PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Eugenio Suarez, Jordan Montgomery SHINE As Diamondbacks Sweep The Rockies, Win Six In A Row

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

The Arizona Diamondbacks continue to roll, securing their fourth sweep of the season with a 11-4 victory over the Rockies at Chase Field. Eugenio Suarez could not be stopped on a 5 RBI day, Jordan Montgomery delivered a quality start, and the D-backs remain in a two-horse race with the Padres for the title of hottest team in baseball. We have more on the win and a good bye to our beloved Father Overlord Jacob!An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsportsALLCITY Network, Inc. aka PHNX and PHNX Sports is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by the City of PhoenixPHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose your offer!Disclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ.  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/Sanderson Ford: The Sanderson Ford Summer Sales Event is here and they are teaming up with the boys of summer for a final Playoff Payoff Sale. You get the payoffs like deals on 24 Ford Bronco Sport Big Bend. Lease one today for as low as $299 a month for 36 Months with only 10 percent cash down.Zbiotics: Go to https://zbiotics.com/phnxdbacks to get 15% off your first order when you use PHNXDBACKS at checkout. Pre-Alcohol is backed with 100% money back guarantee so if you’re unsatisfied for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked.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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

and welcome in to another edition of the P-HNX Dback Frog Brought Podcast. I'm all choked up here. We are brought to you live from Studio K presented by our friends in Circle K. Are you choked up, Derek? I'm choked up because I don't know if this Diamondbacks team is ever going to lose a baseball game again. And that chokes you up? That chokes me up a little bit. Because you get too excited.

Yeah, I get too excited. I'm not in the playoffs yet, Eric. You know, I can't wait for you to leave. I really can. I really can. Well, it's my job. Yeah, well, welcome in. to another edition of the PHNXD bags podcast presented by our friends at Bet365.

Of course, check out Bet365. Sign up right now. Use our code of PHNX365 when you do. Choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary at Bet365. And of course, this is another game where it is not an ordinary baseball game. Arizona Diamondbacks sweep the Colorado Rockies. We've not used that word. We've not used that word all that much.

Four times. Well, I'm not even saying like the curse. Like they just don't sweep teams. They really don't. And they still have. Until recently. They still have a 69 and 53 record. Nice.

Diamondbacks win today by a score of 11 to 4. And they just continue to roll. It's their sixth win of the season. It's their fourth sweep of their season. They have completed their third sweep in their last five series. I'm pretty sure if you were to date back, the last series that they lost would be May. Yeah.

Something tells me that's pretty good baseball. Yeah, that's pretty good baseball. King Snake Meister says I have a bad attitude about Alec not hitting whatsoever. Well, we're going to talk about Alec Thomas here shortly because he was part of a roster move today where he was actually optioned to Reno. I'm not sure if everybody had been aware of that information. But, of course, that's only because right now the Diamondbacks have too many guys playing well and they kind of have to make some tough decisions here.

And those tough decisions aren't just on the hitting side. or on defense. It's also in pitching. But right now, this team is rolling. The first inning was absolutely bonkers. We were all at this man's going away party today at lunch or going away lunch. He's not really going away, but he's kind of going away. And I don't know if I've heard that place louder. Yeah, it was pretty, yeah, it was pretty awesome because holy crap, man. You have a Carol Walk and a McCarthy single to lead off the game. And then Jock brings everybody home with what they claim is a 2 RBI double, Jacob. I would say doubles probably correct. It was down the line. He's probably going to leg out a double there no matter what. But you had a throwing error by the Rockies first base. So I watched it. I was like,

oh, sick, there's a couple runs. And then I like looked up and somehow the ball was on the left field warning track. And I was like, and Jock is getting ready to round third base. And here he comes home. I had no idea how the ball ended up out there. Yeah,

because the Rockies are a little league team. That's why. And Jock gets a little league home run. The Diamondbacks just jumped all over. them early. Josh Bell reached then in the same inning on a catcher's interference, Lordus singles, Gino gets hit by a bit, pitch to load the bases. How many guys got hit by pitches today? A lot. Way too many, in fact, way too many. Perdomo then walked in a run, which made it a 4-0 game, and then that's the Rockies got out of that. But there was another

throwing error in the third inning that allowed Josh Bell to score on a garriel single. So So today was one of those days. Rockies ended up with three throwing errors, and it cost them quite a bit. But nothing cost the team more than Gino's performance today. And when I say cost the team, I mean cost the Rockies, because Gino was outstanding today. The man couldn't be stopped. As I said, he got hit by a pitch in his first at bat. He has a leadoff double in the third, an RBI double in the fifth that scores ADC,

and then a grand slam home run in the fifth. Gino's really good at baseball all of a sudden. All of a sudden. I like it. And I know I say all of a sudden, but he's been really good for like a month and a half at this point. But I just don't know what else you can say about this team other than like they have every single guy contributing at a very high level every day. Yeah. And it's very rare that you see runs like that in baseball.

Usually you'll have two or three guys get hot at the same time. They carry the team for a stretch of time. And then it's like, oh, they go cold. But then somebody else picks them up. this whole team is hot right now and they have been for about a month which is really really really special to watch because it just does not matter who they're going to go play

like they have to before the season's over they have to play the Dodgers they have to play the Padres like the two people two teams that they are in contention with here in the NL West and in the wild card spots if we're talking truthfully like two years ago if you would have asked me

oh yeah by the way you're going to end your season you're going to go play the Dodgers and the Padres I'd have been like I just wanted some wins in August. And now it's like, no, like I truly think that they can go toe to toe with Otani, with Freeman, with bets, with like it, whatever. It doesn't matter who it is. And a big part of that was depth, right? The depth that they established during this past off season that brought in guys like Jock Peterson who had that big RBI double slash little league home run.

You got Randall Gritchick, who just celebrated his 10 years of service yesterday and his birthday in Major League Baseball, who's also. contributed and you have the addition of Josh Bell that just doesn't doesn't even make any sense that this man is playing as good as he is but it's been an incredible addition to this team. Blaze Alexander was called up today to give them a little bit more depth than infield. That was the corresponding move with Alec Thomas being optioned Reno and this team right now Scott Max said it in the chat just a little while ago if you wouldn't mind scrolling up there my guy Kyle he says bench is so deep I hardly notice Walker Moreno and Marte are recovered And that's the thing.

They've got four guys that would truly be in the starting lineup that are not right now. Absolutely. And like especially like Jesse said yesterday, like why rush Marte back when the team is playing this well? If you have a panic mode, like you might lose a game or two here and there. That's fine. That's going to happen even with Marta. They're going to lose baseball games before the season is over.

Like I know that I said, are they ever going to lose. It doesn't feel like they are ever going to lose. They will lose baseball games before the season is over. And we'll do the thing that we always do and we'll react to it. It'll hurt, but this team is in a different spot now than I think I've ever seen them in my life. Yeah, yeah. They just don't get faced.

They're able to overcome the adversity as far as all of these ups and downs that they've had to face when it comes to, you know, the losses due to injury. And early on, they didn't do a good job of responding to it. Now I feel like they're numb to it, you know, they're kind of calloused when it comes to injuries. And sometimes that can be a mental thing because it's a letdown to have your best. best player like Catele Marte out of the lineup. But instead, Gino turns into a superhuman.

Jake McCarthy is playing baseball like the best player on the planet. By the way, Corbyn Carroll has an OPS over 950 for the last month. He said it. There it is. Corbyn's back. We officially can say it. Corbyn's back. We've said it in 2020, Derek.

Yeah, I know. Well, that's all right. But Gino, I mean, Gino and Corbyn both dug themselves into such a hole early on that I don't really care what the batting average. I don't look at their final numbers. I look at what are you doing for me now? What have you done since? His OPS is almost over 700.

That's league average. Right. Oh, yeah, he's getting there. And a lot of that has been lately. But Gino, again, he hit his fourth career grand slam in the sixth inning. His first grand slam since 2018. He was three for four today. Five ribbies.

Go off, Gino. I love it. It's amazing to have Gino performing the way he is. But another guy that it is very, very important to the success of this team is Jordan Montgomery. And Jordan Montgomery had one of his best outings of this season. Right? I mean, again, his curveball was working as his primary pitch today. He got so many swing and misses today.

22 whiffs, eight of them on the curve. He just threw a nice mix of all of his pitches. Five on the sinker, five on the fastball. The changeup was working for him. Again, he's not a guy that's going to go out there and blow you away with the fastball. It's the curve. It's that off-speed stuff that really works for him. And, I mean, he just went out there and pretty much cruised until the sixth inning

where things kind of got shaky for him. He gives up a pair of singles and double and two runs, but he still managed to finish the inning and get through and give the Diamondbacks quality start. Six innings pitch, five hits, three earned, three walks, 8K. 8K, which is probably the most important thing. I'm sure Jesse will come back and say that here in a little bit when he joins us. But I feel like the strikeouts for Jordan Montgomery is like the big deal.

He needs whips. Eduardo Rodriguez is a little different. Eduardo Rodriguez isn't out there looking for whiffs. He kind of pitches to contact. He pitches to contact. He gets soft contact. Monty's different. When Monty's on his A game, he's striking guys out.

So that was really good to see today. I'd love to see it against a team that isn't Colorado Rockies, though. Yeah, yeah. Well, the bullpen did their thing. They continued to do their thing. They had one earned run allowed today when Ryan Thompson was out there on an error by the Diamondbacks, but three innings pitched. And this bullpen did not allow an earned run in this series.

So, again, it's just incredible. The bullpen's back, I guess. I mean, like, again, there is, right? there's there's a time to adapt right they had to adapt the guys that are new it you it takes you a little bit to feel comfortable and then you also you have that thing of like everything is going so well for this team right now you don't want to be the one to screw it up meryl kelly said that like meryl kelly the guy who like everybody couldn't wait to get back in the start of rotation right yeah the mainstay was still you don't want to mess that up brother

you're not going to i'll tell you that by right about now yeah but i mean i get that feeling and sometimes that feeling can kind of creep up and cause some of the issues we've seen at times. There's a lot of pressure there to perform. And, you know, again, this bullpen is slowly returning to form. And there's a lot of weapons out there that are working for this team. I just, and we talked about this, I think on a post game probably not all that long ago. I just struggled to find where there's a weakness on this team. Well, I mean, you still have like some issues like defunders.

Defensively losing Christian Walker sure you don't know when he comes back but like yeah, but that's like you know what I mean like that's not so that's just like unfortunate injury luck I'm talking like they can hit They can slug. Oh yeah. I mean realistically their weakness is in the outfield arms, but I think that's the way they geared their outfield is so that they could get to a ton of baseballs Yeah. Like they're not trying to throw guys out all the time because most of the time they're able to get to balls in the gap. Right. You know what I mean? Like there's not really a whole lot of like you need a guy to launch a ball from and it happens. In the playoffs, like it would be nice to have a center fielder who could hit the target a home plate 95 mile an hour throw and, you know, nail a guy at home.

Yeah. Like I watched Adola Garcia gunned down Christian Walker in the World Series last year. Like is that nice? Yeah. Yeah, I'd love to happen. But like my life. If you're telling me that, like, my first world problem is that my outfielders don't have arms. Well, and they've been getting better, right?

We've seen Corbyn making some better throws. And overall, it's, you know, it's been a very, everybody seems to adapt on this team again. Like, that's a big part of it. The fact that they find a way to be effective, to get better as the season goes on. I mean, I think that's been the most impressive thing is that this, and I mean, this series is a perfect example. three different outcomes. They won all three games, but all three games in different ways, right?

Their offense was not working in the first two games. Things kind of bounced their way in game one. I mean, they hung in there, and again, keeping the game close was a big part of the fact that they were able to hang in there and take that game late with basically some pitching mistakes by the Rockies that ball bounced their way today,

especially with that error for Jock Peterson there early on. It was just another one of those days that you're like, things are going this team's way. But this was a day where the offense showed it out against the team that we thought after coming off of a series where they scored 21 runs in the final, what, 15 innings against the Phillies, they kind of come in. I think it's a good baseball team, too. Yeah, right.

I know. And so, but then they come into this series against the Rockies and they score five in first and four in the second. And again, that's still much better than they were doing offensively early on in the season when they really had their like super highs and then they're super lows as far as offensive production goes. But I mean, this team just, like you said, they don't have any weaknesses right now. They're just not.

Hit, slug, pitch, starting, relief. Yeah, defense. Doesn't matter. They'll do it all. That's great. Obviously, Alec Thomas heading to Reno gives you a little bit less defense in the outfield. But like Jay, like I said, Jake can cover ground. He might not have the same glove that Alec had, but he's got the same wheels.

He actually might be faster than Alec Thomas out there. So, like, he will still cover just as much ground. Jake's just playing out of his mind and there's absolutely no reason to. When you're the best player in baseball, there's no way somebody else is going to play over you. And to be fair, Alex. He, kudos to him. He played himself into a position where he was impossible to take on the lineup. Right.

And as much as we said that Jake wasn't getting playing time, Alec really didn't have that much time overall for him to get back to where he was at. And that's why the move to Reno might not be the worst thing for him. Yeah. Not only is he going to get a chance to play every day and play every, you know, play the full game. He's going to have as many opportunities down there as anybody could have. And it's Reno, right? Like it just gives you confidence when you start smashing the ball for him.

150 feet you know effortless like look I think some people did it too payvind did it some people in the chat mentioned this earlier it's way up there so but it was like Jake handled that last year he's in the same spot that alec is right now like he just didn't have a spot on the roster because he was scuffling yeah like he was just really struggling and he handled those options with such like humility and like he just he didn't hang his head he didn't you know like well you know like I'm you know your

your center fielder like that's you know I'm supposed to be that guy he he went down there he took care of his business look where he is now yeah like that's the type of ethic you need to have so like I'm hoping that Allie can do some of the same well this team is at a point where the roster is so packed

that you have to perform or there is going to be some way to maybe shuffle you out in order to get somebody who's being more productive up here right Not to mention the fact that at times Tori just needs that, I guess, that flexibility to bring it maybe, you know, like, hey, we need an extra reliever this week. We need an extra infielder while Katel might miss some time. That's the reason why Blaze got called up. But we do have video from Tori before today's game.

And this is what Tori had to say about sending Alec Thomas down to Reno. We decided to send down Alec for a simple reason. The rhythm of his game, you know, wasn't, wasn't. quite what we wanted to be, wasn't getting consistent playing time. Jake has taken away some of us playing time, and that's how this is. You know, it's based on merits. And when you're doing your job at the high level, such as the way Jake is, I have to make tough decisions when I'm constructing a lineup.

And I was targeting Jake over Alec. And, you know, that is part of the game. It's been a part of the game forever. And to get Alec back in rhythm, get him an opportunity to get some consistent at bats, which is to me what he needs ultimately, to get them back here to help us impact games at the level that we expected, we just felt like this was the best move. And also, you know, getting an extra infielder in here with where Ketel is, being day-to-day,

I've been running the guys pretty thin out there as it has been. With just one extra infielder, we felt like the need to get plays here to give us a little bit of coverage and get a start, which he's getting today, was going to help us in the long run. With time, you start to realize that sometimes these moves aren't. necessarily a demotion, right? We even saw this. It's about making sure that you're where you need to be.

Yeah, exactly. And like, again, we talked about Ginkle last year when he got sent down and it was kind of inexplicable. He had a sub three ERA. It wasn't even like... It was just the odd man out. He was just the odd man out. And I mean, in this case, it is about Alex getting some more reps and going down there and just kind of trying to get, you know, get his swing back on track. You know, you know you like every other part of Alec Thomas's game,

especially how clutch he is late. He has a world of talent. He really does. Defensively a wizard, and he's shown that he can hit at the highest level. He's shown that he, I mean, not for extended stretches, but I'm saying in, like, in Reno, he hits 350. Like, he can hit the baseball. And I know Reno inflates numbers, but, like, Reno inflates power numbers. To hit 350, you still have to get your bat on the baseball.

Yeah, absolutely. And, I mean, it's like Adrian Del Castillo, right? We were skeptical of his numbers translating over to Major League Baseball. And so far, it's worked out pretty well. He's worked out pretty well, right? But they did call up Blaze who kind of struggle at the plate today. I think Elise, of course, known baseball GM, she never misses anything, said that, you know, Blaze had the worst at bats today.

But here's more from Blaze on getting called up today. Yeah, no, I'd say early as soon as I got option down there. It's just, you know, I mean, it wasn't easy, you know, like mentally and stuff. But, you know, I kind of found my why again. And, you know, kind of, yeah, just went back to work. got the hitting coach down there and kind of came up with a plan and things started, things started to click and just confidence is going up every day. And yeah, feel ready to rock.

What's it been like watching this team from afar? It's been unreal. Jealousy a little bit. I mean, obviously you want to like be here while they're winning and stuff. But no, I mean, couldn't be happier. And yeah, I think at the beginning of the year, I mean, we knew we were this kind of team. And, you know, they've put it all together. And I'm just, you know, I'm just hopping in a spot and going to do my job.

job. I don't care if he has... What an outstanding human being. I don't care if he has five bad at bats. I want his energy around me at all times. Those are the vibes that I'm seeking for my baseball team. He really is. He really is. And he's he's authentically that person, right? And I mean, again, there's this, you know, that there is something hilarious that he said there. And I mean, yeah, imagine being part of this team and the struggles early on like he did. And honestly, he was, he had his struggles, but he also had his big moments as well. He really had his coming out party this season for this team. Yeah, look, he's a piece of the future for this team.

Like, he has a spot on this baseball team. It might not be, I mean, look, he's up here right now, so it could be right now. I fully expect him to make an impact going forward into this playoff run. He has a role to play. And, like, I do truly believe that Blaze Alexander in the not so distant future is a starting everyday player on this team. Nicholas, I said the same thing while I was watching it. He's golden retriever in human form. He's our puppy dog.

Chris Melton says he's a care bear and I love to see Chris in the chat. Welcome in. And of course, we love to see all of you guys here. We will have more from Jesse Friedman here joining us from Chase Field shortly. But of course, we thank you guys for being here in the PHNXports YouTube channel. Make sure if you haven't done so yet,

you subscribe to the channel. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever our shows go live. And of course, hit that like button and it's for him this time. It's his last, last show ever. He's going to disappear. You can clip this and I can become a like button.

He's going to, oh, do that. He'll fade away into dust after the show ends. But, of course, make sure to do it for his personal self-esteem before he goes. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you subscribe over there on your favorite audio podcasting app. Leave us a review. Those five-star reviews definitely mean the world to us. Also, check out Bet365. They make sports more fun.

Of course, they pioneered live in-game betting, and they offer the widest range of games and markets available for live in-game betting across 78 sports. Right now, you can get the baseball early payout offer where if you bet on a team and your team goes up by five runs, you get an early payout. And of course, that also counts for same game parlay and parley selections that will be marked as winners. Of course, new customers can sign up and choose between two offers when they open an account at Bet365. Use our code of PH&X365 when you sign up. Deposit $10 and choose either between a bet-and-get offer where you can place a bet of $5 or more and get $150 in bonus bets or a first-best. safety net offer where you can place up to a $1,000 bet. And if you're qualifying bet loses, you will receive up to that amount in bonus bets.

Download the Bet365 app and use code PHNX365 when you sign up, choose your offer and find out why it is never ordinary. At Bet365, must be 21 or over and physically located in Arizona. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem that wants help, call 100 next step, text next step to 533442 or visit problemgambling.az.gov. Are you doing celebrating tonight? Are you celebrating leaving here? I mean, I'm cleaning my pool if that counts to celebrate. No, it doesn't. It really doesn't.

It's about all. Well, if you're celebrating. Of course. Being an adult. Well, like sometimes, yeah, especially celebrating and drinking, that it's an adult. It's weird that it's on a Wednesday. If it was on a Friday, my answer might be different for you. It might be different.

But when you know you're going to have a fun night ahead, like this guy is going to have a fun night ahead cleaning his pool, pregame with Z biotics, pre-alcohol. Pre-alcohol is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by Ph.D. Scientist to tackle rough morning. after drinking. Let's face it, we do not recover the way that we used to. No, kind of the way it is. Comey old. I, you're washed is what I'm saying. I'm only 27. You don't act like it. You have the soul of a 53-year-old man is what you have. But you can either have a great night or a great morning, but you can't have both sometimes. But you can with zbiotics. When you drink, alcohol gets

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So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to Zbiotics.com slash PHNX backs and use the code PHNX backs to check out for 15% off. And yeah, do it. Even like this guy, you never know. No, I definitely have, I definitely am rough in the mornings. Yeah, that's for sure.

I've been around him. Sean, we slut together in the same bed in Chicago. Yes, Jesse is actually younger than I am, too, which is pretty crazy to think about. Yeah, I was on a trip with two of the oldest young men I've ever been around in my entire life. Derek was like the kid and Jesse and I was like. You know, like when they say skinny fat, these were like old young or whatever, young old. I don't know. But let's take a look at the count for this series presented by Desert Financial Credit Union because this one's, of course, kind of interesting.

Diamondbacks outscored the Rockies in the series 20 to 11. they basically would have tied them with just the runs they scored in today's game. Of course, they barely outhit them because baseball, 26 hits for the Diamondbacks in the series to 23 for the Rockies. Runners in scoring position, the Diamondbacks were six for 30. The Rockies were seven for 22. Better average there, 318 for the Rockies, 200 for the Diamondbacks. Starting pitching ERA, basically a push for both sides, five for Diamondbacks, 5.84 for the Rockies. But like we said earlier, that relief pitching ERA,

ERA was the big difference in this one. The Diamondbacks post a 0.00 ERA to the Rockies 7.8. Something tells me a zero ERA is good. Yeah. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. You know what I call that, Derek? Jesse would say it plays.

Not only is it the count, it's a recipe for success. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, when you're both. I'll score the other opponent. Out hit them. I'll pitch them. Yeah, that's kind of how it works.

You score more runs and you'll win the ball game. Yeah, it's a recipe for success. It's absolutely a recipe for success. Well, another recipe for success is having Jake McCarthy on your baseball team because he is very, very good at the game of baseball. I don't know when he became Ken Griffey Jr., but I'll take it. I don't even, like, I don't even know if we should talk about that like that because I feel like it's put bad stuff out there in the universe,

but Jake McCarthy, you're probably right. It did become Ken Griffey Jr. overnight. Let's take a look. He is our King Snake for this series. Jake McCarthy, six for 12 for a 500 batting average, He had 4 RBI, one walk, his first career walkoff hit, and a wonderful head of hair. He's got lettuce that only I could hope to attain one day. If only my hairpiece could get me there.

I was going to say, yours is a hairpiece, so maybe I could go find something like that in my local wig shop. Well, I mean, as Charles Woodall Pike said, ladies and gentlemen, the bullpen, but in the best possible way, and that's it. you guys did pick on him about his hair and he probably deserved it but had an entirely too when did i deserve it i don't know you just deserve it but i've had a great time like i said earlier today uh phnx would not be what we are without this man right there is a certain level of excellence that jacob demanded out of all of us but besides just demanding it like the absolute uh boss that he is he believed in all of us that we could achieve this level of excellence and honestly the product I hope you guys enjoy what we do here.

And if you do, the reason why is because of this man. So I have some gifts for you before you go. The first one is in this little bag right here. Of course, I could not let you leave without a bag of our pretzels from our Southwest flight. Now, we talked about this. Southwest pretzels. No, these are just. No, free ads, Max, but this is a free ad.

No, we're actually, like, that's another part of this present is we're going to sit here right now and just do a free ad. because I know how much you hate Max. Are we going to ASMR this? Yeah, we can ASMAR. I mean, we could just literally do an ad. Like, let's just go like, stellar pretzel brands, Maui Monk pretzels. They're the best.

You must. What? What a monster? What a monster? Anyway, give those back. We'll go ahead and finish the ad read. These pretzels are the best pretzels. Maui Monk pretzels.

South West. They sell themselves, basically. Southwest gives you a little tiny amount. Yeah, this is the best pretzels in the game if you're looking for good pretzels. I have one more gift, and it's very interesting because as we sat here, you brought up to me that you could now upgrade your Twitter handle to Jacob underscore Franklin 2. Is that right? I could. I could become Jacob underscore Franklin too. And if you've been watching the show, you know that every time he appears on the show for three years.

I've said he is the fourth best Jacob Franklin in existence because his Twitter handle, was Jacob underscore Franklin four. Well, I got you. I got you another present. Oh, no. If you wouldn't mind, Kyle. I got you, Jacob underscore Franklin one. That's right.

Jacob underscore Franklin one. It doesn't exist because I own it. That's why. And I'm giving it to you because as you can see there, you are the world's greatest Jacob Franklin. So there's my last gift to you. What an amazing gift. upgraded you to what an amazing gift Jacob Franklin number one overall on so what you're going to sign

out like how do I do this yeah we'll figure it out we'll get Elon involved I'm sure he'll help us I mean he's got that whole Twitter space now you own that out I own that I feel like you could have just photoshopped it and said it's available go take it no no no I couldn't do that I had to I had to own it and then I had to follow everybody from PHNX in all city that's what I had to do but again we thank you very much for everything you've done for us and of course for being just such a baseball fan. It was so easy to do this show with you because you love baseball as much as the rest of us

do. So you're not going away entirely. You're not fading. No, I'm not dying. No. I might join I might force my way on a post game all right. For playoffs. Full of playoff. If they make the World Series, Derek, you bet you're watching that here. Let's go.

We'll have them back. But of course again, we thank you so much for your time. And we wish you the best on your future endeavors. Appreciate you. Wherever you go. Tell Jesse, let me just say something. You two and every producer that you guys have gone through over the course of the last three years,

because I know I have probably tossed around producers on your show more than, other than maybe ASU. You guys have truly built one of the best communities that I've ever seen in the baseball world. What you guys do every day is special. It means a lot to these people. I think I told you this from the very beginning. I fully believed in baseball being successful as a model for this company. And I wasn't ever going to give up. I was always going to hold you guys to the same standard that we held our basketball and football shows too

because I truly believed that something special could be created here. And this is just the beginning. But I think you guys are showing that. I appreciate it, man. Thank you, brother. Sir? All right. Well, of course, this man still be around.

So make sure to follow him. I will still be at All City. I'm not leaving the company. Yeah. I just, you can't know what I'm doing just yet. Yeah, just yet.

It's a surprise, but we have lots of surprises. I should tease that we have a huge surprise coming to the show, but I probably shouldn't because it's a little reckless, but we have a huge surprise coming to the show. Anyway, thank you again. Of course,

if you aren't a diehard already, make sure to grab yourself that diehard membership. Go to go phtnx.com. That would be one last gift to Jacob. Of course, you can get a wonderful variety of things over at the diehard membership. Of course, free t-shirt of your choice from the phnx locker.com.

Access to all of Jesse's written, premium written content. You get access to our Discord lounge, which is the best place to be in Arizona sports fan, not to mention discounts on all of our events and so much more. The events thing, that one's, that was an important one because, of course, we just had a blast over there doing our pool party at Chase Field, and that might be a little reason why the Diamondbacks are on the role they are on. I don't know. I'm just saying, maybe.

Maybe they got their second sweep of the season when we were there. But of course, we thank you guys so much for again being here. Jesse will be joining us here shortly. But if you want to get yourself some amazing snacks like I just gave to Jacob, make sure to stop by Circle K. You can get yourself a wonderful beverage. Of course, I'm contractually obligated to receive a froster every single show. And that hasn't been happening.

So I think I'm like backed up. I'm owed like eight frosters at this point. But, of course, get yourself a polar pop or a froster for just 79 cents now until September 3rd. You can also join the Inner Circle program for free by downloading the Inner Circle app. And you'll save yourself all sorts of money with that. Terms and conditions apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. When you do, you'll save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips and then save three cents off per gallon every day after that.

So, of course, it's a wonderful time to join the Inner Circle and be part of all of this. All right. Well, we also have Shady rays. Jesse Friedman. I'm wagging my finger at Jesse, but you guys shouldn't see me doing that. Shady rays, of course, is important because the future of the Arizona Diamondbacks is so bright. You need to plan accordingly with a good pair of shades. And of course, you can get them

from Shady Rays. They are an independent sunglass company that offer a world-class product. Of course, rated five stars by over 300,000 people. Their shades have durable frames and crystal clear optics, making them the perfect choice for all outdoor adventures. Right now, of course, you can get yourself a pair of shady rays online. And of course, if you don't absolutely love your shady rays, you can exchange them for free, or you can get your money back within 30 days. No pressure at all there, no risk at all when you shop. Their team has your back with personal and fast support.

Also, Shady Rays has an insane replacement plan where if you break or lose your Shady Rays, even on day one, they will send you out a brand new pair. No questions asked. So of course, make sure to check out all that Shady Ray's has to offer. They have hundreds of styles to choose from. And exclusively for our listener, Shady Race is giving out their best deal of the season. Head to Shadyrays.com and use code PHNX for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated by over 300,000 people. Well, of course, we have a little bit more here on this game before Jesse Friedman joins us for Chase Field.

For some reason, he doesn't understand how time works or joining this show before, you know, we have to wrap things up. But, of course, the Diamondbacks, once again, win this game by a lot. This one is an important one because Diamondbacks haven't swept a lot of teams. Like we said, this is just their fourth sweep of the season, considering they're out a place right now where they are now 16 games above 500. It is fairly impressive that this team has been able to do that this season. without sweeping very many of their opponents.

We also talked about how, you know, honestly, this stretch is pretty important, right? The Diamondbacks have a tough schedule coming up. They do face the Dodgers like we were talking about with Jacob. They wrap up the season against the San Diego Padres. There's a lot of tough opponents ahead towards the end of this month and in September. So stacking wins right now against this particular stretch is so extremely important. So that's, I feel like that's. why it's so good here, especially with the Diamondbacks having lost, Catelle Marte, who is still

day to day, and we don't know when he will return, as well as the other pieces that they've lost. Gabriel Moreno is still, you know, looking like he will not rejoin this team until later in the season, and then you still have the return of Christian Walker, which, to be honest, really, like, it's great to get Christian Walker back, but Josh Bell has been playing so well that it doesn't really feel like that is as pressing of a matter here. But we're a wagon! That's Espo. He's not wrong. He's not wrong. I challenge you to argue him and find where he's not wrong. This team continues to be the hottest team in baseball. And it is a bit inexplicable at times. Like today was one of those games where they just kind of beat the Rockies. But throughout this series, like we said, there were a few times. There were a few wins in the series. You know, the other two wins that the ball just kind of bounced the Diamondbacks way. And that's kind of how things have been going for this team as of late. This also marked the

24th all-time sweep against the Colorado Rockies for the Arizona Diamondbacks, which is the most series sweeps versus any opponent all-time. And of course, of course they did because it's the Rockies. I don't mean to pile on, but I'm going to. But yeah, right now, of course, there were just a lot of contributions in this game from so many different players. And, you know, like we said, Corby Carroll is getting hotter. Jake McCarthy remains hot in this series. Of course, there's a good reason why he's our king snake. Gino Suarez could have easily been our king snake for today's game in any other circumstance, where he is three for four with five RBIs on that grand slam.

But yeah, I mean, honestly, at this point, we're now to where this Diamondbacks team continues to have that different guys step up every night. Jake, Jake was good, but Jake definitely wasn't the one doing it for this team tonight. It was absolutely, it was absolutely Gino, who, I mean, just delivered an amazing, performance and and like I said that is Gino's first Grand slam since 2018 so despite

the fact that Gino showed off his power with the Mariners it's been a while since he's hit a grand slimy and I mean overall this just was again another impressive effort from this team there you know Jordan Montgomery was not was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination

but he definitely uh it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's all over the hey it's not it's you pulled it when you tripped on it we're having some technical difficulties it's fine folks we'll get it all straight um but again jordan no problem jordan mcgomery again uh the curb ball was excellent today for jordan mcgomery and uh he it definitely was a big reason why he was able to establish himself against his colorado rucky's team and this ronald rucky's team and this rick

Rockies team has been pretty good offensively, especially so far in the series. So even though things fell apart there for Jordan in the sixth inning, it still didn't get terrible. You know, it still did not get terrible. And this team just found a way to really put it to the Rockies in the finale here. I will say taking a look back out, I'm sorry, Brady. I think it's Brady Duran, says, stop Padres, please. I don't know what is going on with the San Diego Padres and how they continue. to be, I guess, the thorn in the side of the Diamondbacks.

They're stealing our spotlight is really what's going on, because, of course, it has to be a team that not only are the Diamondbacks kind of racing there in the wild card race, but also a division rival. So it is the fact that we are continuing to see this team just kind of stay step by step, step by step with the Padres right now. They also won today. They're also 69 and 53. Both teams are nine and one in their last 10 games. So right now, the division from at least the wild card perspective is getting bigger between them and their other opponents that are also in that race.

But who says it there in the chat? I don't care about the Padres. I don't either. You're right. Aside from the fact that, like, they're stealing some of the Diamondbacks shine, which really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, right? because the Diamondbacks are going to continue to play the baseball they're playing. So I'm with you on the I don't care about the Padres until we play them in the last series of the season, which could be fairly important, could have some big playoff implications by that point.

But right now, you know, again, we have the Diamondbacks currently have a six and a half game lead on essentially the one team out of the wild card race right now on the New York Mets, who are two games back from the Atlanta Braves. The Diamondbacks are four and a half games, as well as the Padres, or four and a half games up on the Braves. So, yeah, that's where the Diamondbacks sit. But we do have, of course, like I said, Jesse Freeman eventually joining us here from the clubhouse.

I'm going to scream at him when he gets here. I'm going to tell you that right now. But we do have, of course, some more from the bullpen today. The bullpen just continues to stay pretty, flawless for this team and I really don't know how they continue to do it but today was another impressive effort and overall they just have been so solid for the Diamondbacks over this stretch and a big reason why they're winning not just Jake McCarthy but the fact that the bullpen has kept them in so many of these games Kyle what were your takeaways overall I know you were

also doing ASU but to kind of after after we watch yesterday Yesterday's game that had so little action in it. It's kind of incredible to see the Diamondbacks come right out of the gate like they did in the first inning and put up those runs. I would find it difficult to bet on the Diamondbacks. Yeah. You're right. You have no idea what they're going to be any given night, right? Yeah.

You don't know if they're going to go off for 10 runs or, you know, wait until the ninth inning to finally show up. Yeah, right. Any day you don't know what they're going to turn out. And we talked about that last night where like it just felt, I mean, they're there to that. point where you kind of feel so confident that they are going to come back, that they are going to find a way to win a baseball game that when they were down by one run late yesterday, you, you believed that it was going to happen somehow. And they did it. And they did it. Who also has a great question. He said, is Paul Seawald back? While Paul Seawall didn't pitch in this game, we talked a

little bit yesterday about Paul Seawald. And he might, in fact, be back. It's going to be an interesting situation that develops here in regards to what the diamondbacks do with closers, especially in games where, you know, where things have, you know, bigger, bigger implications. You know, of course, there's a good chance that Tori could put anybody out in a game against the Rockies. We saw Joe Mantiply yesterday in the ninth inning. But Paul Seewald, again, we talked about this yesterday. In his last five outings, he's gone five innings pitched. He's allowed two hits, no earn runs, three walks, and five strike. workouts and he's just been a very, very good reliever for this team. You can say that Seawald

accepted it, but at this point, Paul Seawald is pretty much pitching for his next, you know, contract and he has everything on the line in regards to making, you know, a comeback and getting this, you know, season back on track. So far, he's done that. I just don't know if before the end of the season, we see Paul Seawald return to that closer role, especially if Justin, Martinez continues to basically do what he's been doing. I mean, we know that the, we know that Justin Martinez has all of the skill in the world to be this team's future closer. But if he can kind of, you know, get that mentality and have that confidence there at Laten Games in those high leverage situations, Justin Martinez might stay in that role for, for not only the end of the season,

but potentially beyond. The Diamondbacks may have just found their closer. And this might have been the start of his time in that role for the Diamondbacks. But, This was just, again, B says my confidence is still shaken in him is still shaken in regards to Paul Seawald. And yeah, that's understanding. That's understandable for sure. May's Devil says, I have a feeling he will. I think that might mean in regards to Paul Seawald getting back to the closer. It feels like they're moving him closer to that point.

And again, I wouldn't be surprised at all in regards to that happening. someone said in the chat that the Phillies are losing and of course that makes me happy especially considering how many of them sent me screenshots of what the Diamondbacks record was versus the Phillies record and I believe if the Phillies lose tonight the Diamondbacks and Phillies will be tied for at least the same amount of wins so who got the last laugh there I think it was me I don't know I'm petty though of course we did want to once again give a big shout out to Jacob Franklin now that he's gone. I tried to get sappy with him in here,

but I do want to thank him, especially for how much he's done for PH&X Sports as a whole. Jacob has been here since the beginning. He's been our head of production because of Jacob. He is the reason why we've brought on so many great producers, like Damon Dock, like our guy Kyle. It's the reason why producers here have succeeded in the way they have, the way that, of course, our beloved Emma Clark and our beloved show,

Sean DePaz, who have also gone on to bigger and better things, you know, got, came here and became so good at what they do. And of course, uh, that man is a huge part of the reason why not only all of those producers have gone on to, to those things, but also, you know, why the, again, like I said earlier, we here at pH and X run the way we do. Of course, uh, there's a level of excellence that Jacob has expected out of all of us. And he wouldn't be the father overlord Jacob if it wasn't. if it wasn't, you know, for that reason, because he's so overbearing.

He's so mean all the time. No, I'm joking. But I did have an absolute blast with him. And we got to definitely know each other more on the trip, which makes this a little more difficult for me. Because I realized truly how much Jacob loves baseball. And, of course, you know, we got to bond a little bit before he departs us here. But it was also a great opportunity to kind of share that time with him before he left. And of course, got to keep it locked right here to All-City

because we do have some amazing things in the works. And, of course, Jacob is going to be a big part of all of that. So, of course, we thank you guys so much. We do we have some super, do we have some super chats? I didn't know if I missed that. Oh, I'm sorry, that is a previous note. We're all over the place today, folks, but mostly because, you know, we went and ate tacos

and drank during the first inning of this game. At least one of us in this room did. And, you know, we had ourselves a good time watching the Arizona Diamondbacks go out there and thump the Rockies. And again, I talked about this being a bit of a trap series. The Diamondbacks did a great job of handling it. Like I said, they found a way to win in those two games when their offense wasn't really working. Now they have a series coming up here with the Tampa Bay Rays and then a followed by a series with the Miami Marlins. Both of those teams, again, dangerous teams that have beat some good teams recently.

so you can't take any team in baseball lightly. Like I said earlier, though, now is the time that the Diamondbacks have to stack wins. Some of these wins could be critical when the end of September comes around. And again, we don't know how things are going to stack up. Like, it feels good right now that the Diamondbacks have created that gap between them and some of their opponents in the wild card. It just still, baseball is the way it is. And any team can get hot, especially we've seen this New York Mets team get out.

We've seen this Padre. as team play just as good, if not maybe even better baseball times than the Diamondbacks. They're a very scary team. And, you know, again, there's just a lot of time still left in the season until we get to the playoffs. So the Diamondbacks need to keep things locked in. Of course, we have more here from Chase Field and the guy that I'm going to scream at for how late the players actually were is the one and only thunderstick, Jesse Friedman.

Jesse, what's happening? What the hell took you so long? Yeah, well, you know, it's a getaway day at the ballpark here, Derek, and that means the guys are not. They're not just getting ready to get out of there and go home. They're getting ready to go on a plane ride for about five hours, probably. So things are a little chaotic post game. Appreciate everyone's patience.

But yeah, this was another, another obviously just big win for the Diamondbacks. it felt a little bit effortless today in a way that it did not feel the past couple of days, right? I mean, yesterday's game looked like a game the debacks very well might lose up until the final swing of the day with Jake McCarthy. And, you know, even the day prior in Monday's game, you know, the debacks, if they don't get two wild pitches from Tyler Kinley in succession, I'm not sure if they win that game either. So to come away from this series, I mean, even though it was against the Rockies, it's a team that you feel like you should sweet. with how well the Diamondbacks are playing right now. But, yeah, to be able to finish the jobs day, obviously it's big.

It's, you know, three sweeps in their last five series. I think we can officially put to bed the narrative of the Diamondbacks not being able to complete the sweep. They have shown here in the last couple of weeks that they are, they are in fact able to do that. They've had a lot of those narratives throughout the season, like the Diamondbacks not being able to come back from an O2 deficit, it, the inability to sweep. There was the stretch where they couldn't win the first game of a series, right? Like, they just had these weird kind of stretches of things kind of not going their way. And now we have instead this weird stretch of kind of everything going their way.

And like you said, in this series, they found a way to win in a different way in each game. But in game one, they don't walk away with the win without some wild pitches. Their offense wasn't really doing much up to that point, nor did it do much after that point. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this day was by far the Diamondbacks most productive day offensively. I mean, Austin Gomber was pretty good yesterday, right? Six and six, two runs. And then Bradley Blaylock coming straight up from AA was pretty good in the game on Monday. D.backs were able to make some adjustments and get to him a little bit later on. But, you know, he held them at bay throughout a good portion of that game. And yeah, today was definitely different. The Rockies, not only was their pitching left a little bit

to be desired. There were a lot of walks. There were a lot of hit by pitches in this game as well. There was also some sloppy defense. There was the catchers interference that allowed Josh Bell to reach base early in this game. There was obviously the throwing air that led to the Jack Peterson Little League home run. There was another air, another throwing air later in the game as well. So yeah, this was this was the Rockies just sort of being the Rockies, Derek. Not to say the Diamondbacks didn't play well, but they definitely took advantage of a Rocky. team that has one of the worst records in the league for a reason. And, you know, they didn't really look like that team the last couple of days.

Rockis played some decent baseball, but they did look like that team today. Well, today was all about Gino on the offensive side of things. The man couldn't be stopped. They had to hit him with pitches. They had to do everything they could to stop him. They hit a lot of Diamondbacks with pitches today, by the way. But Gino, two doubles, five RBI, the Grand Slam, first Grand Slam since 2018. It's just, it was an incredible day for Gino.

It really was. Yeah, I mean, it just feels like somebody else stepping up every day, right? I mean, I guess Jake McCarthy's on the narrative maybe for the last few days. But, yeah, I mean, you think about over this last month, like Corbyn Carroll hit, you know, an insane walkoff home run against Kyle Finnegan. You can go through basically anyone in this lineup, right? Gino the day that he had today, Jake, what he's been doing recently. Jock Peterson had a, you know, hit, go ahead, home runs and on back-to-back days at one point. Kattel obviously has had a whole bunch of big hits.

Pretty much everyone in this lineup has had a day where they kind of controlled the narrative and they came out and did some crazy, some crazy things. And today it was, it was Gino's day to do that. He hasn't been, you know, Homer and every other day lately like we saw in July, but he's quietly still been putting together pretty productive at bats. And today you saw that materialized into getting on base four times, you know, three hits, as you said, all of them for extra bases and really the blow of the game with that grand slam.

He has 35 RBI since July 7th, which is the most in the National League in that time frame. I mean, this was a guy that honestly, the DFA conversation got real. And wasn't that out of the question with how he was playing at one point? And now Gino is literally the guy that you wish the Diamondbacks went out and traded for at the trade deadline. Yeah, I mean, Gino has a 740 OPS at this point. Like, you know, we talked about it before the season, what the expectations there should be. And we were looking at some of the projection systems. And they had them lower than that.

And we were looking at those numbers, you know, thinking that they were maybe on the the lower end and then the season starts and you know, you look up in May and he's got an OPS that still starts with a five. You're wondering, wow, those projection systems might have actually overestimated what he would be able to do by a wide margin. And in reality, what we've seen at this point is they've actually underestimated Gino, at least up to this point in the season. And yeah, although he hasn't, you know, been just doing crazy damage all the time like he was in July, he really has just the abats just looks so different to me than the hitter that we saw earlier in the season. He's he's not caught in between.

He's, you know, he's waiting for his pitch and he's hitting pitches. He's getting to balls that it didn't feel like he was getting too early in the season. I mean, the pitch that he hit the Grand Slam on, like that was a slider, maybe caught a little bit more of the plate than Riley Pint would have wanted. But it was still a down and away slider. I mean, it's the kind of pitch that I'm not sure. Gino is hitting into the seats a few months ago. Yeah.

And the swing we saw today looks pretty familiar. We've seen Gino do that a number of times here in this last month and a half. Well, and Riley Pint was missing on quite a few guys there as he hit Lourdes and who else did he hit? He had two guys. He hit Lortis. He hit Jock. He threw a couple pitches way in on Josh Bell. He threw a pitch way in on Blaze Alexander as well.

his command was about as poor as you'll see from a major league pitcher so uh that was not that was not great derrick it was to the point where it wasn't it wasn't just the pint was bad in the game which he was it was the pint was like dangerous i mean the hit by pitch jock was sort of whatever hit him kind of in the thigh he was totally fine lordis was a little bit the meaty part that was fine but lordis is was so close to his head as far as how high it was up on his shoulder, man. Yeah, and that was a, that was the fastball too in 96. And, you know, that's the other thing with Pined is, you know, the command is shaky. And he's coupling that with a fastball that can, they can touch the upper 90s. So, uh, somewhat, uh, somewhat dangerous stuff there. And, uh,

we just spoke with Gino a few minutes ago and talking about his grand slam, he actually referenced the fact that there were a couple hit by pitches earlier in the inning and wanting to sort of pick his guys up in that situation. Well, of course, Jordan Montgomery, kind of lost in all of this, had one of his best outings of the season here. And yes, it's prefaced by saying it's against the Rockies. But his curb ball was really working well today. And we talked about it a bit earlier, but he threw a real nice mix of pitches.

Yeah, he really did. Jordan Montgomery, I think you have to have the caveat right that this was the Colorado Rockies and the Rockies. Rockies are maybe going to swing and miss a little bit more than your average team. But there was a lot of swing and miss for Montgomery in this game, you know, a season high eight strikeouts for him. It really did pass the eye test in a way that we haven't really seen from Montgomery this season. Obviously, he slipped a little bit toward the end. But when he was good in this game, especially over those first few innings, he was very good. You know, it was just swing and miss after

swing and miss and Rocky's hitters chasing pitches out of the zone and both the change up and the curve ball where we're getting swing and miss in addition to both of his fastball. So this was about as good as we've seen Montgomery. Again, it did slip a little bit lately or toward the end of his outing. He winds up giving up three runs and, you know, winds up with three walks and five hits a loud. The final line there wasn't quite as pristine, but this felt like another step forward for him for sure. The people who are accusing me of taking edibles are asking for an update on Alec that we provided earlier besides what Tori said, Jesse, did you have any more information on Alec Thomas and him being sent down to Reno? Yeah, nothing more from post game. Yeah, I'm sure you guys

already touched on it. The reality is that Jake McCarthy was just playing out of his mind and debacks have quite a bit of outfield depth, right? They've sort of been careful. that extra outfielder for a while at this point with Randall Grischick also in the fold. And in addition to Gurriel and Corbyn Carroll and Jake McCarthy. So just a bit of a traffic jam. And it got to the point where once Jake McCarthy is playing against all of the righties and all of the lefties, which the debaq sort of have to do at this point, it's just hard to really find consistent time for Alec Thomas. Unless you're, I mean, the only way to do it really is to just like basically never play Lordus Guerriel against a righty.

And I don't think the debacks really wanted to go that route. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how long this last, I suspect. We will see Alec Thomas back in the big leagues at some point, maybe not too far from now. But, yeah, the team wants him to go down and make some adjustments. Tori talked about his approach, maybe being a little bit too pole heavy, how the diamondbacks like to emphasize hitting the ball hard up the middle, as opposed to hitting fly balls in the air to the pole side, which is something that other organizations do really emphasize.

The debacks are not one of them. And I think their sense of out, Thomas is that he's maybe gotten a little bit too, he's swung a little bit too far in that direction, trying to pull the ball in the air. Obviously, the ground balls have been an issue for him for a while. We've seen a lot of pole side grounders lately. So, yeah, they're looking for him to go down to Reno and change his approach and get into a little bit of a rhythm playing every day.

And hopefully he's back up here before too long. that has to be the biggest key, right? Like with the way this team is playing and how things are coming down to the end of the season, he's not going to get a lot of playing time. So in order for him to kind of get out of this and improve on at least the hitting side of things, he needs playing time. And that's what he'll get in Reno. And not to mention the fact that we know how the ball flies there.

And it's just going to be hopefully a big boost to his confidence to be, you know, playing in the PCL and such because Alec, as we discussed earlier, is a very special player. And I still think he has a lot to offer this Diamondbacks team. Jake, who is now a god in baseball, once struggled himself and went through the same, you know, kind of a path, right? Where he had to be sent down to Reno to get playing time. And then we saw Jake slashing like 350, 500, 900, you know, like it was crazy. But again, we were like, is Jake just kind of like a 4A player because he puts up these crazy numbers in Reno?

but it doesn't really translate over to a major league level. Now it is translating over to a major league level. And he's hitting like that now in the bigs. And it's impressive. I touched on this earlier about Gino with the Grand Slam, how he felt that it was sort of kind of a statement that he wanted to make after a couple of his teammates had been hit by pitches. We do have that video now.

So here is Gino talking about his grand slam and specifically it coming after a couple of his teammates were hit by pitches. Were he going up there because obviously he was struggling to find this control? Yeah, I mean, I don't blame him. You know, he can control that fast for that. That's why, like I say, I just want to send that mission. You know, we're here to protect ourselves. And it's the best way hitting home against and make day pay off.

That's great. That's great for us. great for me and we just got to keep going and play keep play like that and and have as good at best I do serious keep going and play hard play for wins I mean he's been outstanding for this team but yet another hero again for this team like I feel like maybe the fact that

nobody is feeling that pressure to be that hero is why we're continuing to see a different guy kind of pop up every single night for this team. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Gino can, he doesn't have to have the weight of the world on his shoulders in this lineup, right? I mean, he's generally hitting sixth or seventh. He's not, you know, he doesn't have to be a middle of the order producer for this team.

And what we've seen over the last five, six weeks really has been a middle of the order producer. I mean, his numbers are of that caliber. Feels like almost every Diamondbacks hitter is putting up numbers over, of that caliber here at least since the beginning of July. But yeah, we've heard time and time again, it was reiterated today about how Gino, even in those early days where he was really struggling, he was always the same guy. And yeah, he talked today about how that's something that he feels was instilled in him

at a very young age, how he wants to be the exact same person and always be cheerful and still enjoying the game of baseball, even on the days where he isn't at his best. and we've certainly seen that. We absolutely have. And I mean, it's probably one of those things that rubs some people, some fans, the wrong way. Because when you see a guy, you know, in a slump, you kind of want him moping around and looking sad. And like, Gino's never like that. He's always walking around very full of joy, very nice guy, just a nice guy who's very kind to everybody,

loves to come over and turn, you know, my camera off when I'm in the middle of filming something. you know, things like that. He's a prankster. And again, I mean, it's that that's always great when things are going well for you and you're doing well. But when they're not, then, you know, it's harder to keep that mind frame. And especially in baseball, it's so important, right? Like this team right now, again, like I said earlier, is finding a way to win every single

day. And I know that Tori Lavallo has probably like kind of had his mind blown, considering that he's managing the same team that's doing this now than it was earlier. But, I mean, today was another one of those days where they just got a complete effort. You had the bullpen not giving up any earned runs in the series at all to the Rockies. And again, Montgomery was good. And the offense went out there and got things started just right away in the first inning. Yeah, yeah.

They really didn't waste any time today, right? I mean, it was the first four batters, I think, that all reached base. And you look up and it's three to nothing. pretty much instantly. And Jordan Montgomery was also, he talked after the game about how it gives him confidence. You know, he said that it feels like we're scoring 10 runs a night, you know, and that really almost literally has been the case for the Diamondbacks. I know that hasn't happened the last couple of days, but they've had a lot of games like this

over the past few weeks where they're getting out to really, really big comfortable leads. And as a starting pitcher, you know, you can certainly understand how that would allow you to to settle in. So yeah, just another, another well-played game all the way around Montgomery. It was also interesting. I don't have video of this, but Montgomery was asked another question about his comments the other day regarding the environment here at Chase Field. And he said, yeah, he basically said that he feels like he was just a little bit frustrated

that day and he kind of wanted to clear the air and say, you know, that wasn't really an excuse. And yeah, he didn't have any issues with with anything here today. So you can understand in a moment where, you know, maybe things didn't go the way that you wanted to. Obviously, Montgomery's last outing did not end particularly great against the Phillies. It started pretty well, but it didn't end all that well. And so, yeah, I think that was just sort of a thing for him in the moment. He wasn't too concerned about that after this one. You know what's funny about that is like sometimes for a pitcher, it's almost worth just walking the statement back than trying.

to explain exactly what you mean, you know, and being like, well, like when it's like that human in here, my palm gets sweaty, I have a hard time holding onto the ball, I got to go to resin more than that makes it into kind of like a weird pace thing, you know, whatever the case may be, but like, you know, there's probably an actual reason behind it that does make a little sense. It also does kind of sound like an excuse. And sometimes in retrospect, you realize that that's what it was and that's not what you intended to put out there, you know, especially like kind of puts the blame on the like, even though he wasn't intending and probably knows very little about it.

It's almost like he just put the blame on this whole like stadium, you know, lease situation that's going on between Diamondbacks and Maricopa County. And it's like, yeah, no, don't bring that up. That's like, that's a bad topic for us to discuss. But I'll tell you a good topic to discuss is winning. And we had Tori Lovolo talking about this team winning. Here's what Tori Lovallo had to say after the game. Walk into a day game after night game,

you're always curious about how your team's going to react to the quick turnaround. But by the second batter of the game, the play that Perdomo made told me the story that I wanted to hear. Our team was ready. They were prepared. Jordan was pounded in the zone. And the play by Perdomo really defined what we were ready to do today. We came in offensively, had a couple quality out bats, took advantage of a misplay on their part,

punched across three runs, and I think that really set the tone for the day. Jordan got off to a really good start. I thought he was aggressive with his fastball, hitting his spots with it. He had a good swing of miss breaking ball. I noticed there were a lot of a ton of balls at the bottom of the zone. Strike the ball, curve ball, excuse me, that yielded in some weak contact or swing and miss. and he gave us quality start. And that's kind of what the aim was for him today

to go out and get a little bit stretched out. We were tiny bit thinned out in the bullpen. Everybody was available. I know he told you that Nellie was available in case of something going wrong early or maybe going into extra innings. So everybody's semi-gast up. He gave us exactly what we needed

and we were able to finish the game with the guys that I had targeted to finish the game. Offensively, it was Gino's day. It was five RBIs, really slugging the baseball. hit the big grand slam and had that type of special day that you like before an off day because you roll over in bed and think about it all night. You think about it 25 times tomorrow on the off day and you just keep rolling right on through. So he's been a great hitter for us

over the past month and a half. He's really impacted this team's ability to score runs. And you should be proud of himself. He's been working really, really hard to have those types of moments. But this is a good game. This is a good game. a good series close out. I want these guys to get on the plane. We're going east, enjoying off day, and be ready to go on Tampa. Love that. Love that. And we do have an off day tomorrow. So no baseball tomorrow, but make sure to join us here at 1 p.m. We'll have some more about all this luck, I guess you could say, going the diving backs way, but also that this team has a goddamn wagon.

Jesse, something he said there in the middle about Ryan Nelson. Ryan Nelson was available today to come out of the bullpen if something went catastrophically wrong or if the diamond backs go in extra innings is that is are we seeing the beginning of Ryan Nelson setting up there in the bullpen yeah it'll be interesting to see what happens with that we did see Nelson throwing a bullpen I think he started around the ninth inning of this game it was pretty clear at that point that he was not going to be used so you know you want to just get him get him some work on his throw day. No surprises there. So he's going to start on Friday. And then we'll see how this plays out, Derek. We did not ask any questions after this game about, you know, is Montgomery

going to make his next start? I think the obvious answer there is that the Diamondbacks haven't decided or that if they have decided, they're not going to say anything to the media at this point. They're at least going to wait until after Ryan Nelson makes his start on Friday. So we don't have any clarity on that at this point. It still feels to me, based on the fact that Jordan Montgomery went out and, you know, didn't necessarily pitch his very best game, but looked pretty good in this one. I mean, you know, eight strikeouts is pretty big. He had 22 whiffs in this game as well, which is far and away, his high for the season.

So, yeah, putting all that together, it's really hard for me to imagine the debacks are moving him from the rotation when he's, when he has shown some positive signs lately. So it still feels to me like Ryan Nelson going to the bullpen. is going to be the outcome here we know that the diamond backs are not going to stay with a six-man rotation beyond just this this one time through so yeah we'll hopefully get some more clarity on that officially uh you know over the weekend and end the next week but as of right now that's sort of sort of my feel of the situation well you weren't here but we kicked jacob franklin out of here so he's gone um i did give him as a parting gift uh the twitter account of jacob underscore franklin won

uh so he's been updated to that yeah i mean he deserves it after putting up with Saul for as long as he did, right? But of course, he's still... I was thinking two. I was thinking two talks. I don't know if he's quite the first. Maybe I don't know. I'll hold on to it.

Maybe I'll wait to give it to him until he really proves he deserves it. But he's a known liar. And we know that. But we know the numbers don't lie. So what do you have for tonight's number that doesn't lie, Jesse Friedman? Yeah, well, I guess I spoiled it about 20 seconds ago. The number is 22. I swelled it earlier too.

It's fine. Oh, is it 13? No, it is not. It is not 13. It was 22 is what it was. I think it's 22. And 22 is simply the number of whiffs that, there it is.

22 is the number of whiffs that Jordan Montgomery generated in this game. His previous high this season was 18. And I believe he had another game that was 17. And other than that, his highest was 12. Yeah, he had 18 whiffs on June 16th. He had 17 on May 13th. And I guess I should say the 18 came against the Chicago White Sox.

So, you know, context there may be important as it is today with, you know, the 22 whiffs coming against the Colorado Rockies. That's probably not completely coincidence. You don't have to sullient with that portion of the information. It's fine to leave that part out. The other thing I just want to say quickly about Montgomery, you guys might have touched on this already, is it is VLO did tick up a little bit in this game. He averaged 92.6 on his sinker, which was the highest that he has averaged this season. He averaged 92.9 on his four seamer.

Last year, those numbers were higher, but not all that much. Last year is sinker average 93.3 and the four seamer average 93.4. So you're talking about being, you know, less than a tick below where he was a season ago. Up to this point in the year, we've seen, you know, like 91.6, 91.1.1. something like that on average. So there was a noticeable uptick today, pretty much a full mile per hour, a little bit north of that with the four seamers. So that was a good sign.

You know, is it sustainable? Are we going to see that again in his next outing? I think we have to kind of wait and see, but a good sign for sure. Eight whips on the curve, five on the sinker, five on the fastball, four on the changeup. Again, just a real nice mix today. I think that was a big part of it. And again, his curve ball was working. His curveball was working for him today.

And that was his primary pitch, and it was for good reason, right? But I still hold out hope for Jordan Montgomery, and I still think that this guy has gone through a lot this season, trying to just remember the human aspect of it, that there's been a lot of ups and downs for Jordan Montgomery this year. Things definitely didn't go the way he wanted them to. And early on, they didn't go the way that the fans or the Diamondbacks organization wanted them to go either. I think before the end of the season, Montgomery will prove to be an asset for this team. And we'll see what happens beyond that. But I still think that ultimately his numbers will never probably equate to what the Diamondbacks paid him.

But if the Diamondbacks can do the thing this year and Jordan Montgomery can be a part of it, I don't think anybody's going to give a damn about how much he was paid and how the rest of the regular season went. This team right now seems fairly unstoppable. Well, it seems like they can play with anybody in baseball and they just continue to find a way to win. Yeah, with Montgomery, the big question for me is come playoff time. If the Diamondbacks may get there, does he start a game for them? Right. As of right now, it feels like the pretty clear answer is no, right?

I mean, you have Zach Gallen, you have Merrill Kelly, you have Brandon Fott. I think those three guys would be locks. Eduardo Rodriguez, now that he's in the fold, I think he would be a strong kid. candidate for a game four, or maybe they would go fought game four, and maybe Eduardo Rodriguez would be their game three guy. I don't know. I feel like that could definitely be where the, I guess, competition is, right? Like, that's kind of who he's competing with at this point is to kind of outplay Eduardo Rodriguez. And, you know, again, like Paul Seawalt kind of playing for, you know, his ability to get back not only do that close a role, but for his contract and his future,

It very much feels like, you know, those two guys competing for the idea of who's the actual, you know, fourth man in the rotation isn't the worst thing in the world because it could bring the best out of both of them. So, you know, again, remains to be seen because there's still a lot of baseball to play. If the Diamondbacks continue to play like this, though, it's going to be a lot of fun to watch, that's for sure. We do thank you guys, of course. We've already thanked Jacob enough. I'm not going to thank him anymore. He's out of here. Screw him.

but we thank you guys very much for being here. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at Cap underscore K-Man with a K. Jesse, of course, is at Jesse and Friedman. The man on the ones and twos tonight is Kyle. He is at K-Coop Sports, right? That's it because, you know, he's, we already know he's better than the rest of us, so it's fine. But he's good K-Cube Sports.

It's going to be like a whole thing. But, of course, our show is at P.HNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads lead to at PHNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I forgot, we are Kyle's kids now. Sorry, Faj. You're no longer our father, Overlord Jacob. We're Kyle's kids. Of course, we thank you guys so much for stopping by.

We will be back, like I said earlier, with a 1 p.m. show tomorrow. No baseball, but hopefully we can help fill that void for you. So make sure to bring it back here tomorrow. And, of course, we want you guys to have a wonderful night. The Diamondbacks did, too. That's why they swept the Rockies. But hope you have a wonderful night. Hope you behave yourselves and remember, kids.

Baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you're playing like the Diamondbacks are right now.