. No? I think you thought that about her and learned that you're wrong. I'm fairly certain she told us that she was a baseball GM. I don't know about that. You lied about not inviting me to Sedona.

You don't deserve this kind of treatment. You're a liar. He's a liar. Elise is a liar. You're all liars. But, you know, it doesn't lie, me and also the numbers. The numbers don't lie. Yeah. What do you got for? I almost refuse to put up this graphic right now, Jesse.

The slander that's coming on. We got a lot of things to work out. We need a mediator on this show. But, yeah, Jesse, what's your number for tonight? Yeah. Today's number is 10.5, which is a percentage, 10.5%. This represents Jordan Montgomery's strikeout rate so far as a, a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

And this is not very high. The league effort strikeout rate is generally about 22%. Montgomery came in with, I think, an 11.9% strikeout rate. And then he's had just two strikeouts today out of 28 hitters. So, yeah, Montgomery has sort of found ways to be successful with the Diamondback so far without really much of any swing and miss. And, you know, on one hand, you would like to see the strikeouts take up at some point. there's not really such a thing as a major league pitcher who is like very very good who has a

strikeout rate quite this low there is a range there for sure but 10.5% is very very very low but on the other hand it's you know it's such a small sample and i think it is also a credit to Montgomery and his ability to work around the edges and he is very much a he's very much a pitcher right not just a not just a throwware out there and he manages to get soft contact he did a fair amount of that in this game, even though, as we said earlier, a lot of those, you know, flares did find some outfield ground. But it is very much a testament to Montgomery and his ability to not necessarily rely much on swing and miss to have a game like he did today, where he still went seven innings and gave up just two runs with only two strikeouts in this one.

His career strikeout percentage is 22.2%. Yeah. Last year, he had a 21.6%. The last three seasons, in fact he's had 21.4% no I'm sorry that was actually no I apologize that's actually just 2023 21.4% total last year 23.9% 22 what do you think do you think this is I mean obviously this is one of those stats it's probably going to even out as the season goes on do you have concerns with that I mean is that something that tells the tale of him having a struggling season or is that just right now a slow start yeah it's too early to to really have much, much, much of any takeaways from that, I think. It's just for start. So, you know, if his strikeout rate was 35% or whatever, you know, that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to have

300 strikeouts this season or anything. It's, it's only a few games. But one thing I will say with Montgomery for as well as he pitched today and as good as he's looked and again, three of the four outings he's had with the Diamondbacks is the velocity still has not ticked up. We noticed that when he was pitching in Reno after signing with the Diamondbacks, and it's continued in these four starts that he's made now with the Major League team. Montgomery today, if I could find it here real quick, averaged 91.8 miles an hour on his sinker. It's a little bit higher than he had average. He came in 91.5 with his sinker for this season, but that's still quite a bit lower than where it was last year. Montgomery, I believe it was 93.3 miles an hour on his on his sinker a year ago.

which was actually a career high. One of the things that we really liked about Montgomery when the D-Back signed him was that his stuff seemed to be getting better, not regressing. His velocity actually was as high as it had ever been last season. But that is not what we've seen so far. It has taken a couple mile per hour tick down. And up to this point, it's maybe gotten up just a little bit,

but we have not seen the velocity return from last year. And I don't know exactly what that means. Does that mean that Montgomery can't be as effective? Not necessarily. He's, again, he's not a power pitcher. He's not a guy who relies on velocity necessarily. But it's hard to believe it wouldn't have some sort of an effect in some way. Well, I have to ask this.

And I mean, obviously, it's, you know, his velocity is down. A couple of things are down for him, right? But at the same time, this has been a very weird season for him. 100%. And, I mean, again, I hate to keep coming back to. a lot of things impacting, you know, a player that might be pressure they're putting on themselves, might be the situation. Like, he's just had a lot of factors, a lot of variables that, you know, could impact the reason why he's having a slow start.

And even with a slow start, he's still pitching pretty damn well. The results, the end results are pretty well, are pretty good. You know, do you take out that Yankees game? And I think you'd be satisfied so far with the way that his season has started. considering all of those variables. The weird start, the not being in camp during spring training, you know, literally parting ways with the most powerful agent in baseball due to being unsatisfied with the way that the offseason went, being on a contract year where you're now, you know, playing

this season with the diamondbacks for a contract with most likely another team after the season wrap. So there's just a lot of things impacting him there. but I feel like once he can finally settle in, we're going to see an even better version of Jordan Montgomery than what we saw here tonight. Yeah, I mean, I believe the Diamondbacks deal with Montgomery was made official on March 29th, right? Because that was the day after the season started. Yeah, he's not even part of my freaking team on MLB the show, 24. Yeah, yeah, you have to go.

I don't have the budget to pick him up. You have to manually sign of it. Yeah, it's kind of annoying. But yeah, I mean, today is May 8th, right? So you're talking about just a little bit over a month here from the day where Jordan Montgomery signed with the Diamondbacks. In a normal season, you're starting your throwing progression a lot earlier than that for sure. You know, if you start in mid-February, I guess as you normally would, then a little over a month in, you're basically right at the start of the season. So you could make a case that this is still sort of like the spring training phase for Jordan Montgomery, given the way that his buildup is gone.

So yeah, you can talk about him, you know, getting ready behind the scenes, getting ready at Scott Boris's facility, all of that all you want. It's still not real baseball games against real Major League Baseball hitters, you know, an actual, an actual competitive team. And that is always different. That's the reason why the Diamondbacks send guys to Reno, right? It's not because they want to just make sure they polish up on a few things before they come in. No, it's so that they actually play in a real competitive baseball game before being activated. and being part of the Major League roster, and that's because nothing really can simulate a baseball game other than playing a real baseball game. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

But no matter how good Jordan Montgomery gets, I have a feeling he's not going to do what Randy Johnson did on this day in 2001, because all of those years ago, which, I mean, I know some of you weren't even born, and yet I probably remember exactly where I was on that. I was entirely, I don't want to talk about how old I was. But anyway, on this day in 2001, Randy Johnson became the third pitcher in Major League Baseball history to strike out 20 batters in nine innings. It was against. That's a lot. It was against, Jesse, this very same Cleveland Reds team.

Well, not the same Cleveland Reds team. Again, most of these players probably, I mean, they were born, but they weren't active in baseball yet. Well, the other differentiator there being that the Reds don't he'd ever played in Cleveland. Did I say Cleveland? I'm sorry. Yeah, that's probably.

You are getting pretty old there. You know, your memory's escaping the back one. I wrote it down wrong. No, I wrote it down right. It was the exact same score, by the way, as today's game. Ends 4 to 3, which obviously means the Diamondbacks are going to win the World Series this year. Well, what's also interesting is, yeah, May 8, 2001,

the Diamondbacks did win that game, 4 to 3 and 11 innings over the Cincinnati Reds. So Randy Johnson, he threw 9. He threw nine innings, but he did not throw a complete game that day for as remarkable as that outing. How many pitches did you throw? 175? He threw 124, which is actually pretty dang efficient for nine innings. Yeah, nine innings.

And 20 strikeouts? Yeah, that's pretty wild efficiency there. But after that game, after the Diamondbacks won that game on May 8th, 2001, the record was 17 and 16, which is certainly better than where the debacks are now at 17 and 20, but not by so much. Not too far off. It was still their 17th win of the year, right? It was all, yep, it was also their 17th win of the year. And it is a reminder that for people who are sort of sounding the alarm bell a few days ago when the debacks fell to six games under 500 and were really, really struggling to score runs on any kind of consistent basis, it is still just so early in the season. I believe the Washington

Nationals just lost as we've been doing this. And that, uh, that, makes the diamond backs just a game and a half out right now at the third wildcard spot. Not that we should be getting like too wrapped up in wild card standings in early May, but do it, Jesse, do it. If anyone was concerned that the debacks were, you know, digging themselves such a hole that they had no hope of escaping or, you know, that they were going to be so far gone that it would just be too much ground to make up over the course of the season, that is not at all the case.

I mean, right now in the National League, things are pretty much wide open. we kind of always figure that the Phillies, the Dodgers and the Braves, we're going to be there, we're going to make the playoffs. Those teams have all been very, very good here in the early going. But outside of them, I mean, the Brewers have started well. They're currently in the lead in the Central. The Cubs are right behind them. They're off to a good start.

But no other team in the National League has really played all that well at all. I think the Padres Mets and Nationals are all sort of tied for that third wildcard spot. They're all just 500 at this point. And then you have the debacks, the pirates, these Reds, the Giants, the Cardinals, all within three games of them. And then, of course, it's the Marlins and the Rockies who are sort of often their own category at the bottom of the National League. But yes, things are very wide open at this point is what I'm trying to say. We are going to have a mailbag Saturday. But you did have a mailbag edition of a written mailbag.

And one of the questions that was asked of you that went into a bit more detail was. You're not allowed to answer any of my written mailbag questions. just going to bring this up that's not how this works well it's because it's because it was preposterous to me and I brought it up to you in the moment when I read it as well and that's because the question started asking uh basically what why why should we be optimistic or should we still be optimistic yeah should we still be optimistic about the diamond back season right and it's like yes we should because it's only may 8th that's the reason why like no matter how bad things have gotten for this team uh this team is not a complete

team. So the fact that it's May 8th and they have so many pieces missing that are still going to come back, there's a lot of reasons to still be optimistic about this team. The fact that this team is still finding a way to win, considering how many of the players are struggling

offensively, is a reason to be optimistic. The laws of average say a lot of these guys are going to turn it around and again, if they're finding ways to win now or stay close to 500, then I remain very optimistic. Not even cautiously optimistic about the future for this team in 2024.

It doesn't mean that everything's going to be fixed by these guys returning as we've seen, right? Paul Seawald came back and he went out there and pitched and did a good job, but he still gave up a home run. It still wasn't flawless. And again, when Alec Thomas and Haldo Perdomo come back, they're going to help significantly with the defense, but they still probably won't add that much offensively. that's really going to really turn the tide for the way that the offense is performing right now. Right now it's the guys that are here, they can still get things going. And there are still a lot of reinforcements coming, but there's also a lot of reasons to remain optimistic about this team.

The main one being, it's still early, right? There's still plenty of time for this team to get things figured out and put together. And honestly, I think that they can still do that. I think that I've been encouraged by a lot of what we've seen so far. but yeah and i will say just real quick on the other side of that like i do think there are valid reasons to be concerned about the diamond backs too i mean exactly they do have a lot of i mean mery's going to be out multiple months right at warder rodriguez uh heard he was having an an MRI today and potentially could start a throwing program we'll hopefully have some updates on that

tomorrow but he's still going to be out for a decent while thomas had the setback alick thomas has a setback raldo prodomo is is still still working through his rehab fan graphs for whatever it's worth as the devax at a 34.1% chance to make the playoffs right now, which I think it's, yeah, I'm not putting much stock in that at this stage in the season. I think I just go back to what you said earlier of just how early it is and how it's, we really should be getting too wrapped up in the season being like so clearly like they're still going to win 95 games or the other side of so clearly the season is over. And this thing is done before it's really even gotten started.

neither of those extremes, I think, are warranted at all at this point in the season. I don't even know. Like, people were asking, when will we see this team at 100% health? I don't, I don't even know. Probably never. I don't even know. That's just kind of how baseball works to all sports. Right.

It doesn't feel like that's the case. But hopefully they can get as close to it. And more importantly, hopefully these guys that are, you know, playing right now are healthy right now can, you know, realize, again, games like today are winnable, even if they go out there and don't have their best day so maybe that can alleviate some of the pressure that they're feeling about those standards or those expectations

that the Diamondbacks have put upon them whether they want them there or not. Those expectations are there right. But now the Diamondbacks can go for their first sweep of the season against the Reds. It would be their first sweep. That's pretty crazy. It's Cincinnati Reds, by the way. Slade

Cicone going up against Hunter Green so I don't like their chances very much. But again, Slade has had some very good outings this season. And again, the Diamondbacks really have an opportunity to continue to kind of just put it to a team that is struggling right now. And they've been through that and they've had it put to them. And this is kind of nice for them to be able to put it on another team. Yeah, Hunter Green is, he's good, man.

He's very good. He was taken second overall back in 2017. and is not necessarily put it together for a full season at the big league level yet, but looks like this might be the year. He comes into this star with a 312 ERA, a 117 whip, averaging just under six innings per start so far with the Reds. So it's going to be a tall task for sure, but Slate Sacconi was also pretty darn good before his bit of a clunker that he had against the Padres.

So, yeah, I think the D-backs have a shot here. Slade also pitch. against George Kirby, if I'm not mistaken, right? And that Saturday game a couple weekends ago against the Mariners, and he very much held his own in that game. So, yeah, I think the D-backs, I think they have a shot here. Well, I know the Diamondbacks aren't there yet, Jesse, but they're slowly but surely making their way up Mount 500.

Some of the people in the chat wanted it. He's not there yet. We're not at the peak yet. But let's go ahead and get Cattel marching up. The mountain, shall we? We need that slower. It needs to go a little, like a slow motion version of it because we're slowly making our way up.

Contell's climbing a little too fast. Yeah, he's going, well, Catelle's on fire. Nine-game hitting streak for my guys. So don't forget, he's doing the thing. He's just leaving the rest of the team behind right now. But of course, tomorrow, what is that? 10-10 start tomorrow? Yeah, yeah.

Bright and early. Breakfast with the D-Backs on a Thursday morning. And maybe brunch with us. because we will be live right after tomorrow's game, just like tonight. So make sure to join us for the postgame show tomorrow. Hopefully you'll bring your brooms with you. And the Diamondbacks will get to sweep against the Reds. In the meantime, you can follow us on Twitter.

I am at Kapp underscore K-Man with a K. Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, we are all in awe of he who is the people's producer. Damon, he is Damon Dogg on Twitter at DAWG. and we are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. I went with a little bit more aggressive. That was a little bit.

It feels like everything here tonight has been pretty aggressive, so I just wanted to, you know, keep the status quo. Of course, our shows at PHNX underscore Dbacks, but all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Make sure to drop a like before you go. We appreciate it. Gabby would love it if you do that.

And of course, Gabby is feeling under the weather. Gabby might have gotten Jesse sick. We don't have any way to prove that. It's floating around in the clubhouse, and you know this guy kind of lives in there, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's where he picked this up. I told you to stay away from those boys. But anyway, we thank you guys for stopping by. We will see you tomorrow or a postgame show after the 10-10 start.

In the meantime, have a wonderful night. Enjoy yourselves. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Gino goes yard.