PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Eduardo Rodriguez SOLID, Brandon Pfaadt DOMINANT As Diamondbacks Sweep Guardians

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

The Diamondbacks passed a big test against the Cleveland Guardians, sweeping the team with the best record in MLB. We have more on Brandon Pfaadt continuing to be the most reliable starter in the rotation, Eduardo Rodriguez’s long-awaited debut, Josh Bell’s two-home run day, and the Snakes overcoming the odds in this series to take all three games. We also take a look ahead at the D-backs upcoming rematch with the Phillies 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 PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose between either:Bet and Get offer and place a bet of $5 or more and get $150 in Bonus Bets OR First Bet Safety Net offer by placing a bet up to $1000 and if your qualifying bet loses you receive a matched refund in Bonus betsDisclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Sanderson Ford: The Sanderson Ford Summer Sales Event is here and they are teaming up with the boys of summer for a final Playoff Payoff Sale. You get the payoffs like deals on 24 Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend. Lease one today for as low as $299 a month for 36 Months with only 10 percent cash down.Indeed: listeners of this show will get a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to get your jobs more visibility at https://indeed.com/allcity. Terms and conditions apply.  Need to hire? You need Indeed.Gila River Resorts & Casinos: YOU DO YOU at Gila River Resorts & Casinos. Visit https://playatgila.com for details.Mint Mobile: To get your new 3-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to https://mintmobile.com/diamondbacks.  $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Desert 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. Terms apply.Circle K:  Join Inner Circle for free by downloading the Circle K app today! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!Shady Rays: Exclusively for our listeners, Shady Rays is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to https://shadyrays.com and use code: PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people.Check out FOCO merch and collectibles and use promo code “PHNX10” for 10% off your order on all non Pre Order items.Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers - Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head to https://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/allcity and use code PHNX for 10% off!When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. 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.

maybe I do know something about baseball. Welcome in to another edition of the award-winning PHNX Diamondbacks podcast. And since the D-backs are winning, I'm just giving us Ws as well. My name, of course, is Derek Monti, occasionally known as the Oracle, as people are now starting to call me. This man next to me is the Thunderstick, occasionally known as your vice mayor, the one and only Jesse Friedman. And yes, the Arizona Diamondbacks do get a sweep. It's kind of behind the scoreboard here. Let me put it out here a little bit more.

As you can tell, this broom isn't been used a lot. There hasn't been a lot of sweeping going around here in Arizona lately, but the Diamondbacks manage to do this against the team with the best record in baseball. That's probably what's most impressive, as well as overcoming the rain delay and everything else that they had to overcome in order to get this sweep, Jesse. But man, what a win. What a pair of wins that we saw today.

Yeah, I mean, the Cleveland Guardians used to have the best record in baseball. Derek, they no longer. have the best record in baseball. Before they faced us. The New York Yankees, I believe, are now just slightly ahead of them in the standings. Yeah, for those who might have been, I think most people probably got what happened

at the start of the show, but if anyone did not understand, we played a clip from Monday's show where I asked Derek to make a prediction about Eduardo Rodriguez's final line in his Diamondbacks debut. And Derek, I am disgusted at how perfectly accurate. your prediction wound up being five and two thirds, three earned runs.

It was spot on. I mean, it's only because, of course, I'm a witch. And that's why the broom is here. It's also because some of your past predictions suggest otherwise. That's very true. That's very true. Maybe I'm just laying low at times. But of course, a lot of this had to do with, you know, what Eduardo Rodriguez does historically.

Like that kind of felt like what we saw out of Erodd when he was a member of the Tigers. It felt like what you would get. I guess maybe like best case scenario. Like you're not thinking Erod's going to go out there in his debut, especially when he didn't make any rehab starts and just blow away a team like the Cleveland Guardians. This team's too good for that. They also know him too well for that. But what they did get was a very, very fine debut from Erod.

And I mean, I think this is the exact pitcher that the Diamondbacks went out and got in free agency. Yeah, it was, you know, It wasn't necessarily dominant. That's not a word that I would describe used to describe his outing today. He had two whiffs. There wasn't exactly a ton of swing and miss, but he was hitting the edges. We have a graphic here that shows the balls that were in play against Erods.

These are specifically the pitches he threw, the Guardians hitters actually put in play, whether it was an out or a hit. And almost all of these are right on the edge of the strike zone. There's maybe one or two pitches here that you could pinpoint his mistake. But yeah, this was Eduardo Rodriguez, work in the corners really well. And that's why I'm not looking at, you know, we've had conversations about like how many whiffs is Jordan Montgomery having, you know, on a day-to-day basis. And if that number was two, we're probably not, you know, super excited about that performance, even if his final line looked good. This was a day for Eduardo Rodriguez where even though he wasn't generating swing and miss, he was really, working the corners effectively.

Like it seemed, it seemed like he was effective in that way. It wasn't just like a bunch of hard contact or, you know, hard hit balls that just found gloves. I thought, you know, wasn't perfect by any means.

Five and two thirds, three runs as, as we said before. But he gave the diamond backs as, as you predicted, he gave the diamond backs pretty much exactly what they needed to win this game. He was pitching the contact and it was effective because he didn't seem scared to pitch to contact.

It seems like that's very much a part of his game. And like you said, even though he's throwing 89 miles per hour at time, 89 mile per hour fast balls. Like that's not really going to get it done. But he was hitting the corners. He was hitting the edges. He did a great job of that. He also did a great job of working with a man making his debut today in the major leagues.

That's Adrian Del Castillo. And again, Del Castillo is a name that we've been very excited about. I think that kind of makes what he did today a bit more impressive, right? He didn't do this with Gabby or Jose Herrera out there. it's not to say either one of those guys would have done a better job because Del Castillo is fine. He did a great job. He's just a rookie that's making his debut. And it's impressive that the tandem got the results that they did.

Yeah, a lot has happened, Derek, since we last to the show. Adrian Del Castillo is on the Diamondbacks because one Gabriel Moreno suffered a strained left adductor. It was basically a strained groin on Monday night, obviously a really big blow for the team. The debaques wound up coming back and winning that game in really impressive fashion, which kind of helped cushion the blow. But it was a blow. I mean, Gabriel Moreno has been on an absolute tear for the Diamondbacks ever since coming off the injured list on July 2nd, and OPS pushing up toward 900 in that span. So a really big loss for them, but also a big opportunity for Adrian Del Castillo to come up and show what he could do.

Something that we expected would probably happen at some point this year, just given the numbers that Del Castillo is, was putting up down in AAA, a 10-10 OPS, 24-homers, 70 RBI, you know, led the Pacific Coast League in doubles. This was an opportunity that he very much deserved. And, yeah, it was just one game, but, you know, one for three with a double and a walk. You'll certainly take that in your big league debut. And you said he led the PCL in doubles, and he doubles in his very first big league at that. The chat is bringing up something actually relatively hilarious. Eduardo Rodriguez made Adrian Del Castillo throw down signs.

Yeah. Instead of using a pitchcom. Which is crazy. Have you seen that? That's not really something that we see really at all at this point. That is, yeah, that is pretty wild. Eduardo Rodriguez is he's a creature of habit, I suppose, maybe a little old school in that sense. So, yeah, I guess he made Adrian Del Castillo.

work for it a little bit more, a little bit more on his big league debut. I love it though. I love that. And I love the fact that he was able to go out there and get the results he did that made me look so smart. I also love the fact that now the Diamondbacks have what is starting to look like a complete rotation, a complete starting rotation. We don't know what that looks like out of this team or from this team, I should say. Up to this point, you know, it's kind of been fragmented. It's been, you know, guys filling in. It's not to say that at this point they're at 100 percent, but it feels like Merrill Kelly is getting very close. We're going to talk about him in a little bit.

But man, I mean, this is exciting for this team that is already one of the best teams in baseball right now. I am, I feel like I can say that without hyperbole. There might not have the best record, but they just went out and beat the team with the best record. Sweep them. That is something that can't be understated enough here about this series win. I mean, we've seen so much from the Diamondback so far. We've seen them do so much, Jesse. I mean, there's been some impressive wins over this streak of not losing series.

This is their 11th, 11th win or split of a series in a row. This team feels a bit unstoppable right now. And they're just getting more and more pieces back. Unfortunately, they lose Moreno. We don't know for how long. They've lost Christian Walker. But it's like this team is kind of used to that at this point. Like losing players to injury is nothing new to this.

team. It's like I've been I've been I've been hit before it doesn't hurt that bad, you know, and like this team just finds a way to continue to win this series wasn't an easy series. Again, with the weather delay in game two and of course with the comeback victory in game one, this game today got very or the final game today got very exciting. I should say that. We saw 18 innings of baseball. I've seen a lot of baseball today. It all kind of runs together. But there was just some impressive performances today. And of course, Eduardo Rodriguez is one of them. But I mean, on the other side on game one, Brandon fought was dominant today. I mean, he looked really good. And he continues to be at least for now, the Diamondbacks most,

at least most consistent pitcher. You know what you're going to get out of him, including that bad inning that he always all of a sudden things fall apart. But he's done a better job at getting it back together and still giving the Diamondbacks, you know, more after that. 100%. Yeah. I mean, he threw four perfect innings to start this game. It was about as good as we've ever seen Brandon fought is actually the second time this season that he's thrown four perfect innings to start out a game. He did it back on April 22nd against the St. Louis Cardinals. That was the game that kind of unraveled for him.

I think he finished five and a third, three runs or something like that. The Cardinals got to him. And it very much looked like that's what was going to happen again today, right? Four perfect innings. And then in the fifth, the Guardians strung together, you know, four hits, I think, in the first five batters of that fifth inning, including a home run that was in there as well. and the debacks defense came up really big and picked him up. There's a lot of really good defense for the debacks in that first game of the doubleheader, really in both games.

But I think the play that stands out most is Corbyn Carroll turning a double play, second and third one out. Bo Naler at the plate. And yeah, Carol not only makes a sliding grab to field a pop fly that was in a tough spot. He also gunned down Daniel Schneeman at home. Really nice tag on that play by Jose Herrera. just perfectly executed and a huge momentum boost for the diamond backs at a time where it looked like the game might be slipping away for them. And I think that got fought out of the inning. And that was, like I said, that was that inning where the wheels started to fall off a bit.

Faw goes out there and still gives the diamond backs, what, like an inning and a third after that, I believe after that point. Yeah, he was able to get through the sixth. And then he came out and got the first out of the seventh inning as well. Six and a third, four hits, two runs, one walk, six strikeouts that was i mean it wound up being one of the one of the best fought outings we've seen this season but also like not uncharacteristic right like fought six and a third two runs that's just sort of another day for him at this point he's obviously made enormous strides for the debacks this season this was an interesting day for to kind of manage the bullpen in both of these games yes because he has to like decide who he's going to go to in one game who he's going to go to

another game he got some great performances today maybe some shaky little shaky performances out of other guys. Joe Mantiply pitched in both games. So he deserves a little bit of credit for going out there and doing doing the thing in both games when Tori called upon him. I know it was just one third. He faced the same batter both times. He was like the designated like Josh Naylor. Josh Naylor.

Yeah. He did exactly what you were supposed to do. He absolutely did. Yeah. You know, the Diamondbacks bullpen, oddly enough, feels like the shakiest part of this team right now in some ways. I hate it. I hate it so much. I mean, I guess the starting rotation hasn't necessarily been completely stable. Like, Zach Gallen has struggled a bit. You know, obviously Jordan Montgomery, you're still

kind of trying to figure out what you're going to get there. But this bullpen, it's weird. I mean, you look at the numbers for the series and the Diamondbacks, I think, allowed, what was it, two runs over nine in a series against the Guardians? No runs today. Yeah, it feels like they gave up 10. But it was just very eventful, right? Like, ever since the Diamondbacks made the decision to remove Paul Seawalt from the closer role. I don't think there's been a single uneventful ninth thing. It's pretty much always been, you know, you're having to backstop whoever the first closer is and kind of bring in another guy to try to get out of the inning.

That's worked a couple of times. Ryan Thompson, of course, got the first few opportunities there. And then today, Justin Martinez found a way to finish the job. Vittorio Lavello at Slate Sacconi, also ready to go in the bullpen. It looked like he was maybe just a batter away from making a change there. And I don't hate that. I don't hate what the versatility that it'll like, at least Tori isn't deciding like,

you're the closer tonight and then anointing some guy and then deciding deliver, die with that particular relief picture, right? Tori has the versatility to go out there. And if Justin Martinez, you know, did one more thing.

Like, I don't know. Like one more hit was going to blow that game wide open and it was going to be a loss. But like they were at least a tie ball game, right? So if Lane Thomas had not struck out there, uh,

that then you're in a precarious. were in trouble because Jose Ramirez is on deck and at that point at least one run would have already scored. So you're talking about having, you know, the winning run and scoring position and Jose Ramirez at the plate. Jose Ramirez is insanely good baseball player. He's so good. That's one thing that I learned.

He's so good at third base? I mean, I guess I already, I already knew that Jose Ramirez is very good at baseball, but he is on another level right now. You're kind of in awe of watching him in person. And again, there was also like a moment where he almost got hit by a pitch, Jesse. and it had to be the most unintentional hit-by-pitch moment ever, because even though they didn't hit him, you would never try to hit Jose Ramirez,

no matter how good he is, because you don't want to fight that man. You saw what happened to Tim Anderson. You don't want that, you don't want to take that L. Okay, so. Timerson has no career anymore. Exactly. Exactly.

He will end you in a fight, and he will end your career also. But I think that that's the thing about this bullpen overall, is this bullpen did a great job at walking that that that that tight line and again Tori has the versatility to use different guys in different moments of course it feels like he is trusting Justin Martinez a little bit more did they do the pep talk maybe they didn't do the pep talk tonight I think they need to do the pep talk the J-mart pep talk they did it with first and second and yeah it was maybe a little too late yeah no you got to start out the end of the pet talk yeah they did it after

he yanked his throw over the side of the center field. Yeah. No, I don't like that. Which is not a good decision. You can still see you know, not only is J. Mart's command a little shaky in some of these nine-inning spots,

you're seeing him defensively kind of struggle to make decisions quickly enough, right? Yeah, there was a moment in this game, obviously, where he tried to get an out at second base, trying to get the lead man and winds up throwing it out into center field. Wasn't total disaster. No one was able to advance.

Fortunately, Alec Thomas is right there to back up the play. but yeah, Justin Martinez, I mean, I guess he's sort of the closer right now, Derek, like a next save opportunity against the Phillies. You feel like he's probably the guy. He's two for two now going back to Monday's game, but it hasn't necessarily been as pretty as you might like. It's interesting you say that just because I kind of felt based on game one that they put Paul Seawald back in in the ninth inning. And even though it's not a save opportunity, it feels like we are interested. inching closer and closer.

Like Paul Seawald is now not in the kitty pool anymore. He's back in the big diving pool. He's like he's inching his way down on the steps, but he's almost there, right? And I mean, we know Paul Seawald is still a quality pitcher and he's been good in the role. I mean, he's been professional about accepting, you know, this role of being removed from the closer and,

and, you know, being a reliever. And he's done a great job so far in the opportunity or in, in, you know, the outings that he's had. Not great job. It looked a little shaky for me today. If Seawald had gone out there, one, two, three inning, no problem, you know, one strikeout, a couple of pop-ups or something like that. I could maybe see a world where the debacks really do look at just putting him right

back in the closer roll after a few good outings. That's not the sense that I got watching him today. There was quite a bit of hard contact, some good Diamondbacks defense. So I think you're maybe still not to say it couldn't happen at some point. I still think that the debacks are probably very much leaving the door open for Seawall to regain that closer role. I still think that's probably what they want to happen because we've seen them kind of go through all the other options. And, you know, none of them have looked great so far. I feel like we're still a ways away from that, though.

I don't know if ways away. Is that it? I don't know if ways away because, again, you're right. I still think Justin Martinez is the closer of the future for this team. And when I say the future, I could. I mean very soon. Like I could see that being the case as of right now, you know, but I do still like once again,

like I said, the versatility that Tori has of being able to go to his golf bag and go to a different club should the occasion call for it there in the ninth inning should things fall apart. And today the beauty about Slate is Slade could give them length. So if he did have to bring Slate into the ninth in an occasion where the guardians tied the game, he knows that Slate can give him a few more innings and go out there in the 10th and maybe the 11th because Slate could,

has been good one to two times at the max through the rotation. So one time. One time. Let's be clear about this. I know. I'm just excited about the wins. Okay. I'm getting very excited here.

But yeah, I mean, one time through an order. That can still get you through two or three innings. So yeah, your point. Forget all this pitching stuff. I want to talk about the dingers.

The Diamondbacks are mashing the goddamn ball and I am here for it. And I love it. Jesse, they have been out hitting their opponents in, in pretty, impressive fashion. The six home runs today and the two ball games ties a franchise record for most homers in a double header. And you found some impressive stats about them out hitting their opponents over this winning stretch that they've been on. Yeah, I believe it's 57 to 24. The

Diamondbacks have out homered to their opponents, 57 to 24 going back to July 2nd. That's more than a month ago. That's the start of the Dodgers series. Yeah, I mean, How many, like, how many times has Mike Hazen gone on the record and said, like, you know, our offense, like, we're good, but we're not, we're not the type of team that's going to go out there and hit three or four homers tonight. We're not hitting the ball over the wall all the time. We got to do it in other ways. That's been like Hazen's refrain, right, for more than a year.

Tori talks about their version of baseball, right? Like when he talks about Diamondbacks baseball and he's all, we're getting back to our, our brand of baseball. Their brand of baseball is handing the baton off to the next guy, getting singles, using their speed, things like that. That is not what is happening right now. They are abusing baseballs and you love to see it. They came into today, but if we go back to June 29th, so this is the start of the current

24 and 9 stretch that the Diamondbacks are in right now. They came into today with an 857 OPS in those games. That doesn't include today's numbers. But that's insane. Like for a team to be hit it, to be putting up an OPS north of 850 over. a span that's longer than a month, right? I mean, that's like we're talking 40 days of the debacks having a team OPS north of 850. This team is on a tear offensively right now.

Piece of Yoshi, thank you for your super chat. He says, nobody look at the XBA on Podomo's and Carol's home runs. The XBA was 1,000 because it went over the wall. That is your damn right it is. Geraldo Perdomo hits his first home run of the season. We got a weird notification from the Diamondbacks where they said it was his first home run since like August 13th last year against San Diego Padres. Maybe regular season.

Yeah, regular season. But let's not forget the four home run inning in the NLDS. Okay. Like put some respect. Got the party started. Yeah. Put some respect on the party starter there because that's what Perdomo does. That's his job.

And he got a dinger today. Corbyn Carroll also got a nice home run out there to right field. Corbyn Carroll's just hitting the ball very hard. The launch angle might be zero degrees, but he's hitting the ball very hard. And of course, if he can still kind of rectify that flat swing, I feel like everything could come together very quickly for Corby and Carroll. Seven of his, what is that? He has nine home runs now. Seven of his nine home runs have happened since July 7.

So he is really starting to come back online with his power, which is something we didn't know if we would see return this season with the way that the beginning of the year looked. He had one home run in April, one home run in May, zero home runs in the month of June. June and things looked fairly bleak for Corbyn Carroll, but he, even his outs today were hit fairly hard and you just, you saw it. The guardians were making some spectacular plays on Corbyn Carroll, which just felt like some bad luck out there. But he is definitely putting some wood on the ball. Yeah, Corbin has looked a whole lot better here over the last month.

Another guy who has looked very, very good at the plate for the Diamondbacks is Josh Bell. It's incredible. Who I guess we'll just jump into our king snake. Josh Bell is the king snake for this series. Just look, he just jumps right into it like that. This is my, this is my show now,

Derek. You're so impatient. I'm just breaking all the rules. I'm going to talk about Josh Bell. It was an aggressive thing right there. He's the king snake. So Josh Bell, five or 14 in the series,

two homers, three RBI. He also had a triple in Monday's game, which was a sight to behold. It really was. Two homers in, in this game alone, right? He's had two multi-home run games already in his first six games.

As a member of the Diamondbacks, he's the first player in franchise history to do that. And Derek, you look at his numbers as a Diamondback right now. He is seven for 26 with four homers, five RBI. He is slashing 29, 321, 808. That is his slugging percentage, not his OPS. He is an 1129 OPS. That's a slugging percentage. Joining the Diamondbacks.

And that's why, like, you know, you don't want to down. downplay the impact that Christian Walker has on this team, right? But to this point, the reality is the Diamondbacks haven't really felt it because Josh Bell, I mean, sure, the defense is not anywhere close to what Christian Walker's defense is. We've seen that, you know, there were a couple of hiccups over there today. But you can live with that if Josh Bell is going to have an 1129. Oh yes, I don't know if that's going to stay, but he has been outstanding for the Diamondbacks here in these first six games.

Well, and of course, he wasn't the only one could tell Martake. continues to be outstanding. Somehow I think that's the first Ketel mentioned on this. Yeah, and I don't even understand. He had a two run, home run himself. Perdomo had a two run home run. Corby and Carroll had a two run home run. Gino Suarez got an RBI double as well.

The debacks defense played great, but their offense has just been outstanding lately, Jesse. And I think that's the most impressive thing here. We knew that the debacks coming into the series would have to strike early against the Guardians with how good their relievers have been. But that really wasn't the case. I mean, the Diamondbacks in this one did, did put up some runs early. But, you know, so far in this series, the Diamondbacks were able to

attack that bullpen and get a lot of damage against, you know, against the Guardians relievers that have, you know, been up to this point the best, the best, at least ERA for a bullpen in all of baseball. Yeah, the Diamondbacks absolutely held their own against the, the Guardians bullpen, right? They only, they only saw a manual class say once in the series, which certainly helps. But they did manage to score runoff him. Granted, it was in large part because they had a runner at second to start the inning. You don't have to do that. With the ghost runner in the 10th inning on Monday. But yeah, they executed well. Like, Gino Suarez was able to hit one of those nasty classé cutters into the outfields for a for a sack fly to bring home Corvin Carroll. And that was

Monday. And, you know, Justin Martinez was able to finish the job there. So, but yeah, it's not just Class A, right? We talked about it on Monday before the series started. This Guardians Bullpen has a lot of weapons, a lot of guys with ERAs that start with a zero or a one. And the debacks hung in there against really all of those guys. They just don't seem to look overmatched, no matter who's on the mound right now. And again, that just goes back to an offense that's putting up an 850 OPS over, you know, more than 30 games. It's remarkable what we've seen from the D-back's bats here in this last month. I think it's been their ability to go in there

and just focus on winning the series and accomplishing that task. You know, this is a sweep and this one feels extra sweet because not only did they sweep one of their teams during this road trip, but it was the team with the best record Major League Baseball.

I mean, overall, I think that now makes us the best team in baseball, even though records might not indicate that. I mean, they are the hottest team. baseball like the diamond backs are the hottest team in baseball i think pretty objectively uh it is pretty crazy to me to think about one week ago today which was uh our pool day out at chase field shouts out to everyone who joined us out there was a great day uh but that was sort of a monumental day for the diamond backs because it was a sweep right it was a sweep of the washington nationals

just the second sweep the diamond backs that's like three times we're allowed to say it i don't know there's john and this chat says no more sword until the next one but i don't know The Diamondbacks entered that series last week, literally with one sweep the entire season, right? And it happened at the beginning of May against the Cincinnati Reds. And, you know, you go from sweeping the nationals, which felt, you know, pretty good for a lot of people. So now you're talking about sweeping the Cleveland Guardians on the road, right? A team that I think got a 35 and 17 record on the at home entering the series or something close to that. So this is like for all of the good that this team is done over the last.

last 40 days or so. This series right here feels like the pinnacle of everything. I mean, to go into that stadium and make a statement in the way that the diamondbacks did, especially with a double header, like sweeping a double header in and of itself, I think is an accomplishment. Yeah. Yeah, very much so. Just super, super impressive.

Impressive way and impressive job by this team. And of course, we ain't done yet because this race is still very, very close for a wildcard spot and maybe, just maybe, the National League West Division. three three and a half games the crazy thing is that you get this hot and still only be like a half game up yeah like in the wild card right well and i mean the the positive about it is that it's dividing the contenders right like we've we we all season long they were all bunched together very closely and now it's it's getting to the point where the met's right now i think are the only team on the outside looking in that could be the braves very quickly which is a wild wild thing to even say braves have the third wildcard spot right now. Right. And the, and the Mets still aren't losing too many games themselves, not as many as the Braves have been losing.

So that's an interesting story to keep an eye on. And of course, you know, as long as the Diamondbacks can somehow secure their place in the playoffs, I think that's all that we're looking for here. Like you can have bigger aspirations about the division. And I think that's great. But we've already seen that the Diamondbacks really just need to get to the dance

in order to make some noise. And that's what we really need to focus on right now. I'm focused on having so many of you guys here watching tonight. Of course, we love you. We appreciate you guys being here. If you have not subscribed to the PHA10XPorts YouTube channel, we implore you to do so now. Of course, smash that like button because, you know, I have self-esteem issues and it makes me feel better about myself. He really is, he doesn't care one way or another.

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We appreciate those five-star reviews a ton. And I also appreciate the fact that PHNX is proud to have Sanderson Ford as our official vehicle partner. I appreciate it because Sanderson Ford is the exact place that I want to buy my next vehicle. I was already in, I was already looking at the 2024 Big Bend Bronco, right? That was already something I wanted. You're more than just looking at it. No, I dream about it. I fantasize about it.

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located in Arizona. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800 next step. Text next step to 53342 or visit problemgambling.az.gov. All right, well, let's take a look at the count from this series presented by Desert Financial Credit Union. Diamondbacks outscored the Guardians 19 to 12. They out hit nobody because both teams got 25 hits. Runners in scoring position, guardians were four for 21, Diamondbacks were five for 21. The big difference in this in this series, was the long ball for the Diamondbacks. Again, they just outhit their opponent with the long ball.

Relief pitching ERA, starting pitching ERA, both plus for the Diamondbacks here. Diamondbacks had a 4.74 starting ERA to the 6.28 for the Guardians. A 2.00, very impressive relief pitching ERA, even though once again it didn't feel like the bullpen was that good in the series to the Guardians. 5.27. Again, just very impressive that the Diamondbacks were able to put that many runs against this bullpen. Yeah, I mean, that, like, if you want to kind of simplify it, right? I mean, the D-Backs bullpen was way better than the Guardians bullpen. I mean, that was ultimately the difference, at least the biggest difference between these two teams and the series. And I go back to the Monday game, which I think was probably the Diamondbacks most impressive win of the series.

I know we didn't have a post-game show on Monday and get a chance to really dive in. do it. It was the second consecutive day where Jock Peterson hit an game-changing, just totally electric late game home run, right? I mean, it was a two-run shot that turned a one-run deficit into a one-run lead. D-backs wind up. It got interesting from there. Ryan Thompson blows the save. You go to extra innings. The backs wind up winning the game in large part because of that. But in that game on Monday, you immediately saw the D-backs holding their own against Guardians relievers and it wasn't just the runs that they scored. It was the number of pitches that they made Guardians relievers throw.

If you look at just the first three innings in that game, after Logan Allen left for the guardians, the first three innings pitched by Guardians relievers, D-Backs hitters made them throw 84 pitches in those three innings. I think it was Cade Smith was the first guy out of the bullpen. He got two outs on 34 pitches. He wasn't able to finish the inning on 34 pitches, right? And it goes back to what we were saying earlier about the D-D-Smitz. D-backs just, they just find a way to hold their own, you know, guys with really crazy numbers for

the season that get in there against this team, at least right now. And their, you know, D-Backs hitters are able to just put up really good at bats and get results as well. So that game was really, really impressive, really stood out to me in this series. I feel like at one point when this offense was really struggling, I was screaming and you were calmly, both screaming about, you know, the patience, right? like we just saw a complete lack of patience with this team at times. We saw them going out there and popping up a lot of first pitches.

We saw them just swinging and just like not making the opposing pitcher work. In this series, I was kind of waiting for them to attack and do their thing in the first inning. And they did it in one of the games, right? But for the most part, we didn't really see them have that big offensive output that we thought we would see against the starting pitching. Like the starting pitching ERA,

not great there for the Cleveland Guardians. They gave up, of course, 10 runs just like the Diamondbacks starting pitching did but in only 14 and a third innings pitched and the starting pitching was just not I mean it was it was bad but it wasn't as bad as we kind of expected it to be

the Diamondbacks didn't get as many runs against the starting pitching in this series as we might thought might have thought with the way that especially that they've been scoring in the first inning over this run that they've had since July but I mean right now they're just figuring out a way to get to different pitch

and it did feel like at this time, you know, like kind of like the Pirates series, right? Like it felt like with the Pirate series, they kind of needed to wait out the excellent starting pitching in that series. Like the Diamondbacks attacked the relievers once they got to the bullpen in Pittsburgh. And they did the same thing against the Guardians. They just really attacked the relievers and didn't like, didn't fear the fact that this team did have at least on paper the best bullpen in baseball.

Yeah, I mean, they did make some noise, I guess, early in the games, right? I mean, it wasn't, the start of Monday's game wasn't quite the start of the pirate series, where they had the Corbin Little League Homer followed by back to back to back homers after that. It wasn't quite to that level, but we did have back to back homers to start this series for the Diamondbacks, right? Cotel Marte hit a solo shot and then Gabriel Moreno hit a solo shot in that game as well. Of course, winds up getting hurt later in that one. But could tell Marte, Derek, you know, in the first inning, and the ninth inning in particular.

This is a man you do not want to face. Don't pitch to them. I believe we're up to 17. Yeah. I think we're at 17 of his 29 homers this season have been in either the first inning or the ninth inning. Nine of them in the first, eight of them in the ninth. That's insane. I mean, it's wild.

It's like Ketel kind of like in the middle innings, you know, the moment's not maybe quite as big. But at the very beginning of the game, he's ready to. He's ready to. He's ready to. a statement at the very end of the game. He's ready to win the damn thing. Absolutely. Vince Marotta, I thought, put it in a fantastic way on Twitter,

our friend over from Arizona Sports. He said that it's almost like Citell Marte has become the closer for the diamond backs because he's hitting a ninth inning home run to extend the lead. It feels like almost every game. Obviously, he didn't do that in the second game today. But that's happened several times here in just the last week. And how important have those been? how many of those games end up being a one-run victory for the Donaldbacks, right?

Like, it's crazy. How important that run, you know, what that run has meant to the Diamondbacks. And even in some instances, it has felt like it was unnecessary until the Diamondbacks tried to close out the game. And you saw how important adding that extra offense. Pretty necessary. Yeah, very necessary. Well, and this man doesn't lie when he quotes that. Of course, you know I'm a notorious liar except what I'm telling you about the first.

future. But we also know that the numbers, they never lie. Jesse, what do you got for this week or today's number that doesn't lie? Yeah, today's number is 931. I think this may be flown under the radar a little bit. This is Corbyn Carroll's OPS going back to July 7th. This is Corbyn Caryl's OPS over exactly, July 7th, exactly a month ago today. So the last month, Corbyn Carroll is slashing 235-343-58. As you mentioned earlier, seven of his nine home. this season in that span. He also has four triples and a double in that span as well, five for five and stolen bases.

You know, has it looked to me like the exact same Corbyn from a year ago? Not quite. I guess the batting average stands out there. He's, you know, still a few more pop-ups than you might like to see. Sure.

But he's making pretty good swing decisions. He's drawing walks. He's not striking out a whole lot. And he has a lot of power. A lot of power. He's basically up there. like a clean-up hitter type over the last month, right? Maybe he's not getting quite the volume of hits that you would like to see.

Yeah. But a whole lot of them are going over the fence or, you know, going to the fence where he often winds up on third base. So, yeah, he has looked a whole lot better here over the last month. A lot of them are hard hit balls. And that's the important thing is that there's still a couple of things with his swing that aren't, you know, 100 percent. And it feels like he's still slowly adapting to the changes he made.

but the changes are becoming more. I mean, I don't know. Like, I know that he had more home runs last year and he had more success last year. I just don't remember him necessarily always hitting the ball, even when he was making outs at 100 miles per hour, you know, exit Velo almost every, every time. Like, it feels like, yet then when he does hit the ball today for a home run, it's like 95 miles per hour over the right, you know, fence.

But I'm just, it's exciting because this team, of course, you know, needs these contributions from everybody. but everybody is contributing. You can't say enough about Josh Bell and what he's been able to do for this team offensively since he's joined it. He has literally made the Diamondbacks not miss Christian Walker offensively. Defensively, he is very much a reminder

of how good Christian Walker is. And you can tell because they go to Kevin Newman, their late in games to just ensure that, you know, you don't have a misplay over there at first base. Kevin Newman's defense has been good, but it still isn't nearly as good as what we see out of Christian Walker day in and day out. It's just amazing how much he is an unsung hero when it comes to his defense. And we preach about it often on this show, but it's just first baseman hardly get the love that they deserve. Christian Walker is just a stellar defensive first baseman.

Meanwhile, though, Josh Bell has helped to at least ease the pain of losing Christian Walker in the starting lineup because he has been outstanding for this team. He was outstanding for a stretch coming into this team when the Diamondbacks made that trade for cash considerations, who we will dearly miss cash very much so. When the Debex announced the trade, I don't know if we ever touched on this. When they officially announced the trade, it said cash considerations or a player to be named later. I'm not, I guess maybe it's possible the debacks are sending a player to the Marlins eventually for that trade. Is it if he stays on the roster for the playoffs? I don't know. Yeah, maybe it's contingent on something.

I mean, it's already clearly been reported by a number of people that the debacks are paying $2.25 million of his deal the rest of the way. So they're certainly sending cash, but maybe they're sending a player as well. Ryan there in the chat says, man, Josh Bell is doing almost too well. He's making it difficult to miss Sea Walk, not when it comes to defense. That's for sure. But he is, it is kind of a problem because, of course, this was just kind of meant to patch the team while Christian Walker was. gone, but Josh Bell might be too valuable to necessarily, you know, part ways with. Like, we do know when September rolls around, you know, the expanded rosters are there, but that just difficult

decision doesn't go away when we get, you know, to playoff time. Yeah, this was a mailbag question that we had on Monday. Like, what are the debacks going to do with Josh Bell? Once Christian Walker does come back. And our answer was like, yeah, with the expanded roster on September 1st, that could give you some runway to, to keep both guys for a while. But, but. But it's just unclear where Josh Bell is playing, how he's going to get opportunities. I think we narrowed it down to like a short side platoon DH. Like you could have him d-hing against the lefties. You're not going to have him D-H against Ritey's because Jack Peterson.

So, yeah, that continues to be a fascinating question moving forward. But for right now, for the next few weeks, Josh Bell is your everyday first baseman. And it looks like the Diamondbacks, you know, hit a total home run making that deal. Was that pun intended? I guess it was a little a little bit pun intended. Just a little bit. Oh, well, you know, it's funny because my next transition was to talk about Max. So it's very fitting that you made a pun.

Well, I'm about to talk about Max. But that's only because Max is kind of a psychopath. And I say that because I did a Circle K run yesterday for the fam. Of course I left Saul out. But I did a Circle K run for the fam. And, you know, everybody gave me reasonable selections, Jesse. I believe Mac asked me for a sugar-free Red Bull. Lindsay wanted some M&Ms.

And then, of course, Max has to ask me to bring him an XL Polar Pop. And as if like me buying stuff for the office wasn't, like the message wasn't clear that it's going to be a cumbersome trip back with bags in my hand. Max asks me for a very specific flavor of power aid from the polar pop machine. And I just, I wanted to get your thoughts on if that makes him a bad person, as people have indicated, he is. This might be my favorite time that you've ever pitched an ad readover to me. Like, his back's a bad person. Yes, Max is a bad person.

There we go. Is that the answer you're looking more? I'm contractually obligated to receive polar pops and fronters. And of course, it's only 79 cents. So it's not a huge financial obligation to my company. But you should be smart and make a deal like that. your company at least throw it in the rider see if they notice it maybe maybe you'll get it and then that way you can point back to your contract and say look you guys promised me a froster every single

day but don't make someone go buy you a fountain drink like when they're already buying a bunch of other stuff for a bunch of other people um that's all I'm saying but what you can ask them to do is to pick you up all sorts of wonderful circle case snacks that they have and canned beverages and closed bottles you know like espos asked me oh I'm not supposed to talk about what hasbo asked me for That's not, he's not allowed to have those, but I kind of supply them to them. Anyway, it's a whole other thing. Circle K has a bunch of wonderful snacks and drinks, by the way, that you can bring your friends and your coworkers, of course.

You can save lots of money on that, by the way. That was another very impressive thing about the trip yesterday. My bill cut down by like $10 just because I put in my Inner Circle phone number. And that's what will happen if you join the Inner Circle for free right now by downloading the Circle K app. Of course, terms and conditions apply. at participating locations, visit circlek.com for details. But when you sign up for the inner circle,

you'll save money on all those wonderful drinks, all those wonderful snacks. You also save 25 cents per gallon on your first five fillups over at Circle K as well as three cents off per gallon every day after that. So stop by America's third stop. Get yourself a drink, but don't make your coworkers go fill up an Excel beverage when they already have two hands full of bags and drinks.

Yeah, it was unreasonable. It's unreasonable. And of course, that leads me also to, in Indeed.com ad read where Jesse of course if you're looking for a new ad man I got a text on my phone saying that I'm getting me smirched in the chat you know Michael appreciate you probably out what are you saying Michael you're a rat and now I can't trust you was it Michael Rukki was that who it was I'm not going to tell you I know it was

Michael but again if you're looking for a new ad man or maybe a new or maybe a new BHS D-Bex DeVax host for besmirching the crew, you can find one of those qualified people over at Indeed.com. If you need to hire you need Indeed. And when I say that, I mean, Indeed will save you time and effort on finding qualified candidates because they will make that match for you. And not only will they make that match fast, but they will also match you with qualified candidates, which is that's what helps the process out so much.

You don't have to go through so many unqualified candidates to find somebody that matches what you're looking for. You can use, indeed, for scheduling, screening, and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Oh, it's a different Mike. I think we figured out which Mike it is. We figure out what Mike. That's fine. That's absolutely fine. No one else would be saying things like that about Max.

Mike, you're absolutely a rat, but I appreciate you at least getting Max's back. And of course, when we hire a new ad man, I mean, maybe you can be his friend too. but Indeed right now will not just help you hire faster. 93% of employers agree. Indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to other job sites, according to a recent Indeed survey. So join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast.

Listeners of this show will get a $75-sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash all city. Just go to Indeed.com slash all city right now and support our show by saying you heard about the PHNX. dbacks podcast or indeed on the phnx dbacks podcast uh indeed dot com slash all city terms and conditions apply need to hire you need indeed jesse it doesn't get any easier or maybe it does i don't know because the diamondbacks right now have won seven series in a row meanwhile uh they are they prepare to do battle with the philadelphia phillies who may have after tonight's game with the dodgers have lost seven series

in a row. It has been a very rough stretch for the Phillies since the All-Star break, and you'll love to see it. Yeah, the Phillies are still a very good baseball team. This isn't a, I mean, they've certainly had a couple of injuries that have popped up. Right now, they're without Ranger Suarez, which obviously was having, you know, an outstanding season. But this isn't a rough stretch that you're like, oh, maybe the Phillies aren't, aren't good,

or maybe the Phillies aren't nearly as good as we thought they were. Phillies are still a very, very good baseball team and the Diamondbacks will have their hands full this weekend as they come home and pretty quick turnaround. They're probably like just getting on the plane right now to leave Cleveland and they've got a game against the Philadelphia Phillies back here in Arizona tomorrow.

If we look at the Phillies, some of their stats for the season, they have been very good at a lot of different things. Again, they're just 3 and 7 in their last 10 games, but they're 67 and 46 on the season, a 337 ERA. for their starting rotation, a 402 ERA for their bullpen, which I think is a little misleading. They just made a couple of upgrades in that regard at the trade deadline, a 747 team OPS, which ranks seventh in all of baseball. And then they are also seventh in baseball and outs above average at 16.

So Derek, this is a team that does pretty much everything pretty dang well. And it's going to be a fun weekend. Of course, the Phillies making their first trip back to Arizona since the NL. LCS. Pretty crazy. It's petty ring night, Jesse. It is. I can't wait for petty ring night on Saturday.

Yeah, we changed our schedule around a little bit due to the weather delay. And now we will be bringing you postgame show on Petty Ring Night, which is very exciting. You were going to be there anyway, right? I was absolutely. Who are you talking to? Of course, I want my Petty Ring. I want my Petty Plastic Ring. I can't wait for it.

But, of course, I also can't wait to watch the Diamondbacks. who are very hot right now take on the Phillies. Like that's, this couldn't be more exciting as far as a time to play the Phillies with them struggling the way they are and the Diamondbacks putting things together. And having especially their starting rotation nearly back to 100%. I think that's the most exciting prospect.

Not only does it, you know, improve their starting rotation, which goes unsaid, but you also have the fact that the additions to the bullpen definitely change the bullpen, which has to figure things out before we get to the end of the season. I mean, that's a big part of at least the time they have. They have a little bit less than two months to figure out how this bullpen is going to come together, who they're going to rely on, what those roles are going to be.

And most likely that is going to be something that Tori still does once we get close to to the end of the season and in the playoffs. Like he's going to have his guys. He's going to have his setup man. He's going to have his closer. He's probably not going to keep this versatility that he's currently, you know, kind of going with in the ninth inning. But hopefully that adds some stability. Yeah, I mean, if the Diamondbacks did make a mistake at the trade deadline, which I'm not saying they did,

I think it's way too really to be saying anything like that. But if they did, it's probably that they didn't add a true closer to this roster, right? Yeah. You know, Paul Seawald wasn't removed from the role officially until. so after the trade deadline. But even as of the deadline, there were some signs that C.Wald was slipping, right? Obviously, as July was pretty rough. And so, yeah, that that's a decision that could backfire on the Diamondbacks, frankly.

Like, you know, what would it look like if the team had also gotten Tanner Scott in addition to A.J. Puck or something like that. Of course, you're spending a heck of a lot to do that. But if you, you know, looking ahead to the postseason, as it looks increasingly likely that the debacks will be there. You have to ask the question, like, who's pitching the ninth inning for you in the playoffs with the game on the line, the biggest moments that you have all season? Who are, whose hands are you putting the ball in?

And that is not an easy question for the Diamondbacks to answer right now, frankly. There's a variety of options. You know, it's not to say the options are terrible. A lot of these guys have had good seasons, but there's something to be said for just knowing who that guy is and feeling confident, knowing you have one of the best in the league in that role. Paul Seawald wasn't always pretty last year, but he was really one of the best down the stretch in terms of his save conversion rate, just turning games into wins, even if it wasn't always the prettiest thing. That'll be an interesting narrative here as we get into these final couple

months. Corbyn Barrell's back in the chat actually has the one idea that would be better than Petty Ring Knight. He said, I was hoping for Alec Thomas planning the flag Bobblehead. That would be such a great bobblehead. And I'm not a bobblehead guy. I'm a huge bobby. Bobblehead guy. That would be such an enormously awesome. That'd be a very, a very petty bobblehead. Like give, give out the Alec Thomas planting the flag. What's petty or that or the ring?

They're both pretty petty. I love it. You're doing it with the Phillies in town. I mean, I guess that makes it really petty. But, uh, yeah,

that, that would be, I'm sure people would love that. Uh, super chat there, Jacob, what do we got from our guy, Kevin Conqueso.

Uh, Kevin says, sweep, let's throw some shade. We will throw. I should throw some shade at Jesse. I don't know why, but we have no shade to throw today because we are nothing but happy after the 18 innings of baseball we watched. You probably could throw some shade at me for how much I doubted you when you predicted that E. Rod would go five and two.

You know what? The amount of anger that you experienced just based on the fact that that prediction hit is enough for me to feel just great about that. But Jacob, let's take a look at the probable pitchers for this series. we still don't know how things are going to shake up for the diamondbacks, but yes, folks, yes, your eyes do not deceive you on what you are seeing on this, on this probable pitcher list. We don't know for sure. We have no confirmation,

but there's a good chance that we might see Merrill the main stay there in game four against the Philadelphia Phillies. I mean, it seems a little bold to me, Derek, like, you know, Merrow Kelly, high a pitcher, you know, he's a little older. he's in his mid-30s. I liked what I saw from him yesterday. Prospect was some potential. No, yeah.

When we were setting up to make this graphic, I had completely forgotten that Merrill Kelly had actually pitched for the Diamondbacks this season. And we were about to put like 0-0 with a 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0. It's easy to forget. He was like, wait a second. Merle Kelly actually. He did.

He made four starts in April in March, I guess, and was actually quite good. He had a 2-19-E-R-A. All of the pitchers we just showed, now official, with the exception of Merrill Kelly starting on Sunday. So just so everyone's clear, we are the ones who are guessing as of right now. It is just sort of an educated guess that Merrill Kelly will pitch on Sunday. He does line up. As I said, he started yesterday in Hillsborough. We'll talk about that more in a second. He does line up to make the start on Sunday. And because of the

double header situation, the Diamondbacks need someone to start on Sunday. None of the current five guys that they have could make that start. Yilbert Diaz, I don't think they could bring him back because Sunday marks 14 days since they sent him down. It must be 15. Not the requisite 15. So they need something on Sunday. And as of right now, our best guess is that it's just going to be Merrill Kelly going straight from high A, that rehab outing that he had yesterday, back to the big league starting

in what will be a pretty big series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies. So just an update on this, John Gamadoro, Arizona Sports. says that they are leaving it up to Merrill to assess how he feels today. Okay. After that start yesterday. Well, and they left it up to Erod for his decision in regards to whether he would go have one of those rehab starts or he would get his first start as a member of the starting rotation like he got. And that worked out fairly well. I mean, Erod was fairly, that's one thing that we didn't even talk about today.

Even though he left after five and two-thirds innings pitched and I was fist pumping when Tori got up and went to take him out just because. it made me absolutely correct on my prediction. But he was only at 65 pitches. And I mean, again, that just showed that he probably had something left in the tank. Like the Diamondbacks probably could have left him in there for a few more innings or at least one more inning or who knows how that would have gone. But you don't want to go too hard on that first outing and you want to build on, you know, the good day he had confidence wise. But again, we got Jordan Montgomery going in game one of this series against Colby Allard, which is looking to be like a poor. game for the Phillies, right?

Yeah. And then things get significantly more difficult after that. They have Zach Wheeler taking on Ryan Nelson, Aaron Nola taking on Zach Gallin, and Christopher Sanchez taking on TBD, which we are hoping and praying will be Merrill Kelly. Yeah, if it's not Merrill Kelly, I don't really have a great answer of who that would be.

Christiana, as we reported recently, is out for the season. Unfortunately, Christian Mena will not be an option for the debacks the rest of the year. Slade, yes, I guess, but I really think the debacks want to avoid using him as a starter again. It's going to be a bullpen game if he does start. He could be like the bulk guy in a bullpen game. You know, you probably don't want him going four or five innings. Maybe you can keep him to two or three. That could be an option if they're able to get through Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Thursday, Friday, Saturday,

and still feel like the bullpen is in a good enough spot to do that on Sunday. But it's tough because then you've got. I mean, it's the Rockies. It's on a great team that you're playing on the back, on the backside of that series. Right. But it is still, you're playing three more games immediately without an off day.

So to have a bullpen game right in the middle there might be a bit of a challenge. So, yeah, we'll see. It would be not exactly a soft landing for Merrill Kelly. If he comes back to the majors and, you know, it's,

it's Schwabber and Turner and Bryce Harper and Alec Baum, you know, looking back at him from the batters box, but that might be what happens. here. We'll see what happens in the next few days. Merrill strikes me as the type of guy that's just going to, he's just going to go out there. Like he wants,

that he wants this. I, yeah, I'm, I'm sure he does. It's, it's just a matter of, I guess,

how he feels. And on that note, we do have some footage from our friends over at the Hillsborough hops, uh, because Merrill Kelly pitched yesterday, Derek, Merrill Kelly pitched for those of you who are missing baseball.

Look at his prospect. What a guy. I think, I think he can make it in the, Biggs. I think he has a shot. I think he has a shot. Yeah, it wasn't great. His final line, four inning, six hits, three runs. He did give up a Homer, no walks, two strikeouts. You can see one of his strikeouts there. It was, yeah, from a number standpoint, not particularly sharp, but watching this game, it looked to me like a spring training outing. You could see Merrill

not really sequencing his pitches the way that he probably normally would. I didn't see, I didn't see that many changeups, at least from the, from the portion. that I was able to watch. Obviously, that's Merrill's best pitch, and it's a pitch that he didn't use much in spring training because he was like, it's always going to be there for me. I don't really need to work on that all that much. And there were other things. Like, you know, he misses a first pitch curve ball.

He's not able to get it in the zone. And at one point, I saw him shake like three times. And because he wanted to throw the curve ball again and give it another shot. So he wasn't approaching this outing clearly from like a results. I'm trying to dominate Hillsborough. I'm trying to dominate high a hitters as best. I can. He was approaching this as like, I just want to get my pitches right and I want to work on what I want to work on and get the work in that I need to. And he did do that. He threw 62 pitches

in this game. 38 of them were strikes. He did pitch into the fifth inning. He faced the first batter in the fifth. So yeah, I guess there were, you know, four, four updowns there for him. So from a workload standpoint, he would be fine theoretically to come and pitch on Sunday. It's just a matter of yeah how does he feel about it does he feel like he wants to fine tune things a little more make one more rehab start potentially and then and then come back after that more importantly the hillsborough hops won the game that's the most important they did yes yes not only that gino gruever had his first career two home run game yeah so great things from the young man himself and of course meryl Kelly is just so important to this starting rotation the

the fact that merrill is the mainstay he i mean I mean, it's almost like several of other pitchers in the starting rotation, including Eduardo Rodriguez, right? These guys aren't going to overpower you. They're not going to go out there and put up incredible numbers at times, but they're going to be effective. And if this starting rotation can come together, if Jordan Montgomery can be himself from last year in the second half and maybe feel a little less pressure, considering that he's

now surrounded by some very talented pitchers in that starting rotation and doesn't have to kind of tow the line with Brandon fought and a bunch of, you know, guys getting called up. Maybe, you know, maybe he can, you know, come back to what the Diamondbacks thought they were getting when they brought him on as a free agent. As far as Erod today goes, that's great. I'm very happy with what we got out of him. And it's very encouraging for the future. The Diamondbacks just needed him to be a guy that can go out there and give him quality starts. Again, he's not going to be the ace in your rotation, but he's going to be a guy that can give you six innings and can give you a chance to win ball games. Merrill Kelly though, he's the one, he's the, he's my security blanket, right?

He's the one that just makes you feel safe and good all the time. And I'm not really worried about his numbers with the Hillsborough hops. I'll be worried about his numbers when he comes up and joins, you know, the big club. Yeah, 100%. I was told there were no Velo readings if you were to watch the game on MILB TV, but I was told he was mostly sitting 91, 93, which would be a pretty normal range for Merrill Kelly. I think he averaged about 92.5 on his fastball last year. So maybe it was down a tick, but not not anything concerning at this point. And it was similar with Erod today.

Erod's Velo and the stuff looked pretty much the same as last year. So there aren't any red flags here in terms of what we saw with Jordan Montgomery, where he went to AAA. And it was like, oh my, this guy is throwing, you know, two miles an hour down from where he was a year ago. maybe he gets it back, maybe he doesn't. As things have turned out, he hasn't really gotten it back. So from a stuff standpoint, I think Merrill is pretty much,

it at least looked pretty familiar to me. But, you know, facing Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwabre and the middle of that Philly's lineup is a lot different than facing a bunch of guys who were just in high school maybe last year. It's a really big difference. So we'll see what Merrill wants to do. Well, in case you missed it, the Arizona Diamondbacks are a wagon.

They win this series. They sweep this series from the Guardians. They win game one, seven to six, game two today, seven to three, and then the second game of the double header, five to three. We will be here with post game shows the rest of the week, at least, again, Sundays for us, but at least Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we'll have post-game shows after those Phillies games. So make sure to come right back here, join us after those games wrap.

But until then, you can follow us. on Twitter. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K. This maniac is at Jesse N. Friedman. Of course, today on the ones and twos was none other than the father overlord Jacob himself, Fage. You can follow Jacob at Jacob underscore Franklin 4 because he's

the fourth best Jacob Franklin known existence. We're trying to get him up the rankings, but it's just hard. The other guys are really tough. They're very strong. Three years are working on this. Yeah, we've been really, we've been trying, but you know, sometimes, you know, the perennial top dogs are hard to beat. Of course, you can follow our show at P.

underscore debacks but all roads do lead to at phnx underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook we love you guys we thank you so much for your time we will see you back here tomorrow night you have yourself a wonderful evening uh and remember kids baseball is fun but it's so much more fun when you can predict the future like me