PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - EMERGENCY PODCAST: Tommy Pham and the Arizona Diamondbacks walk off the Texas Rangers

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

After a mammoth Ketel Marte game-tying home run in the 9th inning, the Diamondbacks looked to be on the ropes. But then a LATE rally in the bottom of the 11th down 3-1 sparked by a Geraldo Perdomo double and capped by a Tommy Pham walk off sent D-backs fans home happy.An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to D-backs Takeovers, Knockout Nights & Suns Watch Parties at BetMGM, and MORE here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/phnx-56002330273 Head to https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50 and use code phnxdbacks50 to get 50% off.Go to https://saturdayneon.com and use code PHNX for 10% off your order today. Free shipping for orders over $200!Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code PHNX for $20 off your first purchase.Pins & Aces: Check out https://pinsandaces.com and use code PHNX to receive 15% off your first order and get free shipping.Circle K: Text PHNX to 31310 to join the Circle K SMS subscriber club and get BOGO 32 oz Polar Pops! Head to https://www.circlek.com/store-locator to find Circle Ks near you!OGeez!: Learn more about OGeez! at https://ogeezbrands.com//. Must be 21 years or older to purchase.Four Peaks: Follow them on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Let's go, baby! We are back. Literally, we are back. We were here earlier today doing this show, but I was without this guy who worried me for the last three days. Of course, welcome in to an emergency podcast edition of the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia.

Of course, I am known as the mayor of the city of Phoenix for some reason that I can't explain. This guy next to me, though, he is absolutely my vice mayor and your thunderstick, even in a thunderstorm. the one and only Jesse Friedman. Jesse Diamondbacks, big win. And I know you were out there covering that big series win in San Diego, but it would appear that this team is once again a wagon.

Yeah. So just so everyone knows the back story here, I just sat in a car for nine hours and walked in the door of my house driving back from San Diego to Phoenix. Too much transparency. Too much transparency. I walk in the door and that is pretty much, precisely when this game ended.

I'd been listening to the radio. And I think at that point, when I turned my car off, it sort of appeared that the Diamondbacks were not going to win this baseball game, right? You had two out in the 11th inning. Yeah, it, you know, with Wilson. We could even take a step back when they were down one to nothing

in the bottom of the night. Be honest. I mean, at that point, the lack of offense and the fact that Chapman was in there for the Rangers, felt like this one was going to be one of those like, oh man, they kept it close, especially considering it was a

bullpen game, but they just couldn't muster up any offense to back up this excellent pitching that they got from their bullpen tonight. And Cotell Marte, who honestly has been fairly terrible in the month of August so far, came through with

his biggest hit of the month. And I mean, not just that, but he had two hits late, which were critical. to give the Diamondbacks the win in this game. But Cotel Marte would that home run out of nowhere. Like I said, he was, he came into this game hitting 127, 214, 214, 222, with a 437 OPS so far in the month of August.

Not great, but he picked a great time to snap out of it. He really did. Yeah, I mean, if Cattel doesn't hit that Homer, obviously the Diamondbacks wouldn't have, wouldn't have had an opportunity to win this game in the 11th inning. Paul Seawald also pitched, you know, an impressive 10th inning. You had a runner third one out in that inning, obviously a situation that sort of Taylor made for the Texas Rangers to score a run.

And he's able to get a, he's able to get a pop up. He's able to get the final out of the inning after that. And, you know, you figure the debacks in that situation, they were in a pretty good spot after that happened, right? You go to the bottom of the 10th inning. You feel pretty good with the Rangers not being able to get on the board. The debacks we've talked about in the past, they have struggled. this season in extra innings.

I believe they lost their first three games, their first three extra inning games of the year. And they've, I think they've now won three in a row since then. So they've kind of turned that narrative around. But they've struggled just in general to do kind of like the small ball things, right? You got a runner at second, nobody out.

Normally in baseball, runner at second, nobody out is supposed to be a recipe for you to score run, right? Like probably more than half the time. Especially when you just need one, right? in the case of like extra innings where you know they did have uh you know again excellent performances from their bullpen uh to hold the rangers scoreless and give them a chance to win kevin ginkle unfortunately couldn't hold it in his inning of work but you know i mean they had a chance

to win it in the 10th and and yeah i don't i don't believe they advanced that runner from second base at all in the 10th and that's just now kind of once again the struggles that this team has experienced right there runners in scoring position no outs and not able to even get them over to third base. But this one, this one very much felt like it was a loss early on. And I mean, honestly, this bullpen deserves all the credit for what they were able to do in this game. Because the, and I don't know what they're going to do going forward. I think they're kind of screwed.

But that's just in one man's humble opinion because they used Joe Mantiply, Scott McGuff, Slade Cicone, Justin Martinez. Miguel Castro, Paul Seawald, and Kevin Ginkle in this game. Jesse, if I'm not mistaken, I believe that's every relief pitcher that they have. With that, not Strzlecki. No, Schrozzlecki got sent back down, so he's not even here right now, right? So, yeah, who am I missing? Kyle Nelson didn't pitch it.

There it is. There it is. Well, prepare to do some work tomorrow, Kyle. That's all I can say. And Bryce Jarvis also didn't pitch in this game. So, yeah, there's a couple guys that didn't pitch in this game. But, yeah, I mean, that's, At this point, the way that the diamondbacks have to operate is pushing all of the chips on the game

that's in front of you and figure out the challenges that come with that when those challenges come, right? And the diamondbacks were in a position, I think, to be a little extra aggressive when that Zach Allen is on the mound tomorrow. And you have an off day coming after that, right, on Wednesday. So the debacks were in position where they could kind of go a little crazy in this game. And they did. We originally thought that Slate Sacconi was going to start this game for the Diamondbacks as he's done the last couple times in this rotation spot. But they switched things up last minute.

They decided to go to Joe Mantiply to open things, which I think made sense, just matchup-wise, the top of the order, have Mantiply face those guys, a couple lefties in the mix there with Corey Seeger and Nathaniel Lowe. And then you turn things over to Scott McGuff, which was maybe a twist we didn't see coming, kind of wondered if they go straight to Sacconi at that point, but they go to Scott McGuff, who pitched well and has pitched well in back-to-back outings in this early game sort of opener-ish, but not quite the opener, kind of a role. He's looked pretty good these last couple games. It's an interesting strategy, especially considering that the one big key here is that

both Bryce Jarvis and Slate Cicconi have been used there in the middle, right, where they still get a hefty workload. In this case, Cicone went five-minute. gave up three hits, one run, and struck out two, right? But he did the majority of the work in a five-inning day for Slade is a fairly good start. Like that's what we would expect him to go if he would have started the game and had a good outing like he did. So it's kind of an interesting strategy the way that, that, you know, Toy LeVolo is kind of layering this and putting in some of his relievers as openers

and then still turning to somebody for the bulk of the workload. and then, you know, it worked out for him today. It's a weird strategy. But I know Tori talked about this before the game. I wasn't there because I was waiting for a boulder to be moved on two hours. So, yeah, that was unfortunate. But yeah, Tori before the game today, from what I've heard,

talked about, you know, this new opener thing and how it's something that he hasn't really been too keen on in the past. and it's obviously a, you know, a rising trend around baseball, and he's kind of learned to embrace it. And it's hard to argue with. I mean, it's worked out pretty well for the Diamondbacks. It seems like they're not necessarily winning all of these games, but they're at least hanging around. And there's this sense of, you know, if one guy struggles,

which really hasn't happened too much in these games, but you get the sense that if, you know, if Slate Sacconi had maybe had some struggles midway through his outing, the debacks don't necessarily have to push him to get through five or six innings. They can, you know, they can pivot another direction sooner. There's just a lot of freedom with this, you know, whereas if you start, if you have Slade Sikoni start the game,

then to get through five innings, you know, you probably have to get through that top of the lineup three times, which is something they seem to be trying to protect him from. So, yeah, I think it makes sense. As long as the debacks are in the position that they're in, which is not a great position where you have a, you know, you have a couple spots in your rotation that are far from secure at the moment with this Slate-Sakoni spot and then, you know, the other spot where it's usually Bryce Jarvis getting some work along with some other guys. This is, I think, the best way to handle it.

And it's interesting to see Tori Lavello kind of evolve in his managerial strategy and be more open to using these kinds of things. First of all, COGS is in our chat and I thought we DFAed COGS. I could be wrong about that. Did that happen while I was gone? Is that news? I was pretty certain that we DFAed Cogs. That happened in the Discord chat, which if you're not to die hard, join us right now. Become a diehard.

That way you don't miss out on all the great stuff we have going on in the Discord and everywhere else. But I'll allow Coggs to be in here until he finds a new home. But I want to take a moment. And I want any of you hypocrites out there that said nasty things about Mike Hazen and his trade deadline moves to apologize right now. I'll give you an open forum to do so. because Tommy FAM is the hottest goddamn hitter in baseball right now. And that's factual. That late inning hit was, gives him his 12th game, 12 game hitting streak.

And Paul Seawald, after that one disastrous save that made us all say, oh my God, what have the Diamondbacks done? This guy is this guy really what we thought. Has not given up a run. Has not given up a single run. So let's give it up for Paul Seawald. Let's give it up for Tommy Fam. And Tommy Fan, by the way, of course, is our Kingsnake,

because who else could deserve to be a King Snake? He's got a 12-game hitting streak. My man absolutely deserves it. He was harassed in San Diego, taking a lot of heat socially on this. There's a lot of division about whether people are backing up Tommy Fam on this whole incident with a fan in San Diego or saying that he's being sensitive to the situation.

I don't really care. If I got stabbed, I would tell anybody that bothered me or heckled me that they needed. They got one warning and then I'm not going to put up with it anymore. But they were yelling some nasty stuff. Like we showed the videos, Jesse, that you got from both Tommy and Victoria LaVolo about the treatment from the fans there.

And it was great to see Lovolo back in, you know, his player up like this. And honestly, I mean, I think I think we all here kind of side with with fam when it comes to people crossing a line and also being like oddly 12 inches from you, but then thinking you could say whatever you want to a professional athlete, which is just something that's really odd in today's day of being a fan. But whatever. I thought we would learn from, you know, certain basketball players going into the crowd and beating people up. But that's a whole other topic for another time. I will say this, though, Tommy Pham has been an absolute God said lately,

especially considering the way that this team struggled. And just, you know, we talked about looking for that spark of energy. And he has seemed to bring it. And, you know, we also getting Gabriel Moreno back has seemed to bring it. But it's like now it feels like this team has confidence that they can do things like what they did here tonight, which seemed fairly improbable. Tommy Fam, yeah, he's been here. huge. You mentioned the 12-game hitting streak. When we talked to him in San Diego before,

you know, that whole part of the interview about what happened on the field when he was in the Onbeck circle and all of that stuff. He talked about, you know, just how he's played generally since coming over to the downbacks and how he is far from satisfied. He talked about how he feels like he's given away a lot of it bats and, you know, how the hitting streak is nice. But it's been, you know, a lot of one-for-fours, not as many multi-hit games as he would like. So it's, it's clear that he operates as, you know, sort of a perfectionist, as pro athletes often do. He, he certainly believes that there's, there's more in there for him. And I mean, he's basically at this point, you know, after after a rough start, he's basically back to his numbers with the

Mets. I mean, he was a really good contributor with, with the New York Mets in the first part of this season. And he's basically just continued that since joining this Diamondbacks team. I think it, you know, when he, when he first came over, some people were maybe at asking questions. Like, all right, it's not a great look if a contending team acquires a guy like Tommy Fam and he's instantly batting third. Like that kind of says something about the state of your offense. Like, all right, you're acquiring Tommy Fam and he is right in the middle of your lineup.

But frankly, he's been without Tommy Fam and what he's done, the Diamondbacks don't win a lot of these games that they've, that they've worn recently. It is very much been because not only because of his performance, but because he's been up in a lot of the pivotal situations in these games as he was today. And yeah, I mean, it's been absolutely enormous for the diamond backs what he's, what he's been able to do. And they're going to need, you know, they're going to need for him to keep it up. Because as you said before, Cotel Marte, although he hit a huge home run in this game,

he's kind of struggled in August. And Corbyn Garrell's kind of been struggling. You know, Lordus Gurriel is not quite back to the player he was early in the season. So the debacks have really needed that extra lift. Tommy Fam has given them. You're absolutely right. Someone in the chat said Catell Marte deserves to be the Kingsnake. You're absolutely right.

We could have gone either way on this. I think I really wanted to highlight what Tommy Fam has done for this team over the last 12 games and really being a big part of the reason why they've had this success lately. But Cotel Marte, who like I said earlier, really has struggled in the month of August, picked a great time for him to have, you know, kind of a breakout situation for him. the Diamondbacks do not, they're not even here without Cotel Marte. Tommy Famm doesn't even have a chance to get that hit without Ctele hitting that home run in the bottom of the ninth and also without Cotel getting on base there

in the 11th. So, I mean, this was Cattel's a fine moment for Cotel. And I mean, he, you know, he has his, he's having his struggles lately. But luckily, the rest of the team is kind of heating up a little bit. So he isn't the person carrying the load like he was during, you know, that stretch in July, where he seemed to be the only guy that could do anything at the at the plate. But I mean, this team right now, they're finding ways to win baseball games again. And it's very exciting because someone in the chat asked about it.

And here you go. Here are your wild card standings after tonight's win. Ooh, and look at this sexy ass wild card standings graphic. Diamondbacks now half a game back in the wild card race. Right behind those San Francisco Giants who the Diamondbacks, still have some games against. They also have a whole lot of games against the red hot Chicago Cubs.

So there is a chance for them to really control their destiny here. Honestly, this series was one of those series where the, you know, the Rangers come in not playing well and the diamondbacks come in kind of, kind of hot. And this is the result, right? And at this point, I think you could just be thrilled with the split. But if they could possibly get the sweep tomorrow,

man, I mean, this team is really, really on a role at that point. And then they go into a four-game series with the Cincinnati Reds, who again, they're right here with the Diamondbacks and it's kind of a critical series as well. Yeah, I mean, and it's not just that the debacks are a half game out of the third wildcard spot.

It's that they're a game out of the second wildcard spot. Yeah. I mean, they're just right in the middle of this race. I think the Phillies are certainly on sturdy ground at this point. But Cubs, Giants, D-backs, Reds, Marlins, I mean, buckle up, right? You got five teams for two spots, and it's going to be a dog fight the rest of the way

to see how this turns out. As you mentioned, D-BACs have seven games against the Cubs. All seven games of the D-Backs and Cubs play this year. They all happen in September. You've got the four-game series with the Reds this weekend, which is huge. The D-Backs also have two more against the Giants. If they win both of those games,

they would control the season series. They would have that tiebreaker. If they split or lose those two games, the Giants would have the tiebreaker. And then I believe between the debacks and the Marlins, the Marlins have that tiebreaker since they won both of those series this year. So, yeah, Dbacks are not necessarily in a great position when it comes to some of these tiebreakers. They got swept by the reds earlier. So, you know, they very well might have to beat these teams in the standings rather than just tie them,

which is something to monitor moving forward. But, yeah, I mean, the way that this race has, has material. materialized in the last week or so. The Giants have really taken a big step back. The Reds and the Marlins continue to struggle. The Cubs continue to play really well, but they're just a game ahead of the Diamondbacks right now with seven games between those two teams to go.

So this is going to be absolute madness, Derek. I mean, it's August 21st right now. You've got about a month and a half to go in the season. It's going to be crazy. Nicholas in the chat says, playoff baseball this weekend and the rest of the year. basically amazing we are here and this is it this is exactly it i think back to paul see walt's comments about you know the fact that you're just excited to play meaningful games at this point of the year

and the diamondbacks are not only playing meaningful games but from one series to the next things are going to change i mean we're we're we're probably going to go through some sort of bad stretch still here before the end of the season but if you talk about that that really terrible series, that really terrible stretch that the Divenbecks had in July, like, at least you had it in July. At least you kind of had it in the middle part of the season where you can kind of get it behind you and learn from it and try to adapt and make yourself a better baseball team before you have a, you know, a chance to really blow it as we get close to the end of the season. These series are going to be so much fun. And this team is going to be so much fun to watch. There's expanded

rosters coming, you know, here soon and that's going to allow the Diamondbacks to, you know, call up some of their young guys, probably the guys that have had experience this year and just kind of make themselves, make, make this team a deeper team. But man, it's going to be fun to watch tonight's game though. Tonight's game was something special. Yeah. I don't feel like we've seen this out of this team all year. I mean, I know that they are the answerbacks. I know we've seen them come back. But I mean, the way that they not only, you know, found Kattel, specifically found a way to hit that home run in the ninth inning and tie this game up. And then for them to kind of overcome that two run, not just one run in extra innings,

which I mean, I think one run versus two runs is a world of a difference when you talked about extra innings because every team feels like they should and can get that ghost runner in. But for the Rangers to have scored two runs really made it feel like this game was out of reach for the diving backs. And they somehow found a way to fight back and win this one. This is the type of game that builds that level of confidence that you can beat any opponent at any time, no matter how many runs you're down by. And I know that's being a bit dramatic considering they were only down by two, but still very much feels like this is the kind of thing that can help this team grow and become more confident as it goes down the stretch. Benjamin in the chat says, can someone tell me how this bullpen keeps pulling this off?

The debacks have no business winning these game with the pitchers they are putting out there. I can't argue with that. But let's not question it, Benjamin. Let's just tip our cap and keep it moving because, I mean, the Diamondbacks have games like what Brandon fought put up against the Padres that they lost, that they had no business losing considering the outing that fought gave them. Yeah, it really is true. The debacks just haven't like these types of games,

the debacks haven't generally been winning this season, right? they were they were you know the answer backs very much in the first few months of the year but even then it seemed like most of the answering back that they were doing was more more in the beginning of games you know if they were down three nothing or four nothing they would often come back make up those deficits and make those games interesting they didn't have as many games like this though i mean so look back on that 11th inning one more time nick omid flies out to start the inning right so you've got gabby more than i'm sorry which was honestly very risky base running move. I'm not sure I fully understand, but he takes 30s in there, runner at third one out. Corbyn Carroll comes in and pinch it's for Alec Thomas. I was a little confused, to be honest,

why Corbin Carroll didn't pinch it for Alec Thomas the last time around because Alec Thomas faced Arald as Chapman in his previous at bat. Kind of wondered if the debacks would make that move then. But for whatever reason, Tori decided to make that move here. It doesn't pan out. Corbin Carroll pops up. There's a runner at third, two outs.

The debacks are down by two runs. that's when I pull into the driveway, Derek, and I turn the ignition and it's like, okay, this diamondbacks game, I mean, this appears to probably be over most likely. And then I walk inside. What happens? Catelle Marte is intentionally walked, which is a very interesting move by Bruce Bochie, because although Cotel obviously hit the Homer in his last at bat. He struggled. He's struggled. Like I said, in the month of August, he really hasn't been that good. So it was a surprising move. Yeah, it was a little surprising he was putting on the tying runner. I know the debacks made a pretty much identical move

and intentionally putting on Corey Seeger in the top half of the inning, but it's a little different when, you know, it's the top half of the inning and you don't necessarily know exactly how many runs, you know, are going to be scored or anything. In the bottom half, you know, the debacks know that they need two runs and Bruce Bochi was willing to put that second runner on base. So you've got first and third two outs at that point. still not exactly a great spot but there you go heraldo perdomo is able to hit a double an enormous

clutch hit kattel marty doesn't score from first so the debacks don't tie the game that was it was weird because like you said they were so uh aggressive with gabriel moreno on the base path and then like two batters later here they are holding kattel up at third on what looked like arguably he could has scored on it. But Garcia is a canon of an arm. I didn't see the play. I did not see the play alive. So I don't know what it looked like.

But he, Adelaise Garcia has an excellent arm. No, but he got it into the cutoff man. But it looked like Catell had he kept going. But I don't know. I mean, like, obviously they made the right call in the end. And I think,

I just thought with the way that this game had gone with the lack of offense, that it was really a smart move or it ended up being a smart move. Michael McDermott says walking Seeger was the right move just didn't work out. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Was the key there, you know, as well. And it just didn't go as well for Kevin Ginkle. But this team, this team has something good going for it right now. And I don't really know.

I don't, I don't know what caused them to struggle the way they did. But this team is once again looking like that team that we saw in April and May. And this is not a shocking win. but I mean a pretty good win considering that their record against above 500 teams hasn't been very good this year. It hasn't. No, I think after today it'd be 27 and 40, which is still not great. 27 and 40 against above 500 teams, 38 and 21 against below 500 teams.

The debacks haven't for anyone, you know, kind of bringing up that narrative. It's true. The devax have done a lot of their damage against the less. teams in the league and they've struggled against teams, you know, of the caliber of, you know, the Texas Rangers. But as you said earlier, the Rangers have been struggling. They just got swept by the Brewers over the weekend. Right.

So, you know, they've run into a little bit of a roadblock and tomorrow's a big game as well now, right? With the D-BACs winning this game, a game that on paper, they weren't really supposed to win, right? Jordan Montgomery against the, the bullpen slate, Cicconi thing. Now you're set up tomorrow to potentially take both games. of this series, which would be enormous for the Diamondbacks to be able to do that. We've talked a lot about how difficult their schedule is the rest of the way. The Texas Rangers are about as good of a team as they're going to play the rest of the rest

of the season. So if they're able to finish the job tomorrow, if Zach Gallen is able to come out and do Zach Gallen things against one of the best offenses in the game, that would be enormous. He's been pretty, pretty good at home, Jesse. I don't know if you are aware of that. But anyway, we thank you guys. for joining us for this late night edition of, I guess,

an emergency reaction podcast. I don't know what this is, but we just had to talk about this game because it was a lot of fun. And so is this team. So let's keep watching them and let's hope that they go far this season. Who knows? The sky's the limit with this team right now because they just seem to be a mystery to all of us

as far as how successful they could truly be. But again, we appreciate you guys for stopping by. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at K-Ur-K-M-M-W-A-K, Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Our show is at, what is it, PHNX underscore Dback, something like that.

I think that's it. But all roads lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys again so much for stopping in tonight. We always appreciate your time. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when Tommy fam hits a walkoff, baby.