PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Jordan Montgomery, Bullpen Get COOKED In Diamondbacks Series Finale Loss To Twins

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

Diamondbacks pitchers got rocked by the Minnesota Twins in the series finale on Thursday. Jordan Montgomery allowed four earned runs while the bullpen chipped in another five. We have more on the disastrous day for the pitching staff, missing Eugenio Suarez at third base, taking out your frustrations on an inanimate object, and some injury updates that might inspire hope after this series loss.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: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/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!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.

Welcome in to another terribly terrible edition of the PHNX debacks podcast. My name is Derek Montia, and hopefully I can help make today better. I am occasionally known as your mayor, PHNX. I'm joined by Game and Dog on the On the Ones and twos, and of course, Jesse Friedman will be joining us from Chase Field here shortly. And of course, when I say a terrible, terrible, I guess, addition, it's not my performance that was terrible today. It was the Diamondbacks pitching performance that was terrible.

The debacks lose 13 to 6. in the series finale to the Minnesota Twins. And this was just an awful loss because you could pretty much pin a lot of this on the pitching today. Of course, you can also pin it on the fact that once the Diamondbacks were down two to nothing, it really didn't matter, right? Because the Diamondbacks are now 1 and 37 this season when trailing by two runs or more at any point in the game. That's right. They only have one comeback victory still when trailing by two runs or more.

And to be fair, if the Diamondbacks could have kept, I guess, limited the damage to a really bad second inning by Jordan Montgomery and the Diamondbacks defense, they might have been able to make this game a little bit more of a game. But unfortunately, that wasn't the case because not only did Jordan Montgomery give up a whole bunch of runs, but so did the bullpen. I mean, defensively, when the twins were up to bat, the Diamondbacks were just bad today. They really shit the bed when it came to defense. I mean that both on the mound and I mean that in the field. Of course, Jordan Montgomery, not very good today. And this is another really bad outing that once again makes this signing by the debacks look really bad.

Of course, he only went two and two thirds innings today. He gave up nine hits, allowed eight runs, but only four of which were earned. And they have one, allowed one walk, struck out one. Jordan Montgomery today, he just got himself into a jam early. he had a no-out basis-loaded jam in the second inning, didn't get much help at all from his defense. If you go back and watch this game, there are so many instances where the damage that the twins did to the debacks

could have been limited versus what ends up actually happening, and a lot of it was on the defense. A lot of it you could blame today, also on Kevin Newman at third base, who was not very good. Do you miss Gino yet? Do you miss him? Because Gino's one of those guys that makes playing third base just look very easy.

And Kevin Newman was just terrible over there. He had a throwing error today that allowed two runs to score. He also missed an attempt a little bit earlier at a play that Geraldo Pardomo had to try to make and wasn't able to get an out with. But there were a lot of defensive gaps like that today that really just allowed the innings to continue, allowed the twins to continue to put up runs and take advantage of the Diamondbacks playing. playing probably some of the worst defense we've seen over this month of June and maybe dating back to earlier in the season when we saw Blaise Alexander struggle at shortstop and some of the other mistakes we saw being made maybe in the outfield. But today, today was a bad day. Jordan Montgomery, of course, he, again, he was not good.

But again, the mistakes that he made were then compounded by the defense. At one point, a run came in when he did have, he had the bases loaded jam and threw probably his three best pitches of the day to get a strikeout. But then a run comes in on Jose Herrera, a catcher's interference call on Jose Herrera. And it's like that was, that right there was such an indication of how today was going to go. Because even when you thought maybe they'll get out of it, some mistake. And in this case, not even by the pitcher, caused a run to score. he, George Montgomery allowed six runs in the inning to score in eight runs total, but like I said, only four of those runs were earned. And I think that kind of when you talk about him allowing eight runs total, that really displays what went on today.

The defense behind him was just very, very bad. And I mean, honestly, it goes around. Like we saw Geraldo Pridomo trying to make some plays that he wasn't able making some spectacular plays. Corby and Carroll deserve some flowers for his defense in center field. because he did make some great plays, especially there in the ninth inning when the game was kind of out of reach. But this one is not on the offense. The offense put up six runs today.

I'm not saying that that's solely enough to win a baseball game. But the offense produced, Catelle Marte continues to be a mighty, mighty Marte. He does move on, by the way, when it comes to the All-Star voting, which we'll talk about here in a little bit. But Cattel was two for three today with a home run. not exactly sure why that's the guy you choose to pinch hit for with Blaze Alexander late in the game, but I'm really just splitting hairs at this point because the Diamondbacks were down by seven. So it really doesn't matter.

Geraldo Perdomo was two for four with an RBI. Lordus Guriel Jr. continues to be very, very good in the month of June. He was two for three with an RBI. So the defense wasn't the problem. The pull pen was just as bad today as Jordan Montgomery. And again, Jordan Montgomery is a. disappointment and I understand. You can't say he's not.

Not only has he had like Jordan Montgomery was considered to be one of the elite pitchers available on the market. And I will also. You're very right. It's just that the way you said it felt like a parent, you know? Yeah. You're a disappointment to the Montgomery name. Yeah.

No, I mean, I trust. I'm a Monty, right? Like when I was in Puerto Rico, people used to, my nickname was Monty. So I'm a fellow Monty as far as last names go, nicknames being decided on that. I don't like this. I don't like being included in this particular family. Because, you know, again, Montgomery, when you really take a look at the Diamondbacks acquiring him and what has happened to this starting rotation due to injury, Jordan Montgomery should be the savior of this pitching staff.

He should be the one day that you don't have to worry about. He should be the one outing that you know you're going to get a quality start from. But again, that's not what's happening. And I don't know exactly the reason why this season has been such a disaster for him. We have seen just like some of these other players, just like we were talking about yesterday with Ryan Nelson, we've seen moments where we know what Jordan Montgomery can be. And it looks a lot like what we've seen out of him in the past.

But he has days like today where things don't go his way. And honestly, like I said, I don't want to, even with calling him a disappointment, I don't want to put this solely on him. Jordan Montgomery was responsible for four earned runs. The defense behind him allowed more runs than that to score. The bullpen comes in allows five. If we're talking about Jordan Montgomery only allowing four earned runs in this game, that gives the Diamondbacks actually a chance to win, right?

He not only has not been able to go out there and be effective, but, you know, days like this are happening too often. There are too many days where you look at his line and you're seeing three innings pitch two and two-thirds innings pitched. And that really is the part that hurts this starting rotation and this bullpen, you know, when you have your starting pitcher go out there and give you that kind of length. He also destroyed a pitchcom in the dugout, a video that many of you have probably seen on Twitter. And if you haven't seen, I definitely suggest you go and seek out because I can relate to that moment.

Before video game controllers were as expensive as they were, sometimes in a. animate objects needed to be to blame for poor performances. And I can definitely relate to him absolutely smashing his pitchcom there in the dugout. What kind of sucked was he really wanted to like break it and smash it. And I mean, that's a satisfying thing. When you want to like smash a controller, you don't want to just like nick it on the side or just ding it up a little bit. You want to like smash it in the pieces and see the insides of it, the working part like go everywhere. right that's probably what jordan wanted when he smashed his pitchcom in the dugout and it it took him more than one try and and again that didn't really help uh his day either i'm just saying but again

like blaming the pitchcom stupid stupid pitchcom i mean it was what was telling him what to throw so i mean who's to blame me really if you're not going to at least blame the pitchcom some of course you also have to blame kevin at third because that really did not work out today. Tori did speak before the game about putting Kevin Newman at third, and this is what Tori had to say in regards to that. Yeah, it's been on my mind. I mean, we all, we breathe the same air as you guys. We think the things the same way you guys, think of the things the same way as you guys do. So yeah, I think it was natural for me to see what, what Newman looked like over there. And he's been solid defensively. He's had a really good year

offensively in the role that we've asked him to play and he's helped us win games. I feel like he's an opportunity to show us what he can do over there. Well, unfortunately, he did show what he could do over there. And I understand it from the perspective of how his bat has been and honestly how reliable Kevin Newman was at shortstop. But I do think that, again, this proves that sometimes even when guys like Gino are struggling,

you still probably want that guy at third base. Christian Walker, you know, that's a no-brainer, right? If Christian Walker was struggling at first base, we all know we would still want Christian Walker over there, right? You'd want Seawak there because you know he is one of the best defensive first baseman. And I'm not going to say Gino is quite that at third base, but I'm going to say that Gino is better defensively than your average third baseman. And even if he's not giving you much more than one hit and, you know,

two strikeouts a game or three strikeouts a game, and that part sucks, it's still a sacrifice you're making to have a very, very good defender over there at third base. And today we saw how easy, you know, how, I guess how easy he makes it look and and how hard it can actually be for somebody else who is still a very talented major league baseball player, right? We're not talking about Kevin Newman not being able to play, you know, shortstop. He plays shortstop very well, but you saw that error today. And I mean, just some other plays, like I said, the earlier play where, you know, you, you,

felt like Gino probably would have come in more and been a bit more aggressive about a play that Kevin kind of passed off to Pardomo and that's that lack of experience playing over there. Plus, Kevin Newman's also a shortstop and oftentimes there's a shortstop. I imagine you think, God damn it, that guy got in my way of making that play when it comes to the third basement. I'm sure that's a thought that goes to your head. But anyway, maybe just a thought that goes through my head. But today was just a bad day for the Diamondbacks.

I mean, again, defensively, this was just a rough day for them. and again as much as Jordan Montgomery is going to take the blame for this right he is not only going to get the loss he is going to be the reason why the Diamondbacks lost this game but it's not solely on his shoulders again the bullpen comes in three runs allowed by Scott McGuff

two more runs allowed by Bryce Jarvis these are the guys that Tori tends to use in garbage time like this of a game that was out of reach it turns out that the offense was able to make it a much closer game than it than it was or maybe could have could have been a much closer game based on how the offense performed, but instead

the bullpen, you know, didn't really keep it a competitive game, didn't keep it close, and now we're talking about a 13 to 6 loss. This one's rough because the Diamondbacks do have the Oakland A's coming to town tomorrow and a three-game series with the A's. But as we talked about it, after that, they go to Los Angeles, they go to San Diego, and, you know, they have some tough opponents,

including the Braves between now and the All-Star break. Things, you know, could get out of control for this team fast, especially considering that the two losses in this series in game two and game three are, you know, they're pretty, they're pretty substantial losses. They don't leave you feeling very confident about your ability to go into Los Angeles and go into San Diego and win these games. I mean, the Dodgers and the Padres are both missing key personnel, so at least it's a good time to be playing them.

And the Diamondbacks do have a shot. they also have Zach Gowan returning on Saturday, according to rumors and speculation. So maybe they could turn things around, but it feels very much like they need to, or else, you know, they could find themselves kind of in a bigger hole than they want to be by the time that All-Star rate comes around. Of course, one guy that has not been letting us down in any way, shape, or form is Catell, and he is our King Snake for this series. Cattel was four for nine with two home runs. He had two walks and four RBI. And again, Cattel is just an incredible baseball player that is having, you know, one of his best seasons all around. He absolutely deserves to be a starting second baseman for the All-Star game. And he moves one step closer because he is a finalist and has moved on to phase two with Luis Arise in the National League All-Star voting.

But the work is not done, folks. None of those votes from the first round carry over to phase two. So that means that Diamondbacks fans, you got to get out there and vote. Got to make sure that we get Kattel to the All-Star game. I mean, this obviously is a no-brainer, you know, but again, you can't assume. You can't assume that he is going to get in there. So do your part. Make sure your vote.

Make sure you give Kattel the love because he absolutely needs it. what do you what do you think damon i think that kattel's the only guy who pulls his weight consistently this entire season right yeah everybody else is hot and cold yeah even you know brandon fott's been fairly consistent but like even he has his bad moments it's kind of like daman on the show for sure he's the only one that pulls his weight here consistently yeah jesse derrick everybody knows i'll everybody knows i don't that's an odd like you don't even have to really know the details to know and assume that I don't pull my weight around here.

And of course, you know, Jesse. He just loves baseball. He loves being at the ballpark. So he uses, oh, well, I have to be here. I can't leave. I have to, like, talk to the players and the coaches. You know, who says you have to do any of that? Leave in the fifth inning like I do.

Or on a game like today, leave after the second inning. You know, it really doesn't matter because sometimes it's not great. But, of course, we do appreciate Damon. He is our dog. He is the people's. dog and of course you know we do appreciate kattel because this man has been doing it for this team the entire time he's been a part of this team i mean even thinking back to how amicable kattel was about switching to center field right like kattel this entire time being a member of the

arizona diamond back has been the MVP of this team he has been the guy that's tried to do everything to help this team win and uh like i said several times before he's just an absolute joy to watch. So I think that he deserves the start and I would love to see like maybe Cattell miced up at the All-Star game or you know, just maybe getting some of those, again, his

boyish hijinks that he has out there when he's playing the baseball game. That would be a lot of fun. But make sure you vote. Do not assume other Diamondbacks fans are going to take care of that for you. They're not all like George, right? I tweeted out about our guy George today who's just relentlessly positive.

Love you, George. Thank you. maybe everybody should try being a little bit more like George, especially on a day like today. That's all I'm saying. But of course, we do thank all of you guys for being here. We thank you guys very much for being Diamondbacks fans and more importantly for being here for the PHANX Sports YouTube channel. If you haven't subscribed to the channel yet, make sure to do so now. Sign up for notifications. That way you don't miss whenever our wonderful shows go live.

Drop us a like. We always appreciate when you drop us a like. Of course, if you're listening on the audio podcasting side, we love it when you subscribe on your favorite audio podcasting app. We also love when you leave us a review. We appreciate that feedback. It's five-star reviews not to pressure you into giving us one of those, but those five-star reviews do mean the world too much. I'll pressure them. Do it.

If you guys don't do it, you don't love us. You hate us, in fact. If you don't leave a five-star review, you might as well just say, I hate you. Yeah. I don't want you to do well in life. I don't want you to succeed. I don't want you guys to have nice things, right? So, yeah, whatever.

No pressure, though. Of course, there's also no pressure when it comes to Shady Ray's, and they're amazing sunglasses, and there's no pressure when you buy online. The reason why is because Shady Raise allows you to return your sunglasses should you not absolutely love them. You can get your money back for free within 30 days, and you can exchange them for a new pair. They have hundreds of styles to choose from, and they have amazing sunglasses that, of course, are premium sunglasses that don't cost you the premium price. of other companies. They have crystal clear optics. They also have the most insane lost and broken replacement plan and all of I wear. They tell us if you lose or break your shady rays, even on day one,

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Do you have a pair of sunglasses that you love more than your Shady Rays? Absolutely not. I have my like kind of, what do you call them? The big style sunglasses. I'm trying to think of like a word for them. like the golf sunglasses. Yes. Oh, yeah. And they're great.

I wore them to run the other day. Were those the ones you lent me for NASCAR so that I could fit in at the NASCAR? Yeah. Aren't that incredible? They're amazing. They're amazing. Almost as amazing as Ryan Reynolds. And now I do have to talk about Mint Mobile, but before that, I want to talk about how much I love Ryan Reynolds.

Now, Ryan, if you're watching, I've seen every single one of your movies multiple times. And unlike a lot of people, I think Detective Pikachu is an absolute cinematic. masterpiece. I've seen the captive. I've seen Mississippi grind. I've seen a million ways to die in the West. I've seen the voices. I've seen ripped. I've seen turbo. I've seen crudes. I've seen Ted. I've seen everything you've done. I am a devoted Rexum fan, as Damon will attest to. But honestly, of all the things that Ryan Reynolds does, I'm a bigger fan of Mint Mobile. And that's because it's basically half the price of what I pay in one month for three months of with Mitt Mobile when you sign up and forget the overpriced wireless plan that you're currently on.

You'll save money the entire time you're with Mint Mobile. But, of course, like I said, for a limited time right now, you can get three months of premium wireless service for just 15 bucks a month. And that's cheaper than some alcoholic beverages when you go out for cocktails. I'm just saying to get this new customer offer and your new three-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, Go to mintmobile.com slash diamondbacks. That's mintmobile.com slash diamondbacks. Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com slash diamondbacks. $45 up front payment required, equivalent to $15 a month. New customers on first three-month plan only.

Speed slower above 40 gigabytes on our limited plan. Additional taxes, fees, and restrictions apply. Cement mobile for details. Marcus said, have you seen buried? Have I seen buried? I own the DVD. What are we even talking about here? When I say I'm a Ryan Reynolds fan.

I mean it in, forget fan. Stan is probably the correct word. And you're the biggest Wrexham fan that the world's ever seen. Ever seen. Ever seen. Paul Mullen, let's go.

Olly Palmer, huge fan. I think we have to get out to one of those Shrewsbury town derbies next year in England or in Wales. I think there's nothing again, like you can't say otherwise. It's me, you, Owen, Max. Reese. Oh, yeah. At the racing track.

Tim wants to know how many times I've watched Green Lantern. Too many times to count. Too many times to count. Also, fun fact, Rexum Logger's big moment was when they got interest in them from an international cruise line or ship. And it ended up being the Titanic. So when you talk about everything for Rexum being a disaster, it literally was.

But that's all. That's just a small piece. of the town's history. I could go on for hours about that. We need to get the Wrexham podcast started here very, very much. Anyway, we thank you guys, of course, for being here. Corbyn Barrels is right. 41 people watching 15 likes. Yeah, thank you, Corbyn. We appreciate you for stop it by. Not to mention the haters are furious right now, Derek. What are the haters furious about? Well, obviously, I mean, just the dislikes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The dislikes. I feel like that wasn't a fair shot, by the way. The five of you gave us a thumbs down before

this show even started. And I mean, just saying, based on, based on my performance, I don't feel like I deserve those yet. I mean, at least wait until we're done with segment one before you give us five thumbs down. But also, you could wait until we get to the count because we're going to go over the numbers. Why? Because I'm a masochist and I love pain. But let's take a look at the count presented by our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union. Twins outscore the Diamondbacks in this three game series. 25 runs to 14. Good Lord. Good Lord. Diamondbacks get out hit 33 to 21. Runners in scoring position, the twins were nine for 31, Diamondbacks were five for 17. Starting pitching ERA, pretty bad for both teams. 6.61 for the twins,

9.94 for the debacks. And you know what? You're going to get that when one of your starting pitchers only goes two and two thirds. It gives up four runs and another one goes three to two thirds. It gives up six runs. Relief pitching ERA Inconsequential it felt like in this series Aside from game one, which the Diamondbacks only won by one game or one run. This one's not great, but 1.84 relief pitching ERA 4.40 for the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks really continue to struggle when you talk about getting into the bullpen. You know, and I mean, of course, Jesse very much had a feeling that today's outing for

the Diamondbacks was going to be a rough one based on the fact that the twins had just called up their starting pitcher Festa. And based on David Festa and based on the kind of like fastball he threw, it just spelt kind of disaster for the Diamondbacks. They did a good job against Festa. Again, they didn't get absolutely outclassed by a starting pitcher in this one. He only went five innings pitch. He gave up five earned, allowing seven hits. So the Diamondbacks weren't exactly, you know, completely defeated by. starting pitching here, but they might have been completely defeated by their own pitching in

this one. This day was a bad day. And nobody pitching-wise deserves any kind of flowers when it comes to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Just an all-around disgusting, awful series. Like, why do they do that? They did this against the Phillies, too. You play a good team. You win game one. You feel good about the series. And then you just get trounced in two straight games to end it out. And then you feel like an uncompetitive baseball team again. My older brothers are six years and seven years older than me, respectively. So I actually understand this series of events very much so. My brothers would tend to go easy on me when we played sports together due to the age

difference. They wanted me to feel like I had a chance. They wanted me to feel good about myself until I actually beat them. And then they felt a need to, whether it was a fighting video game and beat me 100 times in a row or, you know, play another one-on-one game and just put up 21 straight points on their eight-year-old younger brother. This very much feels like you poke the bear, much like in the Phillies series, you win a game, and you almost pissed them off to the point that they just come out and absolutely whoop that trick in the next two games. And that's what it felt like. I mean,

this one, we knew the twins were a good team. We knew coming into this that this was going to be a difficult series. Game one, you know, the victory in game one very much felt like the Diamondbacks played a well-rounded game that honestly outside of one, you know, maybe Brandon fought being left in for a little bit too long. That game was pretty well played on both sides of the ball by the Diamondbacks. And then the rest of the series happens. Today's game, obviously, I mean, you can't pin on the offense. You really feel like they not only, I mean, I guess gave it a shot at a comeback when this game was well out of reach but they put up enough runs today to consider this a game that that the offense

could have won for them it was really just you know jordan montgomery and going back to the disappointment that is jordan montgomery i mean there's there's a lot of things about this right now again uh this sucks this sucks i'm sure montgomery would be one of the first people to say that he stunk today and that this outing you know really sucks for the team sucks for him sucks sucks all around right but I still feel like Jordan Montgomery is having one of the most, you know, I guess, I guess a frustrating year all around for him. You know, not only were there the frustrations from when he signed, but everything that, you know, happened, changing agents, you know,

just this entire season has been weird and frustrating and definitely a letdown for him personally. I would also say. You're probably going to pick up that option. We assume at this point, right? Where is he going to get more money? We're expecting him to be on this team next year, which kind of sucks, but it is what it is. It kind of sucks except for the fact that, again, a baseball player isn't necessarily what they are today, right? Like, just because he had a bad outing today doesn't mean that this is what Jordan Montgomery is.

You look at his body of work this season, and yeah, I can understand how people feel like this is a failure and this is a bad signing for the team. honestly it could have been a much bigger failure if he was pitching like this and ended up getting that contract that he wanted could you imagine a team committing like five years to a guy who's pitching like this in his first you know season with the team I would like that would be the alarm bells would be ringing just he brought it up the other day but like it's kind of crazy I mean we signed three of like the projected consensus top 15 guys in free agency and all three of them have done nothing to to help this team essentially. I mean, Lord has helped them in the first two series of the season. After that. Sorry, I'm laughing at the comment because Ryan said, Ryan's asking for Thunderbolt 47 to show up, yell and moan. And I was actually wondering the exact same thing.

Jay Cuddy says, Trick Williams reference in regards to My Whop That Trick, uh, comment. Yes. Jay, I'm not sure if you're familiar with this, but I, I'm a, I'm a pro wrestling commissioner. So, uh, you're going to get. a lot of those on this show. I try to only do it when Jesse's not here because it just confuses him more. That's not true. Well, yeah, I mean, sometimes it's fun to confuse Jesse, but I try to explain

my wrestling references to Jesse where I'm not going to do that with these guys. These guys know the reference. They get it. They get it. Of course, we do have Jesse joining us here from the clubhouse shortly, but before he gets on, I do want to thank so many of you that are already diehard members. We appreciate you guys being part of our family. If you are interested in joining up, I assure you, it is worth your trouble. If you do enjoy the content we're putting out here at PH&X, make sure that you get every single bit of it, including all of our written content from all of our wonderful writers, including the legend himself Craig Morgan, the legend himself, Gerald Borgay, and Jesse, too.

You also get access to our Discord lounge, which is the best place to be an Arizona sports fan. we have all sorts of original content for you in there, including interviews, exclusive episodes of the show, Mailbag Mondays that we do just for the Discord. And we also do a little squeeze play, game show that I host, where the only rule is, or I guess the only goal is to entertain me. I'm much like some sort of like Roman Empire Lord having three people tell jokes and make me laugh. Like a jester. Like a jester, yeah, like dance.

Dance is what I'm saying. But anyway. Corbyn Barrel says, don't join. if you're not interesting, that's not true because joining the discord and becoming a diehard might make you more interesting. I'll tell you there's a lot of characters in there

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Jordan Montgomery is still giving up hits out there? You know what, Derek, I lost you. We've got some We've got some exciting noise in the background. So we're going to have to say that one more time. It's always an adventure out there, Jesse. I guess is that noise Jordan Montgomery still giving up hits by chance? Or is that just general construction noise? Yeah, I believe it is. I believe it is the D-BAC's doing some work on the field.

But yeah, this was a rough one for Jordan Montgomery. No doubt about it. He gave up nine hits. You know, nine hits in two and two-thirds innings is never great. Montgomery obviously has had his share of starts like this this year where he's not really pitching into deeply into the game. And he's also giving up kind of a whole bunch of runs. This was, I believe, his fourth start of the season where he pitched four innings or less and also gave up six runs or more, which is not a not a great combination, especially only, you know, he's only made 13 starts this season altogether.

So, yeah, it was a rough one for him. But frankly, I think the Diamondbacks defense was, was just. just as responsible for what happened today as Montgomery was. That second inning was particularly brutal. Brando in the chat says you could just tell it wasn't going well. It started with the catcher interference. I felt the same thing because in that moment, it was no outs. Jordan had gotten a strikeout that actually looked pretty decent.

You know, you felt like maybe there was a chance that he could get a double play here or something like that. And instead we get a catcher's interference call that allows, I believe it was Byron Buxton, walk in and you know it just felt like from that moment on you you you were seeing not only jordan battling the batters but it felt like he was also battling his own defense at times he absolutely was yeah i mean you look at how that second inning transpired i mean there were i think four different moments defensively that you could point out that went that went wrong for the diamond backs uh first first two singles in the inning just kind of were what they were you've got two on nobody out but then I believe it was Willie Castro.

Yeah, the ground ball to it took Catele Marte. And Catell was, you know, initially looked a second to try to start a double player, at least get the lead man or at least get the guy out at second as opposed to the guy out at first. You didn't have enough time to do that. So he decides to throw out a first instead. And at that point, it is too late. And I believe that was, yeah, it was Castro who was able to beat that out. That's a play where you probably should have gotten one out.

So then you've got the bases loaded with nobody out. Montgomery does bounce back. He strikes out Kyle Farmer. So you've got one out in the inning. You feel like you've got some semblance of a chance to at least limit the damage. And then it's Manuel Margo knocking a single through to left field. That was the play where it did get between third and short. Heraldo Pardomo made a diving attempt.

He wasn't able to get there. Kevin Newman, however, did kind of move over to his left. And it looked to me like he stopped a little short. It wouldn't have been an easy play by any means. so I don't want to say like they should have been an air or anything like that. But it's a play where if Gino Suarez is in there, who's more comfortable at that position, you know, you wonder if he's able to at least keep that ball on the infield. And then it was the catcher's interference, as you said, with Carlos Correa.

That was the very next batter. That brings in another run. And then it was the throwing air by Kevin Newman with Royce Lewis at the plate, which turned what should have also been an out into, you know, a couple of runs coming into score. So four different instances in that inning defensively, two very clear mistakes that literally counted as errors, you know, with Herrera's catcher's interference and then Newman's throwing air. But those other two mistakes as well, it was just a brutal inning for the Diamondbacks, really in all facets of the game. And that's sort of what Tori described after this one.

Like this was a team loss. Everyone did not, no one did their job in this game for the Diamondbacks. Jordan Montgomery did not do his job today. the defense did not do their job. The bullpen did not really do their job. And the offense was able to muster up some sort of, you know, runs toward the end of this game. But, you know, they weren't really ever able to make this a game again.

The twins just had too big of a lead early. We have some comments for you, Jesse. Jay Cuddy in the chat wanted to know why your earbuds are so tangled. Corbin barrels in the chat says, Jesse, you're way too, you're way too well put together for your earbuds. to be in a knot. Also, you better be drinking water. So yes, these are all things that people are very concerned about when it comes to you. But Kevin says, why is Jesse still there?

I felt really warm at the ballpark. Kevin, I also felt extremely warm at the ballpark. That's why, again, I left after the second inning. Jesse, meanwhile, lives at the ballpark, and we don't allow him to actually leave. He has a sleeping bag, some... wild bathroom, you know, like toiletries and all that so that he can just stay there during these homestands because we can't have him leaving in case breaking news happens or Zach Gallen comes back. But Jesse, I do know you do have some injury updates here for the Diamondbacks.

What do you got for us? Well, first of all, we just heard from Tori after this game that Zach Gallen through a 41 pitch bullpen. And he, of course, did not confirm that Gallen will return to the Diamondbacks this weekend. but he basically did everything but that. He said it's probably the worst kept secret in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. So I think you can pretty much lock in Zach Allen starting this weekend. Saturday appears to be the day where that will happen.

So certainly good for the debacks to get him back. Gabby Moreno did catch that bullpen today, as Lovela had told us earlier. So Moreno continues to track well. I still think still appears that he could be back, could rejoin the diamondbacks in Los Angeles after the minimum 10 days stay on the injured list. So pretty good news there. As far as the other guys, Merrill Kelly was out here today doing some stuff at the ballpark. People might have seen him on the TV broadcast. He was in the dugout, I believe, as well, to watch this lovely baseball game that we all just got to witness. And Tori was asked about

the comments that Merrill made the other day at that Q&A session where he talked about targeting that road series in mid-A August where the Diamondbacks go to Boston. And Tori, it didn't sound like the, it didn't sound like Tori was necessarily on the same page with Merrill on that. Not that, not that he was like openly on a different page, but he, he seemed maybe a little bit surprised that Merrill had gone out and said that. He talked about a conversation that he had with Merrill today where he just said, like, look, we need you as soon as we possibly can get you back. And of course, the debacks can, you know, you can't really rush this process. It doesn't mean that they're not going to take their time and make sure that they do this. right. But there is certainly a level of urgency here. And, you know, whether it's mid-August or maybe it

is possible, the Merrill could be back a little bit sooner than that. The Diamondbacks really, really need him back. And Tori also said Merrill was very encouraged today for whatever that's worth, didn't offer, you know, much in the way of specifics. But he said that Merrill really encouraged with how he's felt the last couple of days as he's gone about his throwing program. So still no plans at this point for when, when Merrill could get out on. amount. He still has to progress further in his throwing program before before he could get there. The other guy, of course, is Eduardo Rodriguez and tried to get a little bit more clarity today on exactly when Erod is going to have that follow-up MRI. Tori said he thinks it will happen

within the next week. So between now and yeah, sometime middle of next week, it appears that E-Rod will have a follow-up MRI. And if everything is clean there, then E-Rod could get back you know, could get out on a mound shortly thereafter and really start making progress on his way back. I asked, like, what are you guys kind of waiting for? Is there a certain box that you want to check before you have that follow-up MRI? Is he sore? Is there some sort of like something there that's causing them to be this cautious? Right.

Yeah, that's what I was curious about too. And Tori just said healing. So it doesn't sound like there's any kind of feedback they're looking to get for me, Rod. They just decided to push it out farther. And so, yeah, it sounds like at some point next week, they feel like they're going to reach the point where there might be enough healing and they're going to do another MRI and see what that has to say. All right.

Well, I mean, obviously a big story today was Jordan Montgomery's short outing and then something that also became a story was him throwing the pitchcom in the dugout. I think Candice said it in the chat, Damon, there, if you scroll back a little bit. It was a pretty good dig. Candice right there said his best pitch was when he was in the dugout being pissed off. Maybe not entirely true. But there was that one strikeout.

That was pretty good. But he did have that whole incident with the pitchcom there. And I mean, speaking as someone, like I said earlier, that's been known to take my frustration out on video game controllers. I can relate. However, this wasn't Jordan's finest moment, obviously. It was not, no. We have, yeah, I have some reaction from Tori and from Montgomery himself that will play here in a second. But yeah, it wasn't a great look. I mean, I'm sure that any time at Major League here goes in the dugout and does something like that, I think you kind of know what you're getting yourself into.

You know that there are going to be clips of that floating around on social media. And sure enough, that was the case after this game. But it's just a function of Jordan Montgomery having what, he described as a season that he's never had before. I mean, he's never had a season like this where he has struggled to this degree is his uncharted territory for him. And it's clearly, it's clearly weighing on him to a, to a degree. But at the same time, he actually seemed, he seemed, I wouldn't say, encouraged with the way that his outing went today. But he wasn't, I wouldn't say he was as frustrated with his own performance today as maybe he has been, after some recent outings.

And you can understand why. Montgomery was getting quite a lot of ground balls. The contact was hard at times, but not all the time. You know, there were some balls that weren't struck all that hard that stuck through or the Diamondbacks defenders were not able to make a play on. So I don't think this was, I don't think this was Montgomery's worst outing of the season. I think he deserved probably a lot better than what his final line would show. But still, he's certainly not content with,

with how things went tonight or how things have gone up to this point in the season. Well, I know we have some video of that coming up here shortly, but I did want to cover. I know we haven't had a chance to talk about it. Carlos Correa getting hit there in the seventh inning by Bryce Jarvis. I know that sometimes, you know, getting hit by a pitch looks very bad. But for some reason, this was like one of the worst, like, looking things I recall seeing, mostly just because of the way that Correa, like, held it.

his arm like it had immediately broken in half when he got hit by the pitch. Any word on how Correa is doing? Correa has a contusion. It's alluding me whether it was an elbow. I want to say it was an elbow contusion is what he said. Yeah, it was just a contusion. So he's day to day. It sounds like he avoided a, avoided a significant injury. So good news for good news for the for the twins, certainly there. You're right. It did not look good in the moment. No. He, he, he, he, he, He walked straight into the dugout and down the steps. And especially in a game that was as lopsided as this one was, even if Correa did feel okay, there just wasn't really any reason to risk it in a game like this.

So you can understand why he did that. And honestly, I don't like, it's one of those things where we get caught up and fired up as fans in the moment. But like you really don't want to see somebody like that, you know, get hurt and injured. That really sucks. And especially like, like you said, here. in game three with a blowout in hand. Like the last thing you really want to see as a baseball fan is somebody like that get, have a major injury occur that could impact their season or the twin season.

This twins team has been very good. And the Diamondbacks got to see that firsthand in these last two games. This twins team is good. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Like as much as the Diamondbacks did not take care of business in this series and did not play the way that you would have liked to see them play, part of this series is just the reality of the twins, I think, are a lot better of a team than at least I realize personally. The lineup that they had against Jordan Montgomery today, I mean, one through eight, like all these guys can hit.

I think it was an entirely right-handed hitting lineup. They, you know, their lineup is or their roster is very well built against lefties in particular. I think I saw they have the third highest WRC plus in baseball against lefties coming in to this game. So I normally think of the twins for, for, their pitching, you know, for Joe Ryan and for Pablo Lopez, although he hasn't been quite as good this season, you know, their bullpen, they've had some, some big time back-end relievers over the years as well. But this offense is pretty legit. And the Diamondbacks got a big taste of that over the course of especially the last two days. A lot of people in the chat, Jesse, are asking about

Davis and De Los Santos based on, you know, everything that we've seen here. I think it's a, you're not everything we've seen here, I think, from what we're seeing of him in Reno, and we know about what the Diamondbacks are dealing with, struggling with third base to find, you know, an answer there, right? This is a great example, I think, of why the Diamondbacks continue to roll with Gino. Davis and de Los Santos, no matter how good his bad is, like, the mistakes we saw from Kevin Newman is nothing compared to what we might see out of Davis and de Los Santos at a major league level. I don't really know, but I'm just saying, like, third base is one of those positions that is very difficult to play. And someone like Gino, once again, does make playing third base look very easy at times, considering, you know, when you have someone else in there.

Just like when we have someone else in at first base, when Christian Walker is in the lineup, you realize how good they are defensively and how effortless they make that position look. 100%. Yeah, yeah, Gino is the best defensive third base, but on this team. I don't think there's, I don't think there's any question about that from anyone, really. As far as De Lo Santos is concerned, I mean, Diamondbacks have gotten him some looks there, I believe, in AAA, at third base. But I don't, I don't know if I see it. I mean, they basically made the decision earlier this year to just move him to first base and have him focus on just one position and continue to be developed there. There are reports that I've seen from him at third base are not positive.

And frankly, I don't know if he's really a major league ready first baseman either. So I just think it's, I think it's too much to ask. I mean, Davis and Delos Santos, you know, we've seen guys have big numbers in AAA. And the numbers not necessarily translate to the big league. So it's not like his hitting is a short thing. And the defense would be the only question mark. It's that the defense would be a big question mark if you try to play him at third. And he's still so young.

I'm not sure he's really ready to face major league pitching at this point. So I would be really surprised if the debats tried to bring up DeLos Santos and have him be their solution at third base. The Diamondbacks have a series starting tomorrow with the Oakland A's. And obviously we know how important that series is because things get very tough after that, Jesse. And again, I didn't think that this twins team, I wasn't really factoring this twins team in as one of the easier teams the Diamondbacks had on their schedule.

But, I mean, the Oakland A is right now is kind of almost the last stop between now and the All-Star break for some wins that they could maybe stack. I mean, it's not to say they can't win against the Dodgers. It's not to say they can't win against the Padres. It just, it does get much tougher after this series with the A's. 100%. Yeah, I mean, these last couple of series where the debacks have won just one out of the three games. I mean, let's face it, that one game that they won in Philadelphia, they won by one run.

And the Phillies were, you know, they were very much in that game up until the final out. And then the debacks were, you know, there just wasn't a very little offense in the last two games of that series. One of the games was a total blowout. And then here in this series, the debacks lose the first or win the first game by just one run, very, very close, right? That line drive from Ryan Jeffers with two outs very well. I mean, the twins came very close to tying that game on Tuesday night. And in the last couple of days, it's just been a blowout in favor of the twins. So debacks have really, although they've managed to salvage a game in each of these past two series,

they have looked pretty overmatched against two good teams in the Phillies and the Twins. And with the Dodgers and Padres coming next week, two more good teams, you absolutely have to take care of business against the Oakland A's this weekend. Jesse, have you ever broken an inanimate object in frustration? Have you ever been so mad at an object that didn't deserve for you to be mad at that you smashed it in the little pieces? Yeah, you know what? I do have to confess.

There's one. Oh, my God. I can remember one item in my life that I have thrown and broken. And that was a ping pong paddle. As you know, as you know, I am very competitive. when it comes to playing ping pong. And yeah, me and one of my older brothers played, we played about 25 games of ping pong every single day

for an entire summer, like when I was in high school. And there was one day where I just lost it. I would almost always be up late. You know, we'd be playing at 21. Yeah, yeah. I'd be up like, I'd be up 1911 or something like that. And he'd just come back. He would come back almost every time.

And it was just a matter of could I stave off the comeback or what I succumb to it and wind up losing. So there was. Did you feel the pressure? Where I lost it. Like I imagine that happens once. And then after it happens once, then you're like, oh, boy, here we go again every single time. And then that's kind of what starts to throw you into that position. Yeah.

Yeah. Part of me wonders to this day if he wasn't really trying until we got like close to the end. And then that's what he would really turn it on. And then I was like suddenly, the other thing is once you get late in the game, at least the way that we would play, it would be his serve. Like he would get to serve on game point every single time. Okay. Just like a nasty serve that I had a very hard time with.

So yeah, that made it tough. My favorite thing is Jesse becoming like a completely different person when he plays ping pong, like talking shit, the to Tocry breaking stuff. Yeah, he becomes an unhistorian tough. Yeah, yeah. He becomes unhinged. It's amazing. Or you could say it's the evolved version of Jesse. I don't know. I don't know why we all have to act like we're so all well put together, right? But Jesse is, though.

Jesse is, but like he said, even he has a moment of weakness and that's amazing. See, I thought it would be a calculator or something like that. Wow. And I don't mean that from a nerdy. No, no, no, no. No, for sure. Well, yes, I did. That's exactly.

I don't mean that from a nerdy perspective. I mean that because, like, I could see Jesse only really. really getting mad when equipment he needs to work at a critical time fails him. I've seen how mad he's gotten at our microphones before. And I completely was with him on it too. But yeah, we all have to act like we're also higher, you know, above throwing something and breaking it, right? I feel like me and you are big, like, throw and break stuff.

Well, because the stuff deserves it. We're both emotional guys. The stuff deserves it. I vividly remember one time I was like, you know, my chore was like, you know, cleaning up after the dog. Yeah. And I had the pooper scooper in my hand and it kept, the stuff kept falling out and I got really mad and I slammed it on the ground and snapped it and half. Just slammed it as hard as I could.

That's like the one that came to mind. Yeah. I had a monopod that failed me and what a little feet kind of got broken. And I could have probably fixed it or done something. And I was just so mad that this monopod wouldn't stand up on its own while I was trying to do a one shot that. I just smashed it into pieces and I'm sure there's at least one person at Salt River Fields that saw me do it

and is like, hey, that's the guy by the way, that's the guy that smashed his stuff. I saw him, he's a psycho. But we do have, of course, more thoughts from both Jordan Montgomery and Tori Lobolo on Monty smashing his pitchcom. This is what Tori had to say in regards to the incident. If it comes in the dug out and throws the pitchcom against the water,

throws the glove. How do you manage that? I didn't see that. I know that he was, I was probably on the mound. I didn't see that. I was a very emotional player and I snapped and I expect players to snap. I think they're very passionate. I don't have a problem with it. I just think when it crosses the line where you throw something and it hits a teammate, that's crossing the line or across the line where I have to, I have to address it and talk about it because it's directed at me, one of his coaches, or his teammate. That's where I think it's gone too far. I don't think that was the case.

I think he just battled some frustration and he just was letting it eat. I love Tori because of that exact thing. Like, Tori is human. Tori is, the first thing he'll tell you is he's very Italian and that his emotions definitely get the best of him at times. but Tori understands that. Tori understands emotions running high in that moment, and he understands people reacting that way.

Like, that's never going to be a thing that is going to, like, make Tori think less of you. He's a very understanding manager when it comes to that. Yeah, we also have, we also have Jordan Montgomery speaking on just kind of his general frustration right now as well as, as well as that incident. Here's what he had to say. I just expect a lot out of myself. I know.

I've let a lot of my teammates down. I'm just trying to be better. Was that the pitchcom you were throwing? Yeah, yes. I don't do that often, but sometimes you just got to do it. Is it a pitchcom okay? Yeah, I don't think it's going to survive it. How do you kind of navigate the mental hurdles

and the ups and downs of the season, specifically this month from what you've experienced? It's definitely been the hardest year. of my career. But I work hard. I know what I'm capable of and I just got to keep working. You're right, Jesse.

He does look different after this. And again, that was kind of funny for him to joke about the pitchcom and I definitely don't think that pitchcom is making it out alive. But, you know, yeah, sometimes you do have to do something like that. And sometimes, you know, you had a bad day, but you still know what you are.

capable of and you know what kind of pitcher you are you know what kind of athlete you are i feel like even though diamondbacks fans and and you know damon and i are all we're all very disappointed right but we still feel like jordan mcgomery is a guy that once he once he can once he can get himself dialed in once he can find that groove he can absolutely be an asset for this team even if it comes this late in the season but he still needs to figure out a way to to get there yeah yeah you can you can definitely tell from his tone there like genuinely frustrated for sure but i yeah i don't know maybe maybe throwing the pitchcom like helped him helped him kind of get over he does he seems a little bit more at peace there with that like yeah it's not a great day but again like we talked about you you can as a pitcher

sometimes kind of at least tell yourself like that wasn't all on me a lot of like my defense really let me down today yeah he didn't put it in in those words but yeah i mean you could you could tell it was he did he did sort of feel that way partially that his defense you know there were there were some moments and it was undeniable no matter who you were in the stadium the defense should have picked up jordan montgomery certainly at least more than that than they were able to um but yeah you also hear him say there like this is the this is the hardest the hardest year of my career and no question about that right i mean jordan montgomery's had a lot of success in this league i know he had Tommy john surgery at one point and and there were some hiccups sort of working

working his way back from that. But, you know, you go back to the 2021 season, really ever since then, Jordan Montgomery, you could lock it in as being a solid innings eater, a guy with a sub four ERA. And obviously, he has just not been that so far for the Diamondbacks. Jesse, you're going to get this episode DMC8 off of YouTube. I know it for a fact. But not your fault. You're not the one playing the music, though I do want to blame you for it.

But do you guys, can you guys hear these sweet jams that are happening? Of course we can. And the people have been having a great time. Oh, yeah, we're definitely getting sued. Jay Cuddy in the chat says, so conflicted about this man because I really like Monty as a dude and I feel bad for him. This is a problem that Jesse and I have quite often when it comes to calling guys bums and labeling them as someone the team should move on from because these are all pretty good dudes. And you get to know a lot of them doing this job that we do. So it's hard to be as critical, you know, and I understand Diamondbacks fans being very, very, very.

you know, frustrated with Jordan Montgomery. And I think that the front office is probably fairly frustrated with him considering that they paid what they paid to bring him onto this team. And he's been performing the way that he has. And again, Jesse earlier, I said the most disappointing fact is what's gone on with the starting rotation and how much the Diamondbacks truly needed him to kind of be some form of stabilizing force on this starting rotation. And he definitely hasn't been that.

But I do know that you have more from. him on this outing. Yeah. Do you assess what happened to Nick? I don't really know how to. I feel like every ball found a hole. Could have been 60 miles per hour. It could have been 100.

So, just got to keep grinding, I guess. In terms of the way your pitches were coming out, did they feel as good as they had been the last couple times? Yeah, I mean, I was getting my forcing room there. I was jamming them a lot. Just nothing to show. for it. Is that as frustrated as after that kind of?

Yeah, I mean, you get them on the ground and it just seems like everything found a hole or just was just out of reach or spinning funny to where Marty couldn't get a read on it. Just you, there's usually outs and when they're not a good lineup like that is going to make her. going to make it hurt. Is that almost more frustrating than if you were just not pitched well? I mean, you never want to just get barreled consistently. So at least I can know that I was excused some pitches. So I'll just keep working hard, flush it, and be back out there in six. Kate in the comments wants me to shave, Jesse.

And I thought that we already proved that my facial hair has no actual bearing on this team. and especially not on Jordan Montgomery's outings, but I guess that might not still be clear enough yet. Jordan, again, does sound very frustrated there, but it's understandable, right? Like, I think you can understand why he's feeling the way he's feeling, and the fact that he's kind of motivated to get back out there and show people he's not this pitcher.

I mean, yeah, I can understand people who are frustrated by this. I mean, the Diamondbacks have signed three left-handed starting pitchers. or, you know, significant free agent dollars in the last five years. And one of them was DFA'd with about two years remaining. You know, another one that has an ERA over six. 13 starts into his Diamondbacks career. And the other one has yet to throw a pitch. And, you know, is obviously out with a shoulder injury and might not be back

until well into the second half of the season. Might not even be real, according to our chat. He might not even be real. Might not be real. Who's to say? So, yeah, it, it, it, It's rough. I mean, the Diamondbacks went out. They spent money. They were widely praised for spending that money. And it has blown up in their face. I guess not all of it. I mean, Randall Gritchick and Jack Peterson have been good, but pretty much all the other money that they spent this off season, including taking on Gino Svarez's salary in that trade with the Mariners. None of that has panned out nearly as well as they would have hoped. Well, this whole thing doesn't feel great, but Diamondbacks still have some time to figure it out.

One interesting move there at the end was Tori removing Cotel Marte for Blaze Alexander. I know some people thought that there might be maybe some retaliation against one of the Diamondbacks better players for, you know, what happened to Carlos Correa? What did you find out about Tori removing Cattel there late? Yeah, well, we have Tori himself talking about that. Here's what he had to say. A little bit also because of some of the other events that happened. Yeah, look, I want to make a comment about that. I don't not believe in taking a baseball

and intentionally thrown it at any hit or any time. And if we're getting beat around and hit around by a team that is doing what they're supposed to do and we're hitting batters, I feel like that's one of the more cowardly acts that can take place. And I can assure you that Rice Jarvis was not trying to throw in anybody. We do not have that reputation. But my senses were heightened.

I was on alert, and I was protecting some of our athletes. Yes, I was. There it is. There were some, there were people. people were wondering about that and that is confirmed by Tori. Yeah, I, I, the moment that he did that, it was like, all right, in a normal situation, Tori might remove Cattel Marte and Christian Walker from a blowout game. That's certainly something we've seen before.

But pretty much invariably, he'll let them take that fourth at bat, or maybe it was fifth at bat in this case. And then he'll, he'll have them sit and bring in someone to replace those guys defensively. But here he did not do that. He did not let them take that lasted bat. He just straight up removed from, remove those guys from the game. So that's sort of what I suspected in the moment.

And as you heard there, Tori confirmed it. He is heightened. His senses were heightened as you heard him described there. Well, I mean, Kattel just moved into phase two of the voting for the All-Star game. He is extremely important to this team. So it's completely understandable that, that Tori doesn't want to see any of that.

And I mean, again, who knows if that would have actually happened. but I think, again, in a blowout. I mean, I will say just real quick, Blaze Alexander did get hit. Oh, that's true. Yeah, he did get hit right in the chunk, right? And it sure looked intentional to me. I mean, we don't have any confirmation from that.

I'm sure on the twin side, they would never admit to that. But yeah, I think it's probably safe to say that the twins did retaliate. You know, I don't, Blaze is not, I don't think it's severely hurt. His knee area was heavily wrapped up, heavily bandaged. in the clubhouse. He seemed to be okay. But yeah, it does look like the twins did retaliate. So I don't know if they would have done that. If Ketelmarte was still in the game, if Christian Walker was still in the game. But you don't, yeah, you don't know. I think Tori, I think Tori probably made the right call there. Yeah. Well, of course, Tori doesn't lie.

And we know that. I mean, he does use manager speak from time to time, but he doesn't lie. But we also know that the numbers when it comes to baseball don't lie. Jesse, what do you have today for today's number today's number Derek is 78 people may or may not have noticed this was the 81st game of the season which means we have officially reached the halfway point and the diamond backs are on pace to win 78 games in 24 they are on pace to go 78 and 84 the exact same record they had last year but in reverse order so uh yeah not not great that's not going to get you in the playoffs that yeah we don't know know how many wins it will take to get in the playoffs, but I can say pretty much for certain

that 78 wins is not going to do it. So obviously there are reasons for that. The diamond backs have been decimated by injuries in many ways. Corbyn Carroll has a, you know, I mean, we are at the halfway point of the season and Corbyn Carroll's OPS still starts with a six and is a whole lot closer to 600 than it is 700. And Gabby Moreno is obviously hurt. You know, he has a an OPS in the mid-600s as well. So those guys combined with the injuries, you know, some other guys who have struggled in the early going, it's not really surprising that the debacks are where they are. Well, we know that Jesse will always bring us the good news, right?

Well, Jesse is always going to bring us the happiness. So thank you for that. Thank you for doing that once again. And yep, Corbyn Barrell's in the chat says it best. Man, this year is crazy. And again, right now things look bleak. Things don't look good. But the future is completely up in the air for this team.

We have no idea what this team is going to look like if and when. I'll say if first. If they get all their players back, when they get all their players back. This is a completely different lineup. It's completely different starting rotation. But who knows if we'll ever actually get to that point this season. I don't. I don't.

I know Jesse does neither, whether he wants to make you believe he does or not. But you can follow us on Twitter for more on this team, for more on, I guess, the weather, because now I'm part of weather Twitter, I guess. I didn't want to do that, but that's the thing that happened. I am at Kapp underscore Keman 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. Our show is at P.HNX underscore D-Backs, but all roads do lead to at P HNX underscore Sports on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. We will be back tomorrow with another postgame show of Game 1 against the Oakland A's. So make sure to join us for that. In the meantime, we hope you guys have a wonderful evening. I hope you do something that makes your night much better than this game did.

And we will see you again tomorrow. In the meantime, have a great night. We thank you again for stopping by. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it's so much more fun when you stop getting your ass beat by the twins. Thanks.