PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Ketel Marte, Diamondbacks OVERPOWERED By Patrick Corbin & Nationals

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

The actual electricity wasn’t the only power that went out at Nationals Park on Wednesday. The Diamondbacks offense got their power cut by Patrick Corbin and the Nats in the loss. We discuss Brandon Pfaadt cruising until the feed was lost, Corbin Carroll extending his on-base streak to 18 games, and why the Snakes have a problem going for the jugular. 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.

That song so much. Welcome in to a losing edition of the PHNX Debaks podcast right here on PHNX. My name is Derek Monti, occasionally known as your mayor of PHNX. This man next to me, always adjusting his camera and always adjusting the words I say. It's the one and only thunder stick, Jesse Friedman, my vice mayor. Jesse, not a great loss today. We talked about yesterday's win being a very complete win. And today was an occasion where the Diamondbacks offense completely left some very good pitching by Brandon Fought out to dry.

Wasn't great, Derek. Wasn't great on either side of the ball. And in some ways, we'll get into what was kind of a bizarre outing for Brandon Fought. I mean, he still gave you a quality start. The Diamondbacks did not lose at all because of him. Yeah, the offense was really the story in this game, one run on four hits after having. you know, 14 hits and 18 base runners a day ago. Diamondbacks have put up some pretty good offensive numbers in the month of June,

but there have been games here and there where there just isn't much to speak of. And today was certainly one of those days. And also expounded by the fact or compounded by the fact that it came against Patrick Corbyn, who has obviously been among the worst starting pitchers in baseball here for the last five years at this point. Yeah. So, of course, that's the one that the Diamondbacks struggle with. Of course, they lose this game by a score of three to one to the Nationals. Weird situation there at Nationals Park with the power going out.

We lost the feed. We were panicked, text messaging each other and found out, obviously, much like everybody here, none of us were able to watch the game unless you were there in Washington, D.C. Live. Weird situation, I mean, for a ballpark to lose all of its power. But then have the play continue, Jesse. They just talked with the managers. The umpires said, let's keep playing baseball.

And that's what they did. And then we had to be like the kids outside looking in watching on game day and not having any idea really what's going on in real time. But we did get to see Brandon Fott give up a two run home run during that time. I mean the question, right, and we tweeted it out too, is if Jesse Winker hits a two run homer, but no one was able to watch it on TV, does it actually? count, did it really happen? I think this is a legitimate conversation we need to have. Yeah, I know. I think that, uh, I don't think it did happen. I don't think it did happen. Also, very suspicious, right? You know, the Diamondbacks had a one-run lead. They were cruising.

Brandon Fought was really cruising in this game. I mean, at one point, he had 10 straight ground ball outs. And it felt like even though he wasn't striking a lot of guys out, he wasn't getting any whiffs, he was being very efficient and was moving along quite nicely. And then this supposed power outage happens, Jesse. And then when we come back, now the Diamondbacks are down three to one or two to one. And I don't like that. I don't trust that. Yeah.

I mean, it's a reasonable concern, Derek. I couldn't see any of what happened during that period of time. So who's to say what actually is down? Exactly. Where's I mean ESPOS tinfoil hat. Hold on. Excuse me. I'm going to look for that.

Oh, where is it? Do you have espos tinfoil hat? I might have it somewhere. I'm not a conspiracy theorist that often, Jesse, but I'm just going to say, again, I didn't see it. Did you see it? I mean, supposedly Elizabeth saw it, and we know that she curses this team by her presence being at any Diamondbacks game. So I don't trust her either.

There's a lot of things I don't trust here. But what we did see of Brandon Fond, he did look terrific for at least the majority of the beginning of his game until that power out. We did see him struggle a little bit there in, what was it, the seventh inning before Tori removed him from the game. But Brandon fought, again, absolutely gave this team a chance to win. I mean, I don't want to say he fell apart. You know, I mean, he wasn't perfect today. But he gave him six and a third, gave up five hits, three earned runs, walked four, didn't strike out anybody.

But he did get himself a lot of outs and seemed to frustrate the nationals there a bit. Yeah, yeah, I think Brandon Fought was was fine in this game when all was set and done. Yeah, quality start is a quality start. You should be winning games when your starting pitcher gives you what Brandon Fogg gave the Diamondbacks today, especially when Patrick Corbyn is the opposing pitcher. I mean, the Diamondbacks have hit Corbyn pretty well over the years. Basically, every team in baseball has hit Patrick Corbyn pretty well over the last few years. I was going to say that, yes.

But he, I mean, five innings, one run, he had seven strikeouts. He hasn't had seven strikeouts in a game since last September. It's only happened, I think, three times since the beginning of the 2021 season, something like that. So, yeah, Corbyn was, he was legitimately good. Like, I don't want to take, I don't want to take everything away from him and say this is all on the Diamondbacks offense. But at least some of it is, right? They were chasing. I know Corbin, we've certainly, Diamondbacks fans are familiar with any.

As anyone with his slider and how good of a pitch that can be, I think Corbyn had a total of 10 whiffs in this game on the slider or the cutter, which I think basically the same pitch, just registering different based on some slight velocity differences there. But that pitch was really good. The debacks were chasing it like crazy. He was putting it in good spots. The debacks couldn't lay off.

And, yeah, I mean, the games like this are going to happen for sure. But if you are the Diamondbacks and you, want to start to build some momentum here. You can't, you can't allow this to happen. You can't allow Patrick Corbyn to go out and, you know, pitch five innings of one run ball against you. D-Bax went four for 31 in this game as a team. Corbin's double was the only extra base hit in this game.

Yeah. And more importantly, the guys that we talk about often getting it done, we were excited at Prudomo back. We know it's going to be, you know, a while for Prudomo to get himself back into a groove. but Catelle Marte, Blaze Alexander, and Pardomo went 0 for 10 with no walks and six strikeouts. They were not in a way. And you could tell they couldn't do much against, you know, Patrick Corbyn. I haven't really, you know, Cotel is Cotel.

He stays pretty even killed. He plays baseball in a way, which he kind of plays it with a lot of joy. I haven't seen him as frustrated as I saw him when he struck out on that Patrick Corbyn slider. And he slammed his bat down. Like he had himself a day out there and Corbyn definitely had his number. Yeah, I mean, that's not something we're used to seeing. Like, Kattel came in with really good numbers against Patrick Corbyn in his career. And on paper, like Ketel against Patrick Corbyn, I don't know if you can draw up a better

matchup for Ketel Marte. And a guy like Corbyn, who, I mean, his primary out pitch, he doesn't really throw much of a change up. So, you know, he's got a breaking pitch that's going into a right-handed hitter. And his fastball is 91, 92. one of the more hitable fastballs in baseball at this point. So yeah, I mean, it made all the sense in the world for Catelle Marteta to come in here and go three for four with a couple of homers or something like that. And he was super frustrated.

He went 0 for three with three punchouts against Corbyn in this game. And it felt like that that kind of set the tone in a sense for the rest of the diamond backs offense. It was like, oh, man, if Catell looks like this up at the plate, you know, how are the rest of us going to get anything going against this guy? And yeah, they weren't able to. It was just a brutal showing for the Diamondbacks offense all the way around. Frustrating.

Frustrating day to watch them, there was a lot of first, you know, pitch swings and things like that. Yeah. Just created a lot of unnecessary outs, of course. And, I mean, the one good, I guess, shining moment is that Corby and Carroll and his final at bat was able to extend his on base streak with a double compounded with an error created or an air force that then allowed him to get to triple or third base, not to triple, a double with an error, but still he was able to extend that on-base streak now to 19 games. And so that's at least something that's a lot of fun right now.

And even with how bad the rest of the offense was, at least we have that. So Corby and Carroll, you get our Kingsnake for today for that double and extending your on-base streak now to a career best 19 games. Jesse, we tweeted out earlier today about how good Corbyn Carroll has been as of late. Now, obviously, we all know the power is missing compared to last year. He has not been hitting home runs. But with that taken out of consideration, Corbyn Carroll has been very, very good for this team in the month of June. And I think even though he isn't hitting those home runs, he's been contributing in so many other ways that it's hard to say that Corbyn Carroll isn't, you know, Corbyn Carroll from last year.

Like, yeah, there's some things that aren't as good as, you know, stolen-based percentage isn't as good as, you know, or conversion rate isn't as good as home runs aren't as good. But, I mean, lately, he's been pretty damn good. Yeah, I mean, it was the three, 357 batting average, I think, in his last 11 games entering today. One thing I do, I think we still have yet to see from, from Corbyn, in addition to the home runs, stolen base numbers, maybe looking a little better, you mentioned is he hasn't really, I don't believe, I'm hoping I can maybe look this up at some point during the show. I feel like in his last 10 games or so, he hasn't seen a whole lot of left-handed pitching. He hasn't done a whole lot of damage against left-handed pitching. It feels to me like a lot of it has come against Ritey's, and you saw that in this game.

Corbyn didn't do anything against Patrick Corbyn, and then he gets in a bat, you know, late in this one against a right-handed reliever, and that's when he doubles. So that is one piece that I still think that we haven't, we haven't seen a whole lot. of yet. Tori Lavello did move Corbyn back up the lineup. We've seen him lower Corbyn down to the to the seven hole or the eight hole against lefties in recent days. He had him back up there in the number two spot. So Tori certainly seems to believe that Corbin is is back at least enough to make that change. But I'm going to see if I can look this up real quick. But it feels like we haven't seen him quite get back to himself against the lefties yet. Well, and I mean, is there any chance we know that like

We always talk about other outfielders being platooned. Is there any chance that Corbyn might be platooned based on these kind of splits? We know that some of, you know, Randall Gritchick has been having some better, I guess, overall, you know, well-rounded numbers versus versus what Corbyn's been doing lately against left-hand pitching. So do you see that or is this another case of no, Corbyn's going to still be in the lineup every day unless he's getting an off day?

I think you probably have to stick by him. I mean, last year he was better against righties than lefties, pretty substantially so, as you'd expect. But he totally held his own against lefties. He was basically a league average hitter against lefties and then obviously elite against righties. So, yeah, I think the devax will probably just stick by him. I mean, if you are going to give him a day off, then yeah, make it against a lefty. That just kind of makes sense. But, yeah, at this point, I think you want to stick by him.

Debacks also don't really, I don't think they really could do that. even if they wanted to. I mean, you don't really have a ton of right-handed options off the bench that you're not using. Randall's Grisdick is already starting all of these games. Lordus Corrielle is certainly going to be in there against lefties. You know, you kind of need Corbyn to play center field. Also, he's certainly the best centerfielder on the roster. I guess the one change you could make would be using Jake McCarthy instead of Corbyn and starting him in center fields.

But you're still going to bet on Corbyn figuring it out in the long run. I think it's a situation where you've got to continue to give him the opportunities and trust that that'll kind of come with time. Well, since we already had bad news with this game, we do have some bad news on Alec Thomas, speaking of which that we'll update you on here very shortly. But before we do, I did want to touch on Brandon Fought again. I mean, he did have a fine outing. Like you said, it was a good day for him. Didn't get the run support that you need on a day like this. But it felt, I mean, on one hand, he had a six pitch fourth inning, right, which he just breathed

through. But it felt like with the way, 35 pitches, right? Through four innings. Yeah. It was insane. And so of course, it's a good thing. You know, he's pitching in a game like this. He's getting a lot of success by pitching the contact and getting those ground balls. But it

kind of seemed like there was only a matter of time until like that was going to go the other way on him because he wasn't, it didn't really feel like he was being too tricky with this stuff. A lot of his pitches were being thrown like right in the strike zone. And I mean, in a lot of cases, right down the middle. So I, what, what were you seeing

today out of Brandon? And what was the reason why he wasn't really fooling anybody with, with the whiffs? Yeah. I mean, the, the big question for me after he was through five scoreless innings, I think it was 50 pitches on that point is like, is this going to be the outing where Brandon fought kind of finishes the job? Because we've seen it. It's not to say that Brandon hasn't had some really good starts this year. But for the most part, when he is in the fourth or fifth inning, and he's had a really good thing going. He very well may finish today with with a totally solid outing, six innings two runs, sevennings two runs, something like that. But could he like, could he give the Diamondbacks eight scoreless today or something like that? That was sort of

what I had going through my head. Is this going to be the day where he sort of gets over that hump and really puts it together over the course of a complete outing? And it sort of happened again, right? Something that we've certainly seen with Brandon a decent amount this year where he hangs in there. I mean, he's pitching really well. And then around the fifth, six, seventh inning, somewhere in that range. It's not like it necessarily snowballs on him and he gives up six runs, but the outing just kind of sours a little bit and it winds up not being quite as dominant of a performance as it appeared for a while.

And that's what happened today. There were a couple of walks form in that sixth inning. One of them was erased by Gabriel Moreno. As we've said, a lot in the last few days, Gabby threw out yet another attempting base dealer, which wound up being really big because after fought issued another walk, I believe that was Tween Thomas. Then we saw Jesse Winker hit hit a two-run home run. No, we didn't.

No, we didn't. We literally did not. We did not. We did not see that. Yeah, it's a great point. We didn't see him, you know. So it is what it is. But of course, Diamondbacks still have a chance to win this series against the Nationals tomorrow in the finale.

Of course, we'll be back here with our post series shows. So make sure to join us for that. I mean, we won't be back here. We'll be in studio. But today, we get to work from home. So hope you guys are having a wonderful day as well. Well, thank you for being here on the PHNXports YouTube channel. Of course, 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 love when you do that. Of course, if you're listening on your favorite audio podcasting app, we love our listeners as well. Make sure you're subscribed on said app. And also make sure you leave us a review. We really appreciate those five-star reviews.

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Illegal Pete's your go-to spot for burritos, buddies and beer. All right, Jesse, well, even though I don't want to because this was an ugly game that does not deserve to have its numbers looked at, let's go ahead and work the count with our friends at Desert Financial Credit Union because this one's, this is no bueno. I'm not, not, I don't, eh, bah. Diamondbacks lose this one, like we said, by I scored a three-dollar, They get out hit by the National 6 to 4.

The runners in scoring position, both teams, neither team deserves to even have this talked about. But nationals were one for five, and that ended up being very important for 200 batting average. Diamondbacks, 0 for 5. Both teams had one extra base hit. The Nationals would just a little bit farther. And of course, even in a loss like this, the Diamondbacks, hard hit percentage slightly better than the Nationals at 47.6% over the Nationals 38.5%. I mean, at least

it was a quick game, Jesse. I don't know what to say about this. This wasn't... I guess both pitchers were very good. I guess both pitchers definitely deserve a tip of the cap. Patrick Corbin, especially for what he was able to do to this

Diamondbacks lineup and considering that they came in fairly hot. Like we just said yesterday, like, hey, this is finally the time where it seems like they're kind of on a roll and and of course that immediately stops maybe i mean how how many how many times have we seen that right where it feels like the diamond backs are sort of about to go on a run kind of about to break away uh and and there's just a game here and there it's like oh well that you know two two

steps forward one step back right yeah and that's that's very much what what this game felt like to me looking at the o for five with runners in scoring position the the inning that really stands out there, of course, is the fourth inning when the Diamondbacks had the bases loaded and nobody out. Let's talk about that. They were able to push across only one run in that inning. They were able to push across a run. Corbyn walked in a run.

He gave them a run, but he did not. The Diamondbacks did very little there. And that, honestly, I think Jake Huddy in our comment said that. He said, bases loaded, zero outs, only scores a walk. Come on, man. That was it. And of course, I don't know. I mean, we've seen that before, right, with this team where they had a great opportunity to score.

They don't convert on that or it's underwhelming like this, like just getting one run in. And then that seems to kind of deflate the offense a bit. It kind of you feel the air let out of it, you know, but that was a huge opportunity, especially in a game that ended up being so close. Obviously, at the time, it was satisfactory in a way because at least they produced a run. But I mean, what what a big, you know, missed opportunity that that ended up being, considering how good not only Patrick Corbyn ended up being throughout this game, but like credit to the Nationals bullpen.

They came in and held the Diamondbacks fairly well, you know, in their time, you know, playing as well. But we got, you got one hit allowed by the, by the bullpen. And that was Corbyn's double in four innings of work. And that's not really acceptable, you know. I mean, the Nationals bullpen is pretty good. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to discredit them.

Those guys all, I mean, we're all talking about the guys, Harvey with a 2.68 ERA, 1.72 ERA. But again, it's just, it's a disappointing day, especially when they did have that opportunity at one point in the game. Yeah, that fourth inning was, as you said, the back end of the Nationals bullpen is very good. It's a big reason why they are, you know, totally in the mix at this point in the season. The offense is not great, but the back end of their bullpen is really good. They've gotten some good starting pitching as well, although granted Patrick Corpin has not really been a part of that for them this season. But in that fourth inning, we had the Gabriel Moreno walk with one out. But before that, there was a really big play by Nassim Nunez of the Nats at shortstop.

He was filling in for an injured C.J. Abrams today. A.ohenio Suarez got a ball on the east side part of the play. He hit a line drive that looked like it was going to be over. Nunez's head, but he pretty impressively was able to get a glove on it and knock it down. And then he just immediately fired a strike one hopper to the plate to get Lortis Garell. And that was huge. I mean, that was a massive play. I think that batted ball had an expect batting average of like 700 or something like that.

It wasn't hit very hard. But it was hit. It was one of those kind of soft line drives that very often gets through for a base hit. A really nice play by Nunez to keep that off the board. probably would have been a two-run single pretty easily if that gets past him. And then later in the inning, you know, after the Moreno walk, you had a Blaze Alexander strikeout. That was a pretty rough at bat. Blaze, frankly, has not really done much of anything at the plate for the Diamondbacks in recent weeks.

It's been pretty slow for him for a while now. And then Geraldo Pardomo hit a pop-up in foul territory. And that was the end of the inning. So that inning is obviously a really big missed opportunity. And then also in the eighth, like when Corbyn, hit that double and wound up advancing to third on an air. That's a runner at third base with less than two outs and the middle of your lineup coming up. I'd like to get at least, you know, at least be able to score him in that situation.

Diamondbacks just didn't get enough out of, out of either of those. You know what I hated about today's game is it once again felt like one of those early season struggles where everything went, you know, against the Diamondbacks just slightly. You know, Christian Walker had a big hit. He ripped it down the line that would have been close to a home run or a double had it stayed fair. But instead it just goes slightly outside. You know, I mean, there were there were a few instances like that. Jacob Young made a really nice catch in the first.

Yes, yes, he did. So Rob, that would have scored a run most likely as well. So some good, some good Nats defense, I guess. So you have to give a shout out to them for making some of those plays. Right. They played fairly flawless baseball today. And that's how they won the baseball game. I mean, again, and Corbyn getting even, you know, that error where he got the third,

they were still able to keep Corbyn from scoring. And that's that, that was the final nail in the coffin for the Diamondbacks today. Because when they were able to get Corbin all the way to third and not bring them home in some way, shape, or form, that's another huge misopportunity, especially in a game that's this close. You never know how things can get rolling once you got to get that run in, even with a, you know, sack flies. So, but of course, this game sucked. I don't like it. And I will probably lie about watching it.

But we know that the numbers don't lie, whether I'm going to lie about watching it or not. So, Jesse, what do you have for today's number? Yeah, we kind of alluded to it earlier, but this goes back to Brandon Fott. The number is zero. And that is bizarrely the number of whiffs that Brandon Fought had in this game. He did not have a single whiff throughout this entire baseball game. for the Diamondbacks. He didn't strike out a single batter either. That's wild. We have seen fight have an outing before where he didn't strike anyone out.

There was one earlier this season. Actually pretty similar against the Baltimore Orioles. I think it was six innings, three runs out in Baltimore. So a quality start like this one, but he didn't actually register a strikeout in that game. This one, similar situation, although there were also literally zero whiffs. He literally did not have a swing and miss throughout the entirety of this game. Some of that, I think, had to do with the sweeper, which it was, I think, still effective for fought in this game and that it got a lot of ground balls, which is not something we normally see on that pitch.

But he wasn't throwing it very often today. Yeah, he did. I think 22 times. Right, right. Yeah, he did not throw it very often at all. And his fastball command was just out of whack for a good portion of this outing. I think he was benefiting, frankly, from Nats hitters getting at least, somewhat hitable pitches and just not really being able to do anything with them,

just kind of rolling over the top or, yeah, really just rolling over the top. They were a whole bunch of ground balls in this game. I think that's what I was alluding to earlier, even though it was like, all right, there's another ground ball. There was a lot of balls thrown right down the middle of the zone. And honestly, I mean, it felt like he was getting kind of lucky with how they were hitting it, especially at times directly to a defender. Like, the, the, Cattel had a really good defensive play.

Blaze had an excellent defensive play, but for the most part, it didn't really feel like Diamondbacks had to make too many flashy plays on those ground balls, especially during that stretch where you went 10 straight. It was fairly just open. It was business, you know, just quick, quick business for him. Yeah, a lot of the ground balls were pretty soft.

It's not like, like he was making mistake pitches, but it's not like Nats hitters were hitting lasers right out guys. They literally, they literally were just kind of hitting lazy, you know, roll over the top ground balls to various defenders, and it worked pretty well for him. But, yeah, eventually, I mean, he had four walks in the game. His command in that sense was pretty rough, especially toward the end. He's never had four walks in a major league start before. So that was a career high for him.

Just uncharacteristic in a lot of ways. We're used to seeing a whole lot of strikes, you know, just kind of go right after hitters. And there was a lot of that early in the game. It's sort of waned toward the end. And with Faw, we're also used to. seeing a pretty decent amount of swing and miss, especially on that sweeper. And that just didn't happen for him today.

This game makes me sad, Jesse. And when I say this game, I don't just mean today's game. I mean the game of baseball makes me sad sometimes because the ups and downs are too much. The Diamondbacks were in second place in the wild card chase before this game started. And they lose. And now there's somehow four teams back out of the wild. wild card spot or whatever. It's crazy.

There are like six teams all within a half a game of the final wild guard spot. This is an insane cluster of teams. The Mets still just refuse to lose thanks to Grimmis. I don't know. Is Grimmis the president of baseball operations now? Is he a manager? How can we get a mascot to come in here? Is Leon good at running a baseball team, Jesse?

I don't know, but this is a weird time in baseball. And I still have to appreciate the simple things in life that do make me happy. It's definitely not games where the Diamondbacks offense only scores one run. But one thing that, as you know, very much makes me happy is a 79 cent polar pop or froster from Circle K. It's in my contract. I'm contractually obligated to receive one from Saul at least once a week. And there are terms and conditions, too. It's got to stay frosty in that frozen cup.

You know, I mean, their cups are amazing technology. Space Age technology. We should be investigating how they make these cups and maybe making baseball bats out of them or something. But the drinks stay so cold. But if it does melt, then Saul has to go give you another one. But that's fine. They're only 79 cents right now through September 3rd. So go out, get yourself a wonderful drink.

Maybe they'll help you overcome this loss. I know, I know any frozen drink usually helps me out. But you can also join the Inner Circle for free right now by downloading the Circle K app if you haven't done so already. Terms and conditions apply and participating. locations, visit circlek.com for details. But when you do, you'll save 25 cents off per gallon. And right now, gas is not as, as expensive as it was, but Circle K is still leading the pack as far as gas, inexpensive gas. So make sure to check out Circle K because not only do they already have some pretty fairly cheap gas, but you can also get that 25 cents off per gallon

on your first five Phillips by joining the inner circle right now. And you'll save three cents off per gallon every day after that. So check them out. Another company, and you should absolutely check out after a Diamondback's loss is our friends at OG's brands. Because they make a happy balance gummy. And, you know, it's scientifically formulated to help make you happier, especially after you watch the Diamondbacks offense do what they did today. So make sure to go out and check out all the wonderful options that they have for you to consume. They have a sleep edition gummy that I highly recommend.

I'm still sleeping like a baby. I'm still on the best sleep. I talked to Jesse. He's like, I texted you at 930. I'm like 930. I was asleep by 930. I got myself a full 10 hours last night, pal. Meanwhile, he didn't get any sleep at all, not one single hour. So of course, make sure to check out all of the wonderful strands, doses, and of course, effects that they have to offer over at OGs. To learn more about OGs gummies and where you can find them, head on over to OGs.com. Must be 21 or over to enjoy. and please enjoy responsibly. Before we get to some injury updates, I did want to let you guys know, of course, that we are currently accepting members in to the PHNX diehards. It's a secret club.

You have to, I mean, we don't do this often. We don't just accept new members every single day. Well, I just want to tell you right now, the window is open, and it might be forever. I don't know. But the window is open right now for you to join us and become part of our gang over here at go phtnx.com. Get yourself a wonderful welcome package that includes that diehard membership card and a free t-shirt of your choice from the PHNX Locker.

You also get access to all of our premium written content. You get access to the Discord Lounge, which is the best place to be a Arizona sports fan. We do all sorts of exclusive content in their shows. Game shows? Yes, I've talked about the game show that will be coming back here very soon. You also get discounts on all of our events. So make sure to sign up today. We got some takeover still coming up.

There's another Mercury takeover. coming up. You know, the basketball will be back. The hockey, oh, I just made myself sad by that. Football will be back very soon. We'll have lots of things here soon. But, of course, make sure to join us and, again, become part of the family. Jesse, I'm ready to be hurt again. So just give it to me. Just rip the Band-Aid off. What do we have for injury updates?

because I have a feeling that things are great. Yeah. I mean, generally that feeling has been pretty accurate this season. So this is a part of another one of those. Although it's not all bad news. I'll do the bad news first. Then we'll get to the good news.

Can you do like a compliment sandwich, like some good news and then the bad news in the middle and then some more good news? Or is there not enough good news? I don't think there's enough. Oh, no. I don't think so. All right. Well, give it to me straight, Doc.

Yeah, so, so Alex Thomas, his rehab is on pause, according to manager Tori Lavello. This update, of course, comes from our friend, Theo Mackey from the Arizona Republic who's out there in D.C. Lavello said that Thomas is dealing with, quote, unquote, general soreness, but added that he remains, quote, unquote, very optimistic that Thomas will get back into rehab games by the end of the week. So maybe not a big thing, Darry. Eric, maybe it's not so bad. I believe Teo also said that Lavello, Levello said that there was at least a possibility of getting more imaging on the hamstring itself.

So I'm not sure that I fully buy like general soreness is just being like, you know, soreness everywhere. No, that's what I have every day. You know that. That's what I have when I get up from this chair after doing an hour and 10 minute show is general soreness, Jesse. This is worse than general soreness. It has to be.

Yeah, so we'll see where this goes. Again, Tori said he's very optimistic that Alex Thomas will continue playing rehab games in the next week. So by the end of this week. So maybe this is just like a two-day snag and everything is going to wind up being fine. But it's been a long time, Derek. I mean, Alec Thomas went down with that injury. I don't remember the exact date, maybe April 5th, April 7, something like that, first week of April around there.

you're talking you know we're well over two months past that point at this at this point and it was only it was a low grade two hamstring strain is is how it was described so it's been a long time he obviously got close to coming back about a month ago and then had had a had a setback there and hopefully for him this doesn't wind up being another you know more major setback as of right now it doesn't doesn't look that way i just i can't i can't it seems like you know what it was Jesse, it was that the baseball gods were going to take Corbin away from us. But then he was fine. So they were like, no, a sacrifice must be made.

It's like the scene in Indiana Jones where he has to have that little sack of weight to exchange for the idol that he's trying to move. And like, that's what the like in order to get Alec Thomas back, someone else must be put on the pedestal. Right. Right. This is this is awful. But of course, not surprising at all. It feels like the Diamondbacks just have absolutely had. horrible luck this season when it comes to these guys, you know, coming back and getting healthy.

The setbacks have really been the one thing. I feel like that hurt the most, right? It's bad enough when the diagnosis, the prognosis is that it's going to be out, you know, six to eight weeks. And then when we get to six weeks or we get to seven weeks or we get to eight weeks, then we find out that they're pausing his rehab. So hopefully it's nothing. And of course, I think the general idea here is that the diamond backs have experienced all of these setbacks. They have experienced guys reaggravating injuries and they don't want that to happen here with Alec. I feel like, you know, kind of their experience with Catelle from a few years ago might be playing into this because it feels like they're definitely being more cautious, especially with a hamstring injury than like they might be otherwise or maybe that I don't know. It feels very, very cautious for it.

But I mean, Hamstrings are kind of important for Alec Thomas. Like he does a fair amount running, you know, both around the bases. I'll give him mine. I don't even use it, Jesse. I will give him mine. Yeah, but yours are sore too, right? They're bad. That's not a good deal.

You're right. They're 43-year-old hamstrings, but do you have some good news? You said that there was some good news. So I'm hoping that you're going to follow this up with the promised good news. Yeah, yeah, there is some good news as well. This is also Porteo, a Toro Lavello pregame today. said that Eduardo Rodriguez's latest imaging. He had an MRI just within the last few days.

And it showed quote on quote, almost 100% healing. And Lavelle added that Erod will likely throw off a mound within the next week. And of course, that is the start, Derek. That is once you've got a guy throwing off a mound, that's when you know that they're really on their way to recovery. Of course, that doesn't mean it's going to be anytime soon. There's quite a buildup that has to happen. it's throwing a bullpen probably multiple bullpens then it's throwing a live session of some sort maybe that takes the form of a sim game and then you know at that point it's a matter building erod back up

to a starter's workload he's been out so long at this point he's definitely going to have to start from the baseline so he's going to be throwing you know probably 20 something pitches in a bullpen and he's going to have to build that all the way up to at least i would think around 75 in order to get into a major league games So there's still some boxes to check here. But this is a really big first step. And one that we've been waiting for for quite a while. I believe Erod started throwing back on, I want to say, it was the first or second week of May, which is more than a month ago.

He really took his time through that process of the long toss where you're going from 60 feet to 75 feet into 90 feet. He's been in that phase of his recovery for a very, very long time. So yeah, to see him get on a mound, that would be an enormous next step. And it looks like he's ahead of Merrill Kelly at this point. You know, it doesn't look like Merrill right now is all that close to throwing off a mound. So it looks like you're trending toward getting Erod back sooner than Merrill Kelly.

However, Merrill Kelly is more built up for him. So once they get back to throwing, there's a good chance that Merrill might move through the progression as fast. Or do you think that Merrill's going to essentially have to start over at a baseline similar to what Erod's having to do? Yeah, I mean, Merrill's been out for Merrill. I think it was April 21st was the day of his injuries. He's about two months out. They might have to start Merrill back from nothing. Okay, okay.

That would be my guess. But yeah, we'll kind of wait and see how that unfolds. If I wouldn't have seen Erod in a spring training clubhouse playing dominoes, I wouldn't believe he exists either. We're convinced that he exists because you and I have. have actually seen him. We've spoken to him. Understandably, people in the chat probably not convinced that Erod is even a real person, or at least not a real person that the Diamondbacks actually signed this off season. Every time we bring them up, every time we bring them up,

people are like, is Erod in the room with you right now? You know, it's like one of those situations and it's like, no, guys, he's a real person. I swear, I've seen it. The Diamondbacks spend a lot of money on them, right? And that's an unfortunate topic to talk about because right now, when you look at the investments the Diamondbacks made during the offseason, not a lot of them are working out. And it's something that we kind of discussed a little bit after the show yesterday, but it is something again to, you know, kind of, kind of say like it's another unfortunate bad luck thing. This Diamondbacks team found a way to find success when they were going kind of in a rebuilding direction and giving a bunch of young guys opportunities.

and somehow they struck gold. And then, you know, the front office, the ownership decides to open up the pocketbook and spend. And, you know, at least the DH options have worked out well. But outside of that, when you look at Gino, bringing back Lourdes, Jordan Montgomery, Eduardo Rodriguez, these big money deals that ended up costing the team a lot of money aren't exactly looking like the best investments as of right now. They're not. No, me and Damon, we're looking back.

at the top 50 MLB trade rumors free agents and kind of how they have everyone ranked going into the offseason. And the Diamondbacks wound up landing three of the top 15 on their list, right? They had Jordan Montgomery, I believe is number six on their list. They signed Eduardo Rodriguez, I think is number nine. Then they also signed Lordus Gurriel Jr., who is somewhere in the teens, if I can find it. Or Eduardo Rodriguez is number 11, and then, yeah, it looks like they have Lordis at number 14. So, there's three of the top 15 free agents that the Diamondback signed. It felt like a huge accomplishment over the off season.

And then you go back and look at this list of 15. And almost all of them have been good except for the three that the Diamondbacks got, right? Montgomery obviously has struggled. Erod has yet to throw a pitch. And then Gurriel, I don't think there's any huge concerns with Gurriel at this point. But he's a streaky hitter. And it's been quite a while since he's really hit an extended, you know, an extended hot streak that we're kind of used to seeing him get on every now and then.

So, yeah, you know, debacks, they spent big over the off season. And as you mentioned, Jock and Raynold Gritchick have been outstanding. The debacks, it looks like completely nailed that, at least at this point. But the other free agents, yeah, it's been a pretty, almost a worst case scenario, frankly, at this point. And Mark Salera, we thank you so much, Mark, for your vigilance, for everything that you bring to the table as a diehard, but most importantly, really sticking to the, to the important topics. And like he says here, he sends us a super chat for $5 and then says, please put this towards

the banning Elizabeth fund. And yeah, yeah, I would say that we need to, do we need to talk about Elizabeth not being allowed at Diamondbacks games? I'm not. Was Elizabeth there yesterday? Do we know that no no no it would appear that she wasn't for her yeah it really doesn't and i think the big problem here is that you know of course you can ban someone from a ballpark but can you ban a person from a team i think that requires some sort of restraining order and i am not opposed uh to at least looking into the options is all i'm saying i'm just saying like again it's just a matter of staying like 500 feet away from the team at all times which would I hope well no because then she could maybe sit in the 300 so I don't like that we'll have to figure out an appropriate distance but uh anyway uh this team of course like I said they have a chance

to go for the win tomorrow uh but it does it does feel a little bit like when the diamondbacks are winning these first games I mean it's becoming they're they've had a lot of patterns this season it's becoming a pattern where they lose the second game it almost feels like they let off you know just a little bit and the results are like in over the the last 10 days, oh, Lopsided victory in the opposite direction. Today's was a little bit closer. No five plus run victory today for either team. Yeah, yeah, the streak is over.

The streak is dead. The streak is over. Oh, yeah, but I will say that it does feel very much like this team just kind of, you know, let's their opposition have one. And I'm not saying it's intentional, but it does feel like it's just maybe a little bit of letting the foot off the gas. It's a tough loss, yeah. I mean, we looked at the three games in the series yesterday.

You know, I mean, on paper, the Nationals certainly had the advantage there with the pitching matchup. Jake Irvin's been really good this season. Slate Cicconi was coming off the worst start of his career. And he winds up falling that up with the best start of his career and Jake Irvin obviously struggling. And then today you figure DeBak's had a really good chance with their de facto ace on the mound and Brandon Fogg going against one of the worst pitchers in baseball over the last few years. obviously it didn't work out today. And tomorrow, Derek is another day where the pitching matchup favors the nationals.

You've got McKenzie Gore on the mound for Washington. He's had a really good season, ERA in the low threes. His peripherals are really strong. I think it's up over 11Ks per nine this season, a ton of swing and miss coming off a good outing as well. He goes up against Ryan Nelson. So we saw Nelson pitch really well against the White Sox, but again, it was the White Sox.

You know, can he replicate that against not a, not a super good Nationals offense, but a Nationals offense that's definitely, definitely better than what he faced against the Chicago White Sox. So yeah, we'll, we'll see how, we'll see how tomorrow goes, Derek. It's not a, I can't bring myself to say it's a must win game, but it feels like the type of game that Tori would describe

as a mid-season must win. Like he did that, that finale against the Padres the other day. It would be tough. It would be tough to lose two out of three to the Nationals after the run that the Diamondbacks have been on and how good things have looked here over the last couple weeks.

Well, more importantly, they head to Philadelphia to take on the Phillies after this. So obviously some momentum, if you want to consider momentum to be a real thing, is very much going up against the tough Phillies team. They just got Trey Turner back. So, I mean, they're getting some of their injured players back and they were already playing incredibly well this season.

Then you go play a Twins team here at Chase Field. That's been playing some, again, some good baseball. Like none of these teams are terrible. Even the Oakland A's, which you might have penciled in at one point as an easy win. They've been playing good baseball at times this season. So they're another team you really can't take for granted. And then the NLS comes back. We got the Dodgers, Padres, and then we got the Braves before.

Finally, Blue Jays, and then it's the All-Star break. And then the All-Star break, right? And then, of course, things don't get any easier really after that, you know, right? But this is going to be one of those seasons that every win is going to be very important with how all of these teams are clustered together. So I feel like it's not so much about like losing a series to the nationals as much as it is about, you know, right now, this is a team you got to take care of business against because the Phillies are going to be a really tough test for you. And, you know, again, right now, it hasn't really felt as much as we thought the starting pitching was going to be the problem.

It really hasn't been the starting pitching that's been the problem for this team as of late. It's the offense still continuing to be as streaky as it's been this season. But, hey, we'll get there. We'll get there. Hopefully, we'll get there. Or we won't. Hopefully we'll get there. I don't know.

I can't promise that. it's like what Groundhog Mama said. She said maybe Elizabeth should have gotten in a bat today since she's getting blamed for the loss. I'm not out on the field, so I have no way to help guarantee that this team is, in fact, going to get the offense turned around. But, of course, I do know that that Philly's team, that's a tough team that, again, Jesse, like, it's not the end of the world. It's not a must-win series. It's not, you know, whatever, but it's not going to be easy to go into Philadelphia. And I do feel like you want to have all the confidence that you can going into that series.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think, I believe I saw the Phillies were losing pretty big, at least late today. I'm not sure how that game panned out. But even if they lost that game to the Padres today, I think there's still 25 and four in their last 29 games in Citizens Bank Park. They've had an outstanding season and they've been just basically impossible to be at home. So it's going to be a tough test for the debacks. We'll take a closer look at it, maybe in our post game show. tomorrow. I do believe the devax will miss both Ranger Suarez and Aaron Nola in that series, which is, which is big. I think they're going to get Taiwan Walker, Christopher Sanchez, and Zach Wheeler, which is still, you know, that's not, not easy, not easy by any means. Another, a couple of other things I want to say real quick about, about this game before we go. Number one is that the Diamondbacks lost another game in which they trailed by two runs. once they went down three to one

it was like all right they're down by two runs we've seen this before and I think it's with this one I believe they went to one in 33 this season in game they have trailed

that's crazy the answer backs are they're dead that shirt's never coming back I think it's still up on the store but I'm gonna make sure it gets pulled I swear to God yeah

the other thing I wanted to say real quick, going back to the Corbyn conversation we were having earlier, I did look up his platoon splits over the last couple of weeks. I think this goes back to June 6th. So it's over his last two weeks. And he has really good numbers in that stretch. But if you look at the platoon splits, I believe it was a 976 OPS against Ritees compared to a 528 against lefties. So that is one thing. I'm still kind of keeping an eye on with Corbyn. In order for us to, I know people want to declare that Corbyn Carol is back. That is one, that is. one of the things that I think I would want to see a little bit more.

Who would say something crazy like that? That's insane. About 800 people on Twitter right now, at least as far as I can tell. So, yeah, that's one thing that I think we still need to see from Corbyn is the ability to do some damage against lefties. He doesn't have to be an elite hitter against lefties, but he has to hold his own a little bit better than he has lately, especially if they're going to move him back up to the two hole like Tori did today.

So that's something to keep an eye on moving forward. Well, the tomorrow's game starts at 10.05 a.m. So make sure to join us. I'll be bringing crumpets into the office and I will not be sharing with any of my coworkers. Oh, see, you can't say I will be bringing blank into the office and it not be like a, oh, great. We all get to have. He only brought me as, it's a six pack and it's almost gone already because apparently I love crumpets. That's something that I learned. It's like a biscuit and a pancake and an English muffin has a three-sum. and this is the result. It's amazing. But no, Faj is asking if he can have a crumpet. That's crazy talk.

I'm not going to give Jesse a crumpet. I'm giving nobody a crumpet. That's the way that works. But we will be watching baseball in the office. So, of course, we hope you join us for tomorrow's post series show. It's an early game, right? 10.5 a.m. Arizona time. That is right.

And then, of course, tomorrow night I will be emceeing trivia night out at Chicken and Pickle. And if you were caught cheating, I think I've arranged for you to be tarred and feathered like a chicken and then they're going to dunk you in a vat of brine or something. That's the chicken and pickle punishment. So don't cheat, but come out and play some trivia.

We're going to have some fun. I guess Espos is going to be my Van of White, so I'm very excited about that. I have a couple of sparkly dresses that I'm going to bring for him to choose from. Wait, I mean, what is Van Nukeye, what role does that? That's what he kept saying to me.

And I was like, yeah, fine, you can be my Van Nukeye. I don't know what role Van of White would play in a trivia contest. I think he's going to reveal the answers and he's going to have a giant board he makes himself. I don't know. Whatever he wants to do. But I will be there. I hope you guys are there. We're going to have a great time.

So make sure to join us out at Chicken and Pickle in Glendale. You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at Cap underscore Caveman with a K. Of course, Jesse is at Jesse and Friedman. The People's producer, Damon Dogg, he's gone. He left us because, of course, he loves the Cardinals more than he loves us. He tries to act like he doesn't, Jesse, but he all know. Yeah.

I think it's the comments about Ryan Thompson. When we were Ryan's dogs, I think that kind of caused a... Yeah, that rubbed in the wrong way. It really did. But, of course, you can follow Damon at Damon Dog. That's DAWG. We are kind of Damon's dogs. Bark, bark.

No, he's not going to do it. No, no, go do it. All right, well, Fodge is also here. So let's give it up for Fodge, because he's actually on the ones and twos right now. You can follow Jacob at underscore Franklin 4. Is there an underscore in there? I forget. I think there is.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, he's the best, fourth best, Jacob Franklin. It's been a minute since he's produced us. But no, no bark, bark, no bark, Charles Woodall Pike. Jesse reviews is the bark bark bark, bark. But of course, we do appreciate your time very much. We'll see you tomorrow for the post series show. And until then, we hope you guys have a wonderful evening.

Again, we thank you for your time. We appreciate you. We'll see you tomorrow. And remember, kids, baseball is fun, but it is so much more fun when you actually give Brandon Fought some run support.