PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Geraldo Perdomo Returns & Randal Grichuk RAKES In Diamondbacks Win Over Angels

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

There is something inexplicably magic about it, but Geraldo Perdomo’s return to the Diamondbacks made the team look whole once again and propelled them to a win over the Angels. We have more on Randal Grichuk eating at the dish, Jordan Montgomery looking better on the mound, and Perdomo’s overall impact on this team. 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/Factor Mealkits: Use code PHNXDBACKS50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://factormeals.com/phnxdbacks50Mint 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!OGeez!: OGeez! is not your average cannabis-infused gummy. Head over to https://www.ogeezbrands.com to find where you can purchase. Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. Four Peaks: Follow on social @fourpeaksbrew & @fourpeakspub! Must be 21+. Enjoy responsibly. 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 Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. Let me get this microphone in here. I'm the mayor, PHNX, occasionally known as your mayor of this place, PHNX, occasionally also known as Derek Montaia. This man next to me is not Thunderset, Jesse Friedman, but he's the people's producer, Damon. And there's no better person to have here next to me on the night that Geraldo, Protoomo returns. Then Damon Dog, what a huge night for this team. What a big night for the offense.

But most importantly, let's just talk about it. Geraldo Protomo returns to the lineup and everything is right with the world. Damon, everything is right with the world. Yeah, you're not wrong. This was my Super Bowl tonight. And, and yeah, you make a great point about everything being right with the world when Perdomo plays baseball. Like this is just like, right, right? Yeah.

This is what a utopian society feels like. This is, this is, Perdomo is bat in nine. He's in the nine hole and that's utopia in my world. I just like the vibes. Just Eric, the vibes. The vibes are immaculate. Yeah, I mean, we're talking about Perdomo getting an RBI single in his very first at bat. In the very first pitch, I believe, if I'm not mistaken.

And the risk came, can, continues to be. the risk king he was two for four tonight with an rbi a walk and a run scored even without being the best offensive player on the field tonight you just can't say enough about what heraldo perdomo being back means and there is the utopian society that you were talking about that we live in now that you know perdomo is back and and everything is right with the world yeah no i mean it just it's it's it's great to be in damon's world right now I'm going to let you have your moment. Go. Yeah, please. It's all you. I just like, to all the people that decided that, you know, Perdomo was the odd man out, the guy that we should be trading in the offseason. He guys should be ashamed of yourselves. I mean, it wasn't me that did it. So I'm not the one that's supposed to be ashamed of myself. But we, I mean, this guy, like, how many games do you played Derek? I feel like this baseball team is incredible with him. His impact is just hard to quantify sometimes because, yes, he was, you know, he did a great job in his first. night back going two for four but i mean you just it's not just defensively and what he does at the

plate there was that moment where jordan montgomery seemed to kind of be struggling there early in this game uh and perdomo comes over as part of the mound visit and i mean it didn't look like it it was it was a two-man kind of dance there right it was it was moreno coming out from behind the plates talk to his pitcher but perdomo does that thing that he always does and he comes over as part of that meeting. On the broadcast, they talked about like, you know, Tori Lavello essentially saying everything in the infield runs through Pardomo. And you see him over there showing support to his pitcher, you know, doing the little

things that like just make you in in that moment feel good. Having a teammate that has your back, shows you that support, literally showed you that support, just comes over in the moment to say you got this man, you know, like whatever words of encouragement he gave. You could tell that's kind of all he was really there for. But he takes that leadership role seriously and kind of understands the impact that he can have beyond just his play. Yeah. I mean, I think that like he's just always been that guy. He's always been intangibles guy. Like Tori talked about it in that in pregame and he said, didn't Tori say like he's the emotional leader of this team. Yeah. That's just that's just who Pardomo is. Like that's just he brings all that

stuff to the table that doesn't necessarily show up in the box score. But we're just a way better baseball team when he plays versus when he doesn't. It's it's clear as day. Like it couldn't be more clear. And yeah, someone mentioned in the comments here, how about that bun? How about that bun? How about the I mean, it's it's one of the things. It's just an example of the things that guys like Perdomo do to get on base, to cause the defense to have problems, right? They're going to think about that on future plays, not to mention the fact that the Diamondbacks of other guys with speed. Tonight, Corbyn Carroll was showing off his speed.

You got Jake McCarthy still on the bench. Like guys like that make the defense uneasy when they can do what Perdomo did, dropping that button getting on base. And yeah, Jacob Franklin is right. That's just pure snakes ball. It was tonight. It was pure snakes. all tonight. Yeah. I mean, it's, the offense exploded tonight. I mean, the Diamondbacks put up

15 hits. They, they put up nine runs. They had contributions all over the place. Corby and Carol looks absolutely back, even though he got moved down in the lineup. He went three for four tonight with a triple, a double, a walk, an RBI, a run scored. He did everything, did it all. I mean, he did have one points of play that definitely made me miss Alec Thomas. a little bit there in the in center field. But in his last six games, Corbyn Carroll is 10 for 25, which is a 400 batting average.

He has the two doubles, a triple, and four walks. So I mean, this man continues to be incredible lately. He's reached base safely in 19 of his last 21 games. I know there was a lot for Diamondbacks fans to be definitely worried about when it came to Corbyn Carroll. But it very, very much feels like the small changes he's made has been enough to impact his game positively.

I mean, you're just seeing a different level of confidence in Corbyn Carroll lately. His approaches at the plate is much better. He's no longer really swinging at that, you know, high fastball on the inside as much. They're talking about that on the broadcast tonight. Corby and Carol was just the home run away from the cycle tonight. And I mean, again, it's a big night. We've talked about him being back, but nights like tonight, definitely make you feel like Corbyn Carroll is kind of past those struggles early this season. I'm in a place where I'm feeling good about Corby.

I don't know about it else. It's like maybe maybe that's fickle, but like I feel like we've been seeing him play better baseball for about two, three weeks now, wouldn't you say? Like that's, I mean, he's been getting some triples. He had like, so he led the league in triples last year and he had like next to no. no triples to start the season through like the first two months. Now he's, he's, you know,

collecting a few. He's getting some extra base hits. He isn't hitting the ball over the fence, but he's hitting doubles and triples. And, you know, it looks like he's just seeing the ball a lot better. And if Corbyn's going to play baseball like this,

he's an incredibly valuable player. He's really helping the team. Like, he doesn't need to be necessarily last year's version of himself to be a useful player. He just needs to not be a horrific. hitter. Like if he's if he's getting on base and you know causing chaos and we're playing baseball the way that the diamondbacks want to play baseball, you know, Corbin is a huge like contribution of that. Like that's he he's he's a huge piece of that. So it's just good to see him, you know,

continually going and and May's devil says it here. How about two whole Gabby? Can we talk about him for a second? Well, what did I watch tonight? I don't know, but they talked about that on the broadcast. Didn't they say he was like nine for 18 coming in tonight in the two whole? tonight he's three for five yeah you had five players that had multi-hit games tonight you had gabby morano going three for five with two rbi and a run scored you had lordis guerriel going three for five with three singles and two rbi i corbin carroll we talked about him corbin carroll went three for four two runs scored one walk one rbi i perdomo two for four one run one rbi one walk and then the the the man of the match the man of the night was

was Randall Gritchick who, man, I mean, he was unstoppable tonight. Gritchick, oh, yeah. I mean, a single away from the cycle, which by the way, it, it's a funny question to me, if you hit one into the gap when you're just a single away from the cycle and you could go for two, maybe even go for three, are you just stopping at first base and just taking that single? Or are you a bad, like, are you a bad, are you a shitty person? Like with that ruin, if it was obvious, Damon, that you could go for two or three. Is that kind of ruin your cycle that you just pulled up at first base and take the single? Yeah, absolutely. So here's my thought process on it.

When you're rounding, when it's like one, it's a single that you're trying to stretch into a double, or that probably should be stretched into a double and you need a single. It's very obvious that you're dogging it, like that you're not running fully hard enough and that you gave up. if it's a if it could be a triple but you need a double you could really pace yourself on that run around and make it look like and make it look pretty natural that you should have ended up at second base right i think you can get away with that one but you can't get away with the first base one unless they're in like the right field corner and they still haven't picked up the ball yet and you're just coming into the second you're like right but um you know he's close three for four tonight uh gritchick is now hitting 320 with an 855 oPS Since April 15th, he is hitting 3.56 in games he started with 8 RBI and 4 walks. I, you know, I don't know. I mean, defensively, he's been fairly solid when we've seen him in the outfield. I honestly could see a whole lot more of Randall Gritchick.

I just don't know what the combination is going to look like, especially once that outfield gets a bit more crowded with Alley Thomas returning. I mean, I think that it's been the role that he was brought on to do the whole time would be would be what I would say to that. Like yeah, when we signed him, we signed him with the thought process that Alec was going to be healthy and ready to go. Alec isn't an injury prone player by any stretch of the imagination. So right. You know, I think Gritchick's just going to do what we signed him to do. And that's just crush lefties.

And that's what he did today. And that's like what we're paying him two million dollars on a one year deal to do. Like it's not like we didn't give them. Guerrille's contract for a reason. Like, he's not an everyday player. He's a platoon player. So, you know, I'm, I'm happy with Gritchick. And, you know, he's, him and Jock have done as best as you possibly could have imagined.

This DH platoon, man, Jop's hitting 286 with an 879 OPS. Gritchick, I had his numbers wrong. After his lost out, he's hitting 316. Oh, hell yeah, with 847 OPS. You're getting that out of. the two guys that were like a platoon you were bringing to have a complete DH. I want to say looking at Jorge Soler swinging at everything and J.D. Martinez's slow start and whatever the hell Justin Gritty is doing over there as the mascot for the Phillies.

Like these guys, I mean, these guys aren't doing shit. Stubbs is the mascot for the Phillies. Oh, yeah. Well, I was thinking of Flyers, the Flyers, the mascot for the Flyers. It's Justin Turner. He's gritty. It's a whole other thing. Yeah, I mean, no, I mean, these, the guys the Diamondbacks picked up as far as, you know, those two players to fill that role have been pretty, pretty solid.

And I mean, honestly, two of the better additions to this team this year. So that's not the swing and miss. The swing and miss both figuratively and literally is Gino. And it's in sad news, Gino goes O for four tonight with two strikeouts. He's now hitting 197 this season with a 575 OPS. Let's talk about it. Is there a tough conversation happening soon about his immediate future with this team? This isn't the first time we've brought this up, but things aren't getting better.

And so far, the Diamondbacks didn't commit to sending Blaze Alexander down when they made the move to bring Jerry P. back. They sent down Pave and Smith. So what do you foresee happening here, Damon? And what do you think is going to happen? I mean, I think they continue to write it out with Gino. I think if worse comes to worse, they're going to give some, maybe some of those reps to Blaze or Kevin Newman potentially, like just switch it up with a different infielder. But I don't think Gino is really in danger of like being DFA necessarily. Yeah.

But yeah, it's unfortunate when you have a big offensive showing like this tonight and you have extra base hits all over the yard. and Gino, like your most, your hitter that's struggling the absolute most, just doesn't show up. Like that's the perfect type of game for that guy to break out of his slump. That's what you want at least. So it's, it's unfortunate and a little discouraging when that doesn't happen.

But I don't know, man. I just, the debacks are such like a, I feel like Tori is such a loyal manager, like he tries to be. And the debacks are like, they really pride themselves on that loyalty. and I just, I don't think that they're going to like not give Gino until the All-Star break to figure it out. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I mean right now on a night like tonight, that's a perfect example of when the team carried everyone else. They didn't even need Cotel Marte. I mean, he did walk three times. So he was on base three times. He scored two runs. So he still contributed.

But no hits tonight for Marte. And the Diamondbacks still were able to put up nine runs. Like, this is this team. This is what we. thought we were going to see out of this team this year where they didn't need anybody to be a particular superstar that this team as a whole was constructed in a way where you were going to have contributions on any given night from different members of this offense you know and have different guys stepping up and being the star of the night you know tonight the guy was randall gritchick

and that man is absolutely our king snake for tonight's game again randall gritchick three for four tonight a home run uh double two rb i's a triple three runs scored one walk i mean he even even had the walk he literally almost had the full cycle of the walk the single the double the triple and the home run all he was missing tonight was the single and yeah i don't really know exactly what got into randall gritchick but looking at his numbers this season like i said earlier this man has been doing it all year long just very quietly right randall doesn't necessarily get the credit we barely speak about him on this show I'll be one of the first people to say, we barely bring up Randall Gritchick.

And honestly, we should be bringing him up more because he's been contributing all season long. You know, he's just kind of one of those quiet contributors that does it in. He doesn't usually have nights like this, but he's always, you know, kind of, kind of putting something in, you know, putting something into the game. But speaking of putting something into this, I mean, what is the bigger explanation here potentially? the fact that Tori Lavello had a cornhole party with a petting zoo at his house on the off day yesterday. Is that really why the offense broke out like they did today? Because I feel like that's the true answer. And I'm also a little offended.

I wasn't invited. Like I know me and Tori aren't tight like that, but I don't know. I feel like I like cornhole. I love I love petting zoos. Are you kidding me? Cornhole and petting zoos? Yes. And beers?

You know, there were a lot of adult beverages being had. So whatever, whatever happened there, though, like, that's honestly like a very good managerial move. When the team is kind of in a position where the upcoming games are very important, however, because of the importance of those games and because of the level of competition you're facing, maybe you do get uptight about it. Maybe you do start to get just a little bit in your own head too much about facing teams like the Angels, the White Sox, and the nationals, knowing that on paper you should beat them, but knowing the way the season is gone, that there's a good chance that you could really drop the ball over these next nine games. And honestly, if the Diamondbacks don't have a strong showing over these nine games, it's not, I don't think it's that far fetch to start saying the season is slipping away from them, right? I felt like this was a good time to kind of relieve that tension and relieve, you know, maybe some of that pressure the players are feeling by just having a party and hanging out. And, you know, just being a family.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, like, you want to talk about getting connected. How about a petting zoo party where you guys have a cornhole tournament? Like, that's connected equals dangerous. And we just witnessed it on the baseball diamond tonight. Like it's very pretty simple. Jerry P wrote an ostrich and was like, I'm going two for four tomorrow, right? Yeah, that's what I said.

I said Jerry, Jerry like fed an ostrich and all of a sudden, like, was like, watch this. I'm about to bun up six runs tomorrow for my second hit of the night. Like, that's, that's, I could just, he seems like the type of guy who loves zoo animals. I mean, Christian, we know Christian Walker loves zoo animals. the poor guy went 0 for 5 today, so I'm sure he's disappointed one day after. He likes to mount zoo animals' heads on his wall. Yeah, and he does. I mean, he has, he has zoo animals, right?

He possesses his horses. So it's not that, it's not that exciting to him to be around, you know, farm animals. It's just his normal life, you know. This is a good point by Abby here. I just know animals love per domo. It's the aura. It's that aura, 100%. Like it would almost make you jealous.

Ellis, like the baby goat that's scared of everybody would just crawl up into Jerry P's lap and let him model feed him. And you would just be furious watching from afar because you're like, that baby goat ran from me. And look at it. He's just cuddled up in Jerry's lap. That's he's sleeping. He fell asleep already. One thing you mentioned during the Gritchick talk that I wanted to hit on a little bit. Sure.

Like it felt like at so many times this season, there was like one guy doing all the all the work. or like guys in different parts of the lineup that were the reason that, you know, we had any hits at all. Like no one was piecing it together. You'd have Catelle at the top of the lineup, always hitting with nobody on. You have, and like the seven hole hitting or. Yeah, you'd have Kevin Newman.

Yeah. And like our only runs that were scored were when Kevin Newman would get on for Cateau. Like that there was like, there's been portions of the season that felt that way, at least to me. And tonight felt like even the guys who didn't do anything. I mean, I know Gino was, has been. awful and no one trusts him but like i'm more mean like seawak going over five every single person that was up tonight i was like we're about to do some damage like it felt that way it felt like this team was like piecing together a full baseball game one through nine in the lineup and like i

we haven't seen that too much this season and if we can start putting that together on this nine game stretch like i'm feeling pretty good about where we're at in the season because we can get ourselves up above 500 and with some momentum. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm with you. And again, this is what it's all about. Like, the Diamondbacks have played well at times against good teams. The bigger problem has been the way that they've played against teams that, I guess, are in a similar position as themselves.

I said it earlier about when the Diamondbacks took care of business against the Reds. I thought they did a great job of, of pouncing on a team that just wasn't playing good baseball in the moment. But man, if you look at what the Reds have done since then, they've really bounced back and they've beat some good teams. So the Reds are one of those teams that, again, became kind of dangerous, but the Diamondbacks were able in that window that they had to play them in essentially seven games in a very short period of time. It happened to be during a time when the Reds just weren't playing winning baseball. And the Diamondbacks took care of that. But there's been other series this year, obviously, close series against teams that maybe they should

have won the series like the Yankees, maybe the Brave series where they got swept, where it was just slipped through their fingers at times. Like there's a lot, there's been a lot of games, right, against good teams that it felt like they could have a better record against teams with a 500 record, you know, plus 500 record. But it's really these games, right? Because they don't have a lot of them. After this, if you start looking at the schedule, schedule gets very tough after this. Once they start, you know, get done with the nationals and they play the Phillies, it's like

the Dodgers and then the Braves. there's a lot of good teams that they play before the All-Star break. So it really stack wins. Yeah, it's really that time to stack wins. You know what I mean? And I mean, that that's where maybe you do feel the pressure too much, right? Because you feel like these games are must win. And then if you lose one or if you lose two, you start feeling like even though it's June 12th, June 13th, like the season starting to unravel on you, right?

That might not be that far-fetched. Like honestly, with the level of competition, how close everything is in the National League for those wildcard spots and their upcoming schedule, the Diamondbacks really do have to take these, you know, as many of these games when they have a stretch like they have right now as possible. It's going to be critical when it comes down here. I said it yesterday, like, I expect to win each series. Like, you got to win the series. Like, I'm not expecting you to sweep a team. I think you need to sweep one team. But I'm not being like, you got to sweep every team that you play here, like the White Sox Angels.

But you got to win all these series. You got to start stacking wins in that department because losing series against like the Tigers, that's not helping you make the playoffs at the end of the day. No, but I'll tell you, I mean, like the tigers, that's a tough team over there. That's just when you look at what they've done this season, they're no slouch. and sometimes that's how things go. When teams turn it around, especially when you play them early,

you're like, how did we lose to this team? Well, when you see them playing good baseball against some of the top teams in the league, it's a little bit more understandable. So, well, I do want to thank you guys, of course,

for being here in the PHN Export YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, do so now. Make sure you're here on YouTube. If you're watching us on Twitter, come on over, join us on YouTube. That way you can be in on the live chat.

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Shane occasionally knows what he's talking about too. Yeah, yeah. Download. He always makes his record sound better than it is. He always has a way to spin it. But download the BetMGM Sportsbook app and then watch our PHNX bet show. That way you can make yourself some money. Of course, if you're a new customer,

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Place your first bet MGM sportsbook wager through the sportsbook mobile app for at least $10. You will receive up to $15 back in bonus bets if the bet loses. Check out the show notes for full details. And now listen to Shane. Talk about the disclaimer. This bet's expire in seven days. One new customer offer. Only gambling problem.

Call 100 gambler available in the U.S. Call at 8778-N-Way 677-6-N-Wastew-N-Sach-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-Mas-Sat. 21-1-8-7-0-0-0-0-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-4-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-com. Where-T-RRour-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-A. We were close. We were close. Anyway, what's up? Can you believe that they're offering plus 200 odds for the RISP-K

to get an RBI. No, that's crazy. How crazy is that? It almost, I couldn't believe my eyes. I had to, I had to wipe my eyes for a second ago. Plus 200? Plus 225, actually. I said my sweet.

For a single RBI for our sweet baby Heraldo Perdomo? Yeah. For my sweet sugar plum prince. No. For him to get an RBI, easy money. Easiest money I've ever made. Sometimes the house doesn't know everything. You know what I mean?

Sometimes the house doesn't know everything. Well, hey, you know, know what we're celebrating and i'm not just bringing out one uh can of four peaks beer i got a whole 15 pack whole 15 back yeah baby i got my uh of course this is the bad birdie juicy golden ale i had to explain to a lady the other day at the supermarket about why uh this pattern is so beautiful on the outside of this box because she didn't quite understand the collab you know between four peaks and bad i got you and that bad birdie is this wonderful clothing company that makes exceptional clothes and that sometimes their patterns can bleed over

another partner stuff kind of like when they made us a shirt or kind of like this beautiful pattern on the bad birdie juicy golden nail which is like i said a collab between our friends at four peaks and bad birdie super drinkable delicious comes in a 15 pack right now you can get at your favorite grocery store you can also get it on tap at bars all around the valley i might drink this whole thing tonight in honor of horaldo podomo but uh that's my business i'm at i'm a home. I'm allowed to do that. Visit 4Peaks.com slash located to find all your favorite beers and events. Check out Fort Peaks brew or at Four Peaks Pub to keep up with the latest Arizona's hometown brewery must be 21 or older to drink Four Peaks. And again, please drink responsibly.

Damon, let's take a look at the count from tonight's game presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union because this, this was a fun one. Diamondbacks again, outscore the Angels nine to four. I know we didn't really talk about Jordan Montgomery, so we're going to circle back to his night, but I mean, this wasn't a perfect night by any stretch of the imagination. The Angels really are a struggling team, but they still are a professional baseball team. So I think the Diamondbacks offense coming out like it did and George Montgomery holding this team to three earned runs on his part, still not a bad night. It's nothing. It's not a great night, but it's still a good night, but offensively a very good night. Fifteen hits for this team to the Angels 11. Diamondbacks were

seven for 19 for a 368 batting average with runners in scoring position. Angels, three for 10, 300 batting average for them. Extra base hits. The Diamondbacks had a lot. Seven for the Diamondbacks, five for the Angels. And the Angels actually had a harder, hard hit percentage here tonight at 48.4% to the Diamondbacks, 45.5%. But Jordan Montgomery tonight, he looked better, Damon.

I'm not going to say he was great. he was able to land his breaking stuff a little bit more effectively tonight. He got nine whiffs, but unfortunately, the majority of those were on his four-seem fastball. And I mean, again, his breaking stuff is this bread and butter. And I really think that that when you take a look at how he pitched tonight, five and two-thirds innings, gave up six hits, three earned, one walk, three-ks. It's not a bad night at all. It's just not a guy that you paid $25 million a year to be.

be a part of your starting rotation and your staff, right? I mean, typically, Jordan Montgomery is able to give you more length than five and two-thirds innings, which is really a problem right now. And, you know, like I said, a big part of that problem is his breaking stuff, which is just, I mean, he's just missing very badly. He was able to land it in the zone better tonight. But I think do we have that savant graphic that kind of shows his pitch breakdown? Because you'll see here, like, some of these misses are just not even competitive when you take a look at some of, you know, his breaking stuff outside of the zone. He had to rely entirely too much on his four-seem fastball. And I mean, he was able to keep it up in the zone, but even that, you know,

is out of the zone quite a bit. And he's just not a four-seem fastball pitcher, really. I mean, if he can't, if he can't land his breaking stuff or you can't get, you know, batters to bite on it, he has to kind of turn to it, which he did tonight. But like you can see, a lot of this stuff is just so far out of the zone that it's, I mean, again, batters are not going to swing at any of this junk. Yeah, I mean, he's, I think Elise says it best. It's a step, but it's a small step, you know. Right.

It's not exactly what we are paying for, but sure. It's three, six innings is not. is not a bad performance. But my biggest concern with him and it has been the entire season thus far is he's just not striking anybody out. Every game is is 3Ks, 2Ks, 4Ks. Like he doesn't have any games where there's like where he's striking out like eight batterers. Like and that's that's what's tough to see because even guys like Merrill Kelly who don't

necessarily have like overpowering stuff are striking out lots and lots of batters because their is so good. And Montgomery clearly doesn't have. have that right now. So, uh, he's behind a lot. He's pitching from behind quite a bit. And batters just, I think, you know, the, the scouting report is out on him right now and his struggles.

And a big part of the struggles is don't swing at his breaking stuff. It's not going to land in the zone for a strike, you know. And yeah, that curve ball looking at that savant page, like it has like a 50% chance of killing like a worm family of worms. Yeah. And I mean, it, it. It did feel like a step in the right direction tonight. It did feel like, you know, he is competitive.

He gave the Diamondbacks an absolute chance to win. He only gave up six hits and three earned. And, I mean, looked pretty good at times, kind of was the efficient version of himself. I, like, it's weird to watch this team as often as you and I do and as often as Jesse does and assess them in a way. where we don't get we really can't get any confirmation on it but like it's like the belief in in in themselves isn't there at times and when you look at jordan montgomery when he said the other

day after his is his bad outing that he just stinks like he believes he stinks and like even tonight there were moments of self-doubt that's why i brought up haroldo perdomo going out to the mound at that point when he did because i really did feel like that had a positive effect on him It felt like he kind of got his confidence back. And we saw him just have a little bit of that Jordan Montgomery, you know, kind of effectiveness back. But it's just glimpses right now versus it being throughout the entire outing. And that the ability to put it together for an entire outing is,

is what made him the pitcher he was last season for the Rangers, especially in the second half. Now, there was a lot of talk about the Diamondbacks, maybe not allowing Montgomery to make this start. And that seemed insane to me. But it wasn't interesting at least discussion based on the fact that if he did make tonight start, it was his 10th start this season. And now he is vested for next year, right?

And so with the way he's pitching, it kind of, I mean, people are assuming that he's not going to potentially get any kind of better contract or better deal that he has with the Diamondbacks and we'll see them in Sedona Red and Teal next season. I don't hate that because Jordan Montgomery might still be a very good pitcher not only in the second half of this season when the pressure is alleviated off of him a little bit as not really being the only other starter on this staff right now other than Brandon fought. But I feel like once he's had a normal year, the normal offseason, a normal spring training, we might see a different guy next year.

So I don't really hate the idea of him being vested for next season and being back on this team next year. But his numbers, you know, we, Jesse talked about him last start. His numbers aren't great. And when you start comparing the beginning of someone's career to Madison Bumgartener's time with the Diamondbacks, nobody wants to hear that. No, absolutely not. That's, that's nightmare fuel. It's absolutely nightmare fuel. But, yeah, I mean, I see what you're saying.

Like, like, hypothetically, the price that we got Montgomery for going into the season was like, we thought we were getting a pretty good value contract. So if he pitches the way he's supposed to, hypothetically, next season could be a fine deal. But obviously, you're not going to feel good about that at all. I think the main reason, like, maybe they would look at DFAing him and having somebody else pick him up on waivers and getting off of that contract. but they absolutely just can't right now with the situation of the team and the rotation, like they need him more than they've ever needed him to be what they paid for him. So I just think that's the problem being that now that he made this 10th start,

they owe him that money regardless, just like they did Bumgarner. So if they DFAM just like they did with Bumgarner, they're still on the hook for that amount. Well, someone could take that contract if they wanted to, right? That's right. Yeah, that's fair. And there's a good chance they would. Like they said, exactly. discussed it. There's, there's 29 other teams that would absolutely jump on the opportunity of

giving Jordan Montgomery a chance right now at this point. So, uh, I don't, I don't know. I think that what we're seeing is, especially in baseball, it's sometimes slow, right? And sometimes like with Corby and Carroll, we talked about some of his at bats, even on an 0 for 4 night looking better. And some people called us crazy. Like we were just making it up or seeing what we wanted to see. Like sometimes you just see even when the results aren't there that they're making steps in the right direction. And I feel like tonight was definitely a step in the right direction for Jordan Montgomery. And I mean, again, versus his last start where he wasn't able to get his breaking stuff in the zone at all, at least tonight, he was a bit more effective with it and a bit

more on track. Meanwhile, the bullpen is just insane. I mean, Bryce Jarvis had a terrible night. and Bryce Jarvis, the Diamondbacks are asking Bryce Jarvis to go out there at times and be in mop-up games and clean-up games, and they're going to ask even more of that from him now that they've DFAed Logan Allen, right? But Justin Martinez throwing 102-mile-per-hour sinker for a strike just doesn't seem fair. That just doesn't seem like it should be allowed. And it's one of those times where I just watched that guy pitch and think, I am very glad that man is on my team and not on the Giants.

I'll tell you it shouldn't be allowed. Having Geraldo Perdomo and Justin Martinez on your same team, my favorite team, not your favorite team. Yeah. I get to watch him, not you. Yeah. Yeah.

And you throw on Cotel Marte, the most in the most, the most, I guess, unwittingly, unknowingly, unknowingly hilarious player in all of baseball. The most swag in baseball, I think. It's the best way of putting it. It's just, it's the greatest show on turf, I guess you could say at Chasefield. You know, I know there's another football team called that, but I still like it. Of course, we are going to be joined here by Jesse Friedman, joining us from Chase Field.

But again, a big shout out to Desert Financial Credit Union. For more than 84 years, Desert Financial has been Arizona's largest, most trusted local credit union. I know that because 84 years ago, I got my first checking account. apparently I'm that old, according to these jerks that I do this show with. With how much you bought your house for with the help of Desert Financial? Yeah. It might as well have been 80 years ago. With what my interest rate is. Yeah, for sure. But of course, that's because they got me started on my home ownership journey and they're dedicated to helping their customers get, achieve their

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the side of the freeway on the way there. And I could just decide when I want to stop and get snacks. When I'm here, trapped in my home on a 112 degree day, I don't want to go anywhere. And that makes me sad because, of course, we've talked about how much we love the Circle K, uh, frosters and the polar pops. It's, I mean, it's part of my contract. Like I've said, it's my, it's my, it's my out of boy. It's the treat.

Saul feeds me anytime I do something that makes him happy, which is very rare. But still I get those frosters. I get those frosters, Damon. They only cost 79 cents, but still, it's all I need in life sometimes. Of course, the polar pops get all those treats. If you are a inner circle member, you can get even bigger discounts. Like 79 cents, that's not cheap enough for you. How about 69 cents?

Well, if you're an inner circle member, you might even get a free polar pop in the app. You can also get all sorts of other great sales deals. You can save 25 cents off per gallon on your first five Phillips when you join. Join the inner circle for free right now by down. downloading the CircleK app. Of course, terms and conditions do apply at participating locations. Visit CircleK.com for details. Also, speaking of great deals, if you aren't already a diehard member of PHNX, suggest you jump on that right now. We have our PHNX takeover of the Mercury game on Thursday, which you can get a discount for that. You can get Jesse's wonderful writing.

You can get all of his content that's locked behind a paywall, that villain. He locked it's behind a payroll, but you can, you can get access to it. Get access to my wonderful interviews I do as well. By the way, those are nice and I'm benevolent. And of course, I'm just doing that for my diehard members because I love you guys. So that's the way I spend things. I can I can pretty much spend it however I want sometimes. Derek, how about this new shirt collection that we got?

Oh, yeah. You know what? You know what bothered me about this, Damon? No one told me about this. I found out about this wonderful shirt collection. what everybody else did. I thought I was supposed to have sort of insider knowledge

and then all of these wonderful shirts including that incredible year of the snake shirt drop on our website. Of course, the Valley Collection. You can get all those shirts, the PHNX Locker.com. And if you are a brand new diehard, you can pick out one of those shirts for free

and get sent to you as part of your welcome package. So make sure to check that out today. Well, of course. Totry said it on the, to me today at work. He said he thinks that Taco Truck shirt was made specifically for me. Like they made that concept with the idea of me wearing it.

I agree. I love it. I squealed like, okay, so like we had beanies, but no one told Lindsay and she was furious. I felt the same way about tank tops being on our website. I was like,

no one told me we were getting tank tops. What the hell? That is ridiculous. I know I'm a tank top guy. Yeah. I love tag tops. It'd be like if they got luchador masks and didn't tell you. Oh.

Oh, I'd be like, how did you not consult on this? Yeah. What is going on here? Ridiculous. Speaking of people, we have to consult with. Let's bring on the one and only Thunderstick, Jesse Friedman, my vice mayor, your thunder stick. Jesse, huge win for the Diamondbacks tonight. Offense, a lot of guys got going tonight, a lot of multi-hit games, five guys with

multi-hit games. And it just felt like a very, very thorough victory one night after this team. team all had a family get together at Tori's house, you know, with a petting zoo and a cornhole tournament. Yeah, well, first of all, I feel like I have, I have like, I guess big shoes to fill here and that Damon's background was way cooler than mine. And I'm in the ballpark, but it still doesn't feel like mine is nearly as cool. He was living in the dystopia or actually the utopian society of Geraldo Perdomo being back.

You like this, Jesse? This is where, this is what life looks like when Geraldo Perdomo is bat nine in your lineup. Yeah, my other question was, is Damon just been talking about Geraldo Perdomo ad nauseum for the last tried. I tried to like steer the conversation, but it all kept coming back to Geraldo Perdomo. I keep bringing this up whenever Derek starts talking about a different player. And Derek will be like, how about Randall Gritchick tonight? And I'll be like, hey, Derek, how about Haraldo Perdomo tonight, willing Raniel Gritchick to an almost cycle performance?

Yeah, yeah. His vibes did that. They're that strong. But a single doing it all, Jesse. He did it all tonight. He really did. Yeah, I mean, this was sort of like the, this game was, I think just illustrated very well what Heraldo

can do for you, right? It was the RBI single on the very first pitch that he saw with runners on the corners and won out. It was a walk, you know, a five-pitch walk. It was the beautiful bun that he laid down for a base hit that allowed the diamond backs to really get something going. That's sort of when they put this game away. once and for all. So yeah, his fingerprints were very much all over this. And yeah, I mean,

we've got a ton of video here, Derek, there's some pretty fun stuff, some pretty interesting stuff that was set after this one. So here's Tori Lavello talking about how good it is to have Haraldo Perdomo back. Yeah, I'm sorry that I failed to mention him. Just having him back out there and just patrol in that space and it's shortstop. Nothing against Kevin Newman and Blaise Alexander. They both did a fantastic job. But, you know, Jerry just quarterback things out there. He's very comfortable. The first pitch that he sees, he lines in the left field.

You know, talk about readiness. It was a quality outbat. Scored a big run for us. And then you're right, he offers so many different little intangibles. The third baseman's back. He just drops down on bunk. He just a base runner. And that was part of the end that we broke team open.

It's a very smart player. He sees a baseball field and he understands what his role is. Every at bat, he understands what his role is. when he's standing on defense as well. They talked on the broadcast about essentially Tori saying that everything in the infield goes through Geraldo Perdomo. And I mean, I felt like a big moment I talked about a couple of times earlier in the show was the fact that he went out there when Montgomery was struggling early and just was there.

And I mean, I've seen the infield come in when they have a mound visit. I've seen the infield come in when, you know, Moreno walks out to talk to any pitcher who's struggling, right? That's, it's not something new. But it wasn't like a whole infield come in situation. It was literally just Perdomo and Moreno that walked out there. And like, again, I was watching closely because I was excited to see Jerry out there. And it really just looked like he gave a pat on the butt and gave him some encouraging words. But honestly, like, that's kind of what he does at times.

He's just a great teammate. And I feel like he understands at times what guys need. And sometimes when you're struggling the way Monty has been struggling on the mound, sometimes you just need a teammate to come out and believe in you a little bit and show you that support. Yeah, well, that's a beautiful lead-in to my next thing here. Jordan Montgomery, when talking with us about his outing after the game, we didn't ask about anything relating to Prudomo specifically, but he sort of went out of his way to mention that it was good having Prudomo back.

and he talked about how Perdomo was sort of chirping behind him and kind of cheering him on throughout this game. And he was later asked to clarify, like, exactly, like, what exactly was Perdomo saying to you? And here's what Monty had to say about that. Just, like, cheering for me. I don't know how to explain it. He talks to me in between every inning.

Like, keep going. And I don't know. It was nice. It's the vibes, man. He said it's nice. right like it's sometimes that stuff seems silly because you know you're a man out there doing your thing baseball's a weird sport where at times when guys are either doing well or struggling you're not even supposed to talk to them or acknowledge you know what's going on you're just supposed

to like let it go but i mean Montgomery's been struggling he's been struggling and at times especially early on it felt like this game might go either way like we might see another poor performance from Montgomery and that mountain visit it was it was small it was brief but it really did feel like it got him back settled in. And, and, you know, we saw him have some really good moments at times in this game. But again, it's like you just don't, you just can't explain sometimes how someone like Perdomo can help the entire team out just with his attitude and, and his infectious personality.

100%. Yeah. I mean, you can, you can tell that Montgomery means it. Like, he really, he really appreciated Perdomo kind of being out there and sharing him on. And yeah, this wasn't, I wouldn't say this was Jordan Montgomery getting back to himself. I'm being totally honest. A five and two thirds, three runs. It was a fine outing.

There was, you know, he gave the diamondbacks a chance to win. They wound up winning good. Yeah. Because of, yeah, because of a big day for the offense. Yeah, I think you could consider this outing good. But it also came against a pretty bad Angels lineup, frankly. Right. And yeah, I mean, it wasn't like the eye test.

I wouldn't say, I know we had a couple of one, two, three. innings, but at least to me, it never really felt like a dominant outing. There were little mini runs here and there. There were still a decent amount of hard contact at times, especially right before he left the game. So yeah, Montgomery, after this game, you could tell he wasn't overwhelmingly satisfied with his performance. He still feels that there's a bit of a ways to go.

But you did see the VLO tick up a little bit. I think it averaged 92.2 in this game, both the sync. and the four seamer. I believe there was one game where it was up at 92-3, but outside of that one game, this is the highest that we've seen Montgomery's Velo this season. We'll see kind of how that looks in his next few starts, whether he's able to maintain that and if that's a real thing.

But yeah, it was a step in the right direction, I think is sort of where I land on this and where Montgomery seems to have landed to. Talked about how it was nice to be a part of a win, something he hasn't been able to experience the last couple times out. Well, and again, he just looked like a guy that had kind of lost belief in himself there. And when he was talking about how he stinks after his last outing, you could kind of tell it was, you know, it's a self-doubt. It's a lack of confidence.

It's not really a lack of ability. And again, we saw him improve. There were some really bad misses. We brought up his kind of his entire pitch chart from tonight. And I think that's the biggest thing was when you saw him. miss with some of his breaking stuff he missed badly like it wasn't it wasn't just missing a little bit and we've seen him miss a little bit like but the problem when he was missing a little bit with some of those outings was it seemed like there was nothing he could do to not miss

seemed like he couldn't get that breaking stuff in the zone and then when he did it's just a meatball right down the middle of the plate and that's when you know things are getting dangerous for him But, I mean, of course, it's easy on a night where your offense really picks you up like this to go out there and have a better outing. And having a good outing tonight, you can build on that for the next time. And hopefully, like I said, I mean, hopefully once some of the starting rotation returns, it alleviates some of the pressure that Montgomery might be filling. I mean, this guy was asked to be part of a starting rotation where his role was going to be the third guy in the rotation, maybe, fourth guy, fifth guy. Who knows where he was going to fit in, right? And then all of a sudden, very quickly, he was asked to essentially be the ace along with Brandon Fought.

I mean, we need one of you guys to kind of step up and now be the ace for us. It's a weird, you know, it's been a weird roller coaster ride of a season for Montgomery. And I think, you know, some stability could really help him, you know, having some other, you know, members of the starting rotation come in and just take off some of that pressure of being. that ace being that veteran guy in the starting rotation really could maybe help him improve. You can totally tell that he he's definitely felt the weight of this, I think. Just, yeah, the Diamondbacks missing so many guys and Montgomery being a guy that that was that kind of a workhorse over the last few years, especially last year.

I mean, he was the number two starter on the team that won the World Series. and I mean, I think you could argue he was maybe even better than Nathan Evaldi was throughout the playoffs. Like, he was really, really good, you know, in the most important moment. He's used to being able to deliver in situations like this. And I'm sure it's, it's been hard on him. And we saw his reaction his last time out where he said, no, I just stink when asked about the, you know, the impact of missing spring training and whatnot. Like he takes this very seriously. he's not been making any excuses whatsoever.

So, yeah, for him, definitely a step in the right direction today. I guess the biggest storyline from this game, Derek, which I'm sure you guys have already touched on, is Randall Grischick. And back that he definitely doesn't stink. Yeah, yeah, definitely not. I mean, the guy had, he was a single away from the cycle in the fifth inning. He had two more opportunities to complete that cycle.

It would have been the first one for the Diamondback since two. 2012. People remember back to when Aaron Hill did it twice in the span of 11 days, which was the really wild thing that happened a little over a decade ago. And then of course, Corbyn Carroll also had a bid for a cycle himself in the seventh inning. He was just a home runaway. Did have one more at bat. Wasn't able to complete it either. But yeah, Randall Grishick has just been, he's just been so consistent. That's the thing that really stands to me. Yeah. Especially considering he doesn't play every day. He talked on the broadcast after the game about adjusting to that, right?

And adjusting to the fact that like now that he doesn't play all the time, how does he keep himself ready? How does he stay prepared? And he, you know, admitted to that being a new thing for him. And I mean, but again, tonight, not only tonight, but this entire season, the man's hitting 316. I mean, him and Jock Peterson, we kind of talked about what a great pickup. those duo this this duo actually ends up becoming for this team to fill that you know to fill that dh spot

that they were kind of looking to fill yet based on the way things have gone this season they've they've had to call on him and jock peterson i'm sure more than planned and he seems you know excited about it tonight was a great you know a great game for him obviously you know just being that single short of the cycle jesse are you a scumbag if you hit a ball that's obviously a double and you just stop at first base in order to give your cycle. Damon says yes, what's your take? I think that if you are up big, even down big, I wouldn't feel good about it. If you're up big, then I wouldn't have an issue with that.

If you're up by 10 runs, then sure, slow up, take your, you know, take your single or whatever. All right. And complete cycle. That's just my personal opinion. Jesse's on the dark side with me. I doubt that players would agree with me on that. I'm guessing. Baseball players are so, I mean, there's such creatures of habit and, you know,

grinders and like they're going to take whatever basis they can get probably. But yeah, maybe that's a character flaw of my own coming out there. We do have. You've been doing this show too long with me is what the key is there. It's your influence for sure. That's what it is. We do have some stuff from both Tori and Randall himself. on what Randall did tonight and was able to do or has been able to do for the debacks

throughout the season. So first let's go to Tori on just what Randall has meant to this team this year. Yeah, just that I would say a model of consistency. He's able to hit both left and right-handed pitching. He gets every lefty at bat that we can possibly give him. And I've had him thrown in there against some righties and started and he's had a very, very capable of bat. I don't think there's any hustle to his approach. He knows what he's trying to get to, and understands how the pitcher is going to work him, and he goes out there and competes every night.

It seems like he could probably have the bigger role, but he doesn't seem like unhappy with him. He seems to be whatever it is. I'm grateful for Randall and how he fits into this team, and I've had some discussions with him, and he's a great teammate, because you're right. He could be capable of more,

but we've got some really, really good players that are playing around the diamond. And it's working right now. But as I've told him, that if it doesn't work in other areas with certain guys, I feel more than comfortable to put them in there a little bit more consistently. But right now, this is what it is, and he gets it. He just wants to win. Every time I have a conversation with the players, whether I'm pulling back and playing time or I didn't give him an opportunity,

or like, hey, man, I just want to be out there to help the team win, and I'll do whatever I can to. be a part of that. That's what's healthy here. And again, I think that that is something that Tori does a great job of, like, you know, being honest with players and

letting them know realistically what their role is going to be so that they can. Yeah. Went on that, right? But at the same time, too, this is one of those seasons that just proves you never know when your number is going to be called, how much is going to be asked of you,

or, or, you know, where you're going to end up. Jake McCarthy, I think, is a perfect example of that, a guy that, you know, at the beginning of the season, this future was in doubt with this team a little bit, a lot of trade rumors and a lot of talk about him being sent down. And lately, he's been one of the most productive offensive members of this team, not to mention great in the outfield. So, I mean, again, it's about staying ready and, you know, stepping up when you're called upon. And Randall's done that all season long. Yeah, 100%. And of course, after Torrance,

he said those words, we had to ask Randall himself about kind of how he's grappled with the role that he's had this season and the sporadic playing time and everything that's come with that. So here's what, here's what Randall had to say. Yeah, I'm trying to be. Obviously, I know the situation I'm in. So, you know, I want to be ready, you know, every time my name's called, you know, early on. I kind of struggled a little bit of staying, not overthinking mechanics because, you know, It's easy to get in a rhythm, playing every day, feeling, you know, mechanics pitch to pitch, game to a game, you know, a bat to at bat, and then knowing, hey, you might get one at about here,

you might get one three days later, you might get a start two days later. You know, I'm trying to let go of that and be more free and more relaxed and just ready to swing. And, I mean, mechanically, I feel good right now, so it's easy to do that. I know there's going to be a common point that season when I don't feel good mechanically mentally is going to take over his struggle, but right now it feels good and hopefully continue for a while. Are you thinking about the cycle there in the last couple of events? I mean, yes, but not.

It'd be cool to want it, but I'd much other hit a homer there in the last about, you know, hit a double and, you know, have a couple riddies or whatever. It would be cool, but I'd take the slug. I guess you hit one before? No. I guess if you were two focuses, probably wouldn't have walked to them. Exactly. Yeah, a lot of guys joked saying I should have found that ball off my shin just to say.

see another pitch. I don't walk, so I'm super proud when I do walk. So special variety. So I was excited for that walk, even though it's hurt the chances of the cycle. Well, I think my question is answered about what he would do if he hits the ball for a double. And he ain't slowing up at first base. But, man, I mean, that's, it has to be difficult, especially when you're used to playing every day to come in and just be, you know, ready to go. with how grueling the season is, I mean, it also kind of makes sense at times why guys that are able to kind of stay fresh and not play every day and not be called upon every day are able to contribute the way, for instance, Randall is contributing the way Jock is contributing to this team.

It's just a little easier because you're not out there every single day, both defensively and offensively, trying to help this team that as a whole has been struggling win baseball games. another really interesting thing that stood out from our conversation of our conversation with randall had to do with his ankle actually uh people might remember the diamond back signed him and he wasn't really available to play in any games didn't really play at all in spring training uh you know started the season on the injured list took a few days was eventually brought in uh you know a week or two into the season and he's actually said that that ankle has has he's felt the effects of that. He still feels pain in his ankle to this day from the surgery that he had. He said he didn't even really say that his ankle feels better than it did toward the

end of last year when this was kind of an issue. He said it feels different, which doesn't sound great to me necessarily. He said it's sort of like a, it's kind of like a nagging thing now that comes and goes. He said it's there some days. It's not there other days. Whereas last year, yeah, yeah, of course. As with all injuries. experience, Derek has been there and done that and knows all about it. You know, I've had a sprained ankle for like 28 years, Jesse. My ankle comes and goes. That's exactly.

I can relate. Like the amount of times people ask me why I'm limping makes me sick because I get it. I was walking normally five minutes ago and now I'm limping. My ankle just sucks. I don't know what to say. And sometimes that's the way it goes, right? But yeah, no, like that's, I think that's the thing that's most amazing about. it and I'm sure that's kind of what he's describing is how some days you can feel fine,

walk fine, be fine, and then other days just, you know, your normal walk, forget running and the athletic activity that you do while playing a baseball game, just walking can hurt, you know, so like, yeah, that kind of stuff can be nagging and, you know, I think the worst part about it is it doesn't seem to ever go away, right? Like you always have a little something there, you know, a little something that's bothering you. But you know what wasn't bothering me is the fact that Tori decided to throw a party yesterday, Jesse, to just kind of get all of these guys back on page of being connected and dangerous once again. I can only imagine what or how competitive a cornhole tournament with professional athletes could be, Jesse. But I imagine that there probably was a lot of pressure still at this party.

Like it wasn't just all roses and daisies. Like they're playing each other at Cornhole. I'm sure they took that shit seriously. Do you know who won the Cornhole tournament? I do not. No. Oh, this is a perfect opportunity then. Yeah, I have to make you guess.

Who do you think won the Cornhole tournament? I really feel like Christian Walker. Like Christian Walker is such a bar game guy. But I also could see him not really giving a shit. Like he doesn't. He seems like when he's not playing baseball, he is very calm and just fond. drinking a beer in existing. Who?

Wait, Damon, do you want to get in on this? Yeah, I do want to get in on this. I'm stuck between a couple right now, but I'm going to go with Merrill. Oh, Merrill. That's an interesting one. See, I don't know if his rehab would allow for him to-

Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah, you can have another. One more. One more. My thought process was, like, Merrill strikes me as like old man,

game at the YMCA where like his form is just impeccable. And it's just every throw for Cornhole is the exact same form. But, uh, no, I know who it is. It's Ryan Thompson. It's got to be Ryan Thompson. Right. It is Ryan Thompson. Wow.

Yes. I was like it's got to be Ryan Thompson. The man set a record at a pop a shot. They takes everything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was called there to be more.

It was Ryan Thompson and his dad, because of course, you have to have a partner to play Cornhole. So Ryan Thompson was there with his dad. That's a wonderful and wholesome. I'm told that he played against Kevin Newman and Kevin Newman's wife in the championship round. So shout out to the Newman family for the solid runner-up finish. Let's go. Yeah, I don't know how many other details you know about this party, Derek.

Have you guys heard about the farm animals? We talked about that already. Petting zoo, right? A petting zoo, right? Yeah. Yeah, so there was a petting zoo. But naturally, when I think of petting zoo, I think like, all right, so you have a fenced off enclosed space where there are animals and, you know, all of the players' kids are there and they can go up and pet the animals. And it's a great time. And there's ghosts.

Yeah. Maybe some rabbits, things like that of that nature. Right, right. So, yeah, that's what you might have had in your head. but we learned from Randall Gritchick, Derek, after this game, that that was not, in fact, how this was. They were not fenced off. It was just utter chaos in the Lavello backyard. There were zebras.

There were goats. Zebras. And they're just wandering around. What is this? Jumangi and Tori Lovolo's house? So Grisich was asked, like, did you have any safety concerns? Like, this doesn't seem like you'd want two-year-olds. like just walking around with like zebras and whatnot.

And here's what, here's what Grisha had to say. Oh my God. Honestly, yes. Walking back there, I thought it was dangerous. You got little kids and goats and zebras and cows. And I'm like,

what is happening here? They were all super nice. I mean, they accepted the kids to like come pet them and like a couple kids became a little smack because they didn't know better. A couple young ones. But yeah, they handled it well.

It was awesome. Cool. that's amazing to me because when my brother was a toddler he got kicked in the face by a horse and that's just something that can happen because they're wild animals so i'm glad to know that that didn't happen to anybody tori lobelo's house but uh i mean again a solid managerial move to kind of take the pressure off a little bit during i mean it's not like these nine games coming up are important like in the grand scheme of things it's not against division rivals or against teams that are going to be tough, you know, battles.

But it's it's some games that they really should win. And sometimes that pressure might cause you to, you know, get in your head too much, you know. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we talked with Geraldo Pradoimo about this a little bit. He very much applauded the idea and said it was a great time. And he talked about how feedbacks are a family and how, you know, they spend more time around each other. than they do their actual families. And they try to really make it feel that way,

where they are still with family in a sense, when they're with their sort of baseball community. So I also talked with Kevin Newman for a little while in the dugout prior to this game about this ordeal. And he was also very complimentary. I asked him, like, have you, is this something that you've had happened with other teams that you've been on?

And he said no, nothing. I mean, there have been gatherings and whatnot. But he said nothing quite like this. where like the manager is opening up his home and having a giant, a giant bash like this. Tori, of course, credited his wife. It sounds like his wife had probably more to do than he did with this whole thing. Makes sense.

He's a little busy. Yeah, he's a little busy. So shout out to Mrs. Lavello very much for making this happen. That's amazing. Yeah, it sounds like a great time. I noticed it when I was in San Diego on one of the TV screens near the clubhouse. there was something about the annual Lavello Cornhole Tournament. I guess serving is like a reminder for them.

Annual. I got a pencil list in my schedule. Yeah, it is. It's an annual event. Yeah, Tori said he launched it back in 2017, maybe. He said like six or seven years. They couldn't do it, of course, during the COVID years, which is certainly, certainly understandable. But yeah, the other thing is he said that all of the farm animals like ate all of the grass

in his backyard. So I guess that was part of the price that he had to pay is if it's now no, or isn't any grass in his backyard. But he probably should have expected that. Like, let's be real. That was just, he had that coming all along. This is a hard time we live in. But we did have two guys almost go for the cycle tonight, Jesse.

And in the organization, we almost had three guys go for the cycle tonight because Jordan Lawler made his return to the Reno Aces. He hit a home run. think he was just triple shy of the cycle. He had a double, a single, and a home run. And again, very exciting to see guys like Lawler and Perdomo return and immediately start contributing, immediately be right kind of where they were at. But again, with the way Gino has been playing and the things that have been going on, I mean, Jordan Lawler could easily find his way back up into this organization at the major league level very soon, I feel like.

I asked Tori today, not directly in connection with Gino, but I did ask what positions he expects Loller to play down in Reno. And Tori said primarily shortstop. He said maybe some third base. He did add that caveat. But it sounds like they're going to have Loller focus on shortstop for the most part at least. But yeah, it's a reasonable thought for sure. Like there's no question Gino is still struggling.

He didn't have a hit in this. game, a couple of strikeouts. He did get on base once via a hit by pitch. But his batts continue to look pretty rough, frankly. There's a lot of swing and miss sliders down in the zone. There's a lot of swing and miss on fastballs up. It just feels like he's kind of caught in between and just not in a really great place at the plate right now.

So the debacks ideally, like the best case scenario is that Gino turns it around and figures it out. He's had some years where as the season has gone on, he's sort of gotten hot. in the middle of the summer. And I think the debacks are hoping that that happens here again. But they also might have to face a what appears to be a at least possible reality, which is that maybe Gino Suarez is kind of on the downturn of his career and that it's just not, it's just not going to really come together for him, at least not this year.

Maybe there's some adjustments he can make, some things he can do, not necessarily the end of his playing career or anything like that. But the debacks need more offense from that, from that position, frankly. And I think the leash is, I'm not going to say the leash is short, but I think the leash is certainly getting shorter as the days go on. It's definitely an interesting move that the Diamondbacks kept Blaze Alexander up as the corresponding move with Geraldo Perdomo and decide to send Pave at Smith down. Like we know when Alec Thomas returns, most likely,

they're going to have to send someone down. And Blaze seems like a very, you know, obviously an easy candidate, right? but the thing there is is that if Gino really struggles over this stretch, who knows? And I'm not saying they're sending Gino down. I'm just saying the Diamondbacks have not shied away at times from pulling that trigger on DFA and guys. And I wouldn't be like it wouldn't surprise me any longer, even though probably like two weeks ago I said it's no. Like two weeks ago, I was like, no, no, give them more time. But here we are where, you know, the more that this season drags on and the longer you see him struggle, especially in a game like tonight, where so many of the players had a multi-hit night.

And again, Christian Walker went 0 for five. So I'm not saying like everybody in the lineup needed to have hits just to validate their existence and being in the lineup. I just feel like Gino just continues to struggle. And I don't, so far, don't see things getting much better at times, you know. And I talked about earlier in the show about Corby Carroll, where. he would still have an 0 for 4 night, yet there were things that we would see that felt encouraging. And people called us crazy, even though we were saying like, he's having some better at bats.

He went 0 for 4, you idiots. What do you mean he had better at bats? It's like sometimes just watching, you know, the swings or at least the results of the swing and where the ball goes or how hard he hit it sometimes can be encouraging even if it falls for a flyout or even if it goes, you know, for a ground out or something like that, right? But I don't know if we're seeing that right now out of Gino. And I don't know about, you know, Loller not playing third. I mean, who knows what's happening there?

It could be a lie, probably not a lie, but maybe he's lying. But we know there is one thing that never lies, Jesse. And that's the numbers. Jesse's numbers, they never lie. And what do you have for your number for tonight's game, Jesse? Yeah, I'm kind of cheating a little bit, frankly. This is a sort of like record achievement that was nearly achieved tonight, but wasn't. So this is a little anticlimactic.

but the number is three. And three simply stands for three hit games. The Diamondbacks had four different players with three hit games in this one. Heraldo Pardomo had an opportunity to make it five guys with three hit games in the bottom of the eighth. Unfortunately, that did not come to pass. It stayed as four. But if it had been five, Derek, this would have been only the second time in Diamondbacks franchise history where they had five different players have three or more hit.

in a game. The only other time it happened, if I can check my notes here, it was back on June 4th, 2014. And of course, that happened at Courtsfield. So we have to sort of put an asterisk by that. Yeah, yeah, that's different. That's understandable. But tonight, I mean, tonight's definitely encouraging. It's a step in the right direction. And it's more of what we thought we were going to see regularly out of this team where we did have nights like tonight. And it is different guys contributing even on a night where Catell didn't have a single hit, you still had the Diamondbacks be able to put up nine

runs now kind of over the last month that didn't really seem like imaginable. It didn't seem like that's something that could happen, that the Diamondbacks could have a big night like tonight and not really have Cotel be a main contributor. You know, Lordus three for five tonight,

Gabby three for five. Those are two guys that are so important to getting back right now. And I mean, again, if we can get Gabby and Lordis to start contributing more regularly, it really doesn't even matter that Gino struggles because his defense is still excellent over there at third base. And if they can get, you know, a bigger team contribution like they got tonight, then I mean, it's, it's kind of okay to have a couple of guys that aren't, you know, doing their best right now. Corbin, he's been

very good lately. And Corbyn definitely seems like he's, he's returning to form. Yeah, Corbyn, three more hits in this one. He reached four times. He, Derek, going back to the beginning of the Padre series, is now reached in 13 of his last 24 played appearances. I tweeted it out. I think that's an on-base percentage of like 542 or something like that. Obviously, it's only a five-game span. You want to see it for a longer period of time. But Corbyn in June, he's been getting on base. And we haven't necessarily seen the slug come back all the way. I know he did have a double and a triple in this game. So you saw at least at least some of that. But the reality is even if Corby and Carroll the rest of the season were to just be a guy who got on base but didn't, you know,

was more gap to gap power, didn't really hit home runs. Sure. That's still a really valuable player. That's still as a player that could be really worth hitting at the top of the lineup. If he has, you know, a 350, 360 on base percentage or something like that the rest of the way. with all the damage that he can do once he's on the bases, that's a really valuable player. And the kind of player, you're totally fine putting at the top of the lineup, even if the 25 homers isn't necessarily there. 10 for 25 in his last six games for 400 batting average. He's reached base safely in 19 of his last 21 games.

So again, these are things that the early season struggles, they terrified me too. really feel like we're out of the woods with Corbyn being as ice cold as he was at one point and really just contributing in different ways regularly. Yeah, he doesn't have that home run. Yeah, maybe that triple tonight last year would have gone for a home run. But still, it doesn't matter. It was a triple tonight.

And Corbyn's the fastest man on the planet. I couldn't believe he tagged up on that one, the one fly out. I couldn't believe he was agn't up. That was gutsy. The balls on that man. And I love it. I love it. And I think Perdomo was, was behind him at first base.

Yeah. Yeah. He tagged up and went to second. Yeah, they were able to get second and third. Yeah. It's little things like that, right? Jesse, I mean, like, again, with the way this team has been going, they've lost some close games, right?

And the ability sometimes to move up, get runners in scoring position, get those guys home next time on a little single or some sort of bloop, you know, pop fly or something. It, it just changes the game. And, I mean, tonight's game. game, even though at one point it felt like they very much were in control of the Angels, the Angels still fought back and put up four runs. And to be honest with the way the offense has been performing over the last month, four runs is, is enough to beat this team at

time. So the Diamondbacks did a good job of keeping, kind of staying aggressive, keeping their foot on the pedal tonight. Yeah, 100%. And, you know, this is a big week, Derek, like the Diamondbacks have an opportunity here with two more games against an angel's team that is not very good. I could, you know, I could talk for a while about all of the mistakes that the angels made throughout this game, the sort of wonders that they made. Why is Joe Adele stealing third down three runs with two outs and Gabby, you know, in a left hand? I mean, some just egregious things that the angels did in this game. But yeah, the debacks have an opportunity to come in here and take advantage of this. You've got two more against the angels. You've got three

against the Chicago White Sox, who might be the, who might be the worst team in the sport, probably are the worst team in the sport. So this is big. I mean, if the Diamondbacks are able to go, you know, say four and one for the rest of the week, which I know is not an easy task, even against this caliber of team, you're looking at being a 500 team at the end of the week, which I think would be a really nice lift for this Diamondbacks team. They're also only half a game out of the wild card. after this one as well.

So for people keeping an eye on that, yeah, they are very much, very much right in the mission. Stop. If you're keeping an eye on it, just stop. It's going to change nine million times between now at the end of the season. So let's just not worry about that right now. But we do thank you guys so much for your time.

We, of course, appreciate Jesse for joining us. We will be back tomorrow with Jesse and I in studio at 1 p.m. We're going to be joined by Nash Walker from the Reno Aces. who's going to get with us about some of these young prospects that we've been reading about, going to talk about Jordan Lawler, Adrian Del Castillo, and more. So make sure to join us at 1 p.m. tomorrow for that. In the meantime, we hope you guys follow us on Twitter. I am at cap underscore caveman with a K.

Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. Of course, the people's producer, Damon, is at Damon Dog. That's D-A-W-G. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, bark. I'm sorry. I really dropped the ball there. God damn it.

Just get out. I think you have to do it over again, right? Yeah, okay. We are Damon's dogs. Bark, park. There we are. All right. All right.

All right. But, of course, our shows at PHNX underscore D-Backs and all roads do lead to at PHNX underscore sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We thank you guys again for your time. We hope to see you guys in the live chat tomorrow at 1 p.m. We hope you have a wonderful night. Go snakes. We'll see you again tomorrow. And in the meantime, we love you.

Appreciate you. Have a wonderful night. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when Jerry P is on your team.