PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Gabriel Moreno, Ketel Marte LEAD THE WAY In 9th Inning Comeback Win Over Royals

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

The Answerbacks may in fact be back! The Diamondbacks managed to score five runs in the top of the 9th inning for an impressive comeback win over the Royals, taking two out of three in the series. We have more on the D in D-backs standing for dingers, Ryne Nelson’s night on the mound, and this team winning or splitting their seventh series in a row. Are the Snakes the hottest team in baseball?An ALLCITY Network ProductionSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/phnx_youtubeALL THINGS PHNX: http://linktr.ee/phnxsports PHNX Events: Get your tickets to PHNX events and takeovers here: https://gophnx.com/events/bet365: https://www.bet365.com/olp/open-account?affiliate=365_03330244 Use the code PHNX365 to sign up, deposit $10 and choose between either:Bet and Get offer and place a bet of $5 or more and get $150 in Bonus Bets OR First Bet Safety Net offer by placing a bet up to $1000 and if your qualifying bet loses you receive a matched refund in Bonus betsDisclaimer: Must be 21+ and physically located in AZ. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP, text NEXTSTEP to 53342 or visit https://problemgambling.az.gov/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.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!Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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.Chicken N Pickle: Head to https://chickennpickle.com to see all the fun you can have at their Glendale location! PHNX will be hosting Trivia Nights and Pickleball Tournaments so stay tuned for info!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.

ski and welcome in to another edition of the PHNX D-BACs podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Montia, occasionally known as your mayor, PHNX. This man in the box next to me way hotter than I am, both in looks and in temperature. One and only thunder stick, Jesse Friedman, my vice mayor. Jesse, what a win tonight. The Diamondbacks come back with a five-run ninth inning to win this game against the Royals, taking this series two games to one. Pretty impressive night,

pretty impressive comeback victory for a team that hasn't been able to put too many of those together this year, at least as far as those late inning comebacks. Yeah, I mean, this was shaping up to be one of the more frustrating losses of the year for the Diamondbacks, right? I mean, you're down four to three going into the ninth inning.

The debacks had multiple opportunities to score. They had a runner at second, nobody out in the eighth inning. They had a runner at second, nobody out earlier in the game. the fifth inning were not able to capitalize. They scored three runs, all of which came on solo homers, and yet they were still down by a run. It was, it was pretty brutal up to that point, Derek, and it looked like it might end that way. And so Gabriel Moreno showed that he had other plans in that ninth inning coming through with a big two-run double.

Ketel, of course, puts the exclamation point on it with a three-run homer. And Paul Seawall did make things a little bit interesting there in the bottom of the ninth, but the devaks come away with an 8 to 6 win. Well, and it's interesting because Kattel Marte's home run didn't seem as necessary in the moment, but with the way things went for Paul Seewald in the bottom of the ninth, it was very necessary. We needed that very much so in a close game that might have been tied

had it not been for Kutel Marte and just everything that happened here for the Arizona Diamondbacks late. Like this was an impressive comeback victory. Their offense, of course, got out ahead with Gino giving the snakes an early lead with a solo home run in the second inning. That was his 12th dinger of the year. At the time, before this game had started, Michael Waka had only given up single-digit home runs this year, Jesse. It was nine home runs prior to this game, but the Diamondbacks changed that. That was his 10th home run allowed.

Suarez now has the second most RBI in the national. National League since July 7th. So Gino, as bad as he has been at times this year, has been very good lately. He really has. Yeah. I mean, Gino, and it feels like a lot of those hits that he's had over these last few weeks have been really important hits too. And that was the case in this game as well.

I mean, it was early in the game. It feels like kind of a distant memory at this point, but it broke a scoreless tie. And that's something we've seen from Gino a lot here recently where D-backs might not be scoring a ton of runs. but a Gino Homer, you know, has come in some really timely situations. And he just looks like a different hitter up there. He's able to really punish those mistake pitches in a way that he was not able to do earlier in the season. And, you know, there's still going to be some strikeouts.

There's still going to be some ugly swings from time to time. I mean, that's kind of what you're signing up for with Gino Suarez. You know you're going to get that. But he also has come through in some really big spots. And he got the offense going for the debacks in this one. Uh, someone asked if I am in a cave, uh, yes, yes, I'm in a cave filled with video games and comic books. That's where my cave is. Uh, Jesse, of course, is in the beautiful, beautiful studio K presented by our friends at Circle K. Uh, and he has a much better snack selection in his cave. But Jesse, this D right here on this hat, the D and D backs, it stands for dingers guy, because the diamondbacks hit a lot of them tonight.

Jack Peterson gets home run, career home run number 200. I was going to say home run number 200, but that would be some sort of record. He gets career home run number 200 with a solo home run in the fourth inning. He had been stuck on 199 since July 5th. So it's been almost 20 days for him going from 199 to 200. And yet I still didn't have that graphic ready. You know, with all that time I had, still didn't have that graphic ready. But the Royals seem to answer back, though.

So every time the Diamondbacks kind of took a lead, the Royals had an answer there. And of course, you know, things kind of went sideways for the Diamondbacks a couple of times. It really did feel like this was going to be one of those close games that they lost. And instead, the Diamondbacks, you know, found a way there to get back, you know, late. But Ryan Nelson didn't have his best stuff today. Neither did the defense. Yeah, Nelson was, he was just okay in this game. He's obviously been on such a run for the debackers.

recently today was a bit of a rougher-go form and and really in one particular inning that fourth inning where the royals it appeared might only might just you know be out of that inning just having scored one run in the game could tell Marte bobbles a potential double play ball it allows Michael Massey to score from third base the inning continues you know a triple wild pitch and suddenly the royals have not only scored that run they added two more runs on to that They had a four three lead at the conclusion of that fourth inning. That was that was a really tough moment.

You figured that if Catel makes that play, you know, it would have been a, it would have been a tough play. I know on the broadcast they were talking about how it might not have been possible to turn to double play even if Catel makes the play there cleanly. But that was a really big kind of turning point in this game where the Royals got a lot of momentum. Yeah. Yeah, and according to Craig Morgan's discussion with the Cardinals head coach, we still don't know if momentum's a real thing or not.

But we do know that momentum shifts back and forth back and forth in this game. Bobby Witt Jr. is just an incredible baseball player. And I am so glad to not have to play against him any longer. Not that I'm doing the playing, but glad to not watch this team have to play against Bobby Witt Jr. because that man is incredible, leads all of Major League Baseball and hits by a pretty decent amount right about now. But again, Diamondbacks just fought back in this one.

Bullpen took care of business today, Jesse, for the most part. Until we get down to Paul Seawald, which again, like we talked about yesterday with Kevin Ginkle, nothing can be easy for this team. Nothing can be just close the door on a victory. You had Justin Martinez, he cruised in his one inning of work. He walked one, but he knows. gave up no hits, no runs, struck out one.

Mantiply, again, one strikeout, one inning of work, zeros besides that. And then Paul Seawald in the bottom of the ninth with, I mean, not a subs, like a substantial lead, eight to four. Like Paul Seawald wasn't even out there in a closed situation yet he developed it into one. He developed it into a save opportunity, I guess. I don't know if that it doesn't, no, he doesn't get that. He doesn't get a save for me. He should not.

He should not. It's like he tried. But my God, Jesse, this is like, it's concerning because, of course, with what Gabrielle Moreno was able to do and his heroic effort, you know, this would have been a close game had it not been for Cattell to, you know, give them that extra cushion. But Paul Seawald, we, again, we could have be looking at a very different situation here, had, had, you know, had things not been so fortuitous for the Diamondbacks there in the ninth inning. Yeah, I mean, Catele Marte had just an unbelievable series.

I feel like, you know, we'll talk about Bobby Wood Jr. too. And he had obviously an outrageous series and has been the hottest hitter on the planet since the All-Star break. But Cattel's Homer, I mean, that was his third homer in his many games. You look at this series as a whole for Cattel. He went six for, six for 12 with those three, those three dingers, a total of seven RBI in this game as well. a couple of walks for him as well. So Cotel continues to be, as we said yesterday, just an indispensable part of this team,

the best player on this team by a pretty wide margin. And once again, a very legitimate candidate for in the NL MVP conversation, not necessarily saying that he's the frontrunner in that, but he is certainly in that conversation at this point with what he continues to do, not just from the right side of the plate, Derek, but again from the left side of the play we saw that again with that three run homer there in the

ninth inning um there's some talk in the chat do i have the voice of god right now am i having some sort of double mic situation or anything i think you i people are talking about an echo which i'm not hearing come through on my end i think uh i think the one and only damon dog is is working on that trying to see if he if he can hear anything on his end but you sound great to me derrick that's all that matters. So that is all that matters. I'll try to stop be so booming when I speak, but it's hard to not be excited about a win like this because,

again, the Diamondbacks are showing that, that they are fighting back. And I mean, especially like Gino had a big game today. We've heard of Gino's name being talked in trade discussions and things like that. We didn't know if you would have any value, but it feels almost like lately,

He's playing to stay as the starting third basement for this team and almost trying to give the Diamondbacks a reason to not go out there and possibly trade for his replacement. The Diamondbacks right now, 53 and 50. They are 6, 0, and 1 in their last 7 series dating back to their series win over the Oakland A's. They just split the one series with the Atlanta Braves. And they've just been playing some incredibly good baseball right now, Jesse. It's great to see. It's at a very, very good time. And again, the contributions are coming from guys that have struggled,

even though Corbyn is still not really part of that. And I'm sure the frustration is growing with Corbyn himself and with the fan base as well. But tonight, the guys got it done. And again, they got it done with the long ball. Diamondbacks hit a lot of home runs in this one. But the Gabriel Moreno's hit, probably the most important. So Gabriel Moreno is our King Snake for this. game one for two coming off the bench.

He had that big double in those two RBI that that gave the diamond backs a lead. And then it was padded by Catele-Marté, but just a great job tonight by this team of of hanging in there and then coming back late. Yeah, it was so big. It just felt like the whole team kind of took a collective, just had a collective sigh of relief when Gabby Moreno came through with that hit. It was a game where I think the debacks were 0 for six with runners in scoring position. and entering that at bat.

You had yet another opportunity with runners at first and second one out in the ninth inning. And it was like, all right, here's yet another chance. If the debacks don't take advantage of this one, it's going to feel like a pretty ugly loss. And just a really nice swing there by Gabby. I know on the broadcast they love to talk about him going to the opposite field. And he did that in a really beautiful way there. I think it was a fastball in the lower outer third of the play. Just kind of went with it.

So it's a right center field. did it a long way. And he continues Derek to look like just a different hitter to me ever since he's come off the injured list. Gabby Moreno has been a, I mean, he's been a top of the order guy for them against lefties. They've, you know, Tori's been hitting him second. He hasn't been that against righties necessarily. But there's a case to be made that maybe he should be there.

I know we talked yesterday about Corbyn Carroll in the lead off spot and how he hasn't, you know, given the debacks a ton in that, in that spot in the lineup. against Ritey's. Gabby Moreno continues to come through in a lot of big spots ever, ever since that that IL stint that he returned from. Well, and a big part of it, like you said, there was kind of taking what is given to him. And that was kind of his success last year. It continues to be his key to the success this year. It's just patience. And I feel like the Diamondbacks are showing that as across their starting lineup. It's the patience is is translating over to, you know, getting, getting those good pitches to swing at it's basic you know baseball 101 but like that's why it's so

frustrating sometimes to be watching a baseball team like we did with this diamondbacks team earlier in the season struggle so significantly with having any patience at the plate like even if they're not being successful you know you still want to see them work in the count and doing you know whatever they can to try to make the opposing pitcher work a little bit more gets more information just see some more pitches and that is you know a big reason of of why they won tonight i will also say like you said there was a few points where it did feel like you know we were watching a team that got close got opportunities got runners in scoring position but just they weren't going to get that big hit tonight they were just going to kind of quietly go away and lose this game by a score of

four to three and instead five runs there in the top of the ninth inning jesse i just still can't believe what we saw my uh i i got up at one point after gabby hit that double and i started doing like what i would call what i do when i watch a horse race and i've i bet on the horse and the horse is starting to win where i start slapping like my side like as if i'm running or riding the horse a little bit i did that to myself so hard that i kind of hurt myself a little bit in my side by hitting myself so much but that's how excited i was to see that gabby merino double uh that's how exciting this ninth inning was for this team. It was an amazing, it was amazing night.

And I will tell you this much. Gabby Moreno is a big, you know, he, he, he's one of those guys that is a difference maker as to why they struggled early on versus their success over the last two months. I feel like we have to address the camera work at the end of this game because I cannot be the only person who thought that Salvador Perez had just hit a game tying home run. Yes. And then in the ninth inning. No, you're absolutely right. It kind of just had that look off the bat.

And then and then the camera pans and it looks like it's just following the baseball clear into the left into the field. Yeah, 500 feet for all for all we knew. And then it just like drops and Lordus Gurriel is standing there well in front of the warning track. Well in front of the fence. Yeah. That was quite a moment. He was just standing waiting for it to fall down basically. Right.

Yeah. It was very, very deceptive camera work, but it did make the end there more thrilling than it needed to be, as did Paul Seawald. And of course, I don't know, man, there might be a discussion there to start having. I know that the Diamondbacks are going to be looking at some potential trade targets that have experience with save opportunities and closing games. Maybe we see the Diamondbacks start to transition even before we, end of the season to someone else i mean i still feel like they believe in paul seawald and obviously seawald is you know the guy that tory is going to continue to go with this one this one this one

made me a little nervous this one definitely made me nervous but the diamondbacks pull out the win eight to six again improved a 53 and 50 and are now just an impressive six zero and one in their last seven series so uh good time to be a snakes fan thank you guys for being here in the p h and x its YouTube channel. If you have not subscribed to the channel yet, we implore you to do so now. Sign up for notifications that we don't miss whenever our shows go live. We try to stay on a schedule, but sometimes, you know, breaking news happens and you don't want to miss it. So make sure you sign up for notifications. Of course, drop a like. We love it when you hit that like button. If you're listening on the audio podcasting side, make sure you subscribe over there on your

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the guy that I feel like I should be best friends with Ryan Reynolds, he's going to have a big day with his movie dropping. But of course, he's also a big part of Mint Mobile kind of owns the thing. And Mint Mobile is, of course, here to not only rescue you from listening to me talk about how much I love Ryan Reynolds, but it's also here to rescue you with premium wireless plan starting at just 15 bucks a month. All plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text

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Let's take a look at the numbers from this series because baseball is going to baseball. Diamondbacks win two out of three. They tie on runs scored in the series at 18. The Royals outhit the Diamondbacks 34 to 26. Runners in scoring position. Royals hit 316. Oh, hell yeah. Diamondbacks were eight for 27 for 296 RISP.

They both teams starting pitching ERA was not very good. Royals has 6.32 starting pitching ERA to Diamondback 7.71. And relief pitching ERA also a little better, 3.97 on the Royal side, 4.50 for the Diamondbacks. And yeah, piece of Yoshi says inflated-ass stats from game one. That'll happen. That'll happen. Yeah, the Diamondbacks did lose game one by a score of 10 to 4 and they were out. hit 15 to 8 but hey that's uh that's that's this is it this is uh this is a series this is why

baseball is so ridiculous right here to the numbers they don't lie jessie they always they always kind of match up and they're always kind of funny i just think it just the fact that the diamondbacks were able to take two out of three in spite of the series that bobby wood junior had like that's that's pretty big i mean bobby would junior in this series derrick went seven for 12 with two doubles, a triple, a homer, a walk, a hit by pitch, a stolen base, four runs batted in, four runs scored. He had an 1810 OPS in the series. These are just bonkers numbers.

And granted, the Royals do have a bit of a problem, which I think we saw in the series, which is that their lineup doesn't have a ton of depth outside of that. I mean, you know, it's Bobby Witt Jr. You know, Salvador Perez had a really good season as well. outside of those two guys there aren't i guess viny pasquantino i should mention as well he's you know he's a good season and has it has a strong uh has a strong reputation for sure but there's not a lot of depth to this lineup um but even so i mean bobby wood junior going off in the way that he did

for the diamondbacks to find a way to still win two out of these three games that that feels that feels really huge uh and on a second note i just continued to be blown away by how good bobby would junior is at baseball. The AL MVP race is going to be absolutely wild with what he's doing, Aaron Judge, Gunner Henderson. The list goes on of strong candidates there. So I'm excited to watch Bobby Witt, Jr., you know, from afar the rest of the season. But I don't think the debacks are too upset that they're not going to have to face that

man the rest of the year. No, but I think back to game one with, you know, the bench clearing and Tori getting tossed and how, how the emotions that were there. And I remember Tori's comments saying that he would never intentionally throw at the future of the game like that, meaning Bobby Wood Jr. And Tori, Tori has high praise for a lot of these guys, especially the best in the league. And I, again, it's amazing that that happened in game one. And the Diamondbacks, you know, kind of looked as bad as they did at times in that game. Yet, you know, here they walk away with a series win.

And it did feel like Tori kind of going out there and doing what he did, fired the team up. I mean, it's easy to say that in hindsight now that they won these last two games. But like, again, it feels like that was, you know, part of the purpose besides Tori just, you know, losing his temper there a little bit. It definitely was to come out there and protect his guys and show them that he is not going to stand for that. When a manager does that, it's hard not to go out there and play hard for him the next day. Yeah, I mean, I guess we can make the case, right? like if Tori doesn't go out there and get his words in and get thrown out of that game on Monday. Maybe the debacks get swept in this series, Derek, who knows?

Maybe that was the difference for them ultimately. But yeah, I mean, someone just mentioned Royals had an insanely good home record going into this series as well. So debaq's finding a way to come away with two wins in the series. And just starting the second half on the right foot, right? They came into the All-Star break with a lot of momentum. They were playing really good baseball. And when you take four days off, you don't really know what it's going to look like coming out of that, right? We've seen, especially in the postseason, there's been a lot of conversation about we don't want the, you know, week-long layoff or whatever.

We think that that can affect our players in a negative way and, you know, get them out of their rhythm a little bit. It wasn't necessarily a given that the debacks were going to have their rhythm going into the second half. and with a series win in Chicago that was very close to being a sweep, they weren't quite able to finish the job there. But two out of three against this Royals team, which is a very good Royals team. I mean, this is not the Kansas City Royals of the past few years. This is a team that is very much in contention in the American League playing pretty good baseball.

And the debacks were able to steal a game from them tonight. And that's not something that feels like we've said a whole lot of this year, right? It feels like other teams have stolen games from the debacks. a whole lot more than they've been able to do that to the opposing team. So just a just a huge huge series win for them all the way around. Four and two now post All-Star Break. I know when we spoke to a couple of guys, I spoke to like Christian Walker and things like that.

Like the Diamondbacks opinion was that the All-Star Break wasn't long enough. They could have used more time to relax and recuperate. And a lot of them spent time like with family and completely away from the game. that's kind of a bonus there when you think about someone like Christian Walker that might enjoy that. Like, yes, he could have been on the All-Star team or he should have been on the All-Star team or whatever case you want to make. But like sometimes having that rest and not having a bunch of your guys go to the All-Star team might not be the worst thing. Like you guys actually get a little bit of a break and then you kind of come back rejuvenated here. We've seen it with guys that have come, you know, off the IL where, you know, they kind of weren't.

right. We know Gallen at one point wasn't really right. He came off the aisle. He looked fairly good. Jordan Montgomery now has a solid start. So like the rest for these guys, especially with how short their offseason was with the way everything's been. And with the number of injuries, you know, this this team has really just like kind of had a lot going on. They've really exhausted parts of this of this team. And I think, you know, that the break was good for these guys. Diamondbacks now have also some pretty good reinforcements still coming on the way while they are in the middle playing good baseball. You have Merrill Kelly on the horizon. You have Eduardo Rodriguez making his debut allegedly if he's a real person on the horizon, Jesse. And I mean, considering the way that

things are going right now, like this team is trending in a very good direction to be one of the hottest teams in baseball potentially. I mean, right now they kind of are one of the hottest teams in baseball in the month of July. They absolutely are. Yeah, I think we heard on the broadcast, it'd be now 14 out of 21 games that they've won, which I believe is the best record in baseball in that span. There are some other teams around them that have started to heat up.

You know, the Cardinals have continued to play pretty good baseball. The Mets, I know, destroyed the New York Yankees. I think that was a sweep. The Rockies, the Rockies, Jesse?

They destroyed somebody today, both with their words and with their actions. and a bench clearing brawl, but 20 runs they put up on the Red Sox today. I said yesterday they've been playing some good baseball and then they go out and do this today. It's kind of, it's not like I'm worried about the Rockies, but baseball is baseball. Weirder shit has happened than a team that's 15 games back, like randomly finding a way how to catch up and at least be part of the pack for, you know, a playoff spot. So who the hell knows what could happen, but I don't want to play. I don't think the Rockies are going to are going to be.

I don't want to play them right now. I don't, I don't, like, we were looking forward to playing the Rockies. I'm not looking forward to playing the Rockies, at least not right now in the moment, Jesse. But, yeah, there's, there's just a lot of good things happening for the Diamondbacks right now. They're just playing really good baseball. And, I mean, they're getting some good pitching performances from guys at times, just enough to kind of keep, keep the ship afloat. And, I mean, Ryan Nelson, this was probably one of his worst starts this month, to be honest. And he still did a good job of at least giving this team an opportunity.

opportunity to win. Yeah, it was an interesting day for Ryan Nelson. You know, the lack of WIFs narrative kind of continues there. He only had two in this game. I didn't think he really had his best stuff necessarily. His fastball command was decent, but maybe not quite as pinpoint as we've seen in some of his recent outings where it's really been excellent. But, you know, he managed to keep the debacks in this game. We mentioned what happened in the fourth inning and how, you know, if Ketel finds a way to make a really nice play and turn that double play, maybe we're talking about six innings one run for Ryan Nelson instead of six innings four runs.

That was a pretty big moment. But yeah, I mean, Nelson's been really good lately. I don't think you're too concerned about him going out there and giving you, you know, allowing four runs over six innings. And as you said earlier, I mean, he might he might not be in this rotation all that much longer. I mean, if the Diamondbacks get those guys back from injury that they're, expecting to that that might allow nelson to shift into a bullpen roll potentially down the road and i i'm still very intrigued at what that would look like i mean you think about his four seamer that's in the

95 96 range right now you know you ramp that up to to 98 99 whatever that looks like in the bullpen he could be he could be a weapon down there i could see a world where ryan nelson is a pretty good reliever uh if you're if you're kind of using him in short stints uh similar situation with slade sikoni who the Diamondbacks recently converted back to just being a reliever now that he's back with with AAA Reno. So he did, yeah, he did absolutely enough to keep the debacks in this game. And obviously they were able to come away with the win at the end. A piece of Yoshi says Ryan finally had a middle ground outing

because he's either terrible or great. That's very true. And I think, yeah, I mean, this is somebody else said it in the chat. but you know this is oh who said it we'd seen a bunch of worse outings from ryan so i'll take today's performance and i agree with that like again if if ryan nelson if this is a bad outing for ryan nelson then this is much better than the really bad outings we've seen out of them but yeah honey you guys don't lie you guys are in the chat never lie uh damon lies a lot all the time i've tried to warn you guys you won't listen to me jesse not really he's kind of a true teller

but every once in a while he likes to fib a little bit. But we know the numbers, they never lie. So, Jesse, what do you have for tonight's numbers that don't lie? Yeah, tonight's number is 10101.010. This represents Gino Suarez's OPS, Derek, in the month of July. Stop it. It's pretty good. It's pretty good.

Oh, Gino! His full slash line I have it here is 299-368-644. in the month of July that's current after as of the end of tonight's game. It includes a pretty good day for him where he homered and doubled. So as we said from the top, he looks like a different hitter up there. He's starting to really punish those mistakes. And he's sitting him a long way, Derek. That was another long home run from him today.

I think it was 110 miles an hour off the bat. These are not cheap shots. These are Gino Suarez, you know, kind of throwing it back to days that are not all that far in the past where he had about as much raw power as anyone in this game and could hit the hit the ball a very long way. So his numbers continue to move in the right direction. And, you know, we're about to talk about some trade candidates again here, Derek. And you and I spent some time today looking at potential infielders that could help the debacks. And frankly, it just doesn't feel like as much of a need now that Gino Suarez has gone out and, you know,

been one of the best hitters in the game here over the last three weeks. Right. And, And this is why baseball is ridiculous because it's hard to kind of prove yourself when you've had a rough stretch. It's hard to get out of the hole statistically. But when you start to break things down month by month, and I'm sure if you look at his season month over month, we've seen, at least from when he was really bad in April and May, we've seen a steady improvement. Right. So like, Gino has been doing things. We've joked about him coming back online slowly.

but he really has been, I guess, the party starter, if you will, for the offense. You know, we're seeing a lot of the first bit of offense be like a Gino solo home run, like in today's game. And again, with the way that this offense has struggled at times, it just feels like he kind of gets things going. It helps whoever's pitching for the Diamondbacks have a little bit of, you know, run support and feel, you know, that stability from the offense. and I mean, he's not, he's probably never going to have great numbers based on how much he struggled at one point. But like you said, he's absolutely becoming the guy we thought we were going to get, even the guy we hoped we would get. Like, the numbers are better than those projections that we saw. We also know that he's streaky, right?

So like, this is how things kind of even out where you have the bad and you have the good and then this is what you get. Hopefully, Gino can stay hot and continue to help contribute to. this team. And again, it does feel a little bit like, you know, he's aware that he's not playing well and he's aware that his job is potentially on the line. And it goes beyond that, right? Like, Gino's getting to a point in his career where if, you know, these opportunities for him might be getting fewer and farther between. So, you know, you got to do everything you can right now to play hard. And we really saw him turn it around in a lot of different ways. Like, not only is the power back, but it felt like once again, what I said earlier with the patience.

His bats, is that bats became way more patient over the last two months. And obviously that translated over to these results that we're seeing. Yeah, he also, I mean, I mean, he's been pretty much what the debacks were hoping to get from him, I think. I mean, maybe, maybe they envisioned. And I know Mike Hazen made comments about, you know, potentially getting back to the hitter. He was in 2022. Obviously, he hasn't been that guy. He was a well, well above average hitter for the Mariners that year.

But he's still then a pretty. substantial improvement over what the D-BACs had at third base a year ago. Last season, D-BACs third base been combined for a 75 WRC plus at third base. A hundred is league average for those who don't know. So 75 would be very, very bad. It was in the bottom five of the league. It might have been like number 29, if I'm remembering correctly. It was definitely toward the back end.

And Gino, this season after this game, I think is WRC plus is around 90. We'll see what that number is tomorrow morning when everything updates. But there's a pretty big difference there between 75 and 90. It obviously was rough for him early in the season. But with how good he's men here over these last three weeks, which is really one of the best hitters in baseball, I mean, you're looking at pretty much the guy that we kind of expected him to be. And maybe there's still more in the tank there. I mean, if he's able to, I'm not expecting a 10.10 OPS the rest of the season necessarily, that's probably a little bit bullish. but you know if he can be a 130 w rc plus guy or something like that the rest of the way

i mean that's a huge huge lift to this lineup uh would just add so much more depth so he continues to just have this dramatic dramatic turnaround from where he was a few weeks ago it's it's great to see because the diamondbacks need it and we know looking at the options available at the trade deadline that there there's going to be a bidding war. I feel like for some of these guys, I feel like there is going to be a lot of teams going after players that the Diamondbacks might be interested in. And, you know, I don't really think the Diamondbacks need to mortgage the farm at this point, at this point to improve this team. I think this team is going to still be very good. I think that they can make some, you know, maybe, maybe some

low-key acquisitions at the trade deadline that can really bolster the bullpen. But we will talk about some fantastic candidates that the athletic and other sources have connected the diamondbacks to that we're going to go a little off the rails derrick don't even really make sense but we'll we'll get to that here shortly of course what does make sense is stopping by circle k right now because it's america's third stop and it's hot it's hot uh it's monsoony out there so now tomorrow it's going to be all sticky and humid you know what that means it's going to be even hotter so make sure stop by circle k grab yourself a polar pop or a froster for just 79 cents any size you want between now and september 3rd

course you can also fill your gas up uh fill your car up i should say with gas uh and make sure to save as much money as you possibly can by joining the inner circle for free right now by downloading the circle k app terms and conditions apply at participating locations visit circlek dot com for details but when you do you'll save 25 cents per gallon on your first five phillips you'll save three cents every day after that so get down on the inner circle app Get yourself a frosty beverage and stay cool out there because it's going to be a hot one in Arizona on, what is it, Thursday. I don't even, Jesse, I still don't know what day it is. I'm still very confused about how I lost 10 days of my life.

But that just felt like a fever dream of me sleeping in the same bed as Jacob Franklin. Of course, shout out to Jacob, by the way, because him and I together grabbed ourselves some incredible seats like I was talking about yesterday through game time. It was a fantastic experience. We did save a significant amount of money. Tickets were available through the box office, and I did not buy them because they were much more expensive than what we found on GameTime. You can save up to 60% off by buying tickets last minute for any event you want to go to. Check out everything GameTime has to offer.

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Download the app, create an account and use code P.H.N.X for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code P.H.N.X for $20 off. Download Game Time today. last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed well jesse let's get let's get crazy let's get nuts with our trade deadline targets because as much as we wanted to stay rooted in reality and in you know i guess candidates that would fit what this team is looking for in ways to improve this team other outlets wanted to suggest that the diamondbacks are going to go after garret crochet and

Cody Bellinger. So we're going to talk about him. Let's talk about him. First off, let's start with Cody Bellinger. Let's just get really insane and talk about the Arizona Diamondbacks bringing Cody Bellinger home, shall we? Yeah, I guess. I don't know, Jesse. I don't know. Yeah, this is if you think this is ridiculous and are wondering why are we talking about this, we blame the athletic, which is a highly respected publication that, you know, I'm a subscriber too and love a lot of their content. They had a, this was a ranking, right, Derek, where they had the top 50 players who could be traded. And Cody Bellinger, of course, was one of them, which you'd expect. But what you would not expect is that the Diamondbacks were listed as one of the potential options.

So we will, we will go ahead and have a quick Cody Bellinger discussion. His numbers for the season. He's hitting 269, 331, 410, 9 homers, 37, RBI 1.2 B-Wore on the season. And yeah, Cody Bellinger, as people know, when the D-Backs played the Cubs, he did not play. He has been injured. However, it's obviously a big name. And someone who could help the Diamondbacks, I think, but I don't really know how, Derek,

because where on earth is this man going to play? And how does it make sense? I don't get it. I don't either. And I don't know when. they're doing like we we know that none of this is real right these are experts they get information they hear things or whatever and sometimes they just make it up but uh i don't know cody belliger coming home to arizona that's that's the only part that makes sense but

outside of it no it doesn't make any sense it doesn't make sense for the diamondbacks uh to swing for an addition this big not to mention that cody bellinger has he's been injured right he's been struggling with some injuries this season. Yeah, he has a, he currently has a broken finger. It went on the injured list without a couple of weeks ago. So I'm not sure exactly when he would be back. I'm sure he'll be back at some point this season. But yeah, I mean, the last thing the deep backs need from a roster construction standpoint is another left-handed hitting outfielder, right? It doesn't, it doesn't really make any sense at all. I mean, I guess the only way where this would make any sense is if you were like, yeah, we're sending Corbyn Carroll to triple

and we're going to leave him there for however long. And we're just going to ride it out with Cody Bellinger as our everyday right fielder, I guess, with Alec Thomas playing center. You know, maybe Bellinger against lefties would play center. And then Thomas sits and Randall Grishick starts in right. Jake McCarthy, of course, would factor in there somewhere as well. The other side of this would be, I guess, if you're not bringing Christian Walker back, then Cody Bellinger, of course, plays first base as well.

but that also is a little bit dicey territory because Bellinger has, he has player options for the next two years. So you don't have a guarantee that he's actually going to come back next season. I think he would, given the season that he's had, it hasn't been real, real fantastic. How much money? Yeah, I'm not sure how much better he would do in the open market. He could maybe get more years, but I don't think he's going to get, I believe it's 27.5 million that he is set to make next season. so yeah this no matter what way we slice this i can't make cody belliger to the devax really make any sense at all uh so by the way and then 25 000 or 25 million

thousand that's what that's what that's what that's what i make 25 million player option for 2026 i mean yeah like if he continues to kind of you know if if if his career continues to kind of slide then like what what why would he opt out of that that's a lot of money and you know yeah that's one of those situations that i don't think the diamondbacks really want to be tied to i don't think it would make sense for them i i don't know i mean sometimes this stuff is um it's that maybe maybe there is something to it but this one this one doesn't really seem to make a lot of sense i i still don't even look no looking at the guys that are on that top of it's top 50 list, what position players would really make sense for this Diamondbacks team, to be

honest. I mean, I'm having a hard time finding a player that they would give up, you know, future potential stars, you know, maybe give up a Davis and De Los Santos for, you know, one of these guys that I don't know if they're going to have a huge impact on what this team is doing right now. Yeah, the one name on that top 50 list we were looking at that I was like, okay, this I could sort of see from the debacks perspective was Esauk Paredes of the Tampa Bay Rays who of course is there every day third baseman you know I believe under control for three more seasons if the debacks decided like hey we just want a stable third base situation for the next three years that would that could

make sense but that the price tag there is going to be pretty high and again with how good Gino Suarez is hitting right now it'd be a little weird it'd be The timing would be very strange to go out and get an everyday third baseman and then leave Gino in kind of a limbo scenario where he's maybe just getting a couple starts a week or something like that. It doesn't feel like it would be a great use of the resources. And yeah, I mean, just looking at the infielders they have on the roster right now, it's Catell, it's Geraldo Pardomo, it's Gino Svarez, it's Christian Walker.

And Kevin Newman is really your only backup infielder right now. So if you're getting an infielder, I guess you're replacing Kevin Newman on paper. But, you know, Kevin Newman's been pretty good for the debacks this season. It's not like he's a liability in any sense or doesn't have value. You know, he plays against lefties and plays some second base, can move around the diamond a little bit. So to me, if the debacks are getting an infielder, it has to be someone who is better than Kevin Newman, right? it has to be a clear upgrade over someone who is on the roster right now. And outside of a big move like an ESOC Paredes,

I'm not really sure that that guy is out there. What about a right-handed hitting outfielder potentially or a backup catcher? I think a right-handed hitting outfielder could make sense. But that's again why Cody Bellinger, I don't understand that because he is a left-handed hitting outfielder. But a right-handed hitting outfielder, yeah, it would still be weird. I mean, in order to get a right-handed hitting outfielder, you would have to be, you know, you'd have to be like sending Corbyn Carroll down or you'd have to be, I mean, you can't add,

you can't just add another outfielder onto this roster right now. The debacks already have, you know, Corbin Carroll, Randall, Grychick, Lordus Curiel, Jake McCarthy, and Alec Thomas. So, you know, on paper, it would make sense. But I guess if you're trading like Jake McCarthy for something else, then maybe you'd want to replacing with someone who bats right-handed. Like that would sort of make sense to me. But beyond that,

it's still hard to find room for someone like that on this roster. Esauk Paredes is from Sonora, Mexico, right across the border. There you go. Low-key and Arizona boy? Yeah, there you go. Bring him home. It's meant to be.

One thing I found interesting about the athletics top 50 list is how many diamondbacks were on there. I saw Jake McCarthy. I saw Richard Walker, I saw Jock Peterson. You're not getting any of those guys. I'm just putting that out there now. Probably not.

The athletic can talk about it all they want, but you're not getting any of our boys. I'm going to tell you that now. But since we're swinging for the fences, Jesse, since we're here and we're already talking about players that the Diamondbacks most likely won't get, let's talk about Garrett Crochet, shall we? Because apparently he is now kind of actually being linked to the Diamondbacks.

Yeah, I don't, I mean, I haven't seen any, any reports of the debacks checking in necessarily. I know Nick Bacoro in a story that he wrote the other day. He mentioned Crochet, not necessarily as someone the debacks had made contact regarding, but just someone who on paper kind of fits what they've been talking about. Crochet has been outstanding for the White Sox this season going through his numbers as you see here. 111 and the third inning is a 307 ERA, a 097 whip, 12.7Ks per 9, 2 walks per a FIP of 2.32. His peripherals are off the charts.

He's throwing 97 miles an hour from the left side. He's sort of, I mean, he might be the most dominant. I mean, he's up there with Tarek Scouble and the conversation of like most dominant left-handed pitchers in this game. He has been that good for the White Sox this season. The tricky thing with Garrett Crochet is that this is his first season as a, as a full-time starting pitcher, at least in a long time, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, as a, you know, as a member of the White Sox.

And so that means that his innings limit is a pretty significant factor here. We've already seen the White Sox kind of back off a little bit. I think he threw 74 pitches in his last game. So he's not someone you can really count on as like a six inning per start guy the rest of the season. You're going to have to back off him from an inning standpoint. It might be more of a multi-inning relief type of a role for the rest of the year. But he does have two more years of club control. so you're not only getting him for the rest of this season,

you're also getting him for a couple more years. And next season and certainly the year following, he should be more built up. He should be able to be a full-time starter for you at that point. And he should be a pretty darn good one as well. But do we need him? And is the cost going to be too high for a guy like this? Like you'll never turn down an elite pitcher like he's proving himself.

to be. However, Zach Zent is absolutely right. Erod has a 0.00 ERA right now. So we don't even know what the Diamondbacks have and we don't know how, you know, the return of Merrill Kelly and Eduardo Rodriguez is going to impact this team as a whole. It's going to have a, you know, kind of a ripple effect where Ryan Nelson and other guys are going to get moved around, potentially other roles. And this bullpen could get stronger with the addition of these guys. But at the same time, too, the Diamondbacks do have to look, I think, if they're going to look at trade candidates that's going to cost an outrageous amount, they need to look at guys like this that have years of control that are going to make this team better down the road and not just a rental. Because right now the Diamondbacks do lose some key members potentially of this team at the end of the year. There's a reason that Christian Walker has not resigned with this team.

And that reason most likely is that he is going to test out the free. agency market. It doesn't mean he doesn't come back to Arizona like what happened with Lourdes-Guriel Jr. But there's pieces of this team moving on. We know Paul Seawald. His contract is up after the season. So the Diamondbacks do have to start looking at, you know, a potential closer of the future and beyond. So I think as long as the trade, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense for this season, is a move to, you know, improve this franchise going forward, then I'm all for it. But so far, a lot of the names that we saw outside of Kyle Finnegan on that top 50 list attached to the Diamondbacks didn't really make a lot of sense,

but we will keep sifting through this pile of candidates as we get closer and closer to the trade deadline less than a week away now until that trade deadline because it comes up on July 30th, right, Jesse? That's the that's true. Yeah, it is Tuesday, I believe at 6 p.m. Eastern. So, yeah, we're getting, we're getting pretty close there. We're going to we might have to start going through more than two names per episode because we've got some more. We got a lot of relievers, a lot of relievers to talk about. Yeah, there's a lot of relievers. One other thing I want to say on crochet real quick is, you know, the debacks, they

have a clear need for a left-handed reliever. So this isn't just, this isn't just like an all-in move for the future. This meets a need that the debacks have right now. And Garrett Crochet might be as good of a left-hand reliever as you could possibly acquire. I know he talked about Tanner Scott yesterday. He also is a very attractive option in that role. But Garrett Crochet gets every bit as much swing and miss as Tanner Scott, and he hasn't really walked anyone,

whereas that's been a pretty significant issue for Scott this season. So it fills that role for this year, and then it also is a controllable starter moving forward. And that's something that Mike Hazen said in a conversation I had over the weekend. He said that they're always in on controllable starting. pitching, right? Even though on paper, they could bring back the same rotation that they have now next season. I mean, you think about Erod being healthy and Merrill Kelly being healthy, Zach Allen, Brandon fought, Jordan Montgomery at this point, given his struggles, it seems

fairly likely that he'll wind up back with the team next year picking up that player option. So the debacks don't necessarily have a ton of room in their rotation next year, but Mike told me that you can never have too much starting pitching. And I certainly wasn't surprised to hear that we've heard that kind of thing before and thinking about it a rotation with gallon and merrill kelly and garret crochet and brandon fought and edwardo rodriguez and you know jordan montgomery may be factoring in there too you can get really excited about that group going into 2025 six man rotation jesse six man rotation bring yilber up let's do a seven man let's get crazy let's do whatever we want uh of course we thank you guys of course so much for being here we

the Diamondbacks for being awesome and winning tonight's game by a score of 8 to 6 over the Royals taking that series two games two games out of three drop a like before you get out of here make sure to follow us on Twitter I am at cap underscore caveman with a k Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman of course the man on the ones and twos tonight is the people's producer himself Damon make sure to follow him at Damon dog that's D-A-W-W-G we are Damon's dogs bark bark our show is at P-H-N-X underscore D-Backs but of course all roads lead to at p hnx underscore sports on twitter instagram and facebook this was a fun one we thank you guys for stopping by we'll be back i think uh derrick i think we got a couple super chats to

get through here before we i don't see those on my end why don't you handle those jesse yeah uh so we have rattlebacks uh says it was a no doubter kattel is more reliable than a rab for give that man his due MVP. There we go. Thank you Rattlebacks. We very much appreciate it. We also have as Derek unveils his absolutely massive. Oh, no, no. Where did you get this from again, Derek? This was at the home run derby. This was at the whole run derby. They were just giving these away. They were just giving these away. No free ads, but

I'm just saying. Anyway, uh, what else we got? Our other super chat from our pal piece of Yoshi says a win After we trail four to three, having gone 04 with runners in scoring position, getting a clutch hit with a run, getting a clutch hit after a runner is at second and a Cattel Homer. Where have we seen that? I remember that. I remember that. I watched that episode.

I saw that episode. Well, we thank you guys for your wonderful super chats. We appreciate you guys so much. We thank you so much for being here. Of course, make sure to join us tomorrow. We have a 1 p.m. show tomorrow. And then we will be back with post game shows on Friday. Friday and Saturday. So make sure to hit that like button before you get out of here. We appreciate

you guys against for stopping by. Have a wonderful evening and then come back here tomorrow, 1 p.m. Let's have some lunch together. Have yourself wonderful evening, though. And remember kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you score five runs in the top of the ninth inning.